The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

I guess I spilled the beans about my method for getting Don to do most of the outside chores—I call it the “easy peasy” yard clean up method. It is the way I slowly ease out of the picture as he does the actual work without his noticing. But, there is an additional element that I also employ—I call it “Dazzled by Gadgets” where I introduce useful tools to make short work of any job through the fun of using gadgets.

I first noticed the allure that gadgets had on my dad. If there was a gadget to do a job, even though the gadget would add hours to the project, my dad had to have it. I remember I when was fourteen my mom and sister went to Minnesota leaving me in charge of Dad. Of course, the first thing he did was buy a new gadget. It was a power spray painter that supposedly did everything except cook chili. Well, after church Dad decided to spray our redwood fence—on a windy day. Needless to say not only did he cover the fence, the concrete patio, and all the shrubs he also covered himself and his Sunday best clothes in the fine mist of red. Being at a total loss on how to clean the evidence from his clothes I kept adding bleach to the wash until the fabric almost disintegrated but the paint remained. Needless to say that was the last time Mom left me in charge.

I love gadgets. Most gadgets have been developed to do a job more easily or efficiently. For instance, my personal favorite is the hula hoe. It is the old-fashioned scuffle hoe that severs the head of a weed from the base just below the dirt surface. The hula hoe makes weeding easy and fast plus it is a tool made in America. I also love the arsenal of gopher exterminating and repelling products we carry at our store. Our Wilco Gopher Midgets deliver grain to the gopher underground runs. The grain has been treated to become the last meal for the gopher and is considered a one-bite formula. When we sell our fruit and shade trees as well as our shrubs we always recommend the pre-made gopher baskets we carry. The plant is protected by a basket of wire by keeping gophers and moles from getting to the root system.

Whatever your project we have the gadgets to make the job easier. And, once the gophers are under control and it is time fill the planters we have planting mix and nitromulch in bulk. And, to make it pretty, we now have Walk-On Bark in bulk as well as decorative rock.

Start right. Start here. Pioneer True Value Home Center in Old Town, Tehachapi. [See their ad on the Front Page for some great gadgets.]