gardening tool Hori Hori Knife

Hori Hori Knife

   Lets face it, I love tools.  I love having the right tool for the job and when I find that tool it doesn't stop me from continuing to look for a better tool for the job.  I've kept looking, and spent money and still always come back to my gardening knife

  The Hori Hori Knife is the best weed digging tool that I have ever used.  I dig weeds out of the lawn on my knees, and have  done so for years and years.  One of my summer jobs as a school kid was digging dandelions out of local lawns. I can say with confidence that I have dug hundreds of bushels  of dandelions and related weeds out of lawns for over forty years.

   As an adult I made a decision not to use poisons on my garden, partly because I am cheap, partly because I like being in the fresh air in the garden and partly because my garden is a hobby.  If I made my living from my garden I would use every available method to increase my yield and profit margin including poisons and computers.  I don't even spray my roses for beetles, I pick the beetles off the leaves and crush them.  If the beetle infestation too great I carry a jar with gasoline or paint thinner in it and flick the beetles into the jar. ( they don't like that)

  I do not remember when I bought the Hori Hori, I know it was before it had a cool sounding name and was made from stainless steel.  In fact it was long enough ago that it was not cool at all, and arrived quite rugged, with the handle rivets loose.  I suspect that it was fairly cheap and so hitting it hard with a hammer and seating the rivets seemed a reasonable action.  I think for $27.00 I would expect the handle to fit.

   Either way, for $27.00 you get the best weed digger I know and one that you will be able to leave to your Grandchildren, you hope that there will still be gardens in their lives, I know I do.

cheers,

Best Wood working Project so far

 

It doesn't even matter what we were making, a plane incidentally, what matters is that my 3.5 year old grand son is in my workshop, using my old Stanley Block Plane to make shavings and enjoying it.  A fifty years ago I worked in my Grampa's work shop and now my grandson is spending a little bit of time each visit in my shop.  There can't really be a happier wood worker out there.

Little Truck

  Good Morning all, excuse me as I blush deeply and clear my throat in embarrassment.
    It has been sometime since I put anything on this blog, and yet there are still visits.  I can't help but admire people's patience.  I hope that you have been visiting my more active efforts at blogthetoolstore.blogspot.com and blogjessemtools.blogspot.com.  Currently I am writing five blogs per week in other places and so have given this blog less attention.  But, since you all have hung around it is time to get back to this blog too.

The truck in the photo is one that I found on the Internet, I can't take credit for such a cool idea.  As Christmas grows near it is time to think of those little projects that are personal, and this truck qualifies. This truck could in fact be a gift of a grown up as well as a play on the floor type, it could sit on a desk and hold pens or be used as a recipe box if the bin was the correct size.  
   While I don't generally like plastic, I can't think of a better box to put on the back of a truck, this truck can haul anything, and be cleaned out in the laundry sink when necessary.  I foresee a small fleet of these.

Home from Sweden

  We got home from Sweden late Friday night, our bodies thought it was Saturday morning.  The jet lag from travelling is getting tough on my old body.  Saturday was bit of a write off but by Sunday things were back to normal, whatever that is?


   Our time is Stockholm with Joanna and Family was quite nice, setting aside the serious upset that came from me losing my wallet three days into the holiday.  It turns out that Stockholm is battling an invasion of pick pockets, so there is a chance that it was not irresponsibility but bad luck.
  
   We arrived on Tuesday around lunch time and discovered that the apartment that we had rented for the week was bigger than our house.  We rented an apartment through an agency called Cocoon and it was a very good deal considering there were four adults and two small kids.  A typical hotel would have cost a fortune, and not really be flexible enough to accommodate little kids, their playing, diet and nap times. 

view out the apartment windows at 4 am.  The boat is actually a youth hostel

K's room at the apartment.  Each of the rooms featured one of these ceramic fireplaces,and at least one of them was in current use.

Scott Sub 10

   About eight years ago I bought a pretty good bike, a TREK 520 touring bike.  The bike has lots of KM on it and was pretty much worn out, the bikes were a bit of a crap shoot and the gears slipped if I stood on the pedals hard.  After a frustrating spring riding season I gave up and bought the Scott Sub 10.
   The Sub 10 is not a touring bike but then I'm not a touring guy any more.  I have been able to ride for a couple of hours on the Scott and that is about the limit on my knees now so it is a good match I think.
   Interestingly, last week's bike cost almost the same as the Trek, bike technology has moved ahead in eight years and the the costs have come down.  Good for the consumer.