Ep 104: Redwood Chili Peppers

The gang kicked off with a mouth-watering breakfast food challenge, debating favorites from Waffle House concoctions (Jess's infamous "slop on a plate") to fancy Eggs Benedict, with Ross revealing breakfast restaurants are cash cows due to cheap ingredients and high margins.Colton shared updates on his uncle's DIY sawmill project and his camper shell paint job at his father-in-law's auto body shop, noting surprising similarities between furniture restoration and auto body work.Jess walked us through his current kitchen cabinet installation in a metal-stud condo, ranting about challenging blind corner cabinets and the pros/cons of dark blue cabinet finishes.The Wood of the Week segment featured cottonwood—a surprisingly useful lumber despite being super lightweight (28 pounds per cubic foot) and soft (430 on Janka scale), commonly used for crates, plywood components, and carvings.Ross absolutely crushed Jess in the domestic hardwood trivia challenge, revealing fascinating facts about woods from Puerto Rican mahogany to Florida's bald cypress used in musical instruments.Ross delivered a deep dive on whiskey production costs, breaking down the $1,500 price tag for a 4-year barrel before bottling—including grain costs, barrels ($300 each), labor, warehousing, and the inevitable "angel's share" evaporation.The nugget section featured practical wisdom: invest in a good laser level for installation work, use proper drill press speed settings for different materials, and always wash your hands thoroughly between steps when working with reactive finishes.