I was cleaning out my shed last weekend and found an old paper feed bag from 2015. Now everything comes in those thick plastic woven bags that I can never seem to repurpose. Back then I used the paper bags to line my nesting boxes and start my compost pile. Anyone else miss the old packaging or have you found a good use for these new plastic ones?
I used to cut every single piece with box cutters and a straightedge, took me like 2 hours just to get the walls for a basic fort. But this week I tried my electric jigsaw on a stack of 10 boxes and it cut through them all in under 10 minutes. I just set the blade to fine tooth and clamped the stack together. Has anyone else tried power tools on cardboard or am I crazy for doing it?
It happened last Tuesday night. I got home late from a job site and was just so tired I guess I didn't push the latch all the way down on the coop door. Came out Wednesday morning and found feathers everywhere and four of my girls gone. The raccoon got in through a gap I didn't even know was there near the nesting box. I spent the whole day reinforcing the whole run with hardware cloth and a double latch system. Ended up burying the remains of the one hen I found under the apple tree out back. Has anyone else lost birds to a predator because of one dumb mistake? What did you do to make sure it never happened again?
I used a standard boning knife for about 5 years, then grabbed a 10-inch scimitar last month from a shop in Portland. The amount of time I save per shoulder is wild, like 20 minutes on a busy day. Anyone else find that the longer blade just glides through fat caps better?
Last week I was in the Dollar Tree over on Broad Street grabbing some trash bags and I overheard this lady talking to her friend about how she uses those tiny glass jars with the cork lids for organizing her sewing needles. I thought she was joking but then she showed me her purse and she had like 6 of them filled with different colored threads and pins. So I grabbed a few and now I'm using them in my truck for storing screws and nails by size. They're like a dollar each and they don't crack when you drop them like the plastic ones do. Has anyone else found a weird use for those jars?
I spent $50 on a 'vintage style' throw from Target and it looked worn out after two washes. But my grandma's quilt from the 1970s? It's been through three generations of kids and still keeps me warm without falling apart. Has anyone else found that older handmade stuff just lasts forever?
Had a lead inspector watch me run safety wire on a 737 flap actuator last month and he said 'you're makin' a mess of that with those crappy pliers, learn to twist by hand.' Spent a weekend practicing on scrap and now I can do a single strand faster than I ever could with the tool. Anyone else swear off a tool after some crusty veteran gave you the business about it?
I had been cutting my notches flat for like 10 years before an old-timer watched me fell a maple and said "you're leaving the hinge too thin on the back". Turns out I was basically making the tree fall sideways instead of where I aimed... Took me a while to unlearn that habit. Anyone else have a basic technique they did backwards for way too long?
Turns out using eyeglass wipes on a coated lens is a terrible idea - my neighbor with a 12 inch dob saw me doing it and almost had a heart attack. He handed me a proper lens cleaning kit and now I can actually see Jupiter's bands without them looking like a blurry mess. Anyone else find out they were wrecking their gear because nobody told them the basics?
After my first week I kept ending up in places with terrible wifi or noisy construction next door, and it wasn't until I spent 4 hours at Pun Space on Nimman that I realized the vibe and speed were actually consistent, has anyone else struggled to find a solid spot in a new city?