The right tool for the job

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.

Comments

[samibear]

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.

[The other Dave]

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.

[ocracokewaves]

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.