frugal living
A quick fix for a broken Ford key fob
Add a booster fan for chilly rooms with hot air registers (works with air conditioning also)
Tired of a dry room? A cheap, simple humidifier hack
With the recent cold snap in the Northeast, my forced air gas house heater has been running like crazy. I have had all kinds of issues with humidifiers in the system. Here is a simple hack to add some humidity to a room. Continue reading
Added a non vented wall heater and almost screwed up.
After Hurricane Sandy, the wall heater in my Mom’s summer home was trashed. I decided to simply add a 30,000 BTU ventless wall heater. However, I almost choose poorly between infrared and blue flame. Continue reading
Scavenging firewood from oversized fallen trees and logs.
I can always use more firewood. I have a couple of larger trees that have been down for two or more years plus some larger logs from a red oak that was dropped about 5 years ago. I also have a wood stove that I use to help heat the house. The problem is how to get usable firewood from these trees. For the most part, the wood is dry enough to burn without having to be seasoned.
I don’t have a splitter. I asked Santa for one this year but he couldn’t fit it on his sleigh. Even with a splitter, the problem still exists that you are dealing with logs that have been in ground contact for some time. Continue reading
Yellow tag sales at the supermarket
I missed this one for the longest time. When my GF has me over for dinner, she would often say “This was a yellow tag sale”. I happened to be in our local Giant Foods on a Tuesday night and saw a bunch of stuff with yellow tags. One example is below. A $10 T-Bone steak for $5. I bought a pair of them. My son applied his grilling skills and homemade marinade and we had a fantastic dinner. Continue reading
Raising the blade for more clearance on a Sears Lawn Tractor.
I have a well worn Sears LT 1000 lawn tractor that I use for grass cutting, hauling firewood, mulching leaves and snow plowing on 2 1/2 acres. Quite often, we get snow before I’m ready to remove the cutting deck. That means that I have to install the plow. The problem is that when the plow is raised, the ground clearance of the plow is about 1/2 inch.
The front lawn has stinking Norway Maples so there are roots that that can get hit by the plow. In the woods, there are uneven spots, rocks, fallen branches, dead bodies and other hazards (ok, just kidding about the dead bodies). I tried adjusting the clearance but other than playing with the adjustment on the spring, I didn’t see any way to adjust things. Continue reading