How to secure a ladder

A few weeks ago we had our bedroom window replaced (a topic I'll cover in another post soon), and the guys who came to install the window used what seemed to me to be a very clever trick. They held a full size crow bar against the bottom rung of the ladder, and hammered the straight end into the ground like a tent peg so that the foot of their ladder wouldn't slide out from under them. 

Do you think that this is another great use for the woefully under-appreciated crow bar (see Ode to the Mini-Crow Bar), or a dangerous recipe for disaster?

Would it be better to hammer the crow bar in until the curved part hooked right over the bottom rung, or does the way that they have it work just as well?

Or should we just stick to doing things the old-fashioned way and make sure that we have a friend on hand to hold the ladder in place?

Ode to the Mini-Crow Bar

Of all of my tools, the mini-crow bar is my very favourite.Why, you ask? Well, there are a number of reasons. It's diminutive size and elegant shape make it cute and endearing, but it is also strong and powerful.

My particular affinity for demolition (see my description of ripping up the floor in the guest room here for an example), and the mini-crow bar's aptitude for it doesn't hurt either. It's wonderful for demolition, but it's great for other practical reasons as well. 

I can use the mini-crow bar in place of a variety of other tools when I'm working on a project and can't remember where I've put them down. I have used it to remove nails, as you would the claw end of a hammer, as a pry-bar, to open a can of paint (although there are better tools for that which are also quite versatile), as a chisel (by hammering on the curved part). Not only that, it can be used in tight spaces like closets, it fits nicely into my tool bag and it isn't nearly as heavy as a full sized crow bar would be.

Mini-crow bar FTW!

Choosing the Right Paint Can Opener

There are two main kinds of paint can openers that are available. There are the ones with the plastic handle, like this: 

and there are the all metal ones with a loop at one end, and the opener at the other end. In my experience the plastic-handled ones cost about $1.49, and the metal ones cost about $0.49. Price aside, there is one good reason to prefer the metal ones to the plastic ones, and that is that the loop end is a bottle opener, and as James says, "Nothing goes together better than painting and beer."