Home ownership

Some of those look quite nice. If I ever decide to do anything, I'll probably get some wood vents and stain 'em up.

you want to block the eastern sun yet light the art, track lights still apply, what sort of ability do you have to add screens on the outside, either attached or freestanding

even track lighting is very dangerous... it's really almost ANY light.

exactly the reason why art galleries are devoid of light

Night vision goggles assigned at the entrance

Using a non-sequitur is fun for both boys and girls... enjoy yours today!

to be clear, no words i type on this website are contractually binding in any way implied or otherwise but dude, i don't know what you're on about with the track light comments.

damn near every modern gallery in the world uses adjustable led lights to illuminate their art works and it is easy to find luminaires that can achieve <10 µW/lm of UV, well within preservationist recommendations.

my free advice without legal reprocussion is something i lovingly refer to as the reverse Kahn
think Kimbell Museum in Ft. Worth upside down with a whole lot more 2+2 influence.
only you can determine if the curvilinear shape should be fabric or metal

Spoiler

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if you want any more protection son either divert the morning UV from your front door sidelite into the dining room immediately north or invest in mechanical blackout blinds that can be lowered in front of your precious investments within the flick of a switch

Can explosives or fire (or both) be options? Start the video first ofc.

I started with the Milwaukee Hatchet, a lil 8" pruning saw, and was so impressed by that I got their 16" chainsaw as well. When it gets hot the chain wants to jump off, so keep her cooled off and lubed up.

It was also in a small fire for a bit so it's kinda melted but still works just fine.

I have the Ego mower and not sure I'd recommend it. I don't think the mulch blade chops the grass fine enough, having some problems this year with potential thatch, so now I'm just going to bag all year this year, lol. I'll definitely never try to use the mulch setting to chop leaves in the fall. When I have it set to the height I like it leaves a lot of straggler blades throughout the yard, but I discovered late last year that if I set it one step lower it doesn't.

I do like having a battery powered mower though. I can mow my yard on just a little over half a charge. Can also use the huge mower battery on the blower and weed eater if I need to, lol. No worries about gas/oil spilling out if I need to turn it upside down to access the blade.

I have St. Augustine, it may be different and/or better for other types of grass.

Words to live by.

LOL

I have St Augustine also--or did until a drought a few summers ago. It's still fighting, but it's patchy. I use a rider over most of the yard, but we've always had a cheap gas push mower for trimming, cutting in amongst heavily rooted trees, etc and treated them as disposable after 3-6 years. I just really need a cheap push bush hog with as little maintenance as possible required. Changing spark plugs, air filters, and dealing with gas has just gotten to be a real PITA as I've gotten older. This damn mower has outlasted any other I've ever had in this role. It's the Energizer Bunny of cheap push mowers.

Fire would have been my first impulse had it not been so close to the house. I have no experience with explosives, but that's an intriguing thought. My daughter is coming to visit Sunday and made me promise not to proceed farther until she got here to help. I think she just wanted to ensure I had transportation to the ER. I finally settled on a plan to tie a rope to the upper part of the limb and let her hold it to try to keep it off the AC compressor when it came down as I cut the lower part of the limb. Probably a YouTube worthy idea!

I went out this morning to tie the rope and my neighbor happened to be working in his yard and drove his 4-wheeler over to check out the mess. I told him my plan and asked him to critique it. He offered to help me and in a true hold-my-beer moment said, "I think we can tie it to the back of my 4-wheeler and pull it out without cutting it and keep it away from the condenser." My reply: "Here's your rope!" He recommended we pull it toward his yard to keep it completely away from the house. Fine by me. He rutted up his yard a bit, but on the third lurch there it went. He even offered to cut it up and burn it for me since that is what he was planning on doing in his yard today anyway. And maybe because the limb likely came from a tree of his anyway. I declined his generous offer, but told him if he wanted to keep any of the wood I cut for firewood that I'd leave it there for a few days. I cut it up and stacked the potential firewood conveniently for him. Even if he takes all of that, between the smaller stuff and other limbs that came down during recent storms I have enough to keep a fire burning for a full day. The new chainsaw blew through all that cutting without complaint.

