If you bite off too much, the reel mower will choke. A reel mower prefers cutting half the width of the blade or less. This picture shows the proper position. Follow a line from the middle of the mower to the right corner of the flowerbed. The left of that line is cut grass. The right is uncut grass. As you mow back and forth, the middle of your mower should follow the cut line.

I enjoy building sawbenches. Simple construction and few design constraints make a fast, creative project. Here are some of my iterations.

There is a gym near my house that teaches CrossFit. I first noticed it one summer. In 100° weather, folks were outside doing pull-ups. Scant equipment was visible through the huge overhead doors. I thought it was some kind of low-cost gym.

A membership is over $100 a month, which is not low-cost to me. They have no air conditioning, minimal heat, and minimal equipment. No treadmills or elliptical trainers – just run on the street! It seems pretty intense. The gym is popular and my friends who go there love it. They are as fanatical as galoots.

I used to think hand tool woodworking was eccentric. No more!

Page 3 of Richard Foster’s book Life with God says,

The average “Bible consumer,” publishing research tells us, owns nine Bibles and is looking for more. This is mute but powerful testimony to a deep and abiding sense of lack – a sense that we have not really achieved a grasp of the Bible that is adequate to our needs.

I know this longing.

“Hand tools are too slow.”

I used to believe that.

The pointed tension rod of my Jet 14" bandsaw drilled a hole in the cast iron.

I built this saw till to store my hand saws: