Normally I take care of my own yard, but with my feet staying in the salt water that has been a challenge that I have hired out.
It is nice to come home and not have to mow a second lawn.
Of course there are always some things that haven't gotten done, like the grass on the edge of our bank.
I have always tried to keep it knocked down when I trimmed with the weed eater.
This week the grass back there had gotten to the point that something needed doing and using a weed eater to do it would have been the hard way to solve the problem.
I got out my trusty weed whip which was my primary tool for clearing hiking trails. I found my flat file and sharpened the weed whip to the point that could you could take the head off a snake with a flick of the wrist.
According to the time stamps on the photos, it took me less than fifteen minutes to cut what I needed to cut on my slope.
I didn't use any gasoline. I was actually going to have to do a double dip on gasoline since my two-cycle can was empty and getting the weed eater going would have required a gas burning trip to the gas station.
With the weed whip, I made almost no noise.
I also got a little exercise, worked up a sweat and had the pleasure of using the right tool for the job.
The grass was actually a little too long for normal weed eating anyway.
Bluegrass, since it has very fine stalk, is a little harder to cut than the annual rye grass that I had used for cover for our former bamboo forest, but it wasn't too bad.
I couldn't help but remember how our cows would pick through hay to munch on some of the fine stuff. There was truly some gourmet cow food made from what I cut on our bank.
The grass on the trimmed bank is now well down the slope. It's too bad the bank is so steep, I was just getting in the rhythm of it. It might not be as neat, but at least I enjoyed what I was doing. I can't often say that for the times when I am using a weed eater.
I can still remember when I was farming in the horse drawn world of New Brunswick in the mid-seventies that some older farmers would use a scythe to cut any standing hay left after the tractors and their PTO powered mowers had finished cutting the fields.
I bet using a scythe is almost a lost art.
We'd all be better off if we did it that way. America has become an obese society what with riding lawn mowers, fast food, weed eaters, etc. I grew up picking cotton by hand. Now when I see the waste the automated pickers make in the field, it makes me sick. Just another example of the way we waste things.
Posted by: samibear | May 29, 2007 at 04:19 PM
It was just the other day, and I was talking to someone about how we don't fix things anymore. I guess this isn't strictly true; we do fix certain things. For example, I recently fixed my digital display on my oven. It was easy,too; just take off a few screws, take out the old display board, put in the new one, put the screws back, and away we go!
It is true, though, that we fix a lot less than we used to. Some things just aren't made to be fixed. You just throw away the old, and get a new one. It does seem like a terrible waste sometimes.
Posted by: The other Dave | June 09, 2007 at 06:25 PM
I am continually amazed at how we design things for this throwaway society.
No one builds printers to be fixed. If something goes wrong with your ink jet printer, you buy a new one.
When we had trouble with our Volvo the mechanic suggested we should trade it. By the time the mechanic had finished with it, we had little choice.
I have a really hard time finding weed whips that have a substantial piece of wood for a handle. I guess it is cheaper to make the handle mostly of cheap metal.
The one in the picture is one of the rare good ones. Most bend within a day or two of use. I wonder is that a measure of how little they are used or just what crap we will put up with in tools.
You would think building products to last would make financial sense.
Posted by: ocracokewaves | June 10, 2007 at 06:03 PM