u/Cyvil94

I wanted to see if anyone had other thoughts. I found a local dealer. They provide a variety of services, I am looking at initial setup,and 2x per year blade maintenance. They are recommending an x4, my yard is about 8500 sf of grass, trees and landscaping. There are 3 trees out back, 3 in front and a variety of landscaped areas throughout but mostly near the house. The house is a walkout, and there is a 25-30% slope from front to back along the house but the front and back yards themselves are flat, if that makes sense.

Are there any questions I should be asking?

I am just starting to look for a mower, there are a lot of options out there. It seems the question that might narrow things down quite a bit is local dealer support. How important is it to have support nearby, versus online? Is this more like owning a car, in terms of support and maintenance, or more like owning a computer?

I (56M) am struggling a bit with how to use this step more effectively. I am making use of Facebook dating, only, right now and am receiving a small but steady number of likes. I dont’t send out likes myself, things get to be a little more overwhelming if I do. I am messaging with only one woman at a time, as I don’t usually have time to meet with more than 1 woman each week. I have a backlog of sorts.

The messaging phase, is a bit of a filter for me in that not all who match continue the conversation. If they do continue the conversation I typically meet with them. For me this is mostly about determining if the woman are real people, not obviously “weird,” and seem somewhat close to the info they include in their profile. I guess I am wondering if there are questions I could/should be asking that would allow me to message more of these woman and determine if a meeting is worth our time. Many of these first meetings are the last meeting. It may just be that this is the process, it may be that I just don’t know what I’m doing :)

Hopefully some of that makes sense. If it doesn’t, it’s because I’m not entirely sure of what I am asking as I write this.

I have a 3 years old Goldendoodle who can’t seem to pass up the opportunity to bark at things. Inside, outside, on a walk doesn’t matter, she just barks. I have tried the typical training course, and that helped with other things, just not the barking. I hade had several dogs before and while I’m not a pro by any means, I didn’t have anywhere near the same issues with those dogs. This one has always been more skittish/anxious and it’s not getting better.

I know that board and train is an option, and I know that the training I already didn’t isn’t enough. Past that, I’m not sure what type of service I am looking for to help with this or who might offer that service. I do know that I prefer a drug free option - they help when I invite people over, but the problem is pretty much all the time. I prefer options with certified trainers (I think).

Any help would be appreciated.

This isn’t my first doodle, but I haven’t had one that is this anxious. She barks at just about everything, inside, outside or on a walk. She gets way too excited when someone comes in the house, stranger or not. I have taken her to an obedience class. I am not a great trainer, but have not struggled anywhere near this much with any of my previous 4 dogs, including a golden and another golden doodle.

My thought is that I need someone else train her, but am not sure where to start. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am likely just not looking in the right places, but I am hoping to find opportunities to volunteer, here and there, mostly on weekends. The opportunities that I have found seems to be primarily during the work day. Any help would be appreciated!

I have a two year old build, in east central Iowa, and this summer has been brutal. The yard was started with sod, front yard has been in about two years and the back yard about a year and a half. The underlying soil is a silty sand and did have a little organic in it, but only enough to generate a brown color, no where near black topsoil. Before placing the sod, the landscape contractor amended the top 6-8” of underlying soil with compost. There should be plenty of organics in this, but I suspect there isn’t a lot of clay.

We have had no rain for periods between 2 and 4 weeks at a time, and I don’t have an irrigation system. I now have pretty large dead patches here and there. I am wondering what I need to do to get everything back on track, and my local landscaping/lawn care people know only what they have done before. The trick is that sandy soil is pretty rare in Iowa, we typically have 18+ inches of black topsoil.

1. it seems an irrigation system would be a good idea.
2. where can I get my soil particle size tested to determine what type of amendment is needed?
3. Hopefully I don’t have to scrap what I have to add some topsoil?

I have a Discover More card and I can’t find it on Nerd Wallet to compare to other cards. I know it is $0/yr, 1% cash back and 5% (with cap) on quarterly categories. I have had this card for 35 years, but it seems that other cards perform better?

I have a two year old build, in east central Iowa, and this summer has been brutal. The yard was started with sod, front yard has been in about two years and the back yard about a year and a half. The underlying soil is a silty sand and did have a little organic in it, but only enough to generate a brown color, no where near black topsoil. Before placing the sod, the landscape contractor amended the top 6-8” of underlying soil with compost. There should be plenty of organics in this, but I suspect there isn’t a lot of clay.

We have had no rain for periods between 2 and 4 weeks at a time, and I don’t have an irrigation system. I now have pretty large dead patches here and there. I am wondering what I need to do to get everything back on track, and my local landscaping/lawn care people know only what they have done before. The trick is that sandy soil is pretty rare in Iowa, we typically have 18+ inches of black topsoil.

1. it seems an irrigation system would be a good idea.
2. where can I get my soil particle size tested to determine what type of amendment is needed?
3. Hopefully I don’t have to scrap what I have to add some topsoil?

I picked one up and was excited to use it, but it leaks horribly where the hose attaches to the “gun.” Has anyone else experienced this? Is there supposed to be a basket at this connection (mine doesn’t).

I am trying to decide if I return or replace, any help would be appreciated.

I am the reluctant owner of 3000 Marriot Vacation Club (MVC) points. So far my family has enjoyed the points, but the bonus points are running out and I need to make some decisions moving forward. I know that the decision is personal, but it might be nice to hear some different perspectives. Basically, I see my options as being:

1. Hold - do the family vacations every other year to access locations and enough beds for the whole family. This does leave me some freedom to pursue other options during off years.
2. buy the additional 2-3k points to continue as we are.
3. buy another 1-2k points so I can access Marriott during the non family trip years. I would consider this if I thought the perks for the next ownership tier (Select?) was worthwhile.

For me the points make little sense financially. They have accomplished the goal of having to plan vacations regularly. Without the points, we likely wouldn’t do as much as a family. That is definitely worth something. Even the planning pulls us together for some conversation we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

I do have to say that my initial experience(s) with MVC have been less than encouraging. They make it very clear that MVC cares about MVC and only MVC. For that reason alone I am leaning towards just sticking with the status quo. Please do share your thoughts though, I am very much trying to keep an open mind.

Some time last year I turned my generator down so as to produce less chlorine. I don’t recall where it was set previously and I am sitting at 0 chlorine right now. Before I dump liquid chlorine in, I’d like some help with this setting.

If it matters,it is a 22,000 G pool in Iowa.