Why I Oughta...

The kids *took me* to the Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum recently.  And it was awesome.  Like, really fun and interesting.   That's the two little ones hanging out with one of these Trolls.  this one was laying down, holding a rope that is attached to end of a 'trap'.   I say that the kids took me because they have been there to see the Trolls before and this was my first visit.   On this visit, we did the northern loop of the Arboretum and came across three or four trolls  Most of them (if you wanted to), you could mostly make out from your car.  But with a short, enjoyable hike, you could get up close to these giants and the payoff was worth it.   I was so impressed with the show and can't help but wonder how long the Trolls will stick around.  I'm hoping that they'll remain for quite some time, but the Arboretum site only discloses this : The trolls will reside on the Arboretum's grounds as long as possible, with the expectation that

I'm always very hesitant to use my table saw in my shop.  If there's another tool that will get the job done, I usually chose it.  But, there are plenty of instances that call for a table saw.  To stack the odds in my favor, I usually am very deliberate with the saw and use a push stick and keep my hands away from anything moving during the cut and way long after the blade stops. But, I've started to use this thing:  The Grr-Ripper to 'bulletproof' my hands.  You use this thing to guide the piece through the cutting zone.  See below for the channel that the blade runs through. I won't use the saw without this thing now.  I'm not even doing it justice, so if you have interest, check out this video below that explains everything about it as they call it a "must-have for any table saw."

Last Summer, I was up at the Lake Geneva Walmart buying our fishing license when I noticed a guy who looked familiar in a trench coat inspecting a kayak along with a youngish other man.  I looked them over and couldn't right away figure out who it was.  Then it clicked.  It was Chicago Alderman Ed Burked and his ( infamous) security detail .  Of course, that got me wondering what the Alderman was doing up there and a few searches on Google lead me to this story about how he came to acquire a place called Honey Bear Farm.   On a recent run, Natalie came across this sign you see above:  Honey Bear Bay.  Kinda neat.  We had talked about my run-in with the Alderman and the name of the farm must have stuck because when she came back from the run, she showed me this photo. As for the story, it is just *too* Chicago politics to believe.    From the Chicago Tribune : A subsidiary of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. sold an interest in prime Wisconsin real estate to two of the m

I was out at the Morton Arboretum recently (more on that in a different post) and one of the trees that struck me the most was this pair of European Beeches that you see above.  It is hard to tell, but the leaves of these trees are really quite interesting and are closely clustered to the branch stems. According to the Chicago Botanic Garden : The Cristata European beech is also known as the cock's comb beech due to the way its curled leaves are clustered on very short stems at the end of branches. Here's the tag on the tree.  One note:  Check out how the team at the Morton Arboretum attach their identification tags to the trees.  A sturdy, printed metal tag attached with a long nail.  A spring is added in between the label and the nail head which allows the tree to continue to grow and expand and kind of 'push' the label outwards to the head of the nail.  Very clever. Here's a look at the leaves. I haven't seen these at any of the garden cen

As I was doing some work to cut plywood for a garage project, I made a mistake and there was a pretty big spark.  Somehow, my circular saw cord got caught up on itself and I sliced it right open.  Amateur hour, right?  I texted this photo over to my father-in-law and asked him if it was repairable and he said:  yep!  Easy fix.  So, I stuck this saw in my car and the next time I head over there, I'll drop it off for him to repair.  The good news is that I wasn't electrocuted.  Between the GFI and the plastic handle, I didn't learn this lesson the hard way. 

Via Firewood Victoria Just like the various versions of my shop workbench that I've posted about (and dreamed about and finally settled on ), I've done the same with a firewood storage shed.  Above is the latest 'dream' firewood storage shed that I've come across.  The photo above comes from a Canadian Lumber Company's site .  You can find the original source image here .   Last year, you might recall the pile of wood that I chopped myself and stuck on a rack that I had outside our backdoor.  Here's the 'before/after' photo collage . And in early January, I posted a photo of the face cord that we ordered and had stacked .  You'll note that the face cord was stacked in our screened porch and it was too big for the metal rack that I had on hand.  We blew through the face cord of wood before the season ended and I did one check-in (February) trying to document the usage .   This season there are some new dynamics to factor: 1.  Na

Back in March, I shared a photo of a set of Night Queen Dahlia tubers that I picked up and planned to put in a container this Spring.  This year, I planted two different varieties of Dahlias including these Firebird Semi Cactus Dahlias that I've shared an update on in early June.   Above you see a photo of the blooms from the Night Queen variety that I took this week.  There are about a dozen or so blooms that have sprung up - some on strong stems - others on thin stems that can't quite handle the weight of these colorful blooms. I posted this same photo earlier this week on my backyard/garden Instagram handle @HornbeamHill . Night queen Dahlia's in bloom. #containergardening A post shared by Hornbeam Hill (@hornbeamhill) on Jul 23, 2018 at 6:36am PDT Nat thinks that we need to have these dahlias in the ground, not in pots next year and that might be right, but I do like having them grace our patio with their beauty, not to mention that our patio ge