whimbrel

Hi again. I asked a question yesterday about a quick and easy platform in a black walnut tree and my hesitations about spending a lot of money on hardware for what might be a temporary structure. I've been doing some reading and thinking about the "right" way to do things, and here's something I'm not understanding:

For "simple" single-tree platforms, the foundation of the platform is two TABs, on opposite sides of the tree, each with a static bracket supporting a joist. Each TAB on treehousesupplies.com is $140, so $280 total.

Could you help me understand why this is dramatically superior to using hot dipped galvanized 1.25inch threaded rod and carriage bolting it all the way through the

So I have a daughter, who is five and adorable. And my daughter has a stuffy, named Fluffy Flopsy (FF), who goes everywhere — the grocery store, visits to friend’s houses, occasionally school, the park. (FF has a small puncture, which we were initially traumatized by, but actually provided a fantastic opportunity to put an AirTag inside. FF has been left behind before, and life was Not OK.)

Over spring break, Fluffy came to a rental house with us, and was relaxing by the fire pit outside before s’mores. In what can best be described as a “rather surprising” moment, a butane fire lighter that had been left too close to the fire melted, exploded in a massive fireball, and poor Fluffy was caug

So this might be a strange question -- like many other suburban dads with backyards and young kids and the arrival of Spring, I would like to encourage the kids (4yo, 6yo) to get outside as much as possible.

I set up a $150 "ninja warrior slackline obstacle course!" kit from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CXRWN1X) between two trees, and they're having a blast monkeying from one set of rings to the next and yelling. I would *also* like to have a blast learning to slackline, but I'm having some trouble making it work.

The crux of the problem is this -- I would like to have the line at a height that is easy for the girls to ge

(cross-posted from r/budgetaudiophile)

I enjoy listening to music through good speakers. My wife enjoys being able to pick up the remote and have sound accompany the program she’s watching. This is proving harder to reconcile than you’d think, so I need help.

We currently have an LG C2 television, a Yamaha RX-750 and the original LS50s. (And an Apple TV, PS5, Hue Sync, etc). Using just those three primary components, I have completely failed to get ARC working reliably. I’ve switched cables. I’ve unplugged stuff and let it think about its choices. I’ve specified decoding formats and also let them choose their own adventure. I’m ready to give up, and the Yamaha is my least favorite compon

I enjoy listening to music through good speakers. My wife enjoys being able to pick up the remote and have sound accompany the program she’s watching. This is proving harder to reconcile than you’d think, so I need help.

We currently have an LG C2 television, a Yamaha RX-750 and the original LS50s. (And an Apple TV, PS5, Hue Sync, etc). Using just those three primary components, I have completely failed to get ARC working reliably. I’ve switched cables. I’ve unplugged stuff and let it think about its choices. I’ve specified decoding formats and also let them choose their own adventure. I’m ready to give up, and the Yamaha is my least favorite component in the mix. I’d like to get a pared d

Last year, I got really in the spirit of Christmas and bought several of those micro-LED spool lights to wrap around a 30 foot tree, from the bottom to the top, including branches.

This is very similar to the actual product used, but mine from was home depot and pricier:
https://www.amazon.com/COSFLY-Outdoor-Christmas-String-Lights/dp/B07V8RJ7YB/

Because this was an absolute shit-ton of work and they were supposedly outdoor rated, I left

I have a fairly long yard, and the flow rate from a 100ft 1/2" garden hose is about 3gpm. This makes my sprinklers anemic, which means I have to go move them 8 times to water the whole yard. It's a giant pain in the ass.

One obvious solution is upgrading to a 5/8" or 3/4" hose, but when I look at the interior feed to that faucet in the basement, the interior piping is 1/2" copper. Is my understanding correct that I'd need to replace that section of pipe before anything would help the exterior water pressure?

And, if so, is there any downside to replacing it with 3/4" PEX so that I could later buy a big boy 3/4" hose and just water the bejesus out of the tomatoes?

Thanks!

So, I'm a first-time homeowner in New England, and also a first-time pressure-washer-owner in New England, and now a first-time-cracked-pump owner, because I thought I'd gotten the water out before my garage froze, but I did not.

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There is an invisible hairline crack in the pressurized hose connector. I can take the pump cover off by removing four bolts, which is about an inch thick and contains the connectors and the cover to the wobble plate. It would be the simplest part in the world to replace. I called Ryobi, who directed me to a service center, and the service center said "Hairline cracks are because of freezing, which is not covered by warranty."

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Things I

So I'm a middle-aged man now with two small kids and the only time I get to play video games is after the kids go to bed and before I collapse from exhaustion. I recently purchased DOS2:DE from the playstation sale and I've been trying to get into it, but the same thing keeps happening:

I'm asked to choose a character to play, or to assign a class to a character who's joining me or to choose what happens when I level up. Then I go down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what all the classes do or how to plan my party out or whether to focus on primary stats or abilities (i.e., should I take an ability that gives me bonus stats, or a damage bonus?). And then I get exhausted and go to bed