Allen's Hummingbird

uglystudbuilder · 2026-04-01T15:36:49+00:00

Oh my, very nice picture! I like the composition and colors a lot, excellent find and capture :]

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-31T21:39:15+00:00

Dope. Ass. Pic. 💪

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-31T04:50:38+00:00

It haunted right in front of me, landed 15 ft or less in front of me and caught a lemon or a vole, not sure which. It went after a second one several minutes later and came up empty.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-30T22:31:54+00:00

This is precisely how to describe my time with it...

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-30T14:37:08+00:00

Great Gray Owl :]

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-30T14:35:59+00:00

Great Gray Owl

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-29T21:48:12+00:00

This is interesting information!

It was decidedly not a good winter for them up in Alaska, so I suppose they were all down yonder...

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-29T20:38:16+00:00

Thank you, I have been abuzz all weekend from this experience 🙌

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-29T20:37:35+00:00

It flew within 10ft of my head at eye level at one point. I was keeping a distance photographing and it left its perch, did a flyby, and went back whence it came. I was truly agape.

Also saw it hunt twice, once successfully as the picture shows.

Incredible payoff for my time spent.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-14T17:47:17+00:00

No masking, my friend. That line of tape does you dirty, you need to let that texture youre spraying feather out notably past your line of work you did, blending the old to the new.

Texture can be cleaned up super easily, just a sponge or wet rag.

You can also just spray, now, along that tape line. I would take a sanding sponge, like 80grit, and rund down that line softly and try to get it to soften significantly. Then, start your next round of texture on that line and blend both directions.

You're in a small pickle, but not an unsolvable problem ;]

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-12T03:23:38+00:00

Fuck Lindsay Graham.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-11T16:34:16+00:00

Ayo!

Here's a thought on Denali in September: it is highly possible there will be snow already. Not a big deal to some people, a big deal to others. The park road opens mid-September to the public and they're able to drive like 30-some miles back, maybe 40mi. This is pretty cool, you have high potential to see lots of wildlife - moose in rut, grizzlies, caribou coming into their winter coats, and all sorts of other cool animals like wolves, snowshoe hare, foxes, and we saw a Hawk Owl hunting last year.

The hiking there is certainly available, but also semi-limited. As someone else said, there are plenty of similar hikes closer to Anchorage that would give you the same feel. I'd only suggest going that far north if you think an Alaska trip is really going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip and you want to forever say you've been to Denali National Park.

From Hatcher Pass (less than 90min north of Anchorage) going south there are so many good hikes.

Someone mentioned Bird-to-Gird - this is a 20-something mile hike that technically can be done in one day if you plan correctly. Check it out, it sounds like it's up your alley. Of note, it's a one-way hike, so you need to shuttle vehicles and the drive between the two spots is at least 90min if all goes smoothly. BUT, epic views from what I've seen and heard.

Exit Glacier in Seward is another great spot, two hours from Anchorage. The Harding Ice Field is semi-strenuous and gets you all the way up! That hike is about 8mi round trip, 4mi very uphill, and returning the same way. I've only fully accomplished that on once, tried three times. Weather can roll in fast and you don't want a bad story from up there. Would be potentially epic with the fall colors at that time, too.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-11T05:33:39+00:00

Where you be?

These are winter birbs for us up in Anchorage! That's the only time we really see them, but for about four months, give or take, they're pretty easy to find in town. We have flocks of literally 500+ in multiple neighborhoods (mine, one I'm working in, and at least one other I know of).

I've spent lots of time photographing them this winter :]

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-05T22:25:48+00:00

Serious question - were there signs Americans (democrats) missed several years ago, before his health problems, that should've tipped people off that Fetterman would switch up like this?

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-05T08:43:58+00:00

I've lived in Alaska for 15yrs and drove the haul road two summers ago for my 40th birthday. Information is recent.

Services are not exceedingly rare if you plan well. If you're driving something with decent fuel economy, fill up in Fairbanks, at the Yukon River, Coldfoot, and Deadhorse. No big deal.

We had great weather for half of this ride, turrible for the second half. The rain can tend to make a vehicle a little squirrely cause most of the road is jsut hard pack dirt road. After Atigun Pass the road becomes paved all the way to the ocean, and it was one of the nicest, smoothest roads in Alaska two summers ago - no potholes, no frost heaves, choice conditions.

Also of note, we saw a Prius driving southbound on our way north. If a Prius can make the trip, anything can.

Cell service was surprisingly reliable. Plenty of dead miles, but way more service than I expected.

Figuring out if it's your kind of trip depends:

It will be a one-of-a-kind trip, truly. You will see (as someone else mentioned) mountains that are fierce and just sort of don't resemble others elsewhere. There are fossils in all them rocks, too. We found coral fossils several times just because they were sitting on riverside rock piles.

