Update video on the harbor freight chipper shredder after sitting in the shed for 2 years while I was battling cancer .... lets just say it didn't start on the first pull. This was to no fault of the chipper shredder but someone forgot to RTFM (read the freaking manual). In this video, I wanted to answer some questions from viewers and also give a shout out to a viewer for a comment they made that gave me the idea for how I could save a LOT of time shredding boxes. Cardboard boxes are one of the main ingredients of my compost pile ... and since I order a LOT of stuff from amazon, there is never a shortage of cardboard boxes that need shredded. There has been a shortage of time to shred boxes post-cancer treatment because it just takes me way longer to do the things I used to do. I mentioned I used a heavy duty paper shredder for years to shred boxes in this video, and that paper shredder has shredded hundreds, potentially thousands of boxes. Its still going strong and still works .... I was just looking for a faster way to get the job done and get caught up. It is the royal 1840mx and i can recommend it if you want to shred boxes but don't have a high volume like I do: https://amzn.to/39V7XEH The process to shred boxes with the paper shredder went like this: 1) as boxes came in, I would break them down. 2) remove any tape, staples, or plastic 3) cut them into pieces that would fit the paper shredder slot 4) one day when it was raining, I would spend hours slowly feeding the cut up boxes into the paper shredder. It might take 30 - 45 seconds per piece, depending on how long it was. 5) sometimes the paper shredder would overheat and I would have to wait hours for it to cool down in order to continue. As you can see, this is a long drawn out process above. Using the chipper shredder, I still have to break down the boxes, I still have to remove the tape, staples, or plastic. I still have to cut them into pieces that will fit in the chipper shredder .... except, I don't have to wait on the cardboard pieces to slowly feed through .... it eats them like they are butter in seconds. The chipper shredder also will not bog down or over heat. This means, it is much faster at doing the task and the cardboard once shredded is of a size that will easily break down in the compost pile. Time is money and when I can save time, especially now where it takes me longer to do the same tasks as pre-cancer .... that is time I can reclaim and use to get caught up somewhere else I am behind. The original video review of this chipper shredder is here: It received the first (of only a handful) "best money I ever spent" awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6mFpnG5IA ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YG6LRYm6Us

A Sunrise as viewed from corrosion cove at red river gorge on June 13, 2015 while hiking and camping on the ridge. I will have another video of Grays Arch Parking area following rush ridge trail to corrosion cove .... an easy 1.5 mile hike. Produced with CyberLink PowerDirector 13 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRtMKEzGaBs

On my homestead, for the last 5 years I have used man power to cut the grass in my bee apiary because bees do not like the sound of lawn mowers and weed eaters. It got me thinking, why aren't all these people screaming about saving the planet and switching to solar (which uses lithium batteries) ... but why aren't they using more human powered ways to accomplish things. Going green with lawncare should be super easy right, I mean, a few months a year you could be saving the planet by doing your part. But nobody does it ... except me. I think its awesome. Everybody should do it. And with the cost of gasoline, its way more economical. Its way cheaper on gas than my jeep :) ... end sarcasm ... I would probably die laughing to watch the "go green crowd" doing manual labor. You can get this tool from amazon, I use it all around my homestead in walkways that are too tight to get the riding mower or around the orchard or around the apiary: https://amzn.to/3sQHQ8i NOTE: the above link is made by ames, ames is a US company that has been around since 1774. They used to contract to make a lot of things for the US military. At one time, they made trenching shovels used in korean war and other conflicts. Those are some of the highest quality shovels you can buy and the ones most sought after. Ames makes quality products, spend a little extra and get one made by ames here in the United States and not one of the chinese knock offs. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysdXlOz65jw

Most peoples first impression with cast iron is on a brand new or unmaintained piece and they immediately get turned off on ever using it again. Their experience is stuck food, ruined meals, and wasted money. I know this because they tell me their horror stories on social media whenever I post short videos of me frying eggs, pancakes, hamburger, sausage, or other meals baked or fried in cast iron. However, I think their impression would be different if they used any of my cast iron. I've been using cast iron occasionally for about 30 years but around 2015 I decided to go 100% cooking on cast iron. I got rid of anything that was plastic or Teflon or aluminum (except for 2 pans I use for beekeeping that you may see in some of my other videos if I have been recently "waxing frames" or "making sugar syrup"). Since that time I have purchased over 100 pieces of cast iron, its literally the only thing I cook with on my stove top or oven and sometimes even fire pit. And then around 2018, Netflix had a special documentary called ""the devil we know" and in 2019 a movie came out called "dark waters" that both confirmed my switching to cast iron was the right thing to do. If you haven't seen those 2 movies about Teflon poisoning, you should. A funny story (to me) about my love of cast iron, is that in 2020 while going through cancer chemo and radiation treatments, that one time during that period and under massive amounts of pain medications, I hopped on amazons web site, searched for "cast iron" and literally bought every single piece that I did not already own (and sadly, some I bought more than 1 of lol). So anyways, I realized when I recently purchased some new cast iron that I had never done my way of seasoning cast iron that works every single time no matter what type of oil you use. I think my way of seasoning cast iron is pretty unique and I came up with it because all the ways on the internet either didn't work at all, or didn't work consistently due to variables like "I am using brand A of virgin olive oil and not brand B". I wanted something I could do without having to remember multiple temperatures, multiple lengths of time to bake the seasoning into the cast iron ... something that was so simple even a caveman could do it. This is what i came up with about 5 years ago (it was around 2017 I started experimenting and trying to find a better way of seasoning cast iron). By the way, if you find a brand of oil or type of oil this method doesn't work with, please let me know in the comments the brand, type of oil, and also it would help to know the brand, size, and type of cast iron because different manufacturers use different materials and thicknesses. cast iron used: https://amzn.to/3ll1t3Y ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdwEhhnXpEU