Spring Has Sprung, Bring On The Tools

Wow I can't tell you how excited I am that it's springtime finally. Well it may not be spring officially on the calendar but the weather has changed and I was able to get outside and get some fresh air and work in the yard. Hallelujah. I don't think that it has escaped anyone's attention that I am a bit of a tool fanatic. So today I'm going to share with you one of my new favorite tools. It is an Agrifab Manual Lawn Sweeper, and as the name suggest it is fabulous.

 I begged the hubs for a lawn sweeper because there are two solid rows of pine trees down the side of the back yard, as well as on both sides of my corner lot, and one in the front yard. And if that alone weren't enough to warrant a happy dance at the purchase of the lawn sweeper, in addition to the pine trees, there are two large live oak trees in the front yard.

For the last several years I have done everything I can to make picking up pine needles and oak leaves as easy and efficient as possible, electric blower, gas blower, cordless blower, but this tool makes all those years seem futile. Two of the three blowers are pictured here.

We first considered a lawn sweeper to pull behind the riding lawnmower, the one I mentioned here. However, with the size of the riding lawnmower and the size of a lawn sweeper it just seemed as though it was not something that we could maneuver in the yard and around the obstacles.

After much searching on the internet, reading reviews and comparing prices I finally decided on the Agrifab.  Through the magic of Amazon Prime and a fantastic deal I soon had my very own Agrifab lawn sweeper. I couldn’t wait to put it together the moment it arrived.  After the kids went to bed I assembled it in my living room, where it sat until the weekend. Then first thing Saturday morning I took it out to the back yard and told my husband I was only going to try it out and that I would be right back in.


Fast forward 40 minutes and the entire back yard was done and a giant pile of pine needles neatly piled and waiting to be bagged.  I know my neighbors must have thought I was crazy, picking up pine needles in my PJ’s, with my hair all crazy, pacing back and forth with my new toy. I even sent a Facebook post to my Mother to show her how clean it was. 

This past weekend I used it to clean oak leaves in the front yard. You can see what a great job it does for the amount of leaves these trees can drop.   

After each pass with the sweeper on the oak leaves in the front yard, there is a noticeable difference. If you like to remove every single leaf then this is not for you, but if you don’t mind mulching a leaf or two in the grass then you will for sure appreciate the job that this tool does. 

Now after I have all the leaves corralled, how do I make light work of the bagging you ask? Two other favorites I have to mention.  First my leaf scoops, these things make a regular appearance for yard clean up, because they pick up so much and I don’t need to wear gloves. It is like having an extra pair of hands.

Mine are bright green, they are laying here next to the rake that I use to keep my pile nice and together. 

And last, but certainly not least, a tool I borrowed from my neighbor for months before buying two of my own, the Bag Butler. Before I married the hubs I did yard work alone, and this handy tool made it possible to bag easily without someone to hold open the bags. 

So there you have it, my tool tip for the day.  The Agrifab is something I use year round, pine needles in the fall and leaves in the spring.  It is a good investment in my book.  Come back soon to see all the projects I managed to squeeze into this sunny weekend we had.  I can’t wait to share.

Critter Catcher

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween.  I must say that I had a spook-tacular day, despite the fact there was a 90% chance of rain at 6 o’clock last night, poor trick-or-treaters.  The two that came to my door got a half a bowl of candy each, yay!

Today I am posting a quick fix for the back yard to make a new fence critter proof, mixed in with a couple Tool Talk tips.  Being a corner lot has its advantages to be sure, extra square footage and only one fence neighbor to name a couple.  However you often end up home to the block's utility needs.  Case in point: There is a pad mounted transformer in the back corner of my yard.  For many years it was surrounded by a makeshift fence that consisted of some chain link precariously placed against the wooden fence separating me and my neighbor.  Several months ago I was contacted by the electric company who informed me they had been working on the transformer and wanted permission to take out the make shift chain link and build me a wooden gate to give them easier access.  Well again, I’m no fool I immediately said yes and gave them my blessing.  When I returned home that day I had a shiny new fence/gate that not only hid the transformer but gave me more privacy. 

Now there was the trouble of Harry.  Harry is a sweet little Dachshund we adopted from the Feliciana Animal Welfare Society. He is named after one of my son’s favorite books Harry the Dirty Dog, but in reality it’s more like Harry Houdini.  

 For starters he can spring a good 4 feet into the air, he has been known to clear the wall separating the carport from the back yard, and has used every bit of patio furniture I own to facilitate his escapes.  The gap left at the bottom of my fence was simply not going to work for us. 

 

 I grabbed some wire mesh I had on hand, an oscillating tool, gloves, tape measure, staple gun, and a couple extension cords. 

 I began by measuring the length of both sides of the gate.  Here’s a handy tip, if you need to take a few measurements for a quick project like this one, use a piece of painters tape to write down the numbers on your measuring tape. 

