That Time We Talked About Unique Tools

This is episode number 89 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and across the internet, it's Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for this episode. We're ecstatic, excited, and supercalifragilisticexpialidociously happy that you could be here with us.

Yeah, yeah, yes we are. Yep, those things.

Let me tell you guys something. We had an incident last week. Yeah, a little bit of an incident.

Okay.

And let me tell you guys something. Do not ever try and make it your ambition to convince Kevin that the world is round.

I'll tell you one thing. I'm nothing if not persistent if I think I'm right.

Kevin definitely believes in mob rule.

Hey, all I know is that, uh, I think my friends are better than your friends.

Your, your friends definitely carry pitchforks and torches way better than mine. That is for certain.

I, I actually think there's another explanation. I think that you were wrong.

No.

Oh, well, yeah, that's the, that's the most logical explanation more than anything else.

Not according to definitions.

Well, it depends on which definition you look at.

No, not really.

To be fair.

I mean, like, maybe if you want to go back to like the like 1870s Merriam-Webster, then sure, like appliances are teeth. But other than that, you're, you're skating on thin ice.

So, so if you didn't listen to last week's episode, uh, we We did our top 3 appliances in the kitchen, and you could only pick 3. And Craig's number 1 was a kitchen sink and a combo faucet. He threw the faucet in there.

I said sink and faucet.

Yeah, sink and faucet, which I'm fine with, except the fact that if you go look at the internet, at least the Facebook and whatever else we put that out on, it's clear that most people in the world believe that a kitchen sink is not an appliance. However—

I just want everyone to recognize the fact that Kevin just went looking for truth on the internet and validation. Just saying.

Well, that's pretty much the only place I can get it.

These days, that's true.

So anyway, We put the question out there and overwhelming majority of people agree that a kitchen sink is not an appliance. I mean, there was a couple of people who Craig convinced was a kitchen sink. I think he owes them a steak dinner, but—

But let me actually put a little asterisk in there. None of the people that agreed with me, I knew.

Okay, that's fair.

Uh, let me actually— let me back that up. I think there was 2 that agreed with me that I knew. Let me clarify.

Adrian agreed with you.

Most of the people that agreed with me, I didn't know. I have never met before.

And by— we're friends now. You mean by most, you mean both of them?

There's definitely more than 2.

So, so anyway, um, it was, it was also, it was also the people that agreed with me that were willing to make arguments.

The people that agreed with you just said no, which is much easier to say no than it is to say yes against someone who's already making an argument.

Well, that, that, that's somewhat true. There were plenty of arguing going on.

There was a lot of arguing.

Yes. Either way, I think we can still remain friends somehow through this.

Um, to your face, yes. In the dark corners, I'm plotting.

That's fine. I'm good with that. Other than having your ego stripped on Facebook, how you doing, man?

Oh, you assume I have an ego. That's very generous of you.

Oh well, do what I can.

Honestly, the part that was the funniest to me is the people that were getting frustrated with me thought that I actually cared.

Oh yeah, I— well, they don't know you very well.

It was at that point, it was just fun.

Yeah, absolutely. My absolute favorite one was— so, so if, if you go back and listen, uh, to the episode but then look at the internet post, the Facebook post specifically, um, Craig uses Wikipedia as his source for a kitchen sink being an appliance. My favorite—

Now, to be fair, back up. I didn't use it as a source. I used it as an example. And what I was pointing out is that no one had any hard evidence to the contrary. You can say Wikipedia is false all you want or a bad source. That's fine. But unless you have a more credible source that has better information, Cool, I'm willing to look at it. No, all anybody could say was Wikipedia is a terrible source. Great, what's your source? Nobody had anything.

Well, the funniest part was that— But this is fun.

This is hilarious.

One of my friends went and changed the Wikipedia source, the website that said, and changed it to include the sentence, a kitchen sink is not an appliance.

Not an appliance, yeah.

And, and, uh, the, the crazy thing, it was within 10 minutes it had struck down and changed back, which was hilarious. So yeah, the whole, the fact that he's, that he went in and did that anyway, the whole, the whole scenario was fun.

