Gardening season is upon us and its time to grow your favorite crops in using this super easy raised garden bed design. I happened upon some scrap cedar from one of the local fencing places and made a couple of these for relatively free. You could get by with just a table saw and some screws if that's all you had and you could wind up with the same product. I like to use a combination of a table saw, chop saw, brad nailer and cordless drill with a few self tapping screws to hold the corners together for the long term. Not shown in this video is that I started using Romex wire staple type fasteners to hold the boards up against the frame. The brad nailer will hold just fine as the force of the dirt, when filled, pushes out against the boards so they won't as easily come loose but the Romex wire staples or some small wood screws or nails will work even better. This simple design is one that most inexperienced folks can use. The steps are as follows:
1. Cut four 2 X 4's to 30" in length
2. Using a table saw, rip those in half, lengthwise making 8 pieces
3. Cut 45 degree corners on all pieces
4. Using table saw, cut notch (ledge) into each piece
5. Nail corners together making two full picture frame structures identical to each other
6. Cut 16" wood slats
7. Nail slats into identical top and bottom frames
8. Using self tapping screws, screw into the corners
Now just fill it with topsoil and plant your favorite crop.
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Keep that dirty pool clean following these steps in my DIY How to Easily Clean Your Wal-Mart Pool with Garden Hose & Water Vacuum Attachment video. This pool was a great purchase from Wal-Mart as I used it for 4 or 5 years. Honestly, I figured it would be a typical 1 season then toss it type of deal so I was impressed by how long it lasted. I actually was able to sell it for about 50 bucks. They are nice because they come with patch kits and cleaning accessories that you can really use. I never did have to patch it but once the hot season was over I made sure to clean it out well before storing, then stored it on a pallet fastened down with some rope and took apart all of the electrical and plumbing components and made sure they were stored in a dry place and kept segregated so I knew how to assemble it the following year. I recommend either setting this up on grass and/or a layer of sand underneath. Any rocks or jagged edges will be felt along the bottom once the weight of the water takes it's effect on the bottom.
Cleaning this pool is really easy and they made a nice attachment to hook up to your garden hose. It's the vacuum looking accessory. You thread in your garden hose and then tie the white filter bag around the exit port. I found it helpful to use extra banding to hold the bag on. You can use zip ties, rubber bands, hair ties, etc to do this. This will make sure the bag will stay on and withstand the pressure of the garden hose. It works well. You just run this thing along the bottom of the pool and once the bag gets filled up you secure the water and dump the bag out and repeat. The more you do this the better because if you wait too long to clean your pool the longer it takes to clean. If you have trees around those leaves and pine needles love to land in your pool. The screen with the pole attachment works well too especially for insect removal. The bees and insects love to land in the pool as well so this is a great accessory. Happy swimming and cleaning.
How to make a Vertical Pallet Garden-Simply Done Pallet gardening Project-Instructional "how to" style video with detailed step by step procedural instructions for making a vertical pallet garden for almost free. An old trampoline mat was used at the backing for this but you can use landscaping plastic sheeting, felt, garbage bags, or whatever else you can think of just to sort of hold the soil in from the back. I tried to use all recycled materials that I had laying around as part of the fun. After cutting to size I nailed the trampoline mat with some roofing nails I had left over. I had quite a few roofing nails that needed to be put to good use so I was liberal with their use on the backside of my newly constructed free vertical pallet garden. In this example I planted some strawberries that I had already started. They took off great and made for a nice crop. This project worked really well and is recommended if you have space restrictions you are concerned about. This would also work really well for flowers or an herb garden.
I found myself with quite the collection of pallets just begging to be used for a project. I planned on a garden the year I made some raised beds. Once I knocked all of the nails out of the pallet boards I tried to reuse as many of the nails as I could. Some of them required a little bit of straightening. Be careful when cutting pallets on a table saw for the inherent risks that accompany using this saw but also because many times there are nails buried inside the wood that you don't readily see from the outside. I've hit a few nails with the table saw and you know it when you hit one. This project was relatively simple, just created the bottom square then nailed some vertical side pieces in. After that I just went around and nailed all of the boards to the vertical side pieces. Once I had it flush with the top I cut some boards for the trim at 45 degree angles in the corners for a specific look. I decided not to paint them but as an idea you could paint them the same color as your house, shed, or barn. In this project I had some extra boards so I created a bottom for this but really there is no need if you don't plan on moving them. They are super heavy when they are full of dirt anyway. Not only that but once you start watering whatever plants go in there the boards are going to start rotting. I had some triangular pieces left from one of the pallet disassemblies so they were a perfect fit for the bottom corners. You can't go wrong using pallets to make your planter boxes.
Slime brand tire sealant did the trick. No more pumping up the wheelbarrow tire every damn time you want to use it. It's available on amazon at the links above or at war mart and automotive stores.
