Darned clever strawberry beds:
A friend took me into the hills where people she knows made these neat raised strawberry beds. Around here, if you plant strawberries, what the slugs don’t eat the birds will. So these folks found (or as my friend put it, “found”) a culvert, sliced it lengthwise and built it into raised beds. The beds are lower on one end for drainage, and the contraptions on top are covered with hardware cloth and rigged so that they can be raised at the plants grow.
Since every one of my hoity-toity certified-organic strawberry plants disappeared without a trace a week after I planted them, I’m keeping this in mind for next year.
Neighborhood family values
One of our local high school boys:
And a mother and her well-raised daughter:
There must have been something special going on, you suppose?
ADDED: The friend who hauled me around emailed this a.m. to inform me that that the “daughter” is another boy. My oh my. Whatever are small towns coming to? 😉
And once again … garage sales provide
I’ve noted before that garage sales have an amazing way of providing things I need. A few months back I found a luggage caddy ($2) to carry my overloaded bug-out bag. It was good, but I worry a little about its stability.
Here’s a superior substitute ($5) from today’s garage sale:
Yes, it’s a granny cart like old ladies tote their groceries in. But very commodious. The basket will hold my gear securely and the big wheels make it more stable than the luggage caddy. Plenty of uses around the house and yard. And hey, with fuel prices soaring and the nearest grocery story only a longish walk from home, I wouldn’t be averse to hauling groceries in the thing, if it comes to that. Folds up flat for compact storage when not in use.
And before you yell that this isn’t a good idea because every bug-out bag must be a backpack, remember that my kit is customized for one particular scenario, and that I can, if necessary, pull the kit out of the cart and backpack it.
Granny Carts Rock!!!
After one trip to the local supermarket with the plastic bags cutting off the circulation to my fingers and causing who knows what kind of nerve damage, I said to myself “there must be a better way”. One television program later I saw the answer to my question as a felons car trying to escape the police smashes a granny cart to bits. I immediately got myself two high performance granny carts (nice pneumatic tires). One is used for groceries the other to move laundry or boxes as needed. I use these puppies more than the hand truck dolly capable of moving 600LB. Being a 30 something male, I used to get odd stares while walking home with the thing loaded up. But those stares quickly turned to questions of “Where can I get one of those?!”.
So boo on anyone that disses the granny shopping cart.
Such a sporty color red, no less!!…That looks brand new, you lucked out….
That strawberry idea looks cool….did you ask where the other half of the culvert went to (adding a *hint* to your voice)?????…..I wonder how heavy that is?!
The “puppy” on the couch is cute, too….:)
Hi Granny Wolfe,
Just kidding. My Grandmother had one of those she used when she walked to the stores when I was a kid.
On another note, speaking of Garage Sales, see if you can pick up one of these.
I’ve just finished reading ‘Breakdown’ by William W Johnstone. Yes, that Johnstone, of the Ashe series and, I believe of those cowboys hack novels as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Breakdown-William-W-Johnstone/dp/0786003677/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308463529&sr=1-2
It’s about a guy who starts out as a flaming Liberal, gets into some hard situations, have the assumptions of his life tested. He ends up fighting the bad guys who are the religious rights and… well you’ll have to read the book.
Recommendation: This is a good book, don’t expect to find “The Answers” from it. Its strictly entertainment with some thoughts in it.
A granny cart attached to an adult trike = perfect transportation! With that combo, 80% of my travel would be license-less, gas-less, and insurance-less.
As a 50’s something cabinet maker, I value the wheel. If it’s in my shop and doesn’t have wheels it doesn’t move! Great find.
Heh. Here I was embarrassed about buying a granny cart, only to find that they’ve got serious fans — including 30-something guys and dedicated DIYers. I feel much better now. 😉 It’s still going to feel weird the first time I ever wheel the thing to and from the grocery store.
