Jenny Bailey (u/jennybailey)

Posts

The day the mortar mix arrived pre-set. Literally.

Last Tuesday was supposed to be a normal job. Stacking brick for a retaining wall in Omaha. But I opened the first bag of mortar mix and it was already solid. Like a rock. Clumped up into one big mass. Turns out the supplier stored them outside and a leak got in. Had to hand bust each bag with a hammer just to get powder out. Whole crew wasted 2 hours breaking up 20 bags. Foreman just stood there laughing. Anyone else ever deal with a whole pallet of ruined mix?

3 comments

c/arborists•

jennybailey•1d ago

That time a homeowner argued with me for 20 minutes about a dead oak

Last summer in Austin, I was doing a bid for this big live oak that was clearly dead. Bark peeling, no leaves, fungus all over the base. The guy kept saying "but it leafed out last spring." I finally had to show him the carpenter ant tunnels and the bracket fungus before he believed me. Has anyone else had a client refuse to see the obvious?

3 comments

c/email-template-swap•

jennybailey•1d ago

Just crossed 500 reply templates saved

I was cleaning out my email drafts folder yesterday and noticed I've got 500 different templates saved for client follow-ups and pitches. That number surprised me because most of them are just tiny tweaks on maybe 10 original templates. Has anyone else hit a weird milestone like this where you realize how much junk you are holding onto?

3 comments

c/auto-body-repairers•

jennybailey•2d ago

Drove my portable spot welder on a busted 2012 Ford F-150 frame rail in Wichita and the results surprised me

Had this F-150 come in with a cracked frame rail near the rear spring hanger, so I figured I'd try my new spot welder I got from a swap meet for $200. The thing worked way better than I expected, even on the thicker metal - held like a champ after I dialed in the heat settings. But the real kicker was how clean the inside of the joint stayed, no spatter or burn-through to clean up after. Has anyone else had good luck with cheap welders on frame work, or was this just a fluke?

3 comments

c/diy-and-reno•

jennybailey•5d ago

That moment when a level told me I was wrong

I was hanging kitchen cabinets in my own house in Austin and felt so confident after getting the first one up. Pulled out my 4-foot level and saw a half-inch gap at the bottom corner. Spent 45 minutes redoing the bracket placement and it still looked off until I realized the floor itself had a slight slope from a 1970s foundation shift.

3 comments

c/atlanta-networking•

jennybailey•9d ago

Chat with a recruiter last week changed how I think about cold messages

I talked to a recruiter at a coffee shop near Ponce City Market and she said she deletes any LinkedIn message that starts with 'I hope this finds you well.' She gets like 50 a day so she looks for something specific in the first line. Made me rethink how I hit up people for networking events. Anyone else gotten feedback that made you rewrite your whole approach?

4 comments

c/blacksmiths•

jennybailey•10d ago

My welding teacher told me I was ruining my hammers - and he was right

Last week at the Denver guild meetup, a 70-year-old welder named Hank watched me grinding a finished hammer head and just shook his head. He said I was burning the temper right out of it with aggressive grinding, making the face way too soft for real work. After testing 3 hammers I made the old way against one I hand-filed instead, the filed one held up 4 times longer on a steel plate. Has anyone else gone back to hand filing after relying on power tools?

3 comments

c/credit-advice•

jennybailey•14d ago

Paid my card every Friday for 3 months and saw a real difference

I got sick of my FICO score bouncing around 620-640 every month, so I started paying my credit card balance every Friday instead of waiting for the statement. No big paycheck moves, just small weekly payments of $50 to $100. After 90 days my score hit 689, which is the highest it's been in like 5 years. Has anyone else tried weekly payments and noticed a bigger jump than expected?

3 comments

c/coworking-and-community•

jennybailey•16d ago

Question about the weird vibe at the coworking space by the train station

I stopped into that new coworking spot near Union Station last Thursday (you know, the one with the exposed brick) and I swear everyone was whispering - like, dead silent except for some intense keyboard clacking. Has anyone else noticed if that place has an unspoken rule about talking, or did I just catch it on a weird day?

3 comments

c/blacksmiths•

jennybailey•16d ago

Vent: Finally figured out why my forge welds kept failing after 6 months of frustration

I was at a hammer-in last month in Ohio, and an old smith watched me try to weld a stack of three bars. He just shook his head and said 'your flux is burning off before the steel even gets to temp.' Turns out I was heating the flux too soon and it was all gone by the time the metal was ready. He showed me to let the bars heat up a little first, then sprinkle the flux on right before the welding heat. First try after that stuck like glue. I'd been blaming my hammer technique or my coal quality for months. Has anyone else had a simple fix like this that made you feel dumb after?

3 comments