Recent content by Wes Tex

What is considered good and bad grass depends upon where you live. In my part of Texas we do all we can to promote the growth and spread of Bermuda grass lawns. Long, hot, dry summers will kill almost all grass except Bermuda. I have seen weeks with no rain make the Bermuda turn brown and appear...

I mixed about 25 bags using a wheelbarrow to build a curb under a section of fence. I had to lift each bag over a brick fence to reach the job site. The next day and for many days afterward I could hardly move. After numerous doctor visits, I ended up having back surgery for a ruptured disc...

Over the years I have developed a big collection of small battery chargers for for tools, lights, calculators, etc. Every one of them seems to have a different plug-in fitting. I have a garage shelf dedicated to these. Unfortunately I no longer remember which device uses which charger, and many...

I found an old metal oil company sign; turned it over and screwed it to my rolling work bench. It has held up well over the years. It probably has some advertisement on the front side that is now valuable.

My 30 x 40 shop has 14 foot walls and two rollup doors. I have seven 2x4 windows placed as high as as they could be mounted. I wanted to maximize my wall storage space and maximize security. The incoming light is almost like having skylights. I have never had a window broken in a hail storm, and...

I moved about 5 blocks from one home to another. I worked for weeks moving my shop equipment using an enclosed trailer. The last thing I moved was my large Craftsman Industrial tool box. I couldn't figure out a way to move it without unloading everything, so I pushed it to my new house/shop. The...

I bought my air hose reel from Northern Equipment. The original black hose lasted about 4 years before it started to crack. I waited for one of the 20% off sales at Harbor Freight and bought a Merlin premium red with black stripe hose. It is now about 4 years old and looks like the day I bought...

The "new" Kelly-Moore is called HIS Paint. The home office is located in Oklahoma City.

The Kelly-Moore store here was taken over by someone else. They did not even remove the Kelly-Moore sign in the window. Friends who are professional painters say the "new store" has the same employees as the old store. They use the same paint formulas as Kelly-Moore. Apparently little changed.

I have double double pane aluminum frame windows (2x4) at the very top of my 13 foot walls. They let in light but too high for anyone to look in. Hail storms have never broken one, and I lost no storage area to windows. I have no regrets about doing it this way.

My uncle lived in Corpus Christi many years ago. His backyard fence doubled as storage for the wooden coverings he used to cover his windows when a hurricane warning was issued. He had all the pieces engraved as to where they fit on the house. The nice part of his plan was it saved his fence as...

Converting 8 ft. fluorescent lights to LED. Much brighter and saved on the electricity.

My son, who lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, leaves his RV style hitch in the receiver all the time. He has been rear-ended three times in heavy traffic. He has driven off every time. The last time he drove away, but the insurance totaled his truck because of frame damage. He said the...

Rain noise on a metal roof a problem? I would just love to hear some of that noise on my metal shop roof.

I have a medium signal (3 Bars outside). When I go into my all metal shop, it drops to 2 bars. I have high windows on three sides, so maybe the signal "sneaks" in through the windows. There seems to be lots of different answers to this issue.