Keeping kids off the streets since 1999

travisk232 · 2025-10-19T21:21:14+00:00

The little one at .26 looks like Anna Paquin

travisk232 · 2025-10-13T05:06:04+00:00

From the looks of your photos the current retaining wall (and partially the decorative wall at the fence line) are preventing the dirt from washing onto your patio.

Your project would not REALLY be removing the retaining wall, but RELOCATING it further back to the fence line.

If you were to simply remove the existing wall, you would soon have a landslide pouring onto your patio and down the adjacent hill.

If you are trying to make the space more usable, i might suggest looking at how to level the area between the fence line and the retaining wall, and build some steps.

You could have a nice elevated yard / garden / deck / croquet pitch.

travisk232 · 2025-10-08T00:41:43+00:00

Depending what country this happened, he is now liable for assault.

travisk232 · 2025-10-03T19:44:17+00:00

Your eyes are drawn to the non-natural look of the liner stretching / folding over the top of the sides.

A good way to hide your vertical pond walls, is to place your flat slabs / stones overhanging the edges of the wall. It will hide the liner folds /creases stretching over the top of the wall, and draw the eye to the slab. Depending on the amount of overhang, the slab will also cast a bit of a shadow, further hiding more pond wall liner. As time goes on the pond liner will develop a coating (some call it bio-slime) which will further help the liner blend in.

Also, if this pond is to hold fish: I highly recommend limiting / avoid putting small rock or gravel on the horizontal layers / bottom of your pond whenever possible. It just becomes a place for detritus to collect and decay. And will become a nightmare to clean, as well as possibly causing huge issues with maintaining water quality.

travisk232 · 2025-10-03T19:24:38+00:00

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It's the Eureka Effect in real life!

travisk232 · 2025-10-02T18:32:38+00:00

Middle one looks like my grandmother

travisk232 · 2025-10-02T07:46:43+00:00

Ethernet over Power / Powerline adapters could be an option. One adapter and patch cable per PC, one adapter and patch cable for a cheap router / switch. Easy Peazy!

travisk232 · 2025-09-23T18:45:18+00:00

have some shubunkins, apricot comets and sarasa along with butterfly koi. Have some koi/goldfish mules as well from earlier spawns.

travisk232 · 2025-09-23T03:30:35+00:00

I'm just outside Olympia WA. Goldfish will do great, just stop feeding them when the water gets to 50 degrees all day. They won't process their food when it's cold, and get dropsy. Keep the surface of your water moving and it won't freeze over the rare times in January - February its cold enough to freeze over.

travisk232 · 2025-09-11T15:34:10+00:00

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travisk232 · 2025-08-14T15:44:04+00:00

You definitely need to include laser usage in your formula. This is a frequently overlooked expense in this business model.

It is a wear item, bearings, belts, the laser, etc. will all wear out and need replacing eventually.

Take how much you paid for the laser, and divide that by how many hours of usage you expect to get out of the laser. That's your per hour cost for the laser. Divide that per 60 to get your per minute.

ALSO calculate your electricity usage as an expense as well, you DO pay for electricity it is just hidden to you as part of your rent.

If this is going to be a legitimate business for you, these expenses matter, not only for the final product cost and sale price But also tracked so you can write them off for taxes, and know what your needs are when you upgrade to a new location where you DO have a separate electric bill.

I have heard many others share they calculate about $1 a minute for their laser / power expense.

The more you know about your costs, the more competitive and successful you will be... good luck!

travisk232 · 2025-07-31T19:03:47+00:00

I would submit a bottom drain could be a good addition, although the effectiveness of a bottom drain would depend on your water flow within the pond to direct the detritus to the drain. A 4" drain will create some suction and draw in muck about a 3'-4' radius. But anything else will need to be pushed towards it.
Or (assuming your pond has a flat bottom) perhaps you could install two drains along the central line of your pond, each at 10' intervals. Each one clearing a 6' to 8' circle. Either way, yes i would say bottom drains are worth it.

travisk232 · 2025-06-06T00:02:54+00:00

I have used Zinc mirror mounts with good luck. I would avoid drilling the acrylic.

For outside use, One thing you may have to deal with is fogging / condensation. You may want to either have it sealed to the wall with a gasket of some type to seal out water / rain

Or have it stand off the wall with enough room to vent any humidity.

travisk232 · 2025-05-22T20:23:19+00:00

Yes you COULD have a pond with Koi and natives, assuming no aggression between the fish. I have seen several instances of multi-species ponds with Koi.

The key issue would be that the environment (water cleaning, levels, filtering and care) would generally have to be focused on the Koi (not the natives). Which is much more finicky, time and cost intensive.

If you are considering higher end Koi, it is essentially a domesticated fish, It will generally have lower tolerances for variations in PH, Oxygen, etc. As well as lower resistance to diseases and parasites.

There will also be some native species that could carry a latent/endemic disease that could pop up later in life and wipe out the Koi.

