Mark Hayward Is My Hero

Emil Lamprecht, Me, and Paul Escolar in Sacramento CA

I’m on my first tour with Duncan and having a great time! The first day was Emil Lamprecht, Paul Escolar, Nate Sutter and me, but Nate had to leave on the morning of day two. It’s actually harder work than I expected. The main thing that is tough is the schedule. We’re up early every day for a dawn tv spot, then off to a couple of demos, and then a drive to a new city. I had thought that I would be able to get my own work done in the evenings, but we’re all just too tired, and we have to be up early the next morning anyway. Despite all that though, it is great to be a part of a tour after all these years, and I’m going to see if I can hook up with the tour again when it gets to the East Coast. Check out the schedule here.

Paul Escolar in front of the tour van looking poised & confident as usual.

Chatting with Dazzling Dave at the National Yo-yo Museum. Yes, we really are leaning on a giant yo-yo.

Once again the National Yo-yo Contest was a great time. I actually have way more fun hanging out than being involved in the competition, but that’s really no surprise. Can’t wait for next year.

Before last week I had never even touched a post-hole digger. I knew that putting a fence in my backyard would be tough, but I had no idea how tough it would be. I fully expected that the worst part would be digging the holes, and I expected it to be really, really hard. I started in with a traditional post-hole digger. Ug. I knew digging a 36” deep hole would be a huge amount of work, and it was WAY worse that I had imagined even in my worst-case scenario. I had originally thought I would be able to do more than one hole in a day easily, but I was completely spent after my first one. Only 26 left to dig.

While I was gearing up for a month of punishment, my wife went online, did a search for “post hole digger”, and found the Bull Digger. We couldn’t find much info on it that didn’t come from the manufacturer, so I was reluctant to take a $70 gamble; but the website, and especially the video, were pretty convincing. Besides, if it worked even half as well for me as it did in the video I would be WAY ahead of a traditional post-hole digger. I ordered my Bull Digger, and it arrived the next day (we both live in PA).

40 inches of earth-drilling glory.

I LOVE my Bull Digger. The first hole I dug took me only 25 minutes, compared to the 90 minutes with a traditional post-hole digger. You still have to work with the Bull Digger, but it is SO much easier.

The way it works is you twist the tines back and forth while the hose from your shop-vac sucks up all the dirt. It’s great that the vac does all the dirt lifting for you, and it has the nice side effect of making for clean working conditions. I don’t mind getting dirty mind you, but I’m not going to complain if I stay clean.

I think that the Bull Digger is like a traditional post-hole digger only in the end product. The experience of using the Bull Digger is so different that I like to think of it more like an earth drill. In fact, with the hum of the shop vac in the background, I feel like a jet-powered hole-making machine.

How often do you see someone this happy about doing yard work?

Here’s my method of using the Bull Digger:

I start with a traditional shovel to mark my spot, and cut through the roots in the first 3 inches of soil. Then I dive in with the Bull Digger. I have found that when I am drilling a hole I tend to undercut myself, so I move around the hole while I work to keep it straight, and I periodically check the straightness of the hole with the handle of my shovel. I have to empty my shop vac three times per 36 inch hole, and I have found that it is pretty easy to separate the topsoil by just emptying the vac right as I get to the end of the soil layer. I put a little piece of duct tape at the 36 inch mark on my Bull Digger so I knew when I had gone deep enough without having to measure each time.

One of the things that I really like about this tool is that it is the perfect example of the American Dream. When I called to place my order, the guy who answered the phone was Tom Menna, the guy who invented the Bull Digger. I love to support everyday people with great ideas. It’s a lot of work to get a good product made and to the market, and I’m very happy to help out with my wallet. I got to have a nice chat with Tom, and he told me that although he did have a batch of Bull Diggers made overseas, he is currently getting set up in Johnstown PA so that he can keep jobs in his own area.

I love the Bull Digger, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It makes a colossally difficult job into a manageable one. After using the Bull Digger, I will never touch a traditional post-hole digger again if I can help it.

It’s kind of crazy. Suddenly things like insulation and asphalt sealant are really exciting. Today I met with a home security sales rep, and tomorrow I should get my new post-hole digger in the mail.

Interestingly though, I still hate going to Home Depot.

Making art with robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j0_fi_tkL4

A few years ago I hauled my Atari 2600 out of the basement. Of course the games aren’t as involved as modern video games, but some of them are still really fun, and the nostalgia is great.

Like most original paddles, mine had so much jitter to them that they were unusable. Once again, the good ol’ internet saved me. I did a quick search and found this site with fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to clean and fix my paddles. It was surprisingly easy, and I could not have figured it out on my own. Thanks internet!

I just got a new hard drive and it didn’t come with a stand so that it could sit upright on my desk… fortunately I eat a lot of pizza.

Actually, I save these little pizza tripods for displaying my spin-top collection, and most of them I got, unused, from a friendly pizza shop.

The original video of my appearance on Late Night With David Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks segment was put up by someone else, and has been taken down. I actually have permission to use the footage, and I finally got it back up online.

Yup.  That’s right.  I made a new trophy for this year’s contest at MadFest:

Yup.  I think I finally have all the parts I need.  This photo actually has quite a few projects in it, including the machinery for the pumpkin laser vortex… but that’s another story.  And yes, that is a Barbie hair dryer.  This trophy will be for the 2009 Ultimate Battletop Championship: Wisconsin, and it’s gonna be awesome.  You can see it in person if you come to MadFest.