Rusty Caliber

Magnetic parts tray: best few dollars I ever spent. Small screws used to vanish into another dimension.

The workbench is the most organized place in my house. The kitchen junk drawer is the least. It's called balance.

Two tools fix almost everything: something that makes it move and something that makes it stop moving. Penetrating oil and duct tape. The rest is details.

Before the first real freeze: unhook the garden hoses, drain them, and cover the outside spigots. A split pipe is a spring surprise nobody wants.

Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, unless it's a reverse-thread bolt, in which case it's righty-why-isn't-this-working.

Restored an old hand plane. Vinegar soak for the rust, flattened the sole on sandpaper, sharpened the iron. Shavings like tissue paper now.

Swapped every old bulb in the garage for LEDs. Should have done it years ago. I can finally see the 10mm socket I lost in 2021.

Clocks fall back at 2 a.m. Easy habit: test the smoke and CO alarms tonight while you're changing the stove clock.

Keep a flashlight in every room you'd need one in when the power goes out. Not in a drawer you can't find in the dark. Ask me how I know.

Space heater season. Plug it straight into the wall, not a power strip, and keep it three feet from anything that can burn. Turn it off when you leave the room.

Shop radio station?

Wells Fargo's history site on stagecoaches: four or six horses, up to nine passengers, and Sacramento to Omaha took about fifteen days in 1867. Fifteen days of bumps. Behold the stagecoach - Wells Fargo History — Wells Fargo History