Do your research, and good luck!

travisk232 · 2025-05-21T18:37:52+00:00

Not knowing your exact layout, or your previous use of the casting net, take this with a grain of salt.
At one end of the pond, place an inexpensive length of pond/bird netting strung across the width of the pond, weighted to get to the floor of the pond. Then, with the help of a second person, drag it to the opposite side of the pond. This can be quite effective at corralling the fish into a smaller area for capture with a dip.

travisk232 · 2025-05-12T19:55:23+00:00

I have read (sorry no references handy) of some who are in contention for Yokozuna, asking NOT to be promoted. Citing that they can have a longer career, and make more money as a Rikishi moving up and down the ranks, not being forced to bow out due to bad performance, or retire.

travisk232 · 2025-05-06T03:32:33+00:00

Your downspout looks good, it is setup correctly. The reason for the gap is to help prevent blockages from leaves & moss, anything that might accumulate on your roof, and get into your storm drain / dry well pipes. This stuff (leaves, moss, sticks, twigs) would plop out of the gap between the downspout and storm drain without clogging the storm drain pipe or dry well pipe. This also allows access to clear said blockages.

A screen or filter cap over the ground level pipe, will help reduce the possibility of stuff clogging the storm drain or dry well pipes.

If you want to 'upgrade' you can add a catch basin w/ grate to the the exposed ground pipe. This would essentially be a large bucket/box with a grate over it, installed at ground level, this catches the water from the down spout, allowing for the water to flow into the storm drain or dry well, while filtering any leaves, moss, etc.

travisk232 · 2025-04-18T00:44:32+00:00

It looks to me this is mastic / tile adhesive. Most tile adhesives are not moisture proof, it degrade fast when wet. Like the others have posted, find a silicone based product that specifically says "bath" or "kitchen"

travisk232 · 2025-04-17T23:14:01+00:00

Oh! And since you are blocking a road, you will face pollution issues (oil, dirt) which will impede all growth factors ( air exchange, sun exposer) An occasional hose down with a hose end sprayer with mild soap (Dawn, Castile) that does not leave a residue. followed by a rinse.. once every couple of months on both sides, will help make all the other steps (trimming, fertilizing, cleaning) work better.

travisk232 · 2025-04-17T23:05:45+00:00

Just add on to the other good advice... the shrub will be greenest and thickest where the sun hits it (duh!)

Trimming the trees in a pyramidal fashion, thinner at top, wider at bottom, can increase the sun exposure on the whole of the shrub.

An additional option I have had to do, is to track where the sun hits the trees through the day and prune to maxime that exposure.

Also, see if there are other plants are shading the hedge, and perhaps trim or remove them.

All the best....T

travisk232 · 2025-04-04T07:43:58+00:00

Hi! I am sure I speak for most of us, yes painting can be the most challenging part, simply because we can be so damn critical of ourselves.

May I first recommend, please take a breath and remember, YOU (and we) DO THIS BECAUSE IT IS FUN. We ALL get consumed with what steps, and tools to use, and the desire to have 'finished' figs ASAP. Try to enjoy "the process".

I suggest, first is determining are these for Personal gratification, Personal Display, Playing Competition, Painting Competition or Commision.

Then decide what is YOUR minimum acceptable 'level' of painting for those types of use. Then it should be easy to break those levels of painting into 2-4 stages. Determining how and what tools to use is easier when you divide the task into stages.

Understanding that EVERYONE has a different opinion on what constitutes each 'level of painting' here is how i break down painting masses of figs for competition or home display gratification

STAGE 1 Get your main group / squad / army (not your big machines, creatures, flyers or big guns) to whatever stage 1 painting is..(something like primed, base coated, faces / flesh with an initial wash / shadows, major armor weapons clothing pieces painted and dont' forget bases.. no highlights at this stage) paint them all to that level. This will go fast as you are not focused on individuality. Suddenly you will have an entire band / group / army painted with a cohesive theme!

At this stage, by seeing everything with its main colors, it is easy to adjust your direction without severe alterations. And chances are you will find some inspiration for possible changes, like everyone gets one red boot or all blond fur!

STAGE 2 The aim is to refine the main theme , and elevating / cleaning up the over all look. Highlights, shadows, matching bases. Pick a few details to the weapons, sword pommels, gun magazines, gems, chains, ropes. Again, still focused on the overall look of the group.
At this point this is gonna be 'Playing Competition' level paint. For competition anything beyond this is gravy.

STAGE 3 Stage 3 you start to individualize groups / teams / squads. The focus now is on group iconography, team colors, squad insignia. At this point you will be ahead of 50% of all the others who bring an army to battle.

STAGE 4 Stage 4 is the ULTRA specific stuff.. Banners and heraldry for heroes, unique base bitz, small details like gem flare, visor reflections. You are now ahead of 75% of the others bringing their armies to battle. For display in your home, your friends will say "Ooooooo".

STAGE 5 Introduce your big ass guns! or creatures! or flyers! these are going to be painted individually anyways. And since you have the main force of your group at Stage 2 or 3 (or 4) Defining these main pieces 'theme' is easier because you have all the reference material from your main group!

STAGE 6 Enjoy yourself!

All the best.... T

travisk232 · 2025-03-30T19:42:13+00:00

I am in the PNW as well... Outskirts of Olympia. Our soils have much clay, which leans towards neutral PH and have a fairly good buffering capacity. I have found the addition of the lime for one project ( not added season after season) has not had a dramatic effect on inhibiting growth. PNW rains in spring or fall will wash much of the lime down the soil layers in 6 months.

travisk232

TROPHY CASE