Wait you had $200 earbuds and you just lost them in a week? That's wild. I'd be tearing my place apart for a whole month if I dropped that kind of cash on something. What brand were they, or are you trying to block out the memory lol

That Calgary old timer you mentioned, I bet he was one of the guys who could read the concrete like a book just by how the float felt in his hands. I worked with a crew around 2010 in Winnipeg who switched over to power trowels and honestly, the floors we finished then are still some of the flattest I've seen ten years later. @shane_williams I get what you're saying about losing that instinct, but I think the real trick is training guys to understand the concrete curing stages using the machine instead of fighting it. The plastic blades, hard ones by the way, just let us cover more ground while the concrete is still in that sweet spot for finishing. I've never seen a durability problem from using power trowels, at least not when the mix design and curing schedule are done right.

Man, I heard a buddy of mine tried that thing last summer. He said the guy claimed something like 80 percent success but when my buddy actually watched him work, it was more like 50/50 at best. And half the time the tool just slipped off the casing, so I'd take those numbers with a grain of salt.

Used to think you were just paying for a brand name honestly, but that time savings is huge once you actually experience it. I'd check the program's official forums for brushes, people post free packs there all the time.

Yeah the "bird buffet for raccoons" thing hits home. I read somewhere that raccoons can remember feeder locations for weeks, like they literally map out their nightly routes. I had a similar issue at my place where a family of them figured out how to climb the pole I had my suet on. Ended up switching to a weight-sensitive feeder that closes when something heavier than a squirrel hops on. Still had to take the whole thing down for a couple weeks until they got bored and moved on to easier pickings.