HACK A WEEK

This week I have a two for one project. I have a kayak that I store in my back yard but I wasn’t very keen on the idea of leaving it on the ground for critters and snakes to crawl into. I also had a problem with the gate to my back yard which was poorly constructed and in need of repair.

The big problem with the gate was the way it sagged out of parallel and scraped the ground. It was hinged to swing into the uphill slope of the land as well which was quite annoying. When I moved in I had to put up some high fencing to keep my three chickens in the back yard and I did this in a bit of a hurry without extending the gate upward as well. This meant I had to duck under the fencing each time I wanted to enter the yard through the gate!!

So I set forth with my tools, some lumber and a bit of know how with the goal of fixing the gate and finding a way to store my kayak up off the ground. As usual, my solutions were simple ones as you’ll see in this week’s video.

Keep on hackin!

My chickens are great! I get plenty of eggs from these three busy hens and they keep the bugs and ticks out of the back yard. BUT… two of them insist on roosting on the back porch railing and making a chicken poop mess all over the deck boards! Not only does this look bad, it stinks and it’s a bit unsanitary. I’ve tried several things to deter them from roosting here but they keep thwarting my efforts. I’d much rather have them roost in the chicken coop where they can poop all they want and ten I can collect it up to fertilize my garden soil.

This week I’ve come up with a two step solution that just might work.

Watch the video and see what you think of my solution and if you think you have a better idea, I’d love to hear about it!

Keep on hackin!

I first discovered Scotch Eggs at an English brew pub here in North Carolina. They consist of sausage wrapped around a hard boiled egg, then breaded and deep fried or baked. Pork sausage is the traditional thing but you can use any sausage or ground meat. A Google search will turn up plenty of recipes. The one I use here is what I like best.

Enjoy the video then go make yourself some Scotch Eggs!

Keep on hackin!

While on vacation traveling through Vermont, I found an old Mechanix Illustrated from 1951 in an antique store. It was in a box along with other old issues but this one stood out because of the how-to projects that were inside. I paid $4 for it and had a nice talk with the shop keeper about how we both loved looking through these old magazines. As a kid I would look through them and stare at the project plans for hours. I knew I could never really build most of the stuff due to a lack of materials but they sparked my imagination and I would sometimes try to make my own version of the project with what I had on hand. These magazines were very influential in developing the inventor mind set I now have.

Since I’m away from the workbench this week I thought it would be fun to shoot a video about this particular issue while on the road. As we were rolling along through Maine headed south, Lisa took over the driver’s seat and I shot this video in the passenger seat. I even did the editing there and later uploaded it to YouTube!

Next week I’ll be back home at the ol’ workbench so til then, enjoy the video and…

keep on hackin!