Garden Tools II

I've done some repairs/modifications to existing tools i've had around the yard.

This first one is a digging bar. I made it from the leftover beak side of a pick-mattock i bought last year from wal-mart.the bar is 3/4 black pipe with a piece of 5/8'' rebar down the center for additional wieght. I used plumber's putty to join the pieces after grinding down a nipple on the end of the beak.This fit just perfectly into the pipe! Dad's addage of measure 2x cut 1x works well, but I've modified it a little. Measure  & cut ad nauseam infinitum.
The second piece is the companion to the digging bar. it's the mattock side. I originally bought the pick/mattock from Walmart last fall. Three weeks ago i was clearing a small weed patch and stopped to rest a moment. while leaning on the handle,it snapped with no warning! I'm just grateful I wasn't swinging it at the time! Never buying garden tools from Walmart again (and if I can I'll just craft them from what I have lying around!)
Third is a leaf rake. the handle snapped about three weeks ago, so I put a piece of 1/4-in. PVC pipe onto it, shoved 5/8-in. rebar down the center adn bolted it on. Viola!
The last one is the first one I made almost a year ago and was the first one i did. I'd just bought the new leaf rake adn rather than throw out the older one wich had some badly bent tines, I just cut off the outer ones and re-aligned the innner ones. Now I have a rake that can get into the chicken house door to clean it out. (Eeww!)
I'll post pics here later.

I decided to get the garden going again, so here are a few pics of the things I've done to get it ready for late winter/spring. I made a screen and was able to get this stuff from it.
the wood I got from some old pallets. they cost me between $1-$3 depending on if they were good or trashy. i got them from a local pet supply company.I've made two garden boxes from the old pallets as well as a compost tumbler and sifting station.

here are a few pics of the work Jill and I did on the yard today.As you can see,the chickens have worked hard this past year to give us all this good stuff. Also, you can see Jill is excited to dig into this! We got 3-4 wheelbarrows worth and topped off our large plots.

Finally, here was our supervisor, working hard to make sure we didn't abuse break times. The last pics are of our new composting/sifting station. I'm happy to say I used stuff I had at home already (not really happy about the ammount of stuff I have for use though...)

If you look closely, you'll see i have my wheelbarrow under the sifter. i've tried it already & it works great, although I must say the chickens do a much better job of breaking down the stuff into small bits. I just love those little feathered tractors!