Often times, certain people love to abuse the term "work smarter, not harder" as an excuse to ride the coattails of other people or try to make a living by being a huckster and schemer.

This older gentleman does a great job of explaining what this philosophy really means and how we can apply these lessons to our projects.

Automatic Chicken Coop door.
I use a 12" linear actuator from amazon/ebay to raise my chicken coop door at sunrise and 1 hour after sunset. I used a cable to lift the door so that the door can fall gently instead of powering down. That way if anything gets hung in the door, it won't crush it. You can of course use a small solar panel to keep a 12v battery charged. I ran 120v out to my coop for a heat lamp so I use a small laptop type 12v power supply.

The schematic below uses a timer relay, a 12v photocell, a DPDT momentary switch and a regular DPDT switch. If you put the auto/man switch in auto, the door works by photocell. If you put it in manual, you can use the momentary switch to drive the door open or closed. Comes in handy when trying to keep the chicks out of the coop when I'm changing the litter.

Linear Actuator mounted on roof inside.

Pulley and door. Door is in slots

Mounted the time delay relay, switches and power supply inside a circuit breaker box that I gutted. Also shown is a $13 temperature controller for a heat lamp inside the coop.

On the subject of chickens.... here's a coop we built. We attached a 20x10 prefab dog kennel to the end of it and put netting over the top of the dog kennel. This really is working out perfectly... couldn't ask for a better coop.

Vinyl on the floor so wetness won't rot the wood. We also fenced in the space under the legs so the chickens can get under it from the dog kennel enclosure that isn't shown here.

Kind of a less serious post but still very important: how to properly smoke a brisket.

This is a great traditional southern method to smoking brisket that has yielded great results for me:

https://girlscangrill.com/recipe/smoked-brisket/

One modification I make however, is that I wet brine my brisket in a turkey oven bag instead of injecting. Boil approximately enough water to fill the bag with the brisket plus about 2 cups salts and 3 cups brown sugar. The water with the salt and sugar must be boiled in order to form a proper solution, then cooled with ice to ensure that you don't end up boiling the brisket

After it cools, place the brisket in an oven bag, fill bag with brine, then place a cooler with ice overnight (or throughout the day if you're planning an overnight smoke).

My personal rub consists of smoked paprika, salt, roasted garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. I prefer a strong smoke flavor and use a pellet smoker with hickory. An automatic pellet smoker is viewed by some as "cheating", but on weekends I want to do other projects besides just being a kitchen bitch so it's very convenient. However a traditional smoker works fine.

The most essential elements here are preparation, patience, and being aware of your temperatures.

You must take the time to pat dry the brisket completely so the rub sticks, you must always monitor temperature and apply the "texas crutch" at the proper time, and you MUST let the meat rest wrapped in the empty cooler for 2-3 hours MINIMUM.

Brisket is very easy to do, but if you go under temp your meat will be tough. Over temp, and you're essentially just cooking a greasy pot roast. Your meat must pass the "fold test" to be consider authentic smoked brisket. Its cross grain slices must be able to fold in half if you hold it up without breaking. That's how you know you've nailed the moisture without over cooking.

Also one thing to consider is smoking multiple briskets at once and vacuum sealing them for the freezer. They won't be quite as good reheated, but will still be damn better than just about anything else you can buy brisket wise.

The fat can be used for tallow and still taste great, but honestly I'm not the biggest fan of deep frying and usually discard it. However I understand you can make excellent French fries with it.

I'm going to conduct an experiment with flash freezing pre-prepared meals in a dry ice / salt water brine in order to preserve flavor, and I'll keep you all updated on the results when I do this.

Bonus points if you're eating a turkey you hunted