R W I SDOM

ACCOUNTS WE

FOLLOW ON

INSTAGRAM

(SPEAKING OF

INSTAGRAM,

WE REACHED

100K

FOLLOWERS!)

INSTAGRAM

VICTORIES

@saltytimes

@lagunatools

When John Kiedaisch,

a subject in our story

“Off the Grid,” on page

66, moved with his fam-

ily to Vermont, their

new home didn’t have

power—so they figured

out how to produce their

own. John, an archi-

tect, used resources

like the Whole Earth

Catalog to figure out

how many solar panels

they needed, and helped

install them. “Later,

of course, I fell off the

roof,” he said.

IN THIS ISSUE

Great Moments in Handiness

How Senior Associate Editor

Kevin Dupzyk Fixed His Jeep’s Drain

Eagle Scout (and intern) Jackson Lang-

land stood outside the Popular Mechanics

offices on a 27-degree afternoon in March

and asked passersby if they recognized the

name “Bob Vila”—the subject of our fea-

ture on page 76. (He was also armed with

a printout of Vila’s face.) Nine of the 21

people knew who Vila was; Jim Juras, pic-

tured (right) with his wife, Donna, was one.

Juras had an advantage over the 12 who

didn’t recognize Vila, though—he’d grown

up reading Popular Mechanics.

“HEY, WHO’S BOB VILA?”

THE GUYS on JeepForum.com were

right: The dinner-plate-size pools of

water I’d been finding in the front

passenger footwell of my Wran-

gler were thanks to a drain under

the cowling that covers the wind-

shield-wiper motor. After years of

street parking, it was full of gunk,

and heavy rainfall caused it to back

up and overflow into the cabin air

intake. The guys on the forum were

also right about the tool required

to clean it: I fetched an aluminum

yardstick and started ramming it

into the drain—while still parked on

the street. Neighbors ogled as they

strolled by. I looked nothing like

the Jeep owner I imagined myself

as, a real man among the neighbor-

hood’s sea of hipsters. And just in

case I did, when I realized I needed

water to f lush the loosened dirt

free—but lacked a hose that reached

the street—I had to run up to my

apartment and grab my 20-quart

stockpot. I filled it at the spigot out

front, carried it down, and a deluge

of its contents cleared the drain.