I laid out the mesh and clipped it to my table to hold it still.  While cutting my second piece I burn up my oscillating tool and ended up cutting the remaining mesh with utility scissors.  It wasn't easy, but it worked. I need to invest in some tin snips.

With the two pieces cut to length I hauled the needed tools to the back corner to get started. I wanted to mention how much I use the extension reel below.  It brings the outlet closer to me so that I don't need to link 200 feet of extension cord.  It is so handy for large power tools and long expanses like this project.  

 I began by cutting away some of the brush with a pair of B&D Alligator Loppers I bought off the clearance rack at Lowe’s.  I don’t mind buying things out of the box to get the better price. 

 

Also you can see the Velcro straps I keep on the end of my cords to secure the plugs and keep them from coming apart while I am working. 

I then stapled the wire mesh to the bottom of the gate using my power stapler.  I went back with a hammer to tap in any staples that weren’t flush and checked for any puppy sized gaps.

That’s all there was to it.  I have said before that I want to share the truth and nothing but, so I will admit that the plan was to cut the second piece on an angle to account for the change in grade, but I was in a hurry to finish this project before I had to picks up the boys and stapled it on upside down. Arrgh!?!

 

But in the long run it worked so I figured when I put a new flower bed back here and plant a tree no one will notice.  Another project tackled, bring on the next.  

Tool Talk: Piece of Cake

I know it may seem a little soon for another Tool Talk, but it has been a crazy weekend.  The youngest has a chest cough and cold and after a quick trip to the after hours clinic I spent a good part of the weekend rocking a sick baby.  What does that mean? It means another Tool Talk, yay!

This is about kitchen tools; a few that I simply could not live without.  Even with all the baby rocking this weekend, I found time to bake a cake for my nephew. He is in the Navy, and about to be stationed in Japan for two years.  I made him the strawberry cake found here, and I decided to highlight a few things that made this job easier. 

Let’s start with the Kitchen Aid.  The Kitchen Aid really deserves a post all its own, and doesn’t require much said except I don’t know why I waited so long to add this one to my arsenal. 
 

 

The star of this post is parchment paper.  This one gets a lot of use in my kitchen.  Because of parchment paper I rarely ever have to wash a cookie sheet in my house, I never worry about cakes sticking, and it even makes an occasional appearance in craft projects. 

 

If I’m using a round pan I grab a pencil and trace my pan, I fold the paper in half until the pencil marks line up and I channel my inner kindergartner and cut a circle just inside the pencil lines. I pop it into the pan and I’m good to go.  Today I am using a 9x13 so the process it slightly different.  I roll the paper up and hold it in the pan to estimate the size, I then use my kitchen scissors the snip the rolled up paper to the proper width. 

I unroll and roll it in the other direction and repeat for the length.  I use Pam for Baking on the sides and a little spray in the middle to keep the paper from moving while I pour. 

 

  

The other tools that I pulled out for today’s baking are a raised cooling rack, my favorite scraping spatula, good oven mitts, and my cake cutter to cut the layers. 

 

 You can click on any one of these to see where I got them.  Enjoy your Sunday, and I will be back on Monday with a post to start off the week. 

Tool Talk: Opposites Attract

Today I am going to begin a new series that I will call Tool Talk. This isn’t going to just be about power tools, although they are one of my favorite subjects.  This is going to be about any tool that you need to get a job done. Be it indoors or outdoors, if it’s about the tools needed to get the job done right and efficiently this is where I’ll talk about it. 

I am going to begin with one that may seem simple, but it is the biggest multi-tasker in my home. Also, share a tip to make those simply little fixes a lot easier.  This is my favorite screwdriver. I have one of these in the house, storage room, and each glove compartment of our cars. 

 

They are inexpensive and basically 6 tools in one.  It has 2 sizes of Phillips head and plan screw drivers, and 2 size nut drivers.  Where in the world can you get 6 tools in one handy unit?
 

I really could not survive without this one and you’ll find it in a pencil cup on my desk in the kitchen.  You’d be surprised how many things need tightening around the house on a regular bases and it is great for all the child and baby electronics that need frequent battery changes.  Monitors, Leapsters, remote control toys you name it we’ve change it.  You get the picture. 

 

Recently I was changing out some friction latches on the kitchen cabinets, because several of them were broken and I was tired of staring at open cabinet doors.  During this project I remembered a little trick that is so simple and so effective.  These latches required very small screws that are often hard to handle, and my favorite tool is not magnetic.  So I pulled a document magnet off the fridge and turned it over to reveal the mega-magnet on the underside. 

 

I gently rubbed the screwdriver head back and forth across the magnet.  I won’t go into the physics of how this works, just know that it does. I now had a magnetic screw driver to continue my project without dropping tiny, impossible to find, screws all over the kitchen floor. 

 

To exhibit how this will work on just about all tools I brought in a couple more screwdrivers from the store room.  The yellow handled one took a few tries but it did eventually proved my point, this is such a quick an easy trick. 

 

There you have it our first Tool Talk.  Have a great day and be sure to check in for more Tool Talk to come.