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Have you even wondered how much battery life is left in your old power tool batteries? Well, I do. I bought into the Ryobi line of tools 15+ years ago. I have some batteries that are 10+ years old. I decided to buy a battery load tester to see how well some of my old Ryobi batteries are holding...

Just built a tool storage unit for the garden using free pallets I picked up from our local Harbor Freight. Thought I would share some pictures of the project. First picture is the unit without any tools in it. I used one full pallet for the backside. That will hold my long handled tools. The...

I live on a lake. We (the neighborhood) get lots of visitors in the summer, especially around the 4th of July. One family of visitors is here this year with a couple of their dogs. Unfortunately, either they must think that being at the lake they can let their dogs run free, or maybe they live...

:tongue We had a big blow the other day. I had one 50 foot tall tree fall down, but my neighbor had 6 trees of the same size go down on his property. Today was cleanup day. I took out my small Ryobi 18v 12 inch chainsaw and used that to trim up the limbs of the tree. I used my Ryobi 40v 14 inch...

Dear Wife was complaining about the blower in her Toyota RAV4 making all kinds of bad noises, and smelling really bad! Oh boy, I thought, sounds like a mouse nest problem which is fairly common where I live in here in the sticks. Went to a number of auto garages and got estimates for repair and...

Some serious damage happening to one of my 50 foot tall pine trees. It looks like woodpecker holes to me, but all that damage way down at the base of the tree? :idunno I know we have red pileated woodpeckers where I live because I see them in the yard all the time. But I am scratching...

I turned my chicken run into a chicken run composting system a couple years ago. I throw all my wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, weeds, spent coop bedding, and just about anything else organic into the run and let the chickens break it down and turn it into compost. Here is a picture of my...

Just picked up 4 Isa Browns and 1 California White chick. Here they are all nice and comfy under the red heat lamp in the brooder. Took the picture before I let them out and running around. Chicks are doing fine a couple days later. Looks like I'll be around the BYC community for another 2...

I went into town today to attend an annual gardening "show" at our local Ace Hardware store. I talked to a master gardener, and she asked me if I had considered taking the University of Minnesota Master Gardners course. I had, years ago, but not since COVID hit. Anyway, she said they really need...

:old I usually don't like to bad mouth any particular product, but as a backyard flock owner for many years, I just want to tell first time chicken owners to please stay away from the prefab chicken coop setups like the one currently being sold at our local Fleet store for $749.00. They call...

I went into town today and visited our new local Harbor Freight. I noticed that they had a stack of pallets out behind the store next to their dumpsters. So, I asked the manager if I could take some pallets to make compost bins. He told me that I could take as many pallets as I wanted, and to...

:caf I know many people are looking at getting battery powered yard tools these days. I hear in California that small gas engines are soon to be banned from sale. Anyway, just want to give my two cents of wisdom on the (dis)advantages I have found using almost only battery power yard tools for...

I have been a loyal Home Depot customer for many years, and still am, but lately I seem have been getting more misses on my interactions with them. I bought into the Ryobi 18v One+ tool line over 15 years ago, and for a homeuser/DIYer, they have been great tools. I have never had a single Ryobi...

:old Trying to get into better shape. Took out my old mountain bike the other day and have been going for short rides 3 days in a row now! Finding out my 61 year old self does not find the mountain bike as comfortable as my 30 something year old when I bought it. Bike works great. It's just me...

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Dear Wife, who is from the tropical islands in the Philippines, has had about enough of our cold northern Minnesota winter this year. I say it's not over until the groundhog says it's over. I'm guessing he will see his shadow and tell us we got another 6 weeks (at least) of winter ahead. For...

I made a garbage run today. I had four 13 gallon bags of garbage to bring to our landfill. It occurred to me that it has been about 2 months since I last made a garbage run. That amounts to one kitchen sized bag of garbage for every 2 weeks for Dear Wife and myself. I think that is pretty good...

:old I was not born old and wise, but I am getting older. Sometimes I think I might even have made a few good choices along the way. Yesterday, I had to fix my garage door opener. The track rail mount had pulled off the wall and was stuck on my garage door, so nothing was going up or down and...

:idunno Last time I bought chicken scratch, it was a couple of dollars less expensive than chicken feed. I went into town yesterday and was going to pick up a fresh bag of chicken scratch, but I see that it is now almost $2.00 more than chicken feed! Anybody know what's going on with these...

:barnie Mini rant coming up from my latest experience shopping at our local WalMart. I seldom do any food shopping for our house. Dear Wife has that job, by choice, and I'm OK with that. But I was in town at our local WalMart yesterday to pick up a few things on my grocery shopping list. I come...