And the Saga Continues...

Today the lawn machines and I waged war!  My day started off full of energy and great expectations!  A cool sixty-eight degrees set me in motion.  The recent rains caused to grass around the Little Bayou House to grow to great lengths and I wanted it cut!  Today was the day! First off, I needed to do the trimming.  My weed-whacker thingy had been carefully hung in the shed just for this use.  After plying it with a full spool of new cord, I was in business!  For a good hour, I whacked!  I cut and trimmed weeds that were from a mere few inches to a massive four feet in height!  Yep, that whacker thingy was getting a good workout!  Michael, in the meantime, was pushing his lawnmower down behind the canebrake.  I smiled to think that soon the yard would be beautiful once again.  Moving into the Rose Garden, I continued the trimming around the raised Mint Bed and then started edging the roses.  Whappa-Whappa-Whappa!  Huh?  Something sounded a bit strange.  Thinking a vine had wrapped around the spool, I turned off the machine.  Nope..no vine!  Well, I would try again!  Whappa-Whappa-Whappa!  Oh, no.  Something told me that I had a problem!  That weed-whacker and I fought for the last time...and I won!  I waved to Michael.

By now, Michael knows that if I stop his mowing, it is because something..umm..terrible has happened to whatever lawn machine I am using.  He is used to coming to my rescue.  He has reattached wheels to lawnmowers, found lost gas tanks that were somehow knocked off the mowers and rewired weed-whackers!  "What, now?" he queried.  "Ummm, it is making a weird noise!" I replied. He turned on the machine..Whappa-Whappa-Zing!  Oh, that was new!  Michael gave me "that" look and said, "Sounds like Pop will be buying you a new Weedeater.  I was in denial!  "No!  This one is still good!  You just need to tighten whatever is making that weird noise..and I never heard the "Zing" before."  That was when he decided to show me the hole in the side of the plastic housing around the motor.  I was bewildered to say the least! "How did that get there?" I asked as if it just suddenly crept up and appeared since I handed him the machine.

By this time, Michael was in the process of taking the thing apart.  Well, no stupid weed-whacker is going to ruin my day..I had grass-cutting to do!  I cranked up my new mower (I killed the old one last month!) and started cutting.  Leaving Michael to deal with the now-defunct trimmer, I was determined to finish the yard.  About ten minutes later, I saw Michael coming to the area where I was working.  He reached out and handed me some little metal ball bearings.  "I think there should have been more than four in the thing. That is what shot out the side of the plastic housing."  Well, now!  That is about as stupid of a thing as I have ever heard!  I asked him why they shot out and he told me that perhaps it was tired.  What?   Anyway, the machine lost the battle.  My weed-whacker and I have parted ways and not on good terms.  Another one bit the dust!  Gone!  Kaput!

Later, Michael mentioned that I sure have a way of killing machines.  How do you like that?!  I gave him the cold, simple truth...I am blazing trails!  I take those machines where no machines should ever go!  I make life easier for the next person who comes along to cut behind me!  I...well...I do break a lot of lawn equipment.

Weed trimmer reborn!

  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am hard on lawn equipment.  Give me any piece and I will use and abuse it until it is literally falling apart!  I have done this to hand tools, lawn mowers and weed trimmers. Each piece is lucky if it makes it through one season without being totally mutilated! Handles of hand tools seem to break with no due stress but it does not end there...I have been known to break the metal blades of hoes and shovels!  Lawn mowers seem to lose their blades, wheels and even gas tanks when in my use!  Weed trimmers...don't even get me started!  I blame it all on inept workmanship during the making of the trimmer...it cannot be all my fault!  Things are just not made like they once were!  That's it!  Inept workmanship in the factory!

Anyway, that said, not all is lost!  After breaking my second weed trimmer in as many seasons of use, Michael started taking the tools apart to see just what was the problem.  Perhaps he could salvage the unit if he did a bit of altering on parts.  That did not happen.  There was no hope for either machine..I had killed them both.  BUT!  Inside he found some great wire! I was watching him tear into the machine and noticed some bright copper wire!  Forget repairing the weed trimmer.  That wire was now destined to the craft room!  I was so elated...Michael not so elated.  He had to struggle to unwind the wire from some weird part of the weed trimmer.  The wha-cha-ma-call-it inside was wound with yard after yard of copper wire but was also armed with some sort of metal housing.  Stupid factory folks had to make it nigh on impossible to unwind their wire!  However...Michael did!  And I now had spool after spool of assorted sizes of copper wire all waiting to become some magical art piece! And it did....

After much working, I was able to turn out a relatively nice-looking brooch!  It is in the shape of a seahorse and is about five inches in length.  The really neat thing about this piece is that with the exception of the pin backing, the entire piece is "recycled art"!  All parts are reclaimed materials that would have normally wound up in the trash!  Salvaged art!  What more could you ask?  This beautiful seahorse brooch was destined for the dump had the vivid imagination of an artist not seen the possibilities in a old weed trimmer, a moth-eaten, beaded sweater and two beads from a broken necklace!  I think my project might just be the beginning of something new for me!  I might just start raiding broken lawn equipment for possible jewelry items!  So see...all is well that ends well!