Yesterday we installed a pretty thorough drip irrigation system in both the front and back yards.

The front yard has about 40 feet of soaker hose covering the flowers outside the fence (finally, watering those was quite a chore) and a dripper doohicky for each of the 10 three sisters mounds. The back yard, with its 60 feet of corn rows just has a soaker hose down the top of each row.

Watering is a lot easier now, and I this should also help with weeds because we won't have as much excess water all over the place.

Over the weekend I also got some seedlings started indoors. Rather than going out and buying a bunch of those recycled paper pulp mini seedling pots I decided to make my own. Not only are the store-bought ones kind of expensive for what they are - I've never had much luck with them. The roots grow out of them slightly, but they don't come apart well if you try to plant the seedlings in the pots, but the roots grow into the sides enough that you hurt them trying to peel the pot off. It's a mess I didn't care to repeat this year.

Here's the first look at that bike I've been going on about for a while now. It's powered by a Grubee Skyhawk 2-stroke engine. This one should produce a little over 2HP, and once the break in period is though could theoretically get me up to 30-odd miles per hour.

I added a section to our fire pit that's specially designed just for grilling. Instead of rock, it's made of bricks so it can have a nice level top, just the right size to hold a grill. It's also shallower than the main fire pit, to get the grill closer to the coals.

It's really nice because now we'll be able to have a proper fire you can see by and stay warm next to, but also have good smoldering coals for grilling over. You just shovel back and forth between them as need be. That's why I keep a flat shovel next to the fire pit.

In my latest DIY project, I've set out to build one of those fancy overhead kitchen racks you see in high-end kitchens. Except this one needs to fit in my tiny little rental kitchen, and do as little damage to the ceiling as possible.

Now it's about impossible to hang something this size from a ceiling without doing some damage, but I think my choice of 1/4" screw in hooks was a good choice.

Last weekend I finally got to work on fixing my gas bike, the Gila Monster's, intake manifold problems. The original kit's intake manifold was at an angle that led to a severely tilted carburetor because of the shape of the frame.

Being tilted about 15 degrees made the whole thing really prone to flooding, especially when going downhill.

I built a custom manifold out of some 45 degree copper elbows and sealed them together with JB Weld.

Over the course of today and yesterday I've put about $130 and several hours into converting my old Miyata 1000 touring bike into a low maintenance single-speed commuter.

The whole process did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. The plan was to keep the original crank, replacing the chainrings with a single gear and spacers to keep the chainline.

We've got this stump in our front yard. It's partially hollow, and always spends the spring and summer incredibly full of Black Widow spiders. Last year we tried building a little trellis on top and growing beans up it. It was nicer looking, but only made the spider problem worse.

I fixed it yesterday though! Just a couple of boards affixed into the gap in the side with copper coated hanger strap, and then a few bucketfuls of dirt.

Then I ringed the top in rocks, which I varied the size of to level off the top.

Hit the thumbnails for step by step instructions.

I've long been in need of a bubbler to diffuse water flow. They're great for watering, because you can turn the hose way up and it will fill a contained bed really quickly without digging a hole.

I don't know where to buy them these days though, and then realized I could pretty easily make one myself.

It works like a charm, and is made from trash, which is about as cheap as things get.

I built a fancy version of my previous bamboo skewer knife block.

This one is made out of red oak instead of pine, and not only did it cost a lot more in lumber, it cost a lot more in time. The finish alone was hours of rubbing.

It was a wedding present though, and I hope it stays with them forever.