Life, Liberty and DIY

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 82 – Sawmill and Milling Basics

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When you are doing woodworking or homesteading or DIYing you are probably going to use some wood. What is interesting is learning where your wood comes from, and how you get what you buy.

If you have ever been interested in some of the basics around a sawmill and milling wood. What some of the terms are or even some of the tools. As well as a little bit of the processes then I go over what I have learned in this episode.

Next year we will start a bandsaw build so it is imperative to actually understand something about this part of the industry so I am sharing what I have learned so far. I hope it not only helps you in your woodworking to understand what is going on before you, but also to have a greater appreciation for the things you create.

One of the interesting things about milling would is it can help give your work more of a story. This is not only more fun to show it off, but if you sell the work you can command a higher price for it.

So join me in this episode as we start the process of learning about sawmills and milling.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 81 – 5 Reasons to Raise Pigs

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Have you ever wanted to get pigs, but are a bit on the fence about getting them?

In this episode I discuss 5 of the main reasons we are looking to get pigs next year. We have kicked around the idea for a few years now, but if nothing goes awry between now and the new year we will get them.

I think pigs are going to be a great addition to the homestead for the income, work, and knowledge they will bring. To find out more, and to see what has gone on recently around here give this episode a listen.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 80 – Things You Should Probably Know About Trailers

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Trailers are important to life when you can’t get everything in your car or truck. However, they are easy to ignore learning about because they are so “easy” to use. You hook them up, load stuff in there, and go. Right?

While that may be possible, and you can get away with that with light loads. When you have to do heavy loads to get some work done it is a good idea to actually know something about trailers. You especially don’t want to go to jail right?

I have ignored trailers, and understanding them for a longtime. However, this last week I was prompted to start learning about them, and I dove deeeeeeep. I have an all new understanding of trailers from how to properly use them, and especially how they are constructed and built.

In this episode I go over a bunch of things people should probably know if for no other reason so they can understand a few things when they get around trailers. The better part is understanding these things so if you have to do something you don’t use the wrong trailer.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 79 – I Rebuilt My Bandsaw

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The bandsaw I bought back in January has finally been restored, and put back into service. It didn’t need a lot of work, but I ended up replacing a lot of parts so that now it is almost like a brand new bandsaw.

I had some interesting experiences along the way, and learned a ton more. If you want to learn more give this episode a listen.

I also talk a bit about a couple of future projects that will be super exciting once I can get to them. So definitely listen to find out more.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 78 – Chicken Processing Day… Is Done

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The end of having meat chickens is the processing. Over the weekend was processing day, and it was long and tiring.

This was the first time I have been “in charge” of doing the processing. The last two times I have processed chickens a friend who has done it a lot came over to help and taught me a lot. This time I had to do all the steps.

Not only did I have to do all the steps, but I had the opportunity to teach other people as well. To be perfectly honest I enjoyed teaching how to process the chickens more than I did the work.

It was a long day, but we now have 29 chickens in our freezer. We raised and grew the chickens on our property, eating our grass and bugs on the ground as we cared for them. They worked the ground, and had a good life. In the end they are performing their final duty of feeding my family some of the most nutritious food we will eat.

Join me in this episode as I talk through what happened, the process, and the ups and downs. If you have ever been curious what it is like, without actually doing it, this episode is for you.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 77 – Cooling Your Shop on Hot Days

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It is going to be a hot year this year, much like every year. It always seems when we get to summer we want to figure out ways to stay cool in the shop. Or to at least not have the shop as hot.

I recently made some changes that will effect the future of my shop, and force me to deal with the heat in the shop for a longer period of time. So I have spent some time researching how to keep the shop cool.

In this episode I discuss several ideas on how to keep your shop cool. Many of these things can work together to make your life a lot easier. I think my shop was build the worst way possible, so I am going to have to employ several of them.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 76 – What I Learned Selling a Cow

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Episode 76 - Learning from Selling

Learning to sell is a huge weakness of mine. This year I stepped out and worked to sell a cow, granted it was to family. With guidance from my father-in-law who has done it before my wife and I figured out what needed to be done, and we got a cow sold.

It was definitely and interesting experience, and a lot of learning had to take place. We had to negotiate cuts with customers, coordinate with the butcher to do those, we had to find a butcher date when most where backed up a year and half.

However, we saw an opportunity in the market, we had to resources, and we took advantage of it. That is exactly what you should do as a sales person. In the end we walked away with some profit, and some meat so it was all great.

There were definitely problems that arose to be sorted out, and we will do better next time.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 75 – 3 Affordable Useful Garden Projects

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Working in the garden can be hard work. Whatever you can do to make life easier is a great idea. In this episode I talk about 3 projects that you can do to make life easier.

I think the most exciting project for my wife is an outdoor sink. My favorite is an actual hoop house that is affordable, and wont fall apart on you. The other project just makes sense to do so you don’t keep losing garden tools.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 74 – I Failed My Chickens

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Sometimes you have weeks where a lot of stuff goes wrong, or the culmination of a lot of problems hit all at one time. This week was that week for me, and my chickens.

The week started out with some problems with the chickens, and ended with delays and figuring out I was feeding my chickens the wrong feed.

In this episode I talk about the failures I had, and how I worked through them to get to resolutions. It wasn’t my funnest week, but it was the conclusion to a lot of things.

BudDIY Podcast – Episode 73 – Electric Saga Part 2

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Experiencing putting in electric is very different than the planning. This last week we did all the work to run new electric wire that can push 200 amps to the shop. Now I can run anything I want in the shop.

In today episode I walk through everything we did to put in the electric along with some lessons learned. I also talk about the mistake I made that cost us a half a day of time.