Well, the funniest part was like, he was, he was transparent about both of them. Like he, he posted the picture showing where he changed it and then he was like, look, they've changed it back. So yeah, I don't know who changed it back, but somebody apparently is very adamant about that being included in the list on Wikipedia.

Yeah, I didn't know you could access the internet that quickly, Greg.

Well, with my chicken pecking typing.

Oh man, that's good. Well, we're going to continue today with a kind of a top 3 as well with our episode.

And we learned our lesson from last time and defined nothing.

Yes, absolutely. Um, the, the only difference is that we made sure that we didn't include the same ones this time, which I think we were more— um, it was a bigger issue last week to possibly include the same one. But this week what we're gonna do is we're going to go into our garage, our, our virtual garage here, and we are going to pull out Our top 3 most unique tools that we have in our garage, right?

Yep.

So I'll just go ahead and start. One of the things that, uh, that I did this weekend is, uh, is I put mulch in all of the, the garden beds around my house. Now I, I should tell you, first of all, that when we bought this house, the first thing I said was We, we will own way too many flower beds if we purchase this house. And, and that is evidenced in the fact that it took me 5 yards of mulch to fill the beds in our house, around our house.

Come on, Kev, it only takes 10 yards to get a first down.

Oh, well, I was halfway there.

And those games only last like 2 hours.

Well, this took a lot longer than that. In the back of my half-ton truck, it took me 3 loads of mulch to get it full. Now, I know there are plenty of people out there that are interested in just buying the bag mulch.

Mm-hmm.

Because it's easy, they see it at Home Depot, they pick it up, whatever. And I guess there's value to that, but you're spending a lot of money for some plastic surrounding mulch.

Yes.

I mean, so 5 yards of mulch, I can tell you that it would probably equate to at least 2 pallets of— 2 full pallets of bagged mulch, at least. And I only spent $100 for all of it. So—

I actually don't know what bagged mulch is going for these days, but—

I mean, it's like $3 a bag.

Okay.

And so, I mean, whenever you look at it, a pallet's gonna cost you over $100 probably.

Sure.

So, you know, it's a good point.

If you assume 50, 60 bags on a pallet, yeah.

Right, it's a different amount of work because instead of just picking up a bag and putting it in the bed, cutting it open, dumping it out, and then spreading it, you're having to put the mulch into a wheelbarrow, or for me, we have a Gorilla Cart.

Mm-hmm.

Put it in the Gorilla Cart, carry it around, and then dump it basically. It's a different amount of work. I don't know that it's less or more. Especially if you have this tool in your garage. So this tool is actually owned by my mother-in-law, but we both use it. It is a pitchfork, but it is shaped like a regular garden hoe would be shaped. So the tines actually fork down. downward. And, and the tines— so there's 4 tines on it and they're probably 8 inches long. And so one of the things about mulch is, uh, it's, it's not very easy to shovel.

Yeah.

And so getting it out of your truck bed, if you buy it at the, you know, at the construction place and they just dump it in by the bucketload, is getting it out of your truck is not the easiest thing in the world. And, you know, most people use a garden rake or something like that, and, and even still, it's, it's difficult. It could not be easier to rake out mulch into whatever container you're putting it in— for us, the Gorilla Cart— than using this specific pitchfork. It was amazing. Um, I, I, we, we did the entire thing In probably, I don't know, 4 hours, I would say.

Not bad.

No. Now, I had, I had my mother-in-law and my 5-year-old working with me. And, uh, believe it or not, my 5-year-old was an amazing help. He, he helped, I mean, all day. He was, he was working with us. I was, I was shocked at how much work he did. Uh, my daughter, on the other hand, uh, she was, she was out after about 5 minutes. 5 minutes, she was like, I'm gonna go play inside. So, but I'll tell you, man, without that— because I've done it without that tool before, and it's just not fun getting it out of there.

Does it have a specific name?

I don't know.

Okay.

Um, it's a fork of some sort. I need to look. I'll, I'll look as you're talking about your, uh, number 3. I will look and see if I can figure out what it's called.

Okay. So does that mean it's my turn now?

It's your turn now.

