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A guy at the hardware store in Tacoma changed how I think about mixing mud
I was picking up some sand last Thursday and this older guy, maybe in his 70s, was looking at the same pallet. We got talking and he asked what I was working on. I said a garden wall and was just grabbing a bag of pre-mix to save time. He shook his head and said, 'Kid, that stuff's like cake mix. It's fine, but you don't know what's in it. Real mud is three parts sand, one part cement, and a half part lime. You control the cure.' He wrote the ratios on a scrap of receipt paper for me. I tried it on that wall, and the mortar was so much easier to work with, way more forgiving on a hot day. It stuck with me that a 30 second chat in an aisle could teach you more than years of just doing things the fast way. What's your go-to mix for outdoor work in damp weather?
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luna5192mo ago
Guess he's the Yoda of cement mixing.
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victor_adams952mo ago
Totally. My grandpa was like that with wood stain.
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