I live on the the railroad track which is a hillside with rocks and tall grass/weeds. The previous owners fed the birds. When we moved here we killed 3 rats in our yard in daylight that were feeding in the site of the feeder. Will the town really do anything? I have one neighbor that feeds the birds on the ground rather then in a feeder even with a feeder the spilled seed is a problem. I could send them a photo but I suspect they will tell me it is my problem or LIRR which is private property.

@ Amber Mine is in a heavy pot. It's unsupported atm because it had that setback over the winter, so it's just getting bushy again. In the past, I put a hoop in there just to give it a better center of gravity. When I need to do so again, I'll probably just bind the lower section of each branch to a couple not-too-ugly short stakes. The hoop looked so stupid! @ gmadarr Hoyas on a boat = awesome!!! I wouldn't use vermiculite with Hoyas at all. They really don't need that extra water retention, so save it for your other plants. I had assumed you were rooting in 100% perlite using the semi-hydro method. There are some who use it in place of hydroton, as a temporary rooting medium. Or, do you mean that you were using a medium of perlite + potting soil, and you are concerned about having some algae growth on the top level? Or you just don't like the aesthetics? You can kill the algae with a bit of hydrogen peroxide mixed with water. Or there are various algae killing solutions available for sale that can be mixed in when you water. But, really, the algae is just growing in the aquarium context because it never fully dries out and there is little air flow. Once you remove the plants from the aquarium, after they are rooted, the perlite will whiten up again. So, I don't get too bothered about it, myself, even though I do have algaecide on hand.

Kiktx, it is not rude to ask that at all. I will probably change my seating orientation around at some point. But the reason I put it that way for now is that wall behind the couch looks really bad as it is still unfinished. That picture I posted above was actually taken before we added the windows. Those were just screens behind the couch! The original house is single wall construction and the only windows were a couple jalousie type in the bathrooms. That's what they call a 'coffee shack' here. Plus, we always hang out on the lanai whenever we want to enjoy the views. Only time we are inside sitting on the couch is after it's dark anyways. :-) Thanks again everyone for all your help. Once I get the sample tiles, I will ask for advice on which looks the best.

I've thought so much about these comments since last night, but only now have time to respond. I think it is appalling for anyone to use the term "white" as the cause of these shootings. These are not white teens going to schools with large minority populations and shooting them. They are usually their own schools, filled with students just like themselves. This is NOT a racial issue! Lord knows we have enough of them, but this is NOT one of them. Leave it out of the discussion! I am absolutely in favor of stronger gun control laws, but that will only stop more guns being out there IN THE FUTURE. At this point in time, I see no possible way to legally remove the guns already out there, or legally make owning them illegal. We tried Prohibition with liquor; it was a failure. We required that all citizens turn in their gold - no private ownership of gold; that was a failure. Those that own guns are not going to hand them over, and the lawsuits would go on until the next millennium. This does NOT mean we should not try to stop further guns being out there and being so easily accessible. We should all be writing our Congressmen and telling them to vote agains the NRA-backed "permit to carry" being universal in all states. It's a HORRIBLE idea! What concerns me the most, is why is this happening. Why is it happening predominantly in the US? Please don't tell me it's because we elected Trump - most of these shootings started before he was even on The Apprentice. Dislike him if you will, but he is not the cause of school shootings. Yes, the availability of guns is a problem and must be addressed, but guns HAVE always been available in many, many areas. As someone above mentioned, they were even brought to school My husband taught in HS in rural Maine from 1993-2003, and the school parking lot was filled with pick-up trucks with gun racks, with rifles in the racks. So what IS different. I am aware that various studies have not always shown a connection between violent video games and acting out violence. But surely it does de-sensitize one to violence and that cannot possibly be good. We do know that more and more young children are being diagnosed with Obsessive Defiant Disorder. There may be some linkage to ADHD as well. While the causes are unknown, there is some powerful clues. There are Genetic influences. ODD tends to occur in families with a history of ADHD, substance abuse and other mental health issues. There are also Prenatal factors - mother's use of substances during pregnancy and other problems. Then there are Nuerobiological factors. We don't know what causes these. There are Social-cognitive factors - children responsible in inappropriate ways to many things. And there are Environmental factors, i.e. negative parenting practices. Poor parent-child attachment, dysfunctional family, inconsistent discipline, poor parental monitoring and modeling, neglect. While these may be often be found in areas of low socioeconomic status, it can (and does!) occur anywhere. Children with ODD are at far higher risk of moving on to a Conduct Disorder. Some develop this in early childhood; others in the teen years. The prognosis for such children is poor; Twenty-five to forty percent of children with CD will eventually reach a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder in adulthood. Those in juvenile detention facilities have a rate of 23% - 87% diagnosis of CD, and the adult prison population is filled with those who have APD. These are the children who are committing these school shootings. We know that the Columbine killers clearly had poor parental monitoring. How many children could have an arsenal in the garage or their bedroom and their parents be unaware of it? Really? The boy is FL and his brother were adopted. Their mother regularly called the police to "give them a talking to" as she found them difficult to handle. Did their birth mother(s) use substances during their pregnancies? Most likely. And her parenting was clearly inconsistent. We have a major breakdown of the family unit in this country. Not just in poor families (and it is horrible there), but even in middle/upper middle class families. I hear parents talking all the time, and I'm astounded at how indifferent many are to the needs of their children. EDUCATED parents talking this way. It's either "helicopter" or "neglect/indifference". Parents tend to think that once the child is in school, little supervision is needed; by the teen years, they get little. As one neighbor told me, "Once they get their car, they pretty much go and come as they please!" Really? Mine didn't. My grandchildren don't. They are still CHILDREN and need supervision! We will not solve the problem of school shootings until we IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM, and the problem is not just guns. We need to do some serious soul searching as to why our children are being so abysmally failed by so many parents today.