Okay, cool. My, my number 3, uh, was actually a, uh, a gift to me at my cousin's wedding. Uh, I was, I think I was like an usher or something in that wedding. Anyway, one of the, he gave tools to all of his, uh, groomsmen and ushers, which was really cool.

Um, okay.

And this is a pair of reversible pliers. Um, oh, and I've, I've yet to see another pair like it. I probably would have bought another one except I've just never been able to find one. So I've had this one, gosh, I think, I think I've had this pair almost 15 years. Um, but it It, it basically, it's a, I mean, it looks like a regular pair of pliers if you're just looking at it. Uh, it's got a stub nose set of pliers. And then if you reverse it, it turns into a pair of needle nose pliers.

Really? So it's a 2-in-1.

2-in-1. Um, I can't tell you the number of times that thing has been so helpful, um, on just all kinds of different jobs. I mean, like I'm, you know, and, and like on the, on the needle nose side, it also has a pair of like wire cutters back at the, back end. A lot of needle nose pliers have that though. That's nothing unique to that.

Right.

But I mean, as far as like, you know, going to have to go do like a job and like I've got my, my tool belt on, you know, not having to have an extra set of pliers in there. I've got, you know, the 2-in-1 right there that just— I mean, it almost— it's almost like a switchblade knife that you can flip it back and forth really, really quickly.

Interesting.

And it's— they're still in great shape, man. It's, it's been a great— I mean, it's a little, you know, it's got a little oxidation on it. I clean it off every once in a while, you know, put a little oil in there, make sure it's still loosey-goosey. Um, but man, just, just, I wish I actually, I, I actually brought some of my other props. I didn't bring that pair in here with me. I kind of wish I had so I can put it up on the video. Um, if I can, I'll post a picture of it later on this, uh, this week up on Instagram. Um, just so people can see what, what I'm talking about. Um, but just super

cool pair of pliers. I mean, one of my, one of my favorite tools.

Yeah.

I mean, not aside from just being unique, it's just a really, really useful Yeah, I've got something similar to that, only very different.

Um, it's a— you put it on, it's a drill bit.

If a sentence could be a person, that sentence was you.

Thank you, I'll take that. Um, it's a drill bit, but it, it's reversible. Like, it'll, it'll flip between, uh, 2 things that you can put in it. And so you can put a drill bit in one side And like a Phillips head on the other side.

Okay.

You can drill something, flip it around, and then screw something in, for example, and you never have to switch out the drill bit or the bit.

That's cool.

So yeah, it's just kind of a 2-in-1, which is kind of what you're talking about. It's 2 tools in one, which is— and anytime you can do that successfully, yeah, that's a, that's an important tool.

Yeah, because I think, I think you do see stuff like that done all the time. It's just usually cheap crap that doesn't work.

Yeah, it doesn't work. It's a novelty and it's gonna break. It just doesn't, you know, the, the multi-tool like the, the Leathermans, those are probably a good, a good example because you can get off-brand Leathermans and they're horrible, right?

Yeah, um, that's probably a good way to start an internet fight. Who makes the best multi-tool?

Uh, yeah, you're probably right about that.

You know, there's some Gerber fans out there.

Oh yeah, and, and, and honestly, I mean, there's, there's others that are good. Leatherman just is the, the brand that people know, right? So, all right, you ready for number 2?

I'm ready for your number 2.

Yeah, so, um, well, here it comes.

Um, Squeeze it out, Kev.

So I will, I will. Uh, so my, my— when I, when I got married, my in-laws felt it would be hilarious to get me, you know, some of the most unique things that they could find. One of them is, since I'm a Texas Tech fan, trying to find all things Texas Tech. Um, and which was fun because I got like ridiculous things with Texas Tech logos on them. Uh, but the other thing is I'm left-handed, as are you. And so, um, so I'm left-handed, and one of the things that people that are left-handed know is that we do not live in a left-handed world. No, we absolutely live in a right-handed world in ways that most people can't even fathom.

Um, I didn't even know that you could bat left-handed until I was like 13 years old.

Yeah, I mean, I play golf right-handed. I mean, there's a lot of things that, like, even spiral notebooks— do you remember they came out with like the left-handed spiral notebooks?

Yeah.

