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Late June, misfortune struck. I was out running errands and got a text from my wife that power went out at home. My neighbors lost power too. My wife turned off the light switches (including the garage lights, since she'd been in there) because she didn't know when power would come back on...

Much appreciated. I'm glad you got something out of the thread! Learning new handwriting was a trip. I find that I can "turn it on" when I want to now, but it's slower and takes more effort. Still, nice to have that up my sleeve. The PVC I plan to basically scallop the ends and drill holes...

Nice, good to know. We used to use Jackery at work for in-vehicle power and the whole company switched to EcoFlow a few years back. They seem robust enough for my limited use. Nice to have around the house as well - my neighborhood has power outages more than I'd like.

New toys, more stuff I've been wanting for a while. A 4-day, 10-person camping trip pushed me to finally buy a 12 V fridge and battery. I wanted to remain flexible so I didn't opt for anything like a fridge slide or a hard-mounted "house battery" in the Land Cruiser. Firstly, the fridge -...

Tool updates. My friend with the tiny house was all done with my vertical bandsaw, so I took it home. I truly have no place to store this thing and very little need for it. It was a gift from a friend, so I sold it and sent him the money. Wonderful Rockwell saw. I did some upgrades on it before...

Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled, and we painted together. I need to figure out a lighting solution because the anemic central overhead light (fan) does NOT do enough here.

My wife decided we needed a bigger table in our craft room / guest room so we could work side by side. I liked that idea, and the table in there was pretty small. That's where we keep our painting stuff, photography gear, sewing stuff, my patch collection, my wife's many fiber arts . . I...

Truck stuff! A friend came over for some welding help on his 4Runner. Panhard rod correction kit, air bumps, and limit straps. He just installed a long-travel front suspension kit and the rig is turning out awesome. Might be for sale soon in the Bay Area . . message me if you're interested. I'm...

More odds and ends. Went to a garage sale and found this tiny adjustable wrench. Anybody else love small things? Or am I weird? Took some time to readjust the shelves so that I could fit more stuff on the rack. This is one of those things that you put off and never do . . but it's so...

Well . . . I pulled the trigger and sold the Lexus. I loved this car but was ready for something new. Dealing with people on Marketplace was a nightmare because I listed it high. I was the second owner and had full records, which is rare for IS300s, and I valued that. I got a price I was very...

Tiny house update! Spent several more days with my buddy. It's basically done now, but I don't have more recent photos unfortunately. In January and February, we worked on wiring, lighting, switches. The whole house uses smart switches and you can set "lighting scenes" which is actually really...

Boy . . 6 months without an update. Been outside, been working, you know the deal. Still, lots going on. The battery in the Land Cruiser finally gave up the ghost. I've noodled with float charger setups but haven't settled on anything great yet. You can see the little solar panel in an earlier...

Perfect truck to teach the kids on. That'll be simple to work on and easy to drive. Enjoying this thread!

Great updates! As a word of warning, Pelican cases are notoriously difficult to glue anything to. I made this console box in college and tried to glue 2 Pelican cases together as an extension to clear the joystick. I ended up finding something that held reasonably well - maybe a clear Gorilla...

Odds and ends . . The Land Cruiser sits most of the time but I haven't bothered to run a float charger all the way down the fence, so I bought a solar charger. I wired it to plug into the same Anderson connector that I added for the compressor. Nothing is really mounted, it's just kinda...

The keen-eyed among you would see the clutch hiding on the floor in the last few photos. That's because I am skipping around. Removing the transmission was . . nearly impossible. Truly terrible. I managed to unbolt everything, remove the transmission mount, remove the shifter, etc. The...

Ok, onto more interesting stuff . . the Lexus (IS300) needed a clutch and rear diff bushings, so at the beginning of January I tore it all apart and finally finished it last weekend. Step 1: clean the garage to prep for the job Step 2: make a mess It doesn't take long to get the rear diff...

Wiper blade season . . feeling like Oprah . . YOU get a wiper blade, YOU get a wiper blade! Figured I would do cabin filters too, and it's a good thing I did. With 5 cars this can be sort of an involved exercise. The Golf stays inside so those blades last longer . . sort of. For the GMC: For...

Helped my friend more with his tiny house. Things are really coming together. A few more plumbed PEX lines: I got started on roughing in the panel. This will all get checked by a licensed electrician, so don't freak out too much if you see something out of order. Still, I'd happily pass...

Wiring time! My Lexus IS300 has had an intermittent bulb warning for the last few months and I finally decided to dig into it and fix it. I'd had something like this several years back and had fixed one wire, but it should've been obvious that other wires would cause me trouble. The trunk...