Man, that is so frustrating! I had the same thing happen with my oriole feeder last spring, stuck it in this perfect spot near the flowers and nothing for weeks. Then I just nudged it maybe four feet closer to our old lilac bush and boom, they showed up the next morning. It's like birds have this invisible map in their heads and if you're even a little off the route they just pretend the food doesn't exist. Makes you wonder why they're so picky when a full meal is sitting right there. Glad you finally got the crowd though, that first woodpecker hitting the suet is such a relief.

Jump right in and get a 4-footer, you won't regret it. That wobble you're talking about is real, and it just multiplies the further you go up with your framing. I swear by my old Stabila level I've had for years, but honestly any aluminum level that's straight and not beat up will work fine. Lasers are nice for quick layout but they can drift or get bumped out of level on a job site, I still trust a good long level for getting those posts dead plumb. Once you go to a 4-footer you'll never wanna pick up a 2-foot level for posts again.

Feel you on that one. It's wild how many times I've watched some older guy just walk over and grab the perfect thing off his truck. Saves hours of guesswork and frustration. Makes me wish I paid more attention to the old timers when I had the chance.

Buddy of mine took a cheap hand grinder up to Glacier last year and by day two his shoulder was so sore he couldn't carry his pack right. He ended up just buying instant coffee at a ranger station, which he says was the most humiliating moment of his life. Told me he'd rather carry an extra ten pounds than go through that again.

Bought a cheap charcoal grill one time and figured I could just hose it off when it got nasty. Two years later I finally cleaned it and found a family of mice living in the ash tray. Could have saved myself the surprise with a ten minute scrub every few months.