Sometimes you might find a need to label your garbage cart, e.g. if you own a multi-family rental property and your tenants can’t remember which cart belongs to them. They may try to use their creative skills to label their carts themselves but the carts might come out like below which is illegible and makes the cart itself look like garbage.
You can try using a stencil and spray painting or hand painting the numbers on the cart but stencils are expensive and the results are usually not good either. Notice the blotchy edges below.
Use Google Docs to create a document with large address numbers on it. Print it on the vinyl decal sheets, ideally using a laser printer. Then, to reduce the possibility of the ink evaporating from the sun and increase waterproofness, spray a few coats of clear, glossy paint. Don’t spray thick coats at once since otherwise the clear paint will cause the ink to run. Just do multiple thin coats.
You can the just peel and stick the number on your garbage carts. In the picture below, my ink toner was low so the print results weren’t good. That went away after replacing the toner.
1 container (150 grams) Dannon Oikos Triple Zero Vanilla Greek Yogurt (15 g protein, 0 g added sugar, 100 calories) – Target
A little bit of Kefir (Lifeway Kefir cultured lowfat milk 1% milkfat plain unsweetened) (1 cup / 240 ml / 110 calories, 0 g added sugar, 11 g protein) – Smart n Final
Handful of mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
½ cup granola (Kirkland Signature Organic Ancient Grain Granola) – Costco
Drill a hole in one end of the 2×4 using a spade bit.
Insert the bolt into 2×4 and through the top hole on the farm jack and secure using a nut
Drill a hole near the bottom of the fence post using a 7/8″ spade bit and insert the threaded rod through the hole
How to Use
Tilt the farm jack and the 2×4 such that the post is in the middle. This is necessary as the post will try to pull the farm jack towards it. The 2×4 acts to prop the farm jack in place.
Put a piece of plywood under the farm jack to make a solid base so the farm jack doesn’t get pushed into the dirt
Insert one end of the chain through the hole near the bottom of the farm jack
Loop the other end of the chain around the fence post and around the threaded rod. Weaving the chain around the rod helps lock the chain in one place along the vertical length of the post.
Tie a knot using both ends of the chain
Crank the jack up until it lifts the fence post and concrete footing above the ground
Crank the lever up and down to raise the chain until the post come up out of the ground
Don’t secure the chain to the farm jack using a carabiner or other tool because those tools will just break.
Removing a wood fence post
Removing a steel fence post
Update 2024
You don’t need the 2×4. Instead, place a 4×4 piece of wood between the farm jack and the post you want to remove. Doing so will keep the jack straight and parallel to the post and prevent it from hitting the post. When placing the 4×4 wood, you may need to place it at an angle such that the end against the jack is lower than the end against the post. That way, when you crack the jack up, the wood will rotate and be pushed against the post.
Also, if the ground is soft like dirt or grass, screw the base of the jack into a 12″ x 12″ piece of wood that is 2″ or 3″ thick to prevent the jack from being pushed into the ground.
Fry ground beef, onions, jalapeno pepper and garlic until slightly brown
Pour in diced tomatoes and sprinkle in smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste (optionally, add tomato paste) and cook for 5 minutes. Optionally add cheese.
Put 5 slices of sour dough bread in toaster and toast until slightly hard
Add eggs being careful not to break the yolk
Cover and poach on medium heat until egg white changes from translucent to white. Turn off heat so that egg yolk is still runny.
Garnish with cilantro
Eat by scooping up Shakshouka with spoon and chase it with a bite of the bread
So, I recently tried pre-marinated, ready-to-cook beef tri-tip steak from Costco ($6.49 / lb). To my pleasant surprise, not only was it easy to cook, it tasted really good.
I’ve also had Costco’s boneless ribeye steak ($16.99 / lb) which isn’t pre-marinated and though the results can taste good as well, it doesn’t taste $10 / lb better!
Here’s a pic of the tri-tip easily cooked to perfection.
and here’s a pic of boneless ribeye (or maybe this was of NY steak). Either way, the pre-marinated tri-tip at Costco is just as good, if not better, and a much better value.
Global warming seems to be making California hotter and hotter every year and I’m in Silicon Valley where temperatures are usually moderate. Last year there was a hot streak which pushed me to the brink of buying an A/C unit but the simple, portable ones were sold out or overpriced. It’s a good thing I didn’t get one because it turns out the window units are way more efficient. So, I ended up getting this Danby 8000 BTU Window Air Conditioner (Model DAC080EB7WDB) from Costco (sale price: $159). It’s Energy Star® compliant and cools areas up to 350 sq. ft. The problem is I’m worried it’ll fall out my 2nd story window. After searching everywhere for a non-permanent A/C window support mounting bracket, I ended up going with this 2 arm, drill-less, heavy duty bracket by Alpine Hardware. The thing is, after assembling and installing it, I felt that it wasn’t as strong as I’d like it to be. It’s supposed to grab on to the window frame or wall by the left and right adjustable arms but when fully extended, the metal would bend a bit.
So, I just bought some heavy duty L brackets and screwed them into the studs and window sill and screwed in a 2×3 piece of wood for increased strength.
I then removed the left and right adjustable arms and installed the A/C mount like this.
Here’s how it looks from the outside.
Now this is super strong. Although I have permanent screwed-in L brackets and a 2×3 piece of wood (which I’ll paint to match the color of the window sill), I’m okay with that and I can still completely close the window.
