Tools everywhere, and not a camera in sight

This weekend I did a lot, not necessarily on my own land, but a friend's. Most notably I helped turn over about 100 ish sq feet for a garden bed (and brought home some orphaned hostas for the effort). And helped cut down a tree (which I hadn't done in years). He's putting in a massive gazebo hanging boxes, trellis thing. (Man after my own heart, and don't worry, there are still plenty more left on the plot and being an nth generation craftsman, it will be put to good use I'm sure.

Which brings me to the lament that I did not bring a camera...He has a lot of the traditional tools that his grandfather used, almost all of them hand crafted by the user. Including an all wood oak vice that must weigh about 70 pounds. Despite being almost 200 years old by my friend's estimation and having suffered some worm damage (and a couple chipped spots on the worm gear) it still is rock solid and can easily develop enough clamping force to put a crush mark in a piece of pine.

I went home and promptly greased up the clamps my grandfather made as a machinist. Anybody else have some gems in their shed?

timing is everything

First, thank you to rob and matt of onestraw and fat guy on a little bike respectively for the tool tips, I ordered a rake and pruners yesterday. The rake is forged so it ought to last a very long time. For those unfamiliar with metalurgy, forging is the process of softening a hunk of metal with heat and then pounding it into shape, as opposed to casting which is melting and pouring it into a form. Hot rod enthusiasts will tell you forged engine parts are about a zillion times stronger, and the same goes for tools. Silly me, I never really gave it much thought when I bought my digging fork to look and see if it was forged or not. Silly me, I assumed that something with relatively narrow strips of metal used for prying at dirt rocks and roots would by necessity have to be forged. Silly me indeed. So if I break this fork too (which was free the second time around, I will have to reconcile the ethical consideration of replacing with another free fork...trying to singlehandedly prove to the RIGID corporation that their tools are crap, or buy a forged one and save myself the repeated trips to home despot.) I just hope the rake arrives soon, I have a bed that needs some compost worked in, thus the need for a rake.

I'm also waiting on my shipment of spuds and onion bulbs from Moose Tubers. I should have started chitting 3 weeks ago, but they wont ship until after they are sure the tubers wont freeze on the truck. Admirable, but inconvenient. I guess I'm just going to throw them in the ground without chitting, they wont come up as fast but heck, it cant be that detrimental. can it?