Hand Tools and Techniques for Home Landscaping

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A cant hook with a pointed spike on the business end is called a peavy. Put a removable, hinged T-bar opposite the hook on a peavy and you have a timberjack. You can snag a log with the cant hook, then lever it up off the ground on the "T" for sectioning, and save having to sharpen your chain every time you make ground contact, as you surely will if you try to section it lying on the forest floor.

Logging tools are available in the homesteaders' catalogs and, along with climbing rigs, rope, log-home building tools, saws, chains, and loggers' protective gear and clothing, from the woodsman's supplier Bailey's, which is the only mailorder source I know for proper loggers' red suspenders, snapbrim caps, and Bailey's own Wild-Ass® pants made from 14 3 / 4 oz. cotton denim. These have brass suspender buttons featuring a portrait of Henry the Jackass, a zipper fly, and raggedy, unhemmed "roll your own cuff" bottoms. They go for $24 for one pair, $22 each for 3, and $21 each per dozen. They are guaranteed to perk you up morally and spiritually.

Clearing Brush

You can buy a bush hook or ditch-bank tool, heavy steel knives with parrot-beak inwardly curved blades, or a woodsman's pal, an unwieldy machete-sized tool with one straight edge and the other containing that same parrot-beak reverse-angle curve. These all cost around $60 and do their best work on a pull stroke. I, however, do not like pulling sharp edges toward my delicate hide.

The best tool I've found for cutting tough weeds like mature goldenrod, grape vines, woody shrubs, and small trees is a standard machete, an 18" long, bulb-end- ed knife that evolved in the tropics for cutting through jungle and for an amazing variety of other work, from trimming grass to setting stone cobbles, to self-defense, to digging yams, to cutting down coconuts, then shucking and opening them.

Health Common Sense

If you you've been sedentary for a while, if you've spent a long winter without much exercise, start slowly. If you have any doubt or any questions about your health, see a physician before going grubbing.

Use appropriate tools—not your muscles—to do the really hard work. Avoid especially lifting with your back from a bent over position. Keep your back straight and lift with your legs when raising or lowering any weight much over ten pounds.

Use common sense safety precautions and safety equipment. Stout leather, steeltoed boots and hide gloves are needed for working rock and timber, heavy trousers and long-sleeved shirts for clearing brush. Glasses or goggles are important when working the woods and essential when chipping rock or using a chain saw. Wear a hard hat when working tall timber and wear ear protection if using a chain saw for long peri ods. One solution is an all-in-one helmet with attached ear cups and face shield.

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