Just finished edging about 50 yards of sidewalk with my handy-dandy Fiskars Edger, and I can report that it looked easier in the store.
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by John Cole| 70 Comments
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Just finished edging about 50 yards of sidewalk with my handy-dandy Fiskars Edger, and I can report that it looked easier in the store.
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Punchy
OT
Imagine if the 2nd Ameders got their way and there were no restrictions on gun purchases.
I bet the world would be faaaaaaaarrrrr safer, especially this high school. Or not.
Violet
Enough times of edging the sidewalk with a weedeater and you’ve got the same look. Much faster and easier. Probably not green technology, though.
robertdsc
I remember the old edger my parents had when I was little. That thing was a beast. I distinctly remember the whirring blade making sparks when it hit concrete once in a while.
On a patriotic note, it sure does feel good to vote here in southern California. I wear my “I Voted” sticker with pride.
licensed to kill time
The Guy On The Package is always smiling. There is no truth in advertising!
Scott
The guy on the package was smiling because he was Edging.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=edging
soonergrunt
The hell with that. I use a Black and Decker cordless trimmer/edger.
It works great.
I’m on the clock at my new job even though I’m not at work. Since I don’t have the access verification updated, I can’t work yet. It’s the company’s screw up so they’re paying me to sit around.
To kill time yesterday and today, I built a Windows Home Server from an old computer and a couple of new hard drives. I’m now streaming pictures, movies, and music to every computer in the house as well as the XBox 360 and the PS3. Automated backups of the all the computers on the network.
AWESOME!
MikeJ
@Scott: Is there any word in any language that doesn’t have a sexually explicit definition on urbandictionary?
PeakVT
Manual edgers suck. When I had a SFH, I just turned a weedwacker on its side, and went after the encroaching plants that way. The results weren’t terribly neat, but it was quick.
ETA: the B&D edger I had was weak. I gave it away and went back to a corded model.
Mnemosyne
I hear Fiskars Edger and I picture these. It sounded like a whole lot of work to go over your lawn with a pair of those.
Poopyman
@Scott: Dammit! Is there no commonplace word in the English language that doesn’t have a sexual meaning as found in the Urban Dictionary?
That was a rhetorical question. I was a teenager once, myself.
arguingwithsignposts
@MikeJ:
“Helen Thomas” doesn’t have one yet, although it will soon, I imagine.
randiego
two words: Weed Whip.
“specialty” tools like this are meant to do one thing: separate you from your money.
Poopyman
@MikeJ: Dammit! Is there nothing I can comment on here that somebody hasn’t already beat me to?
Still rhetorical, BTW.
Quaker in a Basement
The guy on the package was smiling? So are the people in Preparation-H ads. What’s your point?
middlewest
@MikeJ:
“The Big Shaggy ” isn’t on there. Yet.
Poopyman
On the topic of definitions, anybody remember the definition of “Santorum”? A mix of oil, froth, and shit? So do we now have a Gulf of Santorum off of our Southern States? It seems so appropriate.
Keith
The guy is smiling because he has successfully sold a bunch of surplus shovels to people as edgers.
Poopyman
@randiego:
Now there’s a term that should be in the UrbanDictionary, if it isn’t already.
middlewest
@Poopyman: From memory: The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.
soonergrunt
@Poopyman: Well, santorum is supposed to be the product of anal sex. I know a lot of people down that way are getting fucked, but…
Well, ok.
RobertB
The shovel blade, T-handle, and lack of motor weren’t clues enough that this wasn’t going to be a fun time?
Lisa K.
Do what I do-pay someone to do that shit.
Right Wing Extreme
@robertdsc: I am a little jealous. Here in OR. we vote by mail, no no sticker or purple finger and there would not be any more or the nonsense that my signature never matches the one on file.
My edger still spits sparks, but not as many because it is a weed whacker attachment. Don’t worry JC, it gets easier to edge with one of those things the more times you use it.
me
Bwahahahah. From here.
me
@randiego: My brother does landscaping and he uses his string trimmer for everything. Mowing grass on steep hills, trimming bushes, edging and even sidewalk blowing.
Mike E
@RobertB: This goes along with John’s other passions of candle-dipping and butter churning. Damn you urbandictionary!
ETA “…and even sidewalk blowing.” I rest my case.
Ash Can
Hey, the guy with the package is always smiling.
…Oh, wait. On the package. Gotcha. Never mind.