Still, I'm very grateful for his help and glad to have that concern behind me. I sure didn't want to have to replace an AC compressor during this heat wave due to something idiotic that I tried to do.

Re: electric mowers. Agree on how nice it is not to have to fiddle with oil & plugs. Each fall, I take the blade off, scrape it across the grinding wheel (wrongly, I'm sure), and that's it for maintenance.

Mine's an old Black & Decker, probably 20 years or more. It's just now getting to the point where I think the motor is slowing a bit toward the end of cutting. Seems like it takes longer to charge too. The battery may be dying.

Neighbors have EGO and like them. I took a peek at Ryobi since I have a few of their tools and like them. I think I can get through this summer. Mower battery isn't switchable with tools ofc.

With respect to cutting trees, glad it worked out for you. I've taken the slow and lazy approach. Cut a bit off at a time, eventually the thing is gone. I figure that way, less mass is crashing on my melon. It doesn't need to be done in one day.

May start working on an aspen tree this fall. Some of the top branches seem to be dead. The lower ones seem ok, and I don't want to fight through all that to trim it up.

IRT, Ryobi, don't buy any riding mower with a multiple of 12 as its voltage. That just has lead-acid car batteries, and they don't last.

Of course, if you are up for a DIY electric car battery swap, feel free:

Bodged my Husqavarna gas mower together this week with welding rod filed to shape to replace the blade to spindle fitting. We'll see how long it lasts.

Got an interesting new homeownership issue last night with a baby snake on the floor of my basement. Did it wriggle through a window? Is there a gap in my siding? Is there a nest of snake eggs under the stairs? The snake wasn't talking.

The ryobi 40V battery for the lawnmowers is switchable with the tools and the 40V tools are plenty capable. I have the blower, chainsaw, and line trimmer. They all have ample power.

The mower broke on me this month though - it was not holding height adjustment and was kicking down to minimum height every time it moved. I took it apart and it was clear that the torque spring that holds the height adjustment in place had failed - it had slipped off the adjustment lever and would not stay in place even with my most strained manipulations. Even getting the spring hook arm over the lever like how it appeared to need to be set up wouldn't keep. I've ordered a replacement spring and will see if I can't get it back operational.

The problem with these systems is the battery(ies) is the expensive part and once you're in the ecosystem it doesn't make any sense to switch brands. So even if I can't fix and need to replace the mower I'll likely get another Ryobi.

Is that generally true about the multiples of 12 concerning lead-acid vs other batteries?

I have not heard that before. I could do some Googling, but I would need to get pretty deep in the weeds to give that more credence than posts from you and some other posters here.

Holy moly!

Any idea what breed?
That has been a sublimated fear of mine here for years. There are plenty of snakes around, and I'm in an old house which undoubtedly has numerous points of access for snakes.

Luckily, most of the snakes I've seen here have been king snakes though I have seen a couple of unfriendlies.

I've had my ryobi 40v battery mower for 10+ years now. Still cuts the same as day 1. Roughly 1 hour of cut time. Will get another one when this one croaks.

Seemed to be a garter snake but we have lots of diamondback rattlesnake vipers on a nearby open space in fact I killed several last year in the yard

I mean, it would also have to be a piece of equipment large enough to contain car batteries, so not likely to happen on a push mower. If you see equipment that is a multiple of 12v, I would at the very least check the specs before I bought it. If no lithium in the batteries, run, run away.

Seems to be a good news/bad news situation.

Thanks!

Huh. I don't know they had 40V tools as well. I don't need anything pro level. Battery on my old Porter Cable drill isn't holding a charge too well, but as infrequently as I do stuff, I was looking at the 18V 3/8" drill.

YOu're right about the ecosystem though. I have a reciprocating saw and trimmer from Ryobi. Pretty happy with them, so I'll likely stay down their path.

heavily suggest as a funadmental of real estate investment strategy
never own anything below the local water table