Our family’s super-efficient car wash and plant watering system.  You always have 50 gallons of fresh water available with a few watt-hours of energy.  A full description and the microcontroller code is up on Instructables.

The kids’ instructions on how to remove annoying sounds from household appliances.  Featured on Lifehacker.

There was a problem:  The gas dryer was far from the home’s big permanent propane tanks.  The tanks were at least 50 feet away, and the gas company estimated it would cost $500 to plumb a line to the laundry room.  

But then the savvy guy at the local appliance store said you could hook a dryer up to an ordinary propane barbecue tank.  When we pitched this — admittedly crazy — idea to the guy at the local hardware store, he stared at us for a full five seconds, then said, “Right this way.”  Don’t judge me, man, just help me.  What a cool reaction!  He brought us to the copper tube, couplings, a flaring tool, and TFE paste to seal it all in, then gave us a quick tutorial on how to plumb and check a short gas line.  There-I-fixed-it.

Putting the Weed Wrench through its paces. This serious tool, borrowed from a neighbor, grasps the stalk of an invasive plant (in this case barberry).  Then the jaws tighten around the stalk, and they tear the plant from the earth.  

If pulling out the plants doesn’t work, we will apply for a grant to make this place a living sanctuary for all invasive species. That way, horticulturalists can study different kinds of invasives in one place. Interesting fact: Yahoo Mail currently uses this strategy with email spam. 

Through some amazing process of otherworldly transmogrification, A’s guitar is now three tiny guitars that mice could play.  To do this, we took around 60 photos of the full-sized instrument, imported them to 123D Catch, cleaned it up in Meshmixer, and printed at a 3D printing service (which used selective laser sintering).

Our maker-girl with her latest innovation — the three-owl pillow.  

Our mitten rack, a featured project at Instructables!

An inspiring profile of a young man who is beyond handy.  UPDATE:  The writer of this story, Tom Clynes, just made a deal with book publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  Wunderkind Taylor Wilson’s story is set to come out in book length next year.  This book will show you how to raise science-minded kids right. 

Lucy needed a device for keeping her cello’s end-pin from sliding on the floor, but we weren’t about to plunk down $7 for a store-bought one. So we took a router to a piece of wood and attached the yellow strap. The design ultimately failed due to low consumer uptake. UPDATE: The real answer was drilling shallow 3/8-inch holes in strategic places around Lucy’s bedroom floor.    

Making a brush fire, with limited success. Soon after the flames grew too high, we had to put it out. The 11-year-old thought that was incredibly lame.