So, a few years ago, I purchased this here Wheelbarrow. I really liked the wooden handles. Anyway, the struts underneath were made of hollow tube metal and these tended to fill up with rain. Rust set in and a few years later I had a useless wheelbarrow. So I asked Google if it would sell me some new struts. No way. I could buy a new bucket or a new wheel, but no struts. So I figured I could toss this one on the scrap heap or plant flowers in it and get a new one, or work out how to repair this one. So I went to see Pancho the friendly welder at Conondale. Pancho made me some nice new struts for $100. Seems pretty dear when you could buy a whole new wheelbarrow for about $160 - BUT - I've got a wheelbarrow that is a lot tougher than a new one and uses flat galvanised steel for the struts. These should last a very long time plus I provided some $$$ to a local tradesperson. Good for me. While it was apart, I gave the timber handles a nice coat of Sikkens, then painted the metal black (looked like the Bat-barrow), then copper (I know that was just silly) then red. I do like red. So here it is ready for some hard yakka.
But first, an update on yesterday's outing to the Junk Shop. Didn't happen. We got just down the road when the Responsible Adult got a text from her Good Mate offering a girly day out at the beach, shops and cafe's. Any reasonable Paddock Worker would obviously agree to giving up his day out under these circumstances, so the Responsible Adult had a day out playing and I got to spend a fun filled day mixing cement. Wahoo for me.
You may already know that I buy my paddock tools second hand as the old ones seem to be much better than the new ones. How the planet got to this I don't know. But its not only paddock tools that may be purchased second hand but all sorts. You see there are these Old Boys who are giving up their suburban retreats in favour of Units, Town Houses, Grey Nomad Vans and even Old Boy retirement homes. When doing this, Old Boys also wish to exchange their tools for cash as their days of being Handy Men are over. Some Old Boys have particularly good tools and only want tiny bits of cash in return. So here's my new best tool a 14" Makita Compound Dropsaw. Wahoo. Look at that big old sleeper sitting there. The Makita will cut it like a chainsaw going through a birthday cake.
It was a shame that the Old Boy didn't have a table bench for it so I bought a nice Chinese one from Bunnings.
Anyway, it's Sunday morning and you know what that means - Weeding!! - O yes.
Having moved the timber around the paddock (and increased the size of my manly muscles) its time dig some holes. These three likely looking holes were a breeze. Digging in nice soft red top soil with a crow bar and shovel is easy peasy. These 3 posts will finish the front fence at the house paddock. A job that I started about 10 years ago and never got round to finishing. It will soon be off the bucket list.
Not so easy digging at La Studio. The site had already been excavated to a depth of about a metre, so I'm digging in subsoil. The fossilised velociraptor bones are pretty jarring when I hit them with the crow bar. There's only a dozen or so of these holes to dig, so I tell myself that they will all be finished by Christmas. In the hole is a very simple depth guide. I want to build a 40cm high wall so the holes need to be 40cm deep at least to take an 80cm post. Oh well, hopefully I will have a very manly 6 pack by the time all these holes get installed.
Here's my handy weeding tools. I call them Wills and Harry. Wills is a sturdy Hoe, good for chipping out shallow rooted weeds. Harry is some sort of home made blunt instrument, good for whacking things hard.
Well there you go. Weren't expecting an Ipod, were you. It's late winter and the Prince has been weeding roughly 4 hours a day for the last 20 days. About 10 more days and it'll be done. Believe it or not, hand weeding can become rather boring and it is easy to drift off to some more interesting task. Having someone tell me a story while in the paddock, I can become absorbed and just keep working.
A lot of content is free. I subscribe to a number of podcasts through the Itunes store. Itunes automatically gets these for me when I start it up - all at no cost. Our library also lends audio books which you can listen to on your trusty Ipod.
I bought the leather case that clips onto my belt at a market in Bowen.
For boring jobs like weeding, you can't go past this most useful tool.
So, a few years ago, I purchased this here Wheelbarrow. I really liked the wooden handles. Anyway, the struts underneath were made of hollow tube metal and these tended to fill up with rain. Rust set in and a few years later I had a useless wheelbarrow. So I asked Google if it would sell me some new struts. No way. I could buy a new bucket or a new wheel, but no struts. So I figured I could toss this one on the scrap heap or plant flowers in it and get a new one, or work out how to repair this one. So I went to see Pancho the friendly welder at Conondale. Pancho made me some nice new struts for $100. Seems pretty dear when you could buy a whole new wheelbarrow for about $160 - BUT - I've got a wheelbarrow that is a lot tougher than a new one and uses flat galvanised steel for the struts. These should last a very long time plus I provided some $$$ to a local tradesperson. Good for me. While it was apart, I gave the timber handles a nice coat of Sikkens, then painted the metal black (looked like the Bat-barrow), then copper (I know that was just silly) then red. I do like red. So here it is ready for some hard yakka.
