Monday, September 22, 2025

MechMaxx DCH7 Chipper Assembly and Review

This week we talk about our new MechMaxx chipper.  This is a 7" chipper with hydraulic infeed.  The details of this chipper can be found here:
https://mechmaxx.com/products/twin-cylinder-petrol-engine-7-hydraulic-feeding-wood-chipper-dch7h

We provide an honest review of this chipper, both the good and the bad.  We have not been paid or received any promotional incentives from MechMaxx for this review.

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Basic Homesteading Class

We recently reached 1000 subscribers on our YouTube channel!  To celebrate, we have a special video this week.  This is a video of a homesteading class that Mama Bear and I did a couple of years ago and we wanted to share it with all of you.  We have been saving it for a special occasion and this is pretty special.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Shed Loft Part 2 - Stairs

This week we continue with installing the loft in our shed by putting in the stairs.  These are a permanent staircase and compliant to code.  Mama Bear and I are not getting any younger, so having an easy way to access the loft in the future will be a good thing.

The stair calculator that I used can be found here:
https://www.mycarpentry.com/stair-calculator.html

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Shed Loft, Part 1

This week we start talking about the loft that we installed in our shed. We had a 16x20 shed installed at the beginning of the season. We had always planned on having a loft in the shed, but the company that we got the shed from wouldn't install one. So, we did it ourselves.

 This will be a floating loft; meaning that none of the load from the loft is being carried by the actual walls of the shed. This was done so the walls don't get overloaded in bad winters with large snow loads. In this part, we install the back portion of the loft.  This back portion will eventually be completely walled off so we can store things that we don’t want animals getting into.  The joists are 2x8s which is sufficient for the loading and spans that we are covering after doing the calculations.  The the American Wood Council's webpage for more information: 

https://awc.org/publications/tutorial-for-understanding-loads-and-using-span-tables/

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Chicken Coop Costs

This week we want to go over the detailed costs of our chicken coop.

Here is a link to the spreadsheet with the materials breakdown and costs:

Monday, June 30, 2025

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Moving a Giant Boulder

Today we talk about using the wisdom of the ancients to move a giant boulder.

Sunday, June 1, 2025