Pennock's Advertisement Improv... (Page 2/2)
cvxjet MAR 01, 05:44 PM
OK- I made this up but I think it's funny (Not to the person who's house is floating away)

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 03-01-2024).]

82-T/A [At Work] MAR 01, 09:40 PM

quote
Originally posted by williegoat:

Tell us what you are doing to us, without telling us what you are doing to us.




Hahah!!! I actually ordered a ton of those. It's not what you think. You probably already know what they are... but they're called "finger cuffs."
You use them when you want to keep grease / oils from your fingers off whatever you're working on. I don't do a lot of it now, but I like to rebuild and restore old mechanical watches, and I use those to keep my fingerprints off.



quote
Originally posted by williegoat:



I'm guessing "limited" refers to use of the garage.



Hah, I'm guessing that's a model home where they had the garage originally closed in with glass, and just haven't repoured the driveway. What's up with the river in front of it though?

We literally have a house like this about 10 minutes from where I live... maybe I can find a picture of it.


Ok, here it is...





It's an older home, much older than it looks, and it's on a main road that's one of those kinds of roads that USED to be a back road, and is now a major thorough-fair. Best I can figure... when they expanded the road, they forced them to eliminate their drive way. You can't really tell... but there isn't really enough room to pull out of those garages without hitting the fence. There's just grass in front of the garage doors. It's weird.

They have a detached garage further back.
Patrick MAR 02, 03:10 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

What's up with the river in front of it though?



Just looks like wet blacktop.



These other three places have nuclear wastelands in the front yard.





maryjane MAR 02, 08:46 AM
Those desert looking yards are pretty common out in the Southwest USA. There are even a few here in the subdivision I live in but generally, the yards have too much slope in them and we get just enough down pours of rain every few months to make them practical. Erosion would be a problem for me as well the cost of hauling in enough rock to make it happen. Sure would save on mowing tho. I've already mowed 4 times in 2024 and will need it again in a few days.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-02-2024).]

82-T/A [At Work] MAR 02, 09:26 AM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

These other three places have nuclear wastelands in the front yard.





I'm sure Willie will chime in, but yeah, I think they call that Zero-Scaping. I know when you watch old footage of homes in AZ or NM... people still had grass on their front yards. But it just doesn't make sense obviously because it's largely unnatural there. Those front yards look a lot cooler, and more natural... and you don't have to irrigate.

I've tried to convert my own front yard with all native Florida plants, simply because I think it looks better.

I'm always bemused when I see new people move to Florida. In most cases, the prior owner was also from the North East, and they landscaped their home as if they lived in some temperate climate. Hedges, bushes, and things you would never see growing here at all. The new people come in and they tell their landscaper... "make my yard look like Florida..." so they proceed to reject all the plants he landscaper recommends and ends up picking plants that all came from Hawaii.

There's a lot to love about Florida plants. We have dozens of scrub-based palms... like the sabal minor, saw palmetto, etc. We also have some really nice ocean grasses, sea grape, and plants like the Silver Buttonwood or the Spanish Dagger. here's even a low-growing fruit bearing plant called the Gopher Apple... which Gopher turtles absolutely go crazy after.


But people get in their head what a landscape should look like... and they go with it. I've had to move around a lot, and always tried to embrace whatever the natural landscape was in the place I lived. When I lived in Texas, I ordered four HESCOs full of pea-gravel... which is basically what you see spread naturally throughout the Hill Country (Cliff and MJ will correct me, haha). I also tried to use natural field stone to build a natural retainer, and then also cut limestone to build planting beds. I wanted to eliminate as much of the grass as I could, within reason. It also has an environmental benefit of course.
maryjane MAR 02, 10:47 AM
No pea gravel where I live. This is marble, limestone, some granite and caliche country but mostly ancient sea beds from millions of years past. I've dug post holes here as deep as 4' and only encountered semi solidified sea shells from the Cretaceous period.



Farther west, it's other igneous rocks from ancient volcanic action that West and Southwest Texas had a lot of.
Pea gravel comes from older and bigger riverbeds, like where I used to live and it's gotten pretty expensive because so much has been used for making concrete. It doesn't make good walkway or driveway material because of it's smooth shape. It won't stay put like sharp edged crushed limestone will.
Walk on a path of pea gravel and you can feel it crunch and move under foot, just from your own weight.


Might be pea gravel out along the mid West Texas or NM Pecos but it will have a pretty high saline value to it too.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-02-2024).]

williegoat MAR 02, 11:36 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

I'm sure Willie will chime in...


Xeriscape, from the Greek word for 'dry', is just a fancy word made up by some hippy in Denver, for low water usage landscaping. Around here we just call it desert landscaping or a rock lawn.

A few years ago, I got tired of watering my lawn, just to mow it down, so I had it replaced with crushed granite, river rock and some pottery. Now I water it with Roundup and mow it with a rake.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 03-02-2024).]

Patrick MAR 02, 06:38 PM

Here in the Pacific Northwest, grass grows like crazy due to the temperate climate and abundant rainfall. You can tell who the lazy buggers are by observing artificial turf being used in place of real grass.
cliffw MAR 03, 12:39 PM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:
You can tell who the lazy buggers are by observing artificial turf being used in place of real grass.



Lazy, or smart ?

I do not wish to pull weeds for the rest of my entire life. They are prevaliant in my neck of the woods.
Patrick MAR 03, 05:10 PM

quote
Originally posted by cliffw:

Lazy, or smart ?



I don't think there's anything "smart" with a green outdoor carpet being laid in place of grass. It looks so obviously fake, and contributes nothing to the environment. The next step is plastic trees and polyester hedges.