And like the spirals on the other side. So which you would think maybe you could just turn a spiral notebook upside down and it's essentially the same thing. But, you know, most left-handed people just know that whenever you write in a spiral notebook, you're gonna get spiral indentions on your hand, right? It's just the way it goes. Um, I didn't know that people could actually rest their arm on a desk to write.

Right.

I didn't know that was a thing. I just thought that was just in the way.

Yeah, we had adolescent tendonitis of the elbow from—

Yeah, but until one day I was in high school and I walked into a room and there was one left-handed desk in there, and I'm like, huh, I never knew that was a thing. Um, So anyway, we live in a very left-handed world. So, uh, sorry, right-handed world, and left-handed people just adapt.

That's right.

Um, we learn to use scissors just like everybody else does. We just, we pull on them instead of push on them, so to speak. So my mother-in-law found me one of the coolest things. I use it all the time, and it is a left-handed tape measure. So, so I, I know this is crazy, but I mean, you think about if most people, you grab, you grab the, uh, the end of the tape measure. I've got it here for a prop. You grab the end of your tape measure, uh, with your left hand and you pull with your right hand, right?

Right.

When you do that, you see the numbers, uh, as if, as if it's facing you. Right? They're right side up. But for a left-handed person, we would do that backwards. We would turn it over and we would hold with our right hand and we would pull with our left hand, making the numbers upside down. So she gave me this. It's very generic. I mean, there's nothing cool about it other than it's just silver.

Right.

It's no brand or anything. But when I pull it, The numbers are— I know it's hard to see on this because I'm using a virtual background. The numbers are actually facing me whenever I pull it with my left hand. So I know that doesn't seem like a very big deal, but a lot of times whenever you're trying to do a job and all I, you know, I have to read numbers upside down, it's really a lot easier if I can read them right side up, you know?

Yeah.

In fact, most, most people, um, adapt to that anyway and, and figure it out. But, um, anyway, one of the— it's unique. We're going for unique tools here. Unique. This is a unique— this is a unique tool that most people do not have in their toolbox, is a left-handed tape measure.

Yep. I, I don't have one. I honestly, I don't even know if— it would probably freak me out to try and use it. I've been using right-handed tape measures for so long.

Yeah, it's like whenever I pick it up and use it, which I try to use it most, more than my other ones, and it's a good tape measure. I mean, it's, it's good heavy duty. But when I pick my other ones up, sometimes I'm like, oh, I forgot that it's backwards. And a lot of times for me, because I do a lot of woodworking, and so whenever I'm doing woodworking, it makes a difference on, on which direction I pull it. based on how I'm gonna mark things, right? Um, and, and so you, you know, you're cutting from one side of the board and measuring from the other side of the board. And so anyway, all that to be said, the left-handed tape

measure comes in really handy for me.

Yeah, that's cool. All right, so my number 2 is this fangly dangly orange looking thingy that you can't see if you're listening, um, but it's essentially a pair of pliers With a hook on the side. If you can watch, if you're seeing the video, you can see that. And then I'll do this number. It's like a little flathead, wide flathead, spring-loaded pair of pliers. Um, and as far as unique goes, it doesn't get much more unique than this because it is made— this is a— I mean, like, unless you're in my industry, you probably would never ever see these. Um, these, it's a— I mean, they're We, we just call 'em the, the Centricon pliers is what we call 'em. Uh, because they

are for taking the lid off of Centricon stations and then pulling bait up outta the ground to check for termites. Um, this tool saves me so much time. It is crazy. Um, because if, if you're like me and you do Centricon on houses all the time, uh, they actually send you a tool for inspecting these things. And all it is is a flat piece of plastic with a hook on the other end. And you're supposed to like slide that piece of plastic into the groove in order to turn the lid and pop it off.

Does it work well?

No, it sucks.

Yeah, of course it does.

And they, they, there's a reason they send you like 5 in a box. Um, 'cause they just, they don't work and they just break. Right. Um, sure. But with these things, I can actually just reach down and grab the lid, twist it off, check the bait, move on with my business. Super, super cool tool. Um, really expensive though. Um, and like, and it has like US patent written all over it. I mean, these guys really covered their tracks. Um, and are perfect.