If you’re trying to lose weight and/or want to eat something simple and yummy that will keep you from feeling hungry for a long time, then the recipe below is one of my favorites.
Ingredients
Banana Nut Crunch Cereal (2 cups) – available at Target
Kirkland Ancient Grains Granola (1 cup) – available at Costco
Blueberries (1/2 cup)
Chopped walnuts (1/4 cup) (if you want more walnuts than what’s included in Banana Nut Crunch)
Unsweetened Almond Milk (2 cups)
Instructions
Combine everything, wait 5 minutes for ingredients to soften from the milk, eat.
There are many stir fry vegetables recipes online but they seem more complicated than they need to be (unless I’m just not picky enough about how stir fry vegetables is supposed to taste). The main thing the be concerned with is sodium / salt. You typically add soy sauce to the vegetables but unless you get low sodium soy sauce, the sauce will be already salty so you don’t need to add salt to the vegetables.
For the ingredients, all you need is a stir fry vegetable blend (I get mine from Costco) and soy sauce.
I sometimes add chicken to if I want to add protein.
To make the dish look colorful, I like to add one red bell pepper chopped into bite-size pieces.
You don’t need to defrost the vegetables. Just get a wok, put in some olive oil, wait a bit for the wok to heat up, throw on some frozen veggies, and toss periodically.
Once the veggies are soft, pour on some soy sauce and toss periodically again. the picture below shows it with chicken. If you want a darker look, add dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is less salty than regular soy sauce. After a while, give it a taste to see if it needs more soy sauce or not. If not, you’re done.
The soy sauce is only 15 calories / tbsp.
UPDATE: I tried some other recipes that call for a mix of various sauces and I think it did taste better BUT it come with a lot more calories to the all the sugar in Hoisin sauce. If you don’t care about calories, then try this recipe for the sauce instead:
1 tbsp Hoisin sauce (90 calories)
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp black vinegar splash of toasted sesame oil
If you do care about calories, omit the Hoisin sauce.
Beef Instead of Chicken
If you prefer beef, you can add precooked, pre-sliced beef sirloin (available at Costco).
Or, to get more for your money, you can buy pre-marinated tri-top (available at Costco).
I tried this out and it came out great. Just preheat an over to 375 (convection bake), stick in a thermometer and set the target temperature to 135. When it’s done, your oven will (should) beep. Take it out and leave for 10 minutes.
Then just add to your veggies.
Fire-Roasted Vegetables
Costco also sells frozen fire-roasted vegetables as well.
This was good but the vegetables were smaller and I didn’t care for some of the vegetables. Nevertheless, it was still very good. In the pic below, I added yellow bell pepper.
KETO UPDATE
If you are on the Keto diet and want to limit carb intake, then here’s a modification of the recipe above.
For the vegetables, use Kirkland Normandy vegetables.
Since this vegetable medley isn’t carb free, you can mix it with Shirataki / Konjac rice (0 net carbs) or riced cauliflower (low carbs) to add bulk to your meal.
For the soy sauce, all you need is Lee Kum Kee Supreme Soy Sauce. It’s got 0 carbs.
For protein, I prefer pre-grilled chicken breast from Costco.
Below is a picture with riced cauliflower.
To simplify cooking, mix the frozen vegetables and refrigerated chicken breast in a covered microwaveable bowl (leaving a small opening in the cover) and heat for 4 minutes. Then transfer to a pan and cook with olive oil. When almost done, add the soy sauce.
It’s pretty clear now that mesh networks produce stronger wifi signals throughout larger spaces when compared to regular wifi routers even with range extenders. But, many mesh networks only instruct users to connect each router over wifi. While this may be fine in some situations, e.g. where you can’t run ethernet between a main router and a satellite, having a wired backhaul produces a much better wifi signal coming out of the downstream satellite router. Here are instructions to set this up using the TP-LINK Deco AX1800 X20 (W3600 if you bought it from Walmart).
Steps
Restart the modem
Follow the instructions to set up the main router
Follow instructions to set up the satellite router over wifi (default)
When the light on the satellite turns green, then you know the satellite router is connected to the main router. At this point, since you haven’t connected an ethernet cable between the two routers, the connection is over wifi. You can verify this by opening the Deco app and clicking the satellite router. You should see the “Signal Source” value the wifi symbol followed by 2.4GHz/5GHz.
If you have a laptop or smartphone that is connected to the satellite router, you can run a speed test. In this example, I have a laptop that is connected over wifi to the satellite router. After running a speed test, connect an ethernet cable between the two routers. The light on the satellite router will turn red temporarily and then turn green when connected. Similarly, the satellite router’s status in the app will appear disconnected. Click the refresh button and you should see the “Signal Source” value change to “Ethernet” and shown in the screenshot below. This confirms that you are using a wired backhaul.
Now, run a wifi speed test from the satellite router. In my case, my laptop was still connected to the satellite router. The wifi speed test results were clearly much faster when the satellite was connected over ethernet rather than wifi. This setup is very useful when you need a strong wifi signal very far away from your main router and you can run an long ethernet cable between routers.
Note: I got this 2 router TP-Link AX1800 mesh wifi system from Walmart for $129. At Walmart, the model number is W3600 whereas on Amazon it’s X20.
