Another hardware store adventure
A couple of weekends ago DS1 broke the ratchet lopper that we had while he was trying to cut through a small sapling. (note: loppers are not for harvesting trees; they’re for trimming trees or brush)
So today, it’s Work Your Kids Like Illegal Immigrants Day again and I decided the least I could do was provide them with tools. So they didn’t have to gnaw the trees down like furry woodland creatures.
Home Depot had a wide selection of loppers. Small hand-held, 21″, 28″, 30″. Some had gears some only one pivot point. Now, the point of the ratchet is that people with limited upper body strength can cut through something thicker than a dandelion stem. The gears and sing pivot points don’t give you any advantage with this. I was looking for a ratcheted tool because I know that I’m going to be using long after these boys go off to tell tales about me to their therapists.
So, I went to the not-quite-as-nearby ACE Hardware store. Smaller selection but they did have a small hand-held size ratcheted anvil pruner. I didn’t see any ratcheted loppers so I asked the young man standing around in the red vest.
Me: “Do you have any ratcheted loppers? I saw a ratcheted pruner but I didn’t see a lopper.”
Red Vest Boy: “Loppers?”
Me: pantomiming cutting branches “yeah the things you trim branches with? I want one that’s ratcheted.”
Red Vest Boy: without moving a step from the central aisle where I found him “Uh, no. Probably not.”
Me: sarcastically “Ok. Well, thanks for looking.”
Red Vest Boy: still without actually moving his body “Uh, I could look in the back…”
Me: “No. That’s OK. I’ll check with your competitor.”
Onward to the yet-a-little-further-away Menards. They had an even smaller selection of loppers but one of them was a ratcheted one. Not very nice. No lock and the handles are a bit big for my hands. But it was ratcheted and it was $16 (verses $40 for the non-ratcheted geared one.)
So, 3 stores and 25 miles later the boys can get to work. Me? I’m drinking iced tea and psyching myself up to clean out the refrigerator.
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
