If you ever need to know how to make a group of 8-year-old boy scouts yell, "Ewwwww!" in unison, try my trick.
HUGE TIP: This tip just came in from a reader - for anyone who uses chlorine pucks in their toilet tanks...
Make a note that chlorine pucks put in tank to clean and disinfect toilet cause breakdown of flapper and voids new toilet warranty- i had to change 4 new ones within 2 months because of those damn pucks !!!! Dr. Carey. 😖😃
This is a really cool invention from Canadian designer Liette Tousignant. And it helps you hang anything from photos to small cabinets without the usual disagreements from relatives of different heights.
This is a really fast, easy project that allows you to be both sloppy and clever. And making paint crack is way more fun than watching paint dry. It's a great technique to use on old stuff or new stuff, bare wood or finished wood, even painted surfaces.
I'm a huge fan of lithium-ion battery technology. Lithium-ion holds a full charge for up to 18 months without draining, it's quick to charge and doesn't have the 'memory' problem that NiCad batteries have (i.e. if you don't charge them fully, they forget that they have extra storage, so they just get lamer and lamer over time until they're barely taking a charge at all).
I wish some manufacturer would produce rechargeable AA and AAA lithium-ion batteries but until that happens, Ryobi has created the Tek 4 lithium-ion battery (which contains enough juice to match three regular AA batteries). And they've also developed a bunch of very cool accessories that run on Tek 4, including noise suppression headphones that rock your own tunes, cell phone chargers, cameras etc. Available at the Home Depot.
This is a really cool, ultra-low power consumption (more efficient than LEDs), incredibly beautiful 'fairies and fireflies effect' technology for backyard lighting. You don't even need an electrician because you can run it off an extension cord with the available transformer, so you're done in under 5 minutes. And because you just have to aim one lamp to cover a huge 600+ square foot area, you don't even need ladders. Read more in my newspaper column (plus the manufacturer offers a discount to my readers).
Thistles suck and they resprout from a piece of root 1/8 of an inch long. Learn how to get rid of them without going to the dark side (i.e. chemical killers).
We re-graded the yard a year ago and its green pelt has sprouted a crop of thistles that would repel Norwegian invaders (which is exactly what happened in Scotland in the 13th century and that’s why Scots made the thistle their official plant. I hope they’re happy.)
Is it possible to eradicate the thorny infestation?
Before you answer, here’s some trivia about Canada thistle, the over-muscled cousin of Scottish thistle: • Its seeds remain viable for up to 21 years • Its taproot can travel to a depth of 5.5 meters (18 feet) • Lateral roots can extend as much as 6 meters (20 feet) in a single season • Those lateral roots produce colonies of clones • New plants can erupt from root pieces as small as 3 mm (1/8-inch)
Thistles are the zombies of the weed world.
Dandelions aren’t much better. They’re poking through my heavily mulched flowerbeds as if to say, “Nice try, but a 10-inch thick layer of mulch is like a 4 SPF sunscreen for us piss-a-beds.” (Dandelions used to be called 'piss-a-beds' because of their strong diuretic properties.)
I’ve found three effective, natural weed-disciplining techniques. One is cheap, one is easy and one is so much fun you’ll squeal.
1. Cheap Homemade Solution: Boil 1 pound of salt in one gallon of white vinegar until the salt dissolves. Add a squirt of dish soap. Pour the cooled mixture into a spray bottle. Apply to weed foliage. This concoction kills anything green in about 24 hours and that includes grass, so watch your aim. Cost: About $4
2. Scotts EcoSense Weed B Gon - The kid-and-pet-safe EcoSense formulation exposes weeds to excessive amounts of iron (absorbed through their leaves and roots when you spray it on). Oxidation damages the interior cell walls and the weed turns black and shrivels to nothing over the next five days. The beauty of EcoSense Weed B Gon is that it only attacks broadleaf weeds, not grass (iron is actually a nutrient for turf), so you can spray it all over your lawn and only the weeds will die. Suck it, weeds. Cost: $20 for 2 litres, available at most hardware and gardening centers.
3. Fiskars Stand-up Weed Puller - This is the squealy one. This tool rocks, literally and figuratively. You don’t have to bend over at all to pull out weeds, even stubborn thistles. At its business end, this lightweight implement has steel tines that grab the weed underneath the soil surface. When you gently rock back on the handle (using the foot rest as a fulcrum) the weed comes out easily with roots intact.
There are two Fiskars models - the basic model is $30 but it’s a bit short for good leverage, so if you can spend $50 on the extendable-handle model, it’s worth it for the extra length. TIP: The smaller the weed, the shallower you press the tines. This will limit the size of the resulting soil divot. Available at Canadian Tire.
I collected a heaping bushel basket of thistles in under an hour using my Stand-Up Weed Puller. It’s the most fun you can have while naked from the ankles down.
We're All In This Together Based on four years of interviews with Steve Smith, Mag's unconventional biography reveals the personal stories, sorrows and joys that continue to inspire the man behind the Red Green legacy.
How Hard Can It Be? Mag's quirky and entertaining book of home improvement projects for beginners.
