Joel Johnson over at Boing Boing posted this interesting net gun that you can build for around 50 bucks.

The net is 90 square feet and will travel 15 to 25 feet using compressed air.

This could make catching extra zippy chickens a bit easier, and it provides a non-lethal way of dealing with those neighborhood kids who keep jumping into your yard to retrieve their ball or frisbee.

It was warm enough to continue the ditch digging operation today which will be running from the hand dug well to the trailer through the garden.

The goal will be to prevent any future freezing of the line thanks to the warmer temperatures underground.

I don't think I'll miss carrying water in 5 gallon buckets, but it really isn't all that difficult once you get the hang of it.

The Gorilla glue bond was not quite strong enough to hold up against the heavy pounding a few weeks of wood splitting will tend to put it through. The wiggle is back, and parts of the bond are breaking away from the handle.

The maul has not flown off the handle yet, and as long as it gets the job done we will most likely continue to put it through the many paces of log splitage.

Lucy is often on hand for wood chopping, waiting for just the right piece to snatch up and carry off for safe keeping. We can never seem to get that kind of enthusiasm out of Huckleberry.

If you find yourself bored with plain old egg shaped watermelons then maybe you might be ready to take the square melon challenge.

The first thing you need is a collapsible square box, which does not look easy to build, but if you can spare 90 bucks you can have one mailed to you from Michigan.

A square watermelon sells for over 80 dollars in Japan and most people buy them as a decoration. If a guy could get half that here at a farmers market it might just be a new potential cash crop for your backyard.

Clark Howard is my favorite consumer advocate who always seems to have solid advice on saving money. I think he might be the best out there right now when it comes to looking out for the little guy.

Clark's latest piece of advice is something I've known about for years now, but am only now ready to blog about because I just assumed everybody already knew.

Internet Explorer (the browser most computers come with) is a deeply flawed product that makes surfing on the internet slower, uglier, and more dangerous than it needs to be.

It's free and easy to switch over to Firefox and importing bookmarks and any other data from Internet Explorer can be done in just a few clicks or less. You'll still have your old browser to use as a backup, but I doubt if you'll ever open it again once you realize how zippy the internet was meant to be with a program like Firefox.

I'm always interested in low budget building methods that break away from the traditional square lodge approach.

If these concrete culverts were buried into a south facing hillside you might get a perfect year round temperature at zero cost?

This could also work as a root cellar and maybe even a small green house if enough sky lights could be added. The circular design would make it easy to roll into position when you get ready to bury it.

Visiting civilization, I load Mark's mom's washing machine with load after load of dirty laundry.  Every few weeks, I wash my clothes in the wringer washer, but Mark tends to throw his in a pile  in the corner of his room and wait for six months until he visits his mother.  The time has come for me to take the bull by the horns and take over our household's laundry rather than just my own!

In the summer, I wonder why anyone would do their laundry with anything except a wringer washer.  Standing in the hot sun, cold water dripping off my elbows, I wash my clothes with creek water and dry them with sunlight.  As the fall advances, though, I try to remember why I use a wringer washer, my hands freezing solid in ice water until I can barely feel them and they turn bright red.

The obvious reason to use a wringer washer is that they can be used without running water --- essential on our homestead --- and can be left outside to freeze with no negative repurcussions.  When done properly, using a wringer washer also saves water.  For the 0.05% of my reading audience who would ever consider using a wringer washer, I've compiled a list of wringer washer tips.  Enjoy!

The traction chains started slipping after a few days of back and forth in the mud.

I took each wheel back off and doubled the amount of rope and weaves. I also secured the rope ends with some metal wire.

After doing a bit of research I discovered that for about 5 dollars per tire you can get 100 percent nitrogen pumped into your tires. Nitrogen is more stable and will not fluctuate when the temperature changes. It is also reported to decrease the amount of inner tire decay.

Helium might seem like it could make your vehicle lighter, but it won't.... and then you have to deal with your car talking in that high pitched tone.

Converting your existing car into a Prius like hybrid just got a lot easier and cheaper thanks to an interesting start up company out of Connecticut by the name of Poulson.

For about 4 thousand dollars they will install a new type of external electric motor to each of your wheels that don't get driven by the car's transmission. The motors are used to keep you going once the gas engine has done most of the hard work. This can increase a car that normally get 30 mpg to 55 or better.

They don't sell the motor to do it yourselfers yet due to some legal issues, so you'll have to take your car to Connecticut or a participating dealer if you want to be one of the first to take advantage of this new technology.

The additional bead of Gorilla glue eliminated the wiggle and is still holding up well. Now it's a question of time. How much pressure can the bond take and for how long?