They wanted you to know.

Yeah. Um, they, they, there are some other versions that they've come out with that we've tried to save a little bit of money with. And the, the cheap ones are cheap for a reason. They break too. Um, and like, I've, I think again, like this is a pair I think I've had well over a decade. Um, that, wow. I, I use it at least, you know, 2 or 3 times a week. Um, wow. So it's, it's, it's a, you, it's a unique tool in that most people, if you saw a picture of it, you would have no idea what it was for. people in my industry.

I didn't know.

Yeah, so it's, it's, it's a neat tool. But I mean, like, I mean, just for, just for reference, I mean, like, I don't think anybody would be willing to pay $80 for a pair of pliers.

No. Well, it's not a type of pair of pliers that you would ever really use unless you were in that specific need. I mean, which is what makes it unique. I mean, if you're looking— if you're not, if you're not watching this and It almost— they almost look like a hammerhead shark.

Yeah, right. You know, like, because I mean, it's got— let me put it back up here. I mean, you can kind of see that's—

yeah, and it opens like that. Yeah, and so it kind of, kind of looks like a hammerhead shark on some level. But, uh, I, I would— most people would have no need for that type of, of tool, right? So, so, okay, so it's unique. Very unique.

So, uh, you know what else is unique, Kev?

Tell me.

Finding a good plumber.

Oh man, plumbers are the worst sometimes.

They can be when they're bad.

Yeah, yeah, and they're out there, trust me, they're out there.

But we happen to be sponsored by a great plumber.

A master plumber.

Correct.

Matter of fact, Paul the Plumber.

That's right.

Paul. So any of your plumbing needs—

leaky faucet, who you gonna call, Kev?

I, I'm gonna call Paul the Plumber every single time.

Toilet breaks down.

I'm gonna call Paul the Plumber.

Shower.

Um, Paul the Plumber.

If you want to know if a sink's an appliance.

Honestly, he might be on my side because he's gonna say it's a fixture, which is fine.

He might, he might. Either way, no matter what he says, he's still a good plumber. So give him a call. You can reach out to him at 832-521-3252 and book him on Facebook, book him on the website, super easy. And virtual inspections.

That blows my mind, the idea of being able to do virtual inspections. One of the things that takes more time than anything is getting people to come out and give you quotes on stuff.

Right.

It's awful. I mean, you're bringing people into your home, especially right now.

And it's frustrating because your stuff doesn't get fixed.

Right.

Yeah.

They gotta go get some parts. Right. So they bring the right parts on the truck because they've already seen what your issue is. And man, these days with pictures and and cameras that we've got, it's, it's a no-brainer to be able to do that kind of thing. And they, they do. So hey, cut out the, you know, finding other plumbers. Just call him. That guy right there. There he is.

Give him a call, get you taken care of.

Let him know you heard about it on The Homeowner Show. That's right. All right, show referral. So I, I mentioned earlier that I do woodworking, something that I've I, I grew up hanging out around my dad. He, he did a lot of woodworking, and so it's just something I've really enjoyed doing and, and love doing. But one of the biggest problems that I've always had is the, um, the workbench.

Mm-hmm.

The workbench area is always a point of contention with me, and there have been a lot of people who have tried to fix this problem. I mean, there's a company out there called Shopsmith. If you've never heard of them, they basically have a system where everything that you could possibly think of for woodworking is kind of integrated into this one machine. It's great. It's big and it's got a lot of pieces to it. One of the things that is difficult is you've got all of these components, you've got all these tools, and having a bench that accommodates everything is very difficult. And so I started researching, how, how can I integrate multiple things into one bench?

