Hand Tools and Machinery for Country Living

[72gmc]

It's always the old guy who was angry when they closed the amusement park.

[j44ke]

It's always the old guy who was angry when they closed the amusement park.

Good analogy.

I'm back in Hillsdale and surveying the damage. Looks like a psychopathic wind was swinging a big mallet wildly over its head.

[thollandpe]

I have no grass, but “mowing the lawn” means pulling saplings. And multiflora rose, and bittersweet.

And then chopping them into bite-size bits for the Solo Stove. Where have these lovelies been all my life?



I’m gonna disassemble the knockoffs I’ve been saddled with for a decade or more, recycle the steel bits, and melt the aluminum in the aforementioned stove.

[72gmc]

Got my wife some Felco gardening shears several years ago. A rare flash of brilliance on my part.

[Too Tall]

Mine were passed to me from dear old mom who also "mowed" with a ducking scythe. I covet few things, my Felco pruners would be one of them. A drip of lube now and than and they will REMAIN sharp for a season.

I won't lend them to the unwashed (yeah I went there) 'cause it's just gross and wrong to use them improperly....and they are left-handed.

Don't hate me, I'm just that way ;)

[j44ke]

Hand tools are unavoidable. Sometimes you just have to get dirty. And sometimes a walk needs a few things brought along just in case.

weeding



woods

[j44ke]

Love this guy's videos. Allis-Chalmers looking bad but actually in rather good shape. I think Benson knows Marty? A bit terrifying towards the end. Helping chickens throughout.

[72gmc]

I love old tractors. Memories of growing up next to a dairy farm, riding around on a big red Massey-Ferguson, just fascinated by the mechanical details: controls, attachments, even the way the ridged front tires tracked across soft surfaces. I learned a lot about soft surfaces on a dairy farm!

[rwsaunders]

Perfect tool for walking around the yard during mundane conference calls.

[TonyP]

Perfect tool for walking around the yard during mundane conference calls.

I just picked this up, and now I'm trying to decide if it's any better. When it works, it works, but dandelions are tough and they fight back, but I'm not having to bend over for the fight.

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[Too Tall]

I just picked this up, and now I'm trying to decide if it's any better. When it works, it works, but dandelions are tough and they fight back, but I'm not having to bend over for the fight.

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You guys am I behind the curve here. I'm using a sharp spade to undercut them than give them a good boot to knock the dirt off. It's kind of meditative in it's own lethal way.

[Mabouya]

Perfect tool for walking around the yard during mundane conference calls.

I've decided to no longer fight the dandelions - I want the bees, butterflies, and various other critters that need them, especially in early spring, to have as many sources of nectar as possible. Win-win - more nutrition for them and less work for me.

[thollandpe]

I got bigger fish to fry than dandelions. Garlic mustard is rearing its pretty little heads and sorry bees, those flowers are going in a bag and in the trash.

Garlic Mustard: Invasive, Destructive, Edible
Wild garlic mustard is a highly destructive invasive species in the United States, but anyone can help stop its spread.

[bigbill]

Speaking of invasive species, our property in Wyoming has many Russian Olive trees. They are nasty trees with thorns that grow like weeds. Last summer a large tree blew over and blocked our driveway, so I cut it up in sections using my Ego chainsaw, but they were still piled up when we left in September. Two weeks from today, we'll arrive in Wyoming and will rent a skid steer to mow, auger some holes for fence posts, and a bucket to move dirt. We will scrape clean a 50' circle to burn all the Russian Olives. No one will take mulch from the trees because it just spreads the species. Alien was right, nuke it from orbit.

[j44ke]

I got bigger fish to fry than dandelions. Garlic mustard is rearing its pretty little heads and sorry bees, those flowers are going in a bag and in the trash.

Garlic Mustard: Invasive, Destructive, Edible
Wild garlic mustard is a highly destructive invasive species in the United States, but anyone can help stop its spread.

This year it looks like we’ve never done anything to combat garlic mustard and we’ve removed tons. The lack of continuous hard freeze over winter? The increased sunlight to the ground after all the big storms took out trees? Or the early spring way before there is light enough to trigger the native species? Climate shift makes everything more difficult.

[Too Tall]

I hate multiflora rose. There is no way to win without using something nasty when upwind. Goats would do a job but where the heck does one rent a band of ravenous goats in rural VA?????

[j44ke]

I hate multiflora rose. There is no way to win without using something nasty when upwind. Goats would do a job but where the heck does one rent a band of ravenous goats in rural VA?????

Are you anywhere near Afton? If no, contact them anyway and see if there is a goat rental network.

https://vagoatbusters.com/

[rwsaunders]

I got bigger fish to fry than dandelions. Garlic mustard is rearing its pretty little heads and sorry bees, those flowers are going in a bag and in the trash.

Garlic Mustard: Invasive, Destructive, Edible
Wild garlic mustard is a highly destructive invasive species in the United States, but anyone can help stop its spread.

Our borough had its annual garlic mustard picking event yesterday as it’s nuts around here. Easy to pull, but so invasive and fast growing.

[thollandpe]

I hate multiflora rose. There is no way to win without using something nasty when upwind. Goats would do a job but where the heck does one rent a band of ravenous goats in rural VA?????

I’m on year three of an aggressive pull campaign and I don’t want to get cocky but it was pretty quick work to dispatch this year’s shoots. It is nice that they start early and are easy to identify, what with the red on the stem. And the young uns don’t bite too hard.

The mature fuckers are a bear, the thorns penetrate denim like it’s Lycra and even leather gloves are only somewhat effective. But once I got close enough to the queens and kings to yank them out with my Pullerbear (it’s Canadian!) which replaced my Weed Wrench, that deprived them of their ill-gotten generational wealth and slowed their advance considerably.

[j44ke]

A mattock is what the guys use. I've picked one up and given it a swing and nearly took the toe of my boot off. They swing it like it was nothing.