I'm new to wood working and am looking for relatively cheap sources of wood and was wondering if anybody has ever used used liquor barrels. Are these even cheap? I'd probably use it to make small furniture or planters. Anything I should know in particular or resources I could look into? Thanks!

I'd like to some day build a pergola or a gazebo but I have pretty much no experience. Where should I start, or resources to look into? I've heard that doing is the best way to learn but with structural builds I'm a little anxious as a complete beginner. Thanks!

I have young kids and I feel like I've pretty much become isolated from my friends. The ones that have kids live out of state. My best friends don't have kids so they usually come to me, but they also have their own lives so I don't want to bother them. And I can't really do my hobbies. I knew it would be hard with young kids, but I didn't realize it would be so lonely and without an outlet.

I took a week off work, and I definitely needed it. I was having micro-snaps here and there. I loved this past week with my kids but somehow I'm more tired than if I just work (my two kids are under three if that makes any difference).

Also, any advice on potty training would be great. The older one will go both in his diaper and in the toilet. He pooped in the toilet once which was a big win, but that's because I caught him about to go in his diaper. Unfortunately wife and I aren't consistently home at the same time that we can do the Donald duck route, which we did the past week but he doesn't cue us when he needs to go. I'm sure in due time things will come as this past week I'm claiming as a resounding success.

Thanks in advance!

It's so weird how Lemmy feels like old reddit and that was when I was more active but as reddit grew I began to lurk more except in four different communities. It's still hard to not lurk here. I frequently will type a comment or make a post and delete it, haha. Anybody else experiencing this?

This is something I honed during grad school. It helped me when I lived with a roommate, myself, and now with a young family (although kids will actively reverse this process so its a challenge).

-Tidying is an all day long, active process that you should master breaking down to the minutiae. For example, start with identifying an object in one room that belongs in another room. When you go to that room, take the object with you and put it away. I've now come to a point that as I put a stack of clean plates away, on my way back I'll grab dirty dishes from the table. This way Im unloading the dishwasher and tidying the table at the same time. Try not to make tidying a chore, but rather something you do along the way. If you have a lot of objects that don't belong in your room, I find a crate or something to isolate them into is a good start. Multiple crates or bags for different rooms is even better. -cleaning is a chore. Washing dishes, cleaning the toilet, etc. Tidying is to assist in this process by eliminating an extra objects and to help setup (ex: I like to bring my cleaning products to the bathroom when I go and just set them aside)