Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
I wish I could afford to pour concrete in my entire backyard. We live in Arizona. Everything is dirt rocks and cactus. Imagine moving to a place in having dirt rocks and cactus move to your front yard. It’s like moving to the beach in ordering sand. Lol
I’m happy for you! I hope you enjoy your poured concrete. It will bring many years of happiness to you. Whether you’re parking your car on it, or putting a porch or a patio over it, whatever they use. Concrete is wonderful.
Been staring at it for hours tonight.
Stoked.
Yes, I don’t understand why more people are not excited about cement. It is amazing.
Cabin building. Been in a camper way too long. This is the slab for our home. Long time in the works. Finally happening.
Wow, that’s even more exciting. Can’t wait to hear the update. I hope you have a beautiful home.
I believe your situation is worse than mine. Do you get big spiders or scorpions? I think If I saw them It would be embarrassing with all the screaming. I've lived in Eastern North Carolina all my life and before about ten years ago we could walk barefoot with out incident. Sand spurs and fire ants are all over our yard. I don't like spraying toxins in the yard but it's the only thing that keeps fire ants under control (until the next summer). They never die! I grew up here and walked barefoot as child. We never had sand spurs or fire ants. I've heard fire ants came in on construction pallets. Not sure about the sand spurs. I'm not near the beach, just sandy soil.
Oddly enough, we’ve never found one scorpion on our property. The house was purchased by my grandparents back in 77. We’ve been the only owner of the house, and in this area we’ve never seen scorpions. Just weird.
Spiders, and any other bug, I’m not afraid of at all. I’ll stomp on them with my bare feet if I have to., Minus the ants. I’ve been known to smash spiders with my bare hands don’t care, and I’m a woman. Lol. We do have these big, huge, large, black Beatles. I found on trying to come into my house once. I beat the life of out of it with a broom for three minutes. It was quite a sight.
Ants… That’s a whole Nother animal. Ants are difficult to get rid of, and we have a lot of them here. I have been seen in the front and the backyard, tracking the ants back to their hole. Once I find the hole, I use this white powder that kills ants. It is so pungent, you have to be careful with it. But it actually works.
Since I’m in Hawaii right now, I’m not sure if this is the exact product but here’s a link.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ortho-Orthene-12-oz-Fire-Ant-Killer-0282210/100056182
I don’t use pesticides on my garden or flowers, because of the bees, however… if you don’t use a real pesticide for bugs and weeds in Arizona, you’ll be overrun with them. Especially crickets I hate those more than ants. During the monsoon season, they will propagate very rapidly.
I’m the pesticide queen! I do a whole home bug barrier with a special kind of bug spray that I get from Home Depot but I can’t remember the name. It’s a concentrate and it’s white, I always put double the amount that they tell you to put in, and mix with water in my own sprayer.
I also have a special weed killer that I got from this guy that did our yard once, it’s a concentrate. I double down on that mix ratio as well. But I don’t spray just the weeds in a specific spot. I sprayed the entire rock area, then you don’t have problems later on with tiny weeds popping up.
If you do both regularly, you don’t have problems with pests or weeds. I can’t stand both! It’s the crickets I hate the most. I don’t care if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, if I pull in the driveway, and I hear a cricket, I will get my pesticide out and hunt that guy down until I kill him. Lol! It’s quite comical seen for the middle of the night.
I take my pesticides very seriously. If you can find the ant powder, it works great for fire ants!