Ed's Experiments and Stuff

Don't you hate when this happens? There you are digging in the garden and try to pry out a sapling stump and SNAP! If you can part with an old friend it is time to go buy a new shovel. If not (can you tell how much I have worn down the tip on this shovel?) it is time to replace the handle. Step one: Remove the Handle Notice where the rivet is installed through the handle.  Find the pre-formed end.  Look at the other side.  If it has been flattened much bigger than the hole through the shovel you will need to cut it off.  A Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel is the way to go.  Don't forget the safety glasses.  Now take a punch and hammer and knock the rivet through the shovel shaft.  Now you can knock the piece of the broken handle out of the shovel shaft. Step two: Fit and Drill the Hole in the New Handle But where to get your new handle?  I just read an article that mentioned the House Handle Company (http://househandle.com/index.html), a family owned business in

My wife and her sisters and cousins are going on girls weekend and to earn some husband points I decided to create some of these chalkboard paint stemware glasses I saw on Instructables.  http://www.instructables.com/id/ChalkBoard-Stemware/   I bought some cheap wine glasses at Wal-Mart and had some chalkboard paint left over from the wall of my basement shop. It is an easy process.  I wrapped a piece of electrical tape around the stem.  I used electrical tape because it is not as sticky as some other tape and so easier to get off once the painting is complete.  Also it is fairly thick so easier to find the end to unwrap it.  This makes it easier than something like tape you would use for wrapping paper. With the tape wrapped around the stem paint the bottom of the stem and base of the glass.  I used 3 coats.  One is not enough to cover well.  Two covered ok and was nice and smooth but I thought 3 would be more durable.  It will be interesting to see how well the paint holds up to

I like to garden and this new house has a patch of bamboo so I figured why not make a trellis? So one day I headed out to the back yard, grabbed a few pieces of bamboo and started working. First thing learned - bamboo is very brittle especially old bamboo. I tried cutting it with various hand saws only to have it splinter all over the place. Hmm, finally I got out a hand saw with a very fine metal cutting blade. Perfect. Oh, and cutting close to a "knuckle" if you can limits the amount of splintering. Next came connecting the pieces. The first couple of sets of holes I could do on the drill press which worked nicely because, again the brittleness, I could go nice and slow and got decent holes with little splintering. It only worked for a couple sets of holes and then I couldn't make sure they were straight through both pieces of bamboo so I had to go with hand drill. Second thing learned - bamboo has a flat side where the stems come out so you can turn that side

It was 4 out of 6 actually and they made it to spring. It might have helped that spring came really early this year. They didn't get as much sun as I thought they would in front of the sliding glass door downstairs which is why I only got two cuttings from them all winter. Also, on closer inspection the stems got very weak so once the leaves got large the stems would collapse under the weight. I guess they need some air movement or to get bumped now and again to make the stems grow more sturdy. I took the second cutting and am now putting them outside to acclimate them before I plant them in the ground. The picture shows what they looked like just before the cutting.

They are actually doing well in the house. They aren't growing real fast and I have only gotten one cutting from them so far during the winter but 4 of the 5 (or was it 5 out of 6, hmmm) plants lived. The leaves are nice and dark green. This strain was called Bright Lights with different colored stems and the stems all have nice color. So far I would call this a success, but not a runaway success since they are growing so slowly. The next test will be putting them back out in spring and seeing what they do. Stay tuned! I dug up the last of the carrots yesterday and found that apparently slugs like to overwinter in the tops of carrots. Yuck! Luckily I only lost a couple since there was only a handful left.