What are your favorite tools around the homestead?

[Deleted]

I was reading another thread, and got to wondering what your favorite tools are around the 'stead?

What are they, and how did they change your life? 

[Deleted]

I'd have to say that one of my favorite tools, bar none, is my Milwaukee Sawzall.

I have a corded electric Milwaukee. That old thing is a work horse!

A cousin of mine gave me a well used cordless Hitachi with weak batteries. I am lucky to get 10 minutes of work with the bad batteries, which is never enough to really do any job. Replacement batteries are stinking expensive, so if I ever bought a cordless, I'd buy a new Milwaukee, I think. I like both the Milwaukee brand and the color red.

That Sawzall has saved me countless hours of work, and saved me from serious frustration!

[graywolf]

I've got lots of hand tools, power tools, welders, chain saws, etc...but the thing that has changed the property and our lives the most would be the tractor and attachments.

Tractor / loader / 6' brush hog / pallet forks / 6' snow lower / 7' back-blade.

Runners up would be chainsaws, wood splitter, and nail guns. Lots of nail guns. I love nail guns. (A hammer might work for some but I seem to have cornered the market for prebent nails.)

[mollymckee]

Our Kobota tractor and equipment, especially the loader and the snow blower! We have everything that gray wolf mentioned, as well as 2 bigger tractors and a pretty complete line of farm equipment(we grow alfalfa). My favorite is our Polaris Ranger with a dump box. We find new jobs for it all the time. Oh, the hay elevator, makes putting hay in the barn so much easier!

[hermitjohn]

Chop saw, angle grinder, and old buzzbox welder. And pile misc scrap iron. With those tools and bit creativity, can repair, modify, and adapt things on lot equipment.

Even small trivial stuff anymore (thanks to crazy prices) that I would never considered in past making for myself... Last summer needed simple eye screw for screen door hook. Ok, to start off, costs ten bucks of gas for round trip to town and didnt want to wait until next regular monthly trip for groceries. And eye screw sellers online want some crazy shipping charge so no better off. No idea why they couldnt stick it in a first class envelop and pop stamp on it since its already insane markup on one tiny eye screw, but apparently they feel need to put it in huge box that costs many dollars to mail. Or maybe they do mail it in envelope but like the extra windfall profit. Dont know. Just know I am not spending ten dollars on one eye screw.

So instead I welded a small lock washer to head of regular wood screw. Admittedly I also have a small mig welder and use it for this small fiddly kind work, but probably could done it with buzzbox if I didnt have the mig. Though it would be a bit like swatting flies with sledge hammer. My homemade eye screw worked fine.

[susannah]

Living in the woods, the chain saw would be number one. We wouldn't have accomplished getting all those dead trees down in one day yesterday without one. The sawzall, oh yeah, that's up there too. And hand saws, axes...With the crazy winds we get, the property can go from under control to a dangerous mess in very short time.

[Deleted]

My shovel. I can dig a post hole, cut a root, swing it like a scythe to beat back the blackberries, dig the garden, level a pile of compost, load a wheelbarrow, lever a rock into position, dig a ditch and set a delicate flower. It was made from a sheet of iron by a blacksmith more than a century ago. My Grandfather brought it with him from Kansas. I didn't understand, I abused it, had to put a new handle in 40 years ago. I kept that handle, made a catch for my shop door from it. Each time I open that door, I linger....

I honor him, his hope was to come to Oregon and build something, that shovel built a foundation, put down roots, left memories....James

[Callie]

Here are the tools I use the most
shovel
cordless drill
hammer
pliers
wheel barrow
winged weeder
post hole digger ( manual)
pitch fork/potato fork
tiller
small tiller
hand weeder
weed burner
sprayer
lawn mower

[sawmilljim]

After many years I have acquired most every hand tool you can think of . The thing I use most at present in the backhoe and bushhog .One time I had six paint guns but loaned them out and folks forgot to bring them home ,so I bought the new gravity feed ones . Now anyone wanting to use my tools can come and borrow the whole shop so nothing leaves the place .

[motdaugrnds]

My favorite tool is the one I have to use at the moment I need a tool....hehe

The tool that has served me in a variety of ways is an old metal rake I discovered just laying on the place. It has forks like a regular rake but has a long metal handle. I use it to pull down bales of hay, check an area for varments and even move heavy rock.

[here to stay]

Cordless drill. Pitch fork. Manure picker and matching Ezhaul garden cart.

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2015 14:29:39 GMT @jwal10 said:

My shovel. I can dig a post hole, cut a root, swing it like a scythe to beat back the blackberries, dig the garden, level a pile of compost, load a wheelbarrow, lever a rock into position, dig a ditch and set a delicate flower. It was made from a sheet of iron by a blacksmith more than a century ago. My Grandfather brought it with him from Kansas. I didn't understand, I abused it, had to put a new handle in 40 years ago. I kept that handle, made a catch for my shop door from it. Each time I open that door, I linger....

I honor him, his hope was to come to Oregon and build something, that shovel built a foundation, put down roots, left memories....James

James,

That is beautiful, and very well written.

Thank you for sharing!

[Deleted]

The ones I go to get only to find they are not there because my son has them.

Rockpile

[oggie]

Indoors: cordless drill/driver. Seems as though I'm always using one.

Outdoors: string trimmer (I mean one of those weedeater type things, not something that trims string). I hesitate to call it my favorite because I don't enjoy the noise and thrown stuff, but we many areas where stuff grows that I can't reach with any of the mowers, so I use it a lot.

In general, if I'm using the table saw, it's for something that's more fun or interesting.

[dw]

My husband has an overload for tools, tractors BUT my favorite is the riding lawn mower as I used to push one and worx weed eater...I am on my second one. I can use it all day. My husband has a big stihl weed eater that I can use about 20 min. before my back hurts.

[Ozarks Tom]

I guess the TV remote doesn't qualify, so, currently it would be my impact driver.  I'm too lazy to haul the big compressor around for nailing things, so I use screws in nearly everything medium to small.  I didn't realize before I got it you don't have to strip out screw heads to put in 3" screws without a pilot hole.  That puppy sure makes my life easier.

Probably second to that is my zero turn mower.  With over 100 trees and other obstacles to mow around it saves me hours, and a sore arm.  My wife made a seat cushion for it, and I picked up about 5 mph.  It'll mow at 15 mph, if you can stay on it.

[wolfmom]

Actually, I think my favorite tool is my computer.    I have gathered so many ideas and learned  so many homesteading things just by googling "how to...". And by reading my favorite homesteading sites.

I will never forget when I first started using it as a tool, I asked how to get out of my property with 33 inches of snow on the ground. I described the property, my truck, etc. I got an answer from a guy in upper New York State (I was in Arizona) that not only told me what to do then and in the future, but he had the exact same truck - year too!

[Deleted]

Number one for me would have to be the tractor, and a close second would be my little wire feed welder. That thing has made my other tools last a lot longer.