Ya know, my greyhound friends say there's no such thing as too many greyhounds. My gun friends say there's no such thing as too many guns. My catering friends say you can't have too many pots/pans. My photography friends have more cameras and lenses than I can count. And for a single person who lives alone and doesn't plant a 1/2 acre veggie garden every year, I have no idea why I have so many tools in my garage, except that there's no such thing as too many tools.
But even though I think I'm team hoarder, the reality is I'm team few, because even with my plethora of tools (which is a small amount compared to some folks), I still gravitate to the same 3-4 when I need to do something.
My absolute favorite, that I would buy another if I could find the exact same one from the exact same company with the exact same quality, is this guy.
As you can see, he's been well-used and ill-cared for
but he keeps on ticking. He was one of the first tools I bought when I moved in to this house 4+ years ago, and can do almost anything I need him to do.
My other favorite, that doesn't see nearly as much use, is this one:
Probably before I was born, my dad had these loppers (he used to trim trees for people in his younger days). At some point the handles broke/wore out, and he bolted metal pipe onto it in place of handles. I'm 51, and these loppers have looked like this for my entire life. To be honest, I don't know if Dad bolted the handles on, or if he got these from his dad -- never thought to ask when there were folks around I could ask. (isn't that always how it goes?)
When I needed to take down the dead christmas trees in the front, I used these loppers to get the branches out of the way, and my dad's old tree saw with the electrician's tape holding the handle together, to cut the trees (they were small trunks, obviously).
When I was moving those cubic yards of wood chips, I used my dad's old pitchfork to load the wheel barrow.
Someday I'll have to retire his old tools, but I'm hoping that's a long way in the future. Meantime, I'll keep dreaming of the pretty shiny new ones in the stores, and then walk on by without grabbing one because Dad's old tools still get the job done.
