KnowYard Community

Check Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for home gym equipment. I built my garage gym for $800 total — rack, barbell, 300lbs of plates, and a bench. Pays for itself in 14 months vs a gym membership.

Chick-fil-A is the gold standard and I'm tired of people trying to find something better. It's sweet tea. They perfected it. Move on.

I just accept that summer electric bills are $300+ and budget accordingly. It's the Texas tax nobody mentions.

Big Bend is 100% worth it but you need at least 3-4 days. The drive is brutal but once you're there it feels like another planet. Camp at the Chisos Basin if you can get a spot.

Local independent gyms are where it's at. Not the chain ones. Find the gym owned by one person that's been open 15 years with equipment that's older than you. Those gyms have the best equipment and the best culture.

The real authentic spots are usually in strip malls with no English on the menu. If abuela is in the kitchen you're in the right place.

Raising Cane's sweet tea doesn't get enough credit. It's dangerously good.

Finally someone said it. In-N-Out and Culver's are both better burgers. Whataburger wins on breakfast items and late night only.

I bought a whole-house generator after 2021. $8K installed. I shouldn't have to do that but I have elderly parents living with me and I'm not risking it again.

Birria tacos here have gotten so much better in the last few years. The trend actually brought legit birria spots out of hiding.

My church potluck sweet tea made in a 5 gallon cooler with approximately 4 pounds of sugar. Nothing in a restaurant comes close.

Crunch Fitness is a solid middle ground. More equipment than PF, actual free weight area, $25-30/month at most locations.

The key is never letting your house get hot in the first place. Blackout curtains, good insulation, and never open the doors more than necessary. Treat it like winter in reverse.

Tell me you ordered a number 1 plain and think that's the whole menu. Customize your order. Whataburger customization is the whole point.

Pool membership was the best $200 I ever spent. June through September I'm there 4 days a week after work.

Any southern home cooking restaurant. The ones with the big plastic pitchers on the table. That's where the real sweet tea lives.

McDonald's sweet tea for $1 is the best value in fast food beverages and I will die on this hill. They put an absurd amount of sugar in it.

The driving thing never stops being true. I live half a mile from a CVS and still drive there. It's 105 outside man I'm not walking.

Get the AllTrails app and search your area. Filter by difficulty and distance. Some of the best trails aren't in official parks — they're along creeks, power line easements, and greenbelts.

The deregulated market is the problem. Nobody wants to invest in reserve capacity because there's no profit in power plants that only run during emergencies. So we have zero buffer.

Costco for bulk items, HEB for weekly stuff, and I still end up at Walmart at 10pm because I forgot something. Every single week.

Army Corps of Engineers parks around the lakes are always less crowded than city parks. Free or cheap, good trails, water access. Google the nearest lake to you and look for Army Corps sites.

Early morning on weekdays is the cheat code for popular parks. I go at 7am on a Tuesday and have the whole trail to myself. Same trail on a Saturday at 10am has 200 people.

Tinted windows, remote start, and a good sunshade for the windshield. That's the holy trinity of surviving Texas car heat.

The 2021 storm should have been a wake-up call. 200+ people died. And here we are still running the same grid on hope and prayers every summer.