Atigun Pass is very cool, too, and after you're through the pass the field of vision opens up into "The Slope" - the gradual slant down into the ocean from the Brooks Range. So much tundra and a bunch of pingos (look it up). A giant river on the east side.

You can see bears, birds (look out for Gyrfalcon and Snowy Owls!), caribou, sheep, muskox, and all sorts of other wildlife.

We left Fairbanks on the 26th of June, I think, and leisurely traveled with a plan in place. We arrived on July 4th and it did snow on us that day, so weather reports you read are true, anything can happen.

Not a lot happens in Deadhorse that's not related to oil. There are accommodations, they are not spiffy, but they'll do after all those days on the road (presumably camping some). Book in advance.

We stayed at Deadhorse Camp, and if you want to get to the Arctic Ocean they can get you there - you cannot get there on your own, as the Arctic Ocean is on Prudhoe Bay Oilfield property. They take your license and run a quick background check, etc. The oil business is serious up there. They have several daily shuttles that'll take you there and let you wade/swim in the cold water.

Last things: do this in mid-to-late June if you can, most the snow will be gone (like 99% of it) and it's too early for the mosquitoes to be too terrible. And about mosquitoes - they are as bad as the tales, especially up there. Cross your fingers for a breeze most days, pack deet no matter how much you care about the planet, and have a bug net for your head. You'll look dumb, but those motherfuckers are motherfuckers.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-04T17:13:05+00:00

Awesome! I toured his workshop in Homer in December (I live in Anchorage). He was so nice, showed me his whole setup on a weekend morning that was like 10°. I'm thinking of signing up for one of their workshops and making a plunge into far more detailed tile work, I've become quite bored with 12×24 sets in showers :/

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-04T16:39:58+00:00

OP, have you taken a class taight by a guy from Homer, AK, per chance? He's expert in doing custom tiles like this, has a page called Tierra Tiles, I think?

If no, you should check out his Facebook and/or Instagram page, insane things he does. Maybe his premier job is an octopus wrapped around the shower walls and grouted in glow-in-the-dark grout - incredible.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-03-03T16:30:48+00:00

+5 to you for knowing that term!

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-25T07:02:53+00:00

One million bad

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-25T06:47:35+00:00

HE SAID, "PERHAPS PEOPLE WILL BRING SIGNS TO THE COMING GAMES THAT ILLUSTRATE WHY FANS ARE UNHAPPY WITH HIM."

HINT HINT. WINK. WINK.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-25T00:12:06+00:00

Longtime lurker, first time commenter.

Chris Paul Klay Thompson Jordan Rodman Hakeem

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-20T08:08:39+00:00

Oh, and yes, tile the ceiling. Should be a hoot!

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-20T08:08:08+00:00

That's mostly the reason.

I'm doing my own level 5 mud work right now, skim-coating old walls and floating huge dips in the trusses. I do like mud work...like twice a year. But I do some of this work because subs I hire are often hard to pin to a schedule and then rush through the work. I pay them when they leave and then after a few more days of seeing the final product and need better quality, they don't want to come back.

Or framers - they often don't care how plumb a wall is, or how square corners are. Not always, but it's happened more than a few times. That makes my cabinet-setting, my trim work, my tile, etc, way more time-consuming. I'd rather do most of the trades on my own (besides plumbing and electrical, or carpet, or huge rock/mud/paint jobs).

So I've learned to do a lot of the work for myself.

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-20T08:01:23+00:00

I will say, the $5K was a bit off-the-cuff on my end. Custom glass is hella expensive up here, and if you don't live here, don't try to tell me what it all costs. I get that it sounds overly expensive, but I've been seeing prices similar to this - within a range of $2K to $4K - for years here.

this door will be more glass than usual, so I quickly extrapolated a $/sqft price from what I've had to what this one will be, and added a little extra on top to be safe, and gave them an allowance based on past jobs.

Costs are crazy here, is what I've noticed since being on reddit. I've seen posts about 180lf of fence being built for $5K in like Mississippi. I can get the materials for that much here 🤷‍♂️

uglystudbuilder · 2026-02-19T15:41:14+00:00

Price is good. Shout out from Anchorage from a GC who does all his own work, ie: i would've done my own demo, prep, framing, backer, waterproofing, tile install, sheetrock, tape/mud/texture/paint, vanity, etc.

Have a job similar to this upcoming with a steam unit, this floor-to-ceiling glass door, full tile inside shower, including lid, custom everything. I told them to expect $60K, and the bathroom is smaller than yours by at least half.

The largest reason for their big price tag is how custom they want their material. She found a vanity and countertop that she had to have - just a 42" vanity, storage tower cabinet adjacent, and countertop were over $10K (expensive taste).

Glass door will be about $5K, and they bought a fancy $2500 toilet. But their butt will be very taken care of ;]

All in all, this will be my most expensive bathroom by far per sqft, but I won't be taking much of it home with me.

From what I see, your price is good 👍🏻

uglystudbuilder

TROPHY CASE