How can I make it more functional? And in the space that I've got, which is just a garage, Um, the, the more I can kind of maximize the space that I've got, the better. So I started doing research and, uh, I, I found out about, through a mutual friend of ours, about a guy named Ron Paulk, uh, P-A-U-L-K, and he's designed a type of workbench That, um, his is a little bit different than the one that I've got, but it's got, uh, it's got dog holes throughout the entire surface of it. And if you don't know what that's for, uh, there's lots of uses for it. You can use it for clamping, you can use it for, um, you know, setting— you put,

you put what they call dogs. They're little, um, uh, shafts, basically. They're, they're like a tube-looking thing. You put it down in the hole, you put them down one side, and then you can put something up, a piece of stock up against it and cut a straight line. There's all kinds of things that you can do with these, but this, this table fully assembles and disassembles, and it's portable, um, and it's got dog holes through the entire thing. So it's got a lot of options. I'm not done with it because I'm going to do some other things with it. I'm going to install some T-track into it. I'm going to put a router table in it. and some other things. And so

it's going to become even more functional than it currently is. But man, this, this bench is, is one of the most creative multifunctional, uh, tool benches, workbenches specifically for woodworking that I've ever found. And I don't know very many people that have one. But the, the The idea behind it has been around for a long time because I remember my dad when I was growing up, he, he had this little table, um, and, and some of you may have seen them before. It's a Black Decker little workbench, and, and it had little, um, I don't know what they're, they're called, but they would, they would expand and contract and you could put a piece of wood in between it and you could sand it down or whatever. Mm-hmm.

And there were dog holes in the top of it, and you could put a piece of wood in it and clamp it together, and you could use it, you know, if you're gluing things up. You could do lots of different cool things with it. So the idea has been around a long time. This guy's just really maximized it with the function. So we'll link up the— his website, and he's got some, some great videos on YouTube that, you know, he's got his plans for sale.

Mm-hmm.

The one that I've got is completely unique because the guy that I was mentioning earlier that told me about this guy, he designed and had this bench cut out with the CNC machine. And I— it wound up not being exactly what he needed after all. He wanted some modifications made to it, and so I bought it off of him.

Okay.

And so But it— he never used it because it, it had some imperfections to it, and so it never really got used. So anyway, I— it's, it's just a really, really cool thing. And, um, if you're, if you're a woodworker at all, I highly encourage you to look into Ron Paulk and, and how he's building benches for people to work on. So cool.

No, man, a good workbench is, uh, they're tough to come by. I mean, most, most guys end up kind of building their own.

Uh, a lot of people wind up using some sawhorses and a, you know, a sheet of plywood or something.

Nothing wrong with that. It'll get the job done.

It works. Yeah, absolutely. And it's— and I talked about being portable. It's portable, it's easy, it works. Nothing wrong with it. Um, but when it comes to maximizing your capabilities on things, um, this thing, I'm really, really proud of it.

It's awesome. All right.

Yeah.

So my number 1 is a product called Gripple, and I've got it right here. And again, it's— I think all 3 of mine are sort of a variation on the plier. Um, not really a theme I intended, but it's what I've got. Um, so this product is, is kind of cool. Um, it's I think it's only available in England.

Really?

Odd enough. And I mean, if you're looking at it here, I mean, like it does this number and that's really the extent of the tool, which doesn't look like much. Now you can, it also does have a tension adjuster down here.

Okay.

But the main purpose of this tool is repairing barbed wire. Which, if you've ever spent any time working fence lines or doing any kind of ranch work, barbed wire fencing is what you get punished with.

It's a necessary evil, right?

It's the worst, man. It's the absolute worst. And when we, when we bought the, the house that we're in now, you know, 3/4 of it is covered, is, you know, 3, 3-line barbed wire. And so before we could even bring the horses out here, I had to clear the fence row and then go through and figure out all the places it was broken. And I was trying to figure out a way. I was like, all right, this got too much broken barbed wire. I've either got to— it was at some point it was going to be easier to just take it all down and rerun new line.

Oh man.

Um, because it had been cut and just all these different things. But I came across this thing called the Gripple. Um, now you do have to have like some little— there's some little nuts that go in this Groove right here. Um, and, and basically it's a, it's a 2-way tensioner. The, the gripple little nut that slides in here grabs the wire, and as the wire comes through the other side, this wrench actually grabs the other end of the wire and puts tension on the line. So you actually don't have to stretch barbed wire because there's nothing, nothing, there's nothing ineffective as, as ineffective as loose barbed wire. Um, and ends up getting animals hurt. And it's, you know, it's, it's just ineffective at that point. And so like when it breaks, it's

really frustrating because you have to almost run the entire line back to your tension spot. But if you've got a good solid tension spot, you can stick a gripple on there, grab that wire and just, and then you, within 5 minutes, you've got a repaired line.

