Top 20 Homesteading Tools

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4. A GARDEN SOIL RAKE

Forget about the plastic or metal spring-tined leaf broom used for removing nature's autumnal debris; you'll need a wide, forged-steel, rigid-tined garden rake as described in Lehman's Non-Electric Catalog.

This garden rake is heavy-headed and well-balanced, ensuring that you needn't strain the small of your back or wrench the muscles in your arms and wrists bearing down on the handle to break clods and rake rocks out of newly tilled garden soil to make a smooth and level planting bed.

You'll want to act soon, though. Lehman's stock is low and they may not have more on order.

5. A REAR TINED ROTARY TILLER

Garden Way's big, red Troy-Bilt Horse tiller was the first big seller; indeed Garden Way Manufacturing popularized the home garden rear-tined tiller back in the '60s and 70s. Though the old Horse has been retired out to pasture, shaft-and-gear tillers are still available in a whole stableful of equine-named models and power ranges. Country Home Products markets a similar design, while BCS America sells a commercial-grade tiller built in Italy for local small-plot farmers and vintners. BCS ( http://www.bcsamerica.com ) walking tractors and tillers are equipped with commercial grade, American-built gas engines, so most common problems are readily fixed by any local small-engine mechanic.

If you keep the oil sumps topped off with quality lubricant, make sure the air cleaners are fresh and all bolts are tight, little will ever go wrong with these gear- and shaft-driven machines. If you can't find repair parts at the local small-engine shop, they are available direct from the manufacturers by FedEx or overnight mail.

No other machine is as useful as a cast-iron, steel and bronze, rear-tined tiller when it comes to breaking up garden-size plots of meadow or backyard lawn sod. A good tiller will almost effortlessly accomplish spring and fall soil preparation, and is essential for the organic gardener who wants to incorporate sand, manure, compost, leaves and other natural soil enhancers into the land.

These machines are not without their drawbacks, however. Vines and cornstalks will bind up in the tines so tightly that they'll have to be cut out, and the cooling fins on the head of aircooled engines must be routinely cleared of clogging debris. If you fail to do so, the engine can overheat, the cylinders will bind up and the bearings will seize - and you'll have to rebuild or buy a new engine (it actually costs less to buy a new one). You can easily swap engines by removing three or four bolts and installing a drive pulley and belt or chain to the power output shaft. Order replacement engines, belts, pulleys, pulley-removers and shaft keys from Northern Tool 8r Equipment.

CARPENTRY AND WOODWORKING

6. A CORDLESS DRILL/DRIVER

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