Oh hey. I know. I can decorate it with the fox tail Tail Girl gave me at the Mother Earth News Fair!
naturegirl — I didn’t have to ask where the other half of the culvert was; it was in a second strawberry bed near the end of the one in the photo. No worries on that count, however. I inherited probably a dozen fragments of culvert when I bought this house. Although I’ve forced most of them onto other people, I still have enough left to make a couple of beds of my own, should I choose to go that route. And I’m glad you like my “puppy.” I got that (another garage sale purchase, of course) in hopes that it would deter the dogs from wanting to be on the couch. For the first few weeks, they actually seemed to believe the couch was another dog’s territory …
That reminds me. Do your supermarket have those S hooks for hooking on your granny cart? Supermarkets used to have them, but I haven’t seen them for quite a while now.
I don’t see hooks from your own cart either, so I suggest you get a couple. Otherwise it going to be awkward in pushing and pulling two carts around and that cart don’t look all that good for inside supermarket duty.
Jim B. … I have no idea. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of S hooks at grocery stores. In any case, I don’t plan to haul two carts at a time — not if I can help it. But S hooks could definitely be a good idea for suspending items from the cart, if that’s ever needed. Thanks for the thought.
Dressing (and making) boys up to look like girls = You’re living in the wrong place.
I had one of those granny carts when I lived in an apartment 10,000 miles from the parking lot – very handy. But for the bugout bag, you’re pretty much required to rig yourself an armored wheelbarrow. Don’t forget the peanut butter.
Used to be the hooks were already on the front of the carts, that’s where people used to “hook” on those granny carts while they were shopping.
As for Joel, et tu Gunkid? ; )
LOL, Jim B. I think you win the prize. I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to respond to Joel’s GunKid reference.
For those who never witnessed a discussion forum being ruined by the infamous John Melvin Davis aka GunKid and a thousand other aliases:
http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/07/goodbye-gunkid.html
http://www.voy.com/9259/7854.html
And Joel, you had a granny cart, too? Okay, with all you guys finding them so useful, how come I’ve never seen anybody but doddering 80-year-olds in orthopedic shoes and support hose toting the things?
Speaking of John Melvin Davis, he may reared his armored wheelbarrow around soon.
http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=84034-012&x=79&y=7
The newbies who don’t know what the fuss about Gunkid was about may soon find out.
And Joel, you had a granny cart, too? Okay, with all you guys finding them so useful, how come I’ve never seen anybody but doddering 80-year-olds in orthopedic shoes and support hose toting the things?
The dead of night is your friend when you’re embarrassed about something, Claire. Also, mine wasn’t pink.
Claire, I’m surprised your dogs didn’t get suspicious after the second day of the “guard dog” not eating….even a dog would question that, LOL…..
I am giggling here, with all of this granny talk…underlying the embarrassment is the obvious fact that grannies were pretty smart to have one of em because they’re (OMG!) PRACTICAL….especially if someone walks alot (or shops alot, hehe)……
I dunno how it’ll handle for your bug out plans, Claire….you should do a trial run and see if it holds up to being an ATV…..you might have to look into knobby wheels for it – maybe a mini lift kit, remote control motor, once it’s all tricked out THEN add the animal tail ;)…..
If you’re gonna read the GunKid tales, ypu also have to peruse the Gecko45 Mall Ninja saga . . .
http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/
Absolutely classic. Includes the proper use of duct tape for attaching trauma plates to your gear.
😉
Around here we call those things crackhead carts. So hey, at least looking like a granny is preferable to looking like someone who doesn’t know where they are and probably hasn’t bathed since 1998.
(Yeah, you know your city is pretty much done in when crackheads are seen more often than grannies…)
RE: GunKid
He was spotted in a few online forums rather shortly after his release last year, more’s the pity.
I had some GunKid encounters way back when, which inspired one of the tales in my anthology, The Anarchy Belt (free download at my website: bussjaeger.org).
Joel, the flaw in the GunKid Tactical Wheelbarrow(tm) is that you don’t really need one, if your plan is to NOT stock your own goodies but just go out and kill another suvivalist when you run low. Somehow, I don’t see Claire doing that. [grin]
RE: Cart- Mark me down as another believer. For a while, I was shopping for myself and my mother, at a store a few blocks from home. The cart was great.
Make a racing cart out of it! Hey, there’s racing barstools..As far as the strawberry bed goes-I wonder if you could slice old tires in half and do the same? Old tires are easier to find.
I had one of those in grad school. I lived in Chicago and it was just too much to lug groceries around in plastic bags without it. Very practical!