Wow.

Whereas if you had to redo that whole line, you've gotta retie it, you've gotta restretch it. You've gotta, I mean, just all kinds of things that that go into it. Um, that just, and I, for, for whatever reason, I can't figure it out. I can't, I'm, I kind of got this. It wasn't on the black market. I bought it off eBay. Um, but like, it's, it's almost illegal to sell them in the US. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know if somebody like bought the rights to it and refuses to allow it to be marketed here in the US or what. Um, because every, every time I go to buy replacement, because I mean, like those little pieces that you slide in the,

in the groove in order to— that the line goes through. I think those are like 25 cents apiece, um, which, you know, or I've seen them as much as a dollar apiece. Either way, totally worth it. And they have different gauge size sizes on those as well, and all of them fit in that tool. And there's just one dude in England that invented it. Um, you know, unlike my other tool, it has zero patents on it. Over here. So at least according to the tool. Um, but man, it's been a fantastic tool. I mean, it took me, I mean, I think I had like 10 breaks in the, in the fence when we bought this place. And it probably took me 2 or 3 hours to fix it with this tool, which—

Wow.

That would have taken me, you know, probably a week to restring and stretch and, and do all those, do all that stuff. Barbed wire is the worst, man.

And, and really, who— not only who has the time to do that, um, who has the desire to do that? I mean, unless you're paying someone to do it, it— that's a, that's a chore.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, like, and usually you're gonna get cut up and it's gonna be unpleasant. So it—

I mean, absolutely.

To, to be fair to the barbed wire, it's way easier to put up than like wooden fencing. And cheaper. Um, sure. Metal stakes, metal ties, barbed wire, stretch it, tie it. Good to go. Like some, some big ranches and stuff like that, they have, I mean, they have farm implements that actually do it for you now. You don't—

Oh, really?

Yeah. I mean, it'll, there's a machine out there that'll just automatically, I mean, it's putting the stakes in the ground, stretching and tying, and you're just, you're just walking behind the tractor.

It laughs at the gripple.

Well, I mean, so like, even, even if you have that, right? So like, let's say you have that, you put the, you put the fence in. Well, let's say one of those lines breaks. That machine's not— yeah, you have to repair it. And that machine's not repairing it. Right. You know, whereas, you know, you might have to go through and manually restretch that one line. This thing, you can come through, hook it up. You know, and even if like a section gets cut out, you can still use this thing. I've used it multiple different ways. It's, it's really, really cool, but it's, it's hard to find, man. I mean, like, they, they— I mean, you can't just go down to Tractor Supply and buy

one, man.

So you got to really think ahead. If it's— if, if you've got a fence like this, it's worth going and doing the research now so that whenever it comes to the point where you need one, you've got it.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, like, I have one.

You're up a creek.

Yeah, because I got a stash of those things. Um, for whenever the fence goes down. I mean, because I, I know it's not going to take me any time to— right, to go out there and fix it now. And I don't mind doing it now either because I know how easy it is. Yeah. And some of those, I mean, like, I repaired some of those 5 years ago.

Wow. So that's awesome. Well, we, uh, are interested to know what some of the most unique tools that you have in your garage are.

Yep.

And I know there's a bunch of them. I mean, especially whenever you get into like, if you go into granddad's, uh, garage or his barn somewhere, and you're gonna find some stuff, um, that they— first of all, you're probably going, what is this thing?

Mm-hmm.

And he probably knows exactly what it's for. Go ask him and link it up here, you know, on, on, uh, on our show somewhere, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram. Twitter, somewhere. Show us, show us what the most unique tools you have in your house are.

Yeah, I think we have a couple posts up on Instagram and Facebook right now where you can jump on those threads and share a picture or two. Yeah, yeah, cool.

Well, uh, man, I think that, that does it for today's show. You got anything else?

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All that.

Be excellent to one another.

Yeah. And man, thanks for downloading the episode and we hope you enjoyed it. And until next week, we are here every single Tuesday. So be looking for us and thanks for downloading this episode specifically. Until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya!