I just laid my 100,000th brick on the Johnson project in Cedar Rapids

I never kept count before, but my foreman told me the number today. It hit me that I've built a lot of walls over the years. That's a whole lot of mortar mixed and joints tooled. Has anyone else ever tracked their total like that?

My big presentation in Dallas crashed when I accidentally shared my screen with a cat meme tab open

I was halfway through showing our Q2 numbers to the whole team last Tuesday when my browser decided to refresh and put a picture of a grumpy cat wearing a tiny hat front and center for a solid five seconds before I could switch back.

I finally found a way to keep my chickens from digging under the fence

For months, my Rhode Island Reds kept making holes under the run fence, no matter how many rocks I piled up. Last Tuesday, I bent the bottom foot of the wire fencing outward flat against the ground and staked it down with landscape staples. It only took about an hour and cost maybe $15 for the staples. They haven't made a single new hole since I did it. Has anyone else tried this method with a really determined flock?

I finally got to see the old forge at the Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska.

The hand-cranked blower system they had set up was still fully working, which really made me think about how much effort went into every heat. Has anyone else visited a historic shop that gave you a new respect for the basics?

PSA: That old trick with a zip tie and a stuck bleed valve on a King Air actually worked for me yesterday

My neighbor told me dried beans are a waste of time and I completely disagree

Honestly, I was in my apartment building's laundry room about two months ago, and my neighbor Sarah saw my grocery bag with a 2-pound bag of pinto beans. She said, 'Ngl, I don't get why people bother with those. They take forever and never taste as good as the canned kind.' Tbh, it really stuck with me because she's usually so chill. I told her that a bag costs $1.89 and makes like 12 meals worth of beans, while canned is at least triple the price. I soak mine overnight and then cook them in my slow cooker with some onion and garlic while I'm at work. The texture is way better, and I can control the salt. Has anyone else had to defend cooking from scratch to save money?

Tried cleaning a sticky shutter with a drop of lighter fluid on a cotton swab

I was working on an old Minolta SRT-101 and the first curtain was dragging. Used a tiny bit of Ronsonol on the edge of the curtain rail, and it freed up right away, no disassembly needed. Has anyone else had luck with this quick fix, or is it a bad idea for certain shutter types?

Hot take: I always thought dried beans were a pain, but the savings are wild

I was watching a random cooking video on YouTube last night and the person said a single pound of dried beans makes the same amount as four cans, but costs like a third of the price. I did the math and it's true. A bag of dried black beans was $1.49 at my store, and four cans would be over $4. I always avoided them because of the soak time, but you can just do a quick soak in boiling water for an hour instead of overnight. I made a huge pot of bean soup with them today for maybe $3 total, and I've got leftovers for days. It's crazy how much we pay for the convenience of the can. Has anyone else switched to dried beans and found a good way to cook them fast?

My bokashi bin in my Phoenix apartment turned into a science project

Last Tuesday, I opened my bokashi bucket and it smelled like a dead animal, not the pickled smell it should have. I realized I forgot to drain the leachate for over a week because my kid was sick. I poured the whole mess into a big planter on my balcony with some old soil to bury it, and the smell was gone in two days. Has anyone else had to do an emergency burial for a failed batch?

Shoutout to the weird 90s show 'The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'

I found it on a random streaming service last month and the mix of sci-fi and westerns was way ahead of its time. Anyone else remember that show and its weird orb thing?