Occasionally my wife enjoys to write reviews of products she uses - this is one of those posts. Enjoy!

We all know dirt is heavy.  It is even heavier when it is damp.  It can be a real pain (in the back, knees, shoulders) to move plants from one spot to another, let alone inside or outside.  Aside from the obvious solution of moving to a more temperate climate, I needed something to help move our more tree-ish plants to follow the sun during the year.  I ordered the Panacea Plant Caddy and I no longer have to strain to pick up heavy planters or worry about scratching the floors.

The five casters making moving a breeze and it is not so high off the floor that the center of gravity changes – nothing feels unstable.  Although I bought this to help move plants, it is also helps keep water off the floor.  I am a notorious over water-er (and plain ceramic pots are not exactly water tight).  Not enough to drown the plant, but enough to drain out of the bottom of the pot.  The caddy comes with a hardwood and carpet saving plastic tray with divots to catch any excess water.

The caddy can hold pots up to 16 1/4 inches in diameter.  I find that anything much smaller than 12 inches looks out of place (there is also a 14 inch caddy available).

Our backyard looks out onto an alley.  It is not the worst view, but it is not the prettiest, either.  But the main problem is that people can see into our yard, which can be a tad uncomfortable when we are out there.  We do have a chain link fence on top of a four foot concrete retaining wall, so we bought the Willow Stick Fencing to give us a little more privacy and to add a bit of shade to our south facing backyard.

After trimming to match the height of our chain link (easily done with a circular saw) to avoid catching too much wind, we used easy to hide clear zip ties to secure the willow to our existing fence.  We have a couple short sloping sections we wanted to cover and using the circular saw again we were able to easily match the angles.  After just a couple hours’ work, we had a nice, secluded backyard.

The Willow Stick Fencing should not be used for anything other than a bit of privacy or to conceal the more unattractive parts of your yard.  If installed on its own, sturdy fence posts will need to be placed fairly close together.

Here in the Midwest, we’re not really out of the woods with cold, blustery air until the summer heat bears down on us.  Sure, the calendar says spring, but what it really means is “hey guys, watch your back - Canada can still send y’all some trouble by way of massive cold fronts.”  So if you’re an outdoorsy type, take heed: it can get cold, fast.  One way to plan for the headaches of a 50 degree day that really feels like it’s around 34° is to use a patio heater.

The Soleus Air Indoor/Outdoor Patio Heater is just that device.  It allows you to extend your outdoor enjoyment by getting you outside earlier in the spring and later in the fall.  And trust me, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of shaking cabin fever as early and often as possible.

The best feature of the Soleus Air Indoor/Outdoor Patio Heater is the lack of propane tank. We all know what’s happening in the commodity markets, and it’s not like propane is going to get any cheaper.  The Soleus Air Indoor/Outdoor Patio Heater plugs in to a standard electrical outlet and consumes minimal energy.  You may be wondering how an outdoor heater that runs on the same power requirements as your computer can get - and stay - so warm.  The secret is in the reflective heater technology, that allows the Soleus Air Indoor/Outdoor Patio Heater to warm up without being affected by the wind.

If you want to be outdoors at night in the spring and fall, you need this patio heater.

It’s spring, so odds are, it’s time to overseed your lawn. Or, if you’ve already overseeded your lawn, it’s time to put down some treatment for the spring to control weeds and feed your lawn.  In fact, now would be a good time to lay down some Crabgrass preventer.  You can drop by your local home improvement megawarehouse or hardware store and pick up some turf builder with weed/crabgrass prevention.

I won’t get in to the specifics of the importance of keeping your lawn in tip-top shape - that’s more or less a post for another time.  But what I will tell you is that for medium to large lawns, you can’t get any easier than using a push spreader.

And, if I may humbly recommend a spreader, I got a lot of mileage out of my Scotts AccuGreen 2000 Drop Push Spreader.  We have a medium-sized lawn with what the locals call a “south city hill” - our front yard is about 4 ft. above the sidewalk and there’s a rather harsh drop from lawn to sidewalk.  Fully knowing that mowing my front yard is kind of tough, I not only wanted the Scotts AccuGreen 20 Drop Push Spreader, I *needed* it in order to save my legs and back.

The hopper has a large capacity - you can hold roughly 75,000 sq. ft. of fertilizers and/or treatments.  And the large, easy-rolling 12 in. wheels provide enough clearance under the hopper to make sure you’re spreading the hopper contents far and wide.

For re-seeding, overseeding or treating, you can’t beat the Scotts AccuGreen 2000 Drop Push Spreader!

The secret to successful grilling is not to overcook your meat.  Unfortunately, I learned that lesson growing up when my mom - who really had the best intentions - horribly overcooked pork, chicken and steaks on the grill. Now, I’m a “red meat” guy, and I love my steaks and chops to be juicy and tender - you don’t get that when you leave the food on the grill too long.

My secret is the RediCheck Remote Cooking Thermometer with Taste Settings. First thing’s first - because it’s a remote thermometer, there’s no need to obsessively open the grill lid and let all of the heat escape while you check to see if your food is done. I won’t preach time savings (because there’s no way to actually quantify what 3 minutes over the lifetime of the batteries means for you, your food, or your personal life), but I will preach convenience - it has some presets that monitor the temperature of your food and alerts you to when your sweet meats are done cookin’.  As a bonus, if you’re in to smoking meats, there’s a 24 hour timer. This is HUGE here in the midwest, where we love to smoke pork.  And other meats.