David in NY
Gotta dig to edge properly. And those little motors are awful polluters. I expect you all will not agree.
SiubhanDuinne
@Poopyman:
Thank gods you’ve matured (if your handle is anything to go by).
Nellcote
@Right Wing Extreme:
In CA we get the Sticker in our vote by mail packet :)
Some years the Sticker feels like the only reason to vote. Not this year though.
Anne Laurie
I’ve put a mixture of daylilies and Siberian irises along our sidewalk edge, with a cocoa mulch to discourage weeds. It looks “messy” but in a much more deliberate fashion, there are beautiful flowers from mid-March till late September, and I only have to go out and weed / dethatch a couple times in the spring and again in the fall.
Daylily leaves are great for disguising less-than-perfect landscaping. And the plants, once established, are very tough — ours flourish 4 feet from commercial truck traffic 24/7, and tons of sand/salt plow abuse in the winter. There’s a reason the little yellow rebloomers have become a staple for landscapers, but there are tons of different colors & sizes out there. (No true blues or blue-purples, though, which is why I put in the Siberians, although their bloom periods don’t overlap.)
Poopyman
@soonergrunt: That’s what an Exxon Valdez lawyer says.
me
@Mike E: I was going to just say “blowing” at first, but that’s even worse. How the fuck can I describe this without even approaching rule 34?
Poopyman
@me: Well, I would call it a “vacuum”, mostly because I consider blowers to be one of the stupidest “tools” ever invented to fill no real need. At least if you vacuum the debris up you can contain it in a composter or garbage can or something that might justify stinking up the neighborhood with 120 decibels of howl. But it’s still nothing a rake can’t do.
Don’t get me started.
chopper
@me:
hog blower?
blahblahblah
This is an amazing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRFSwA0UL9s&
Armadillo Aerospace’s VTOL test rocket. It launches, rises up to 2000 feet, cuts engines and releases a parachute, then cuts the parachute and reignites engines for a FULLY CONTROLLED DESCENT AND LANDING!
Wow. Real science fiction type stuff there. See it for yourselves. I’m impressed that a private company with a videogame programmer as founder can achieve that level of engineering excellence.
Mnemosyne
@robertdsc:
I haven’t gone yet — I was waffling since I swear we’ve already had three frickin’ elections so far this year, but there are propositions that need to go down to a horrible death, so I guess I’ll be stopping off at my polling place after work.
Keith G
@Scott: But was he wearing an Israeli flag?
me
@Poopyman: A string trimmer isn’t going to vacuum anything, really.
Bad Horse's Filly
Wow, what a bunch of dirty minds. I knew there was a reason I liked stopping by here (I was going to say coming here, but I knew where that would lead).
Anne Laurie
@David in NY:
No, I think we’d agree ‘those little motors’ were polluters — the argument would be whether the pollution was worth the trade-off. I don’t use an electric lawnmower because it’s more worthy than a comparable gas mower, but because it’s lighter, so I can use it without hurting myself or paying someone stronger to do it. And I’ve turned as much of the “lawn” on our 75×80 property as possible into mulched flower beds or ground cover (see comment above, re daylilies). But I don’t have to cope with a homeowners’ association — and our back and side yards are still mostly grass (well, green stuff that requires regular shearing), not least because we have dogs. Everyone picks a different set of purity codes they can live with.
Poopyman
@me: Your link at 33 was to the “Black & Decker LH4500 12 amp 2-Speed Electric Leaf Hog Blower / Vacuum with Leaf Bag”. String trimmer not included.
licensed to kill time
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
Well, John Cole was the one who started it with his talk about the guy’s package and all.
Montysano
Edges are overrated…. I prefer a natural, organic look (IOW, I’m a lazy DFH).
shecky
@blahblahblah:
In my mind as a kid, that was the way rocketships were supposed to behave.
jeffreyw
I spray Roundup when I need some weed wacking done. Thunderstorming now, hope it soaked in before it rained.
Here’s some dinner.
shecky
I love/hate string trimmers. They kick ass on all the odds and ends, but they can be a real pain just to maintain themselves. In fact, the fuel line on mine just rotted, leaving me once again to work for the trimmer rather than have it work for me.
JC, I used to use those rolling edgers to do the job, and still do sometimes. Kinda like these:
http://www.amazon.com/WOLF-Garten-Lawn-Edge-Trimmer/dp/B000HCTGVK
You have to use them religiously to really be effective. And they are not much easier than the flat bladed type you have, really.