Once you've followed the directions on the slime bottle be sure to rotate the tire around after filling it with air so as not to let the slime settle in one area of the tire. It's really quick and simple to use. Glad I did it. My only regret is waiting so long to use it.
Although I shouldn't be, I was amazed that this the farm and garden place I purchased this Still axe from made good on their free axe handle replacement promise. I chose to replace it myself as they're service department had quite the backlog of equipment repairs and couldn't get to it for a week or so. I had wood that needed splitting so didn't want to wait. I brought the broken handle to them and they immediately grabbed a replacement from the back and handed it to me. Minimal questions asked.
The new one I put one here is a even more hefty than the one previously on it. I will say, this is the best axe I've ever owned and was a great present given to me.
Although necessary and useful tools, weed wackers in general have traditionally been a royal pain in the ass over the past few decades. From starting them (or NOT!) through the painstaking process of replacing the line on them. It can be very frustrating. I don't know about you but I've performed the flying weedwacker trick a times and called them every name in the book.
I must give the manufacturers credit as they have attempted to remedy the frustration somewhat. They've come out with 4-cycle weed wackers to make starting easier as well as removing the whole perfect gas mixture puzzle.
My goal here is to show you how to replace the line on this model of weed wacker. In case you need one or a new one here's the amazon link to it.
It's amazingly easy if you do it right. If you try to wind it yourself with the cap off, you'll screw it all up. Ask me how I know this.
1. To accomplish this arduous task, after popping the top on the working end of the wacker (by depressing tabs), you insert the line through one of the holes in the internal (black colored) part.
2. Run the line through each islet of the red portion of the cap that you've removed. Then run the cap down the lines until it mates up with it's counterpart, then snap it in.
3. Once snapped in, push in and manually wind the line onto the spool.
Simple huh? Way better than the old models.
Now cross your fingers it starts.
So you've decided to pull the trigger on a new four stroke easy starting Troy-Bilt Cadillac. Congratulations. I know that when I bought one I was so excited that I could hardly wait to get home, get it out of the box, get it put together, and get it fired up. This tutorial is taking you through the process of Unboxing and using this great Troy Bilt Weed Wacker.
The first thing to do is get the packaging open, pull out your parts and get them all played out on the ground. Then take the handle and pull out the keeper insert that is in place and snap the two handle pieces together. The springloaded pin on the silver side should snap through the hole in the red side locking it into place. The next step is to install the black plastic guard in for the rotating cutting head using the wing nuts. Now for the black plastic handle installation. Unscrew the one bolt that goes through it, snap the handle on in a comfortable location on the stem of and then place the bolt back through the hole and snug it up. Once you have the handle in the perfect position for your body type that is comfortable for you, then tighten it down all the way.
Add the provided oil in the oil receptacle with the yellow cap on it. Now put in regular unleaded gasoline in the gas canister. Prime the weed weed wacker a few times, put on your safety gear and fire it up.
Buy one on amazon here: https://amzn.to/2Yu3ZYs
For years the old lawn edgers "weed wackers" would run really good when you first purchased them and then once you let them sit for various periods of time between lawn mowing sessions, it would be hell getting them started. I've seen more weed wackers tossed across lawns in my time than homelite chainsaws. The older ones had 2 cycle motors and if you didn't have exactly the correct oil/gas mixture the weed wacker would either not start, smoke the whole place up, or the motor would bog down. I have experienced all of this first hand being starting at a young age watching my father fight these evil little machines and then also myself as I grew up mowing lawns for extra money and then of course my own. There were numerous occasions where all I had left to do was some touch up around the edges after pushing a heavy mower across meters and meters of lawn and I'd spend more time and expend more sweat trying to get the damn thing started again. Even before I'd go out on jobs, I'd make sure the damn thing started before I left my house. It would still find a way to let me down once it was needed.
Like a Sailor
The frustration caused by the old weed wackers could make a preacher swear. Ok maybe not out loud but inside. I've called these things every name in the book and have probably set the distance record for yards thrown.
Not only were the old motors an issue on the older weed wackers but the line feed mechanism on the working end of the contraption often wreaked havoc on the operator's emotions. I would venture to say that no matter what kind of weed wacker you owned back in the day, you probably had both the line feeder mechanism and/or the motor taken apart on it (except maybe a Stihl) before the first year of ownership was up. The older models made it pretty tough to change out the line or even replace it if it got stuck up inside the feeder mechanism causing much frustration and chewing up your clock. There was no youtube or internet readily available at your fingertips, you either had to figure it out or toss it.
Sore Starting Muscles
I can't count how many times that I would wake up the next day with a very sore and stiff upper back and then at first wonder what I did to it the day before. Then it dawns on me. Oh that's right, I tried starting that damn weed wacker by pulling on the pull starter 2000 times over the course of the day yesterday. Then it lingers for the next couple days just for good measure.