Finally, for the ultimate in awkward dad-gear, the RediCheck Remote Cooking Thermometer has a belt clip so you can look, uh, “sylish” as you grill.

My grill laid dormant until this weekend, when the temperatures were finally warm enough to take off the cover and fire it up for the first time in 2009.  You can imagine my surprise when I realized that I had not exactly cleaned it as thoroughly as I thought when I put it out of commission for the winter.  Sure, I had a grill brush, but apparently didn’t put enough elbow grease in to the cleaning before I sent my propane baby into hibernation.

I did what any self-respecting grillmeister would do - surf the internet and try to find an easier way to clean. After all, you’ve got to work smarter, not harder!

Enter the ultimate grilling companion, the Grill Daddy Pro Grill Brush, which has a bevy of really awesome features to make cleaning tough, charred-on foods and grease a breeze. You can tell the Grill Daddy means business when you pick it up - it weighs in at a hefty 2 pounds and is solidly constructed with stainless-steel bristles.

Perhaps one of the best features of the brush is the long handle, which really helps protect your hands from the heat.  Oh, and the price - at under $25, it’s a no-brainer.  You need this.

Somehow we were lucky enough to buy a house with an abundance of outdoor water spigots.  It was not something I was looking for, but it turned out to be pretty important.  We have a very long, narrow lot so we have a front yard hose and a back yard hose.  It is so much nicer than dragging various mis-matched hoses all over the yard like I remember doing as a kid.  What is not so great is trying to put the hoses away; that is still no fun.

After a few months of trying to hide our sloppily looped hoses we finally bought two Suncast 100′ Capacity Garden Hose Reel Hideaway with Hose Guides.  I was surprised to find, when we were looking, that some hose caddies cost over $150, so the price on the Suncast is right.  It is easy to set up, just attach the included small hose to your spigot and screw your hose into the inside and you are set!  Unless you need to hide the box far from your spigot, in which case you can extend the connecting hose with additional lengths.  You may need to guide the hose as you recoil every once in a while – simply move the hose back and forth while winding.  We have not had any problems with leaks (and plastic connections can be iffy sometimes) and there is no hose laying on our yard for everyone to see.

When building our Mardi Gras float, we needed something capable of making clean, even cuts.  A friend had suggested that I bring a circular saw, but freeform cutting - even with a gate - wouldnt’ get the job done as fast as a good ‘ole compound miter saw.

Enter the Craftsman 9-21214 10″ LaserTrac Compound Miter Saw.

Not only was I able to make precision cuts, but I was able to make them quickly and easily.  The LaserTrac system is really awesome, showing even the most novice of handimen where exactly the big, bad blade is going to make the cut.

I was working with a team from rank amateurs to somewhat experienced handipeople, and everyone commented on how easy the Craftsman 10″ LaserTrac Compound Miter Saw was to use.  The best part? Nobody lost an appendage!

Features at a glance:

• The Craftsman 10″ LaserTrac Compound Miter Saw features a powerful 2.5 HP, 15 amp motor, so it’s scalable from quick DIY projects all the way up to heavier-duty work.  Oh, and did I mention that it’s a beefy 4,800 RPM?
• The 10″ diameter carbide tripped blade is really, really sharp and makes extremely clean cuts.
• The dust collecting bag (attached) does a great job keeping the cutting area clean.
• The work table rotates and locks at the desired miter angle (and it has presets for common miter angles of 0 deg, 15 deg, 22.5 deg, 31.6 deg and 45 deg - both right and left)

We arrived around 7:30 am on Saturday morning to see the decorations on the float were completely trashed with the wind.  We had to act fast - we were expected at the float staging area at 9:30 am.

When we left the float, it was in good condition for everyone on the decorating committee:

When we arrived, yikes:

Luckily, I had my staple gun with me and we were able to salvage some of the float’s decorations.  With float in tow, we made our way down to the staging area and participated in one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States.

When we arrived at the job site (outdoors, 20 degree St. Louis weather, 15 - 20 mph wind gusts, minimal electricity), we found our trailer.  I was initially informed that the trailer dimensions were 16′ x 8′, but was pleased to see that we were actually working with a 20′ x 8′ platform.  I had to slightly alter my building plans, but that wasn’t a big deal.

In order to meet parade (and OHSA) guidelines, we wanted to make our railing 48″ tall.  I had a friend use my tape measure to mark our 8-ft. 2×4’s at the 48-in. mark so I could start cutting once I figured out how to run electricity to my Craftsman compound miter saw (more on that in a future post).

Once we had the boards cut to spec, we wanted to place braces two feet apart in order to secure the railing.  We opted to use metal braces because we could set up our railing support system very quickly and easily without having to cut additional boards with the compound miter saw.  After all, in 20 degree weather with a brutal, sheering wind, time really was of the essence!

With our braces in place, we inserted our 48″ supports and fastened them to the float decking.  Once we had all 20 supports installed, we were able to start work on fastening the railing.  We took our 3″ drywall screws and drove them through the railing, making sure to countersink them as deep as possible to avoid injury (while still making it easy to pull them up when it came time to strike the float).  The end result looked like this:

That concluded day 1 of the float construction.  Day two to follow…