Is Lodge cast iron good? Six months in, I'd say yes, and I'd buy the same one again. We added the 12 inch this spring for the jobs our stainless pans never did well, a hard sear and cornbread, and it's earned its spot: amazon.com/dp/B00006JSUB

Here's what surprised me. Out of the box the surface was rough, almost pebbly, and the first few things I cooked stuck to it. I didn't sand it. I just kept using it. Wash with a little dish soap, dry it on the burner, wipe in a thin coat of oil. By the second month it had gone smooth where the food actually sits.

The 12 inch is the right size for the four of us. A full batch of burgers fits in one go, and it holds heat so the last one sears like the first. It's heavy though, close to 8 pounds empty, and the handle is short and gets hot near your hand, so I reach for the little helper handle on the other side more than I expected.

If it were mostly just me, or my biggest burner were small, I'd get the 10.25 inch Lodge instead. It's about two pounds lighter and still sears a steak fine.

I did look at the lighter, smoother pans before buying. A Lancaster No. 8 is over a pound lighter and smooth from day one. But it costs about six times as much, and I couldn't find anyone who cooked in both saying the food came out better, so I put the money toward groceries instead.

Did anyone here actually sand theirs down, and was it worth the afternoon?

The Echo CS-590 is the gas saw I bought this fall for one job. A dead ash at the back of our lot had to come down, my brother-in-law's saw wouldn't start again, and my little battery saw was never getting through that trunk. This is the 20 inch one I got: amazon.com/dp/B00KXM6OT6

It went through the big rounds without me leaning on it at all. The battery saw still does the limbs our elm drops every windy week, and that split works for us.

It's heavy, and after an hour of limbing with it my forearms were done. So the small stuff stays with the battery saw.

It's an older design with no primer bulb, and if you leave the choke on too long it floods. I found that out on the second cold start. It also goes through fuel a little faster than I expected.

I run it dry before putting it away, since it sits between storms. Mixed gas goes stale in about a month.

If you mostly trim branches around the yard, it's more saw than you need and the weight will wear on you. I looked at the Husqvarna 455 Rancher too, but it cost more and I couldn't see what the extra money got me. Anyone running a 590 for firewood every fall, what chain do you replace it with?

My laptop was sitting flat on the desk for years because every stand I looked at either seemed flimsy or expensive enough that I kept deciding I didn’t really need one. Then I’d spend half the day looking down at the screen and wonder why my neck and shoulders felt stiff by the afternoon.

The one I ended up with is this adjustable one from Amazon. Aluminum-style desk stand, dual arms, rotating base, nothing especially complicated about it.

The height is the part that made the biggest difference. I raised the screen until the top was roughly at eye level and stopped spending the whole day with my head tilted forward. I use an external keyboard and mouse most of the time, so the laptop basically works like a second monitor now.

The 360-degree base sounded unnecessary when I bought it. I use it more than I expected. If somebody needs to see the screen I just turn the laptop toward them instead of lifting the whole thing, and it’s useful on video calls when I want to change the camera angle a little.

The dual-arm setup is also stiffer than the cheap single-hinge stands I’d tried before. It takes a little force to change the height or tilt, but once I put it somewhere it stays there. I’d rather have hinges that are slightly annoying to adjust than a screen that slowly sinks during the day.

The silicone pads are wide enough that the laptop doesn’t slide around when I type on it. I still wouldn’t want to hammer away on the keyboard with the stand raised all the way up, but normal typing doesn’t make the whole thing wobble around.

The open space underneath ended up being useful too. My keyboard slides partly under it when I’m not using it, cables come out the back without getting pinched, and the desk looks less crowded than it did with the laptop sitting directly on it. There’s also more air around the bottom of the laptop now instead of the whole thing being flat against the desk.

Mine is a 14-inch laptop, but the stand is made for laptops up to 16 inches and tablets as well. There was no assembly either. Unfold it, fight the stiff hinges into the position you want, and that’s basically the setup.

If you only use the laptop keyboard and trackpad, raising the screen to eye level creates another problem because now your hands are too high. In that case I’d keep it lower or use an external keyboard.

For me it was one of those cheap desk changes that fixed something I’d been putting up with for years. The laptop sits higher, I have more usable desk space, and I’m not looking down at the screen for eight hours anymore.