MikeJ
@blahblahblah: That’s awesome. I don’t think it would have been possible back when that was the common design in sci fi. As I watched I was thinking of the number crunching going on for vertical stability. very, very impressive.
me
@Poopyman: Yes, but that was just a generic leaf blower. See here for context.
Cat Lady
@Anne Laurie:
Daylilies do grow absolutely everywhere here, don’t they. I can dig one up and literally set it down on dirt, and it doesn’t skip a beat. Once they root, they multiply like rabbits. My Siberian blue irises are gone now, and the white ones are still out but fading. Up next – crabgrass!
tkogrumpy
@soonergrunt: I hate you for your competence.
demkat620
Not to take anybody’s edge off, but did y’all see Birther Queen and all around nutbag Orly Taitz might win the GOP nod for CA SofS?
How awesome would that be? Moose and Squirrel on the ballott in November.
Lisa K.
@Cat Lady:
Daylilies have been my salvation over the years. And hosta. If you nuked a hosta plant it wouldn’t die.
Poppys spread very quickly as well, but are much more difficult to transplant.
tkogrumpy
@randiego: Amen.
tkogrumpy
@Poopyman: NO,no, by all means. It tells me I’m not the only “pure one” out there.
John Cole
Why would I use a machine when I can do it manually. I need the exercise for both my fat self and my shoulder.
Violet
@John Cole:
Because you might want to do other types of exercises for your shoulder. You might want to spend your time doing something much more interesting. It’s damned hot and miserable to be spending hours doing something manually when you can use a machine and do it in a quarter of the time.
There are a lot of reasons people use machines for things they could do manually. Are you going to start walking your internet posts through the series of tubes because you need the exercise?
slag
@Violet:
This is true. And partially explains why we’re all a bunch of fat asses.
I was unawares of the manual interwebs. Where can I find them?
Right Wing Extreme
@Montysano:
The natural look is great until your lawn eats the sidewalk. Then it’s tickets from the city , and a helluva time getting it back into the yard.
Right Wing Extreme
@slag:
I am with Slag on this one, I want to see a “manual interweb.”
Violet
@slag: @Right Wing Extreme:
Ted Stevens is hiding them.
slag
@Violet: Haha! Right next to his massage chair and sled dog.
fucen tarmal
@Right Wing Extreme:
last time i went to the manual interweb, i got “kentucky swingers guide” as the middle magazine of the three pack.
slag
Generally, I commend anyone who’s doing some of these tasks manually. Technology has its place (technically, that tool with the smiling guy on the package is a product of technology). But I don’t see how we can complain about oil spills and air pollution one minute and then try to perpetuate the mindset that helps cause that stuff the next. If anyone wants to use a noisy, polluting weed trimmer, then they can use a noisy, polluting weed trimmer. But advocating for that position? It’s weird.
Personally, I use an electric dryer to dry my clothes. But if somebody’s willing to hang out their laundry on a line, I’m certainly not going to argue with them about it. They’re using less fossil fuel, creating less pollution (air, noise, and otherwise), and getting more exercise at the same time. I’m going to admire them and figure out how to emulate them, if possible–not try to drag them down to my dryer-using level. It’s weird.
Leonard Stiltskin
@soonergrunt:
I just bought this today to replace my old corded trimmer that went dead.
I’d love to edge manually, but since I have a corner lot, with flower beds running the length of the front and side of the house, and a fence around the backyard, I would be edging at the expense of, oh, working, sleeping, and any other activities. No thanks.
soonergrunt
@tkogrumpy:
Well, don’t be too hard on yourself. I just got a BSOD while trying to respond to you a few minutes ago. The computer I’m typing this on is dying as we speak and is next in the chute for upgrade/rebuild. H pefu ly I c n get al he data b cked up to the s ver bef re it dies compl
FlipYrWhig
I use one of those edgers with a wooden handle attached to one smooth wheel and one spiky wheel on the other side. It takes a _long_ time but looks OK. It kills my shoulder. My neighbors look at me like I must be Amish.
FlipYrWhig
BTW, the Fiskars pruners I got because John liked their branded weed-puller were truly kickass.
RAM
Soonergrunt up at #6 has it nailed. I’ve had my cordless B&D trimmer/edger for years and it’s the bomb. The trimmer head swivels 90 degrees for edging and it works great, and its fast, too.
Chuck Butcher
Why would a shovel look easy and why are you doing this anyhow? Is your yard growing on your sidewalk?