Monday, May 10, 2010

Redneck Rake

It's gardening season, and my favorite rake broke.  Logically, I asked my sweet husband to "pretty please" fix it for me.  He obliged me.  If I would have had the slightest inkling of how he was going to fix it, I would have just bought a new one at Home Depot.  Let's look at the finished product, shall we?

On your left is the "New and Improved" rake that my husband fixed.  On your right is our other rake.  I just sat it next to the green one for comparison purposes.  Now, I'm married to a natural gas pipe welder, and as such, he took the liberty to take the broken rake straight to his welding machine.  But instead of fixing the rake head and placing it back on the old handle, he decided to make it "heavy-duty".  Don't let that green exterior fool you.  That's just coating on the pipe to keep it from rusting.  What you see there is  5 feet of STEEL pipe from the scrap pile.  Yes, I said STEEL.  Not aluminum like the yellow rake to the right, but S-T-E-E-L.  Why is this a big deal?  Because....the yellow rake weighs a whopping 3 pounds.  The green rake now weighs 12 pounds.  Yes......12 pounds. I know this for a fact because I stood on the bathroom scale and weighed it. To understand my plight, just strap a ten pound bar-bell to a normal rake and see how it works for you.  In 5 minutes your arms are guaranteed to feel like spaghetti.
The head of this rake is NEVER going to come apart from the handle again. EVER!!!

I asked my husband why he put a 2 pound cap on the end of the rake.  His reply (while chuckling), "It's a counter weight". Oh..... right..... a counter weight!  The next question that popped into my mind was why the handle was a full two feet longer than the old one, but I guess that's because it's better suited for my 6 foot 3 inch husband.
I will give my husband  major kudos for the following things:
1. He promptly fixed the rake when I asked him to.
2. He made the rake strong, as in "Sherman Tank" strong.
3.The rake will give your biceps and triceps a majorly good workout.

I am still pouting for the following reasons:
1. The rake weighs four times as much as the old one.
2. The rake is soooo strong that it will NEVER break, therefore, I may never get to buy a normal one again.
3. The rake is slightly embarrassing to look at.

My sweet husband, if you're reading this.... I think if you saw off two feet of the rake, plus the cap, it will shed about 5 pounds, and then I might be able to live with it......or maybe we could just buy a new one?????

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