Fall is almost here and the leaves are already beginning to loosen their grip getting ready for their annual fall to the yard, the driveway, the pool and anywhere else but the compost pile where they belong. If you are tired of raking, maybe its time you got yourself a tow behind sweeper for your lawn […]
Outdoor Living
Post-Weekend Update On Husqvarna GTH 26 Garden Tractor, RedMax 7150 Blower and Flashlights
This weekend was one of the hottest in years with triple digit highs and heat index of more than 110 degrees, so outside work was kept to very little. Since my neighbors were having a reunion on Saturday, I went out early to cut the grass along the shoreline and to blow the driveways […]
Commercial Backpack Blowers Review, Initial Impressions, Stihl Magnum 600, Husqvarna 380 BFS and RedMax 7150.
Are you a landscape professional, a landowner who needs the power of a commercial blower to keep your property in order, or just a homeowner who wants the power and speed of the largest available blowers? These three blowers will handle your largest jobs. Many blowers tout high wind speed, these not only have high velocity windspeeds, […]
Step-By-Step Swimming Pool Motor Replacement
Those of you keeping up with the trials and tribulations know about the swimming pool pump and motor giving up the ghost after many years of operation. Yesterday afternoon I went by my local swimming pool company and purchased a Hayward 1.5 HP Super Pump and also a new bag for the Polaris, total bill was a little over […]
Pool Pump Receives Last Rites
After many years of service, the Hayward pool pump at dad’s has succumbed to old age and arthritic bearings. I returned from Chicago and when I checked on Mom’s pool, the green had returned and a large snapping turtle had taken up residence. Memories from the childhood television show The Beverly Hillbillies
The Great Pumpkin, dad and the IBEW Strike of 1966.
One of my favorite stories involved my dad, of all people, who hated gardening and never understood why my mom insisted on having a garden. I was no more than seven years old at the time, when I planted some pumpkin seeds in our backyard. But I planted them late, and my crop consisted of […]
Plant a Family Garden
Growing up in Alabama, my mother always had a garden. When we lived in the country, the garden was on a plot below our house. But when we moved to Birmingham, my mom began gardening on some acreage at my grandfather’s house that was really a flood plain for Five Mile Creek. I ran the […]
Henry Ford, E.G. Kingsford or Ellsworth Zwoyer, Who is the Father of Charcoal Briquettes?
This was almost a trick question. Ford receives credit for inventing the charcoal briquette, but did he really invent it? Nope, the patent preceded the Ford plant by 20 years and the patent belonged to Zwoyer. Ford had Kingsford acquire the land for the plant, and the most famous charcoal still bears his name. So really, […]
Painting the Dock’s Metal Roofing; Dock Update Number Two
What a beautiful weekend we had to begin the dock renovation. Several sections of metal roofing on the fish house had to be replaced following a fall storm. Upon further inspection many of the panels that were still in place had to have new roofing screws installed and old screws refastened. The windward panels had begun to […]