Two olde dawgs: The seasons are changing, what to do now?

By Ian Leatt

Your tools work hard for you - why not show them a little love?

The weather has changed, no more warm summer breeze. Now a north wind starts to blow, the nights are drawing in, while a light frost greets me in the morning. The leaves have changed from a lush dark green to orange, red and vibrant yellow. Clearing up the leaves, I start to think about what’s to come.

It is at this time of year when one should look at cleaning all the tools of spring and summer and like the many perennials in the garden, put them to slumber, clean and ready for next year’s use.

Many of us tend to just put tools to one side and forget about them until we need them once more. Something about this and my growing up; my father’s words embedded inside my mind: “Always clean your tools after use Ian, so that when you next need them, they are ready to go!” I never really understood the reasoning when I was younger, I mean why would I, a tool is a tool, is it not? Now that I have aged somewhat I have to agree. Not only that but I get so many more years out of them!

Moving into a new home and not having anywhere to put tools can be a bind. I happened to have mentioned it to the old dawg. “Why don’t I stop by one of these days and give you a hand?” Gord mentioned. Always helps to know someone who can, right!

As I start to gather the fallen leaves a truck pulls up behind me, “Hey there,” I hear a voice call out, followed by a smiling face. Gord never frowns, always happy. “You have a long way to go brother,” he tells me pointing at my pile of leaves, or rather small pile; I hadn’t been gathering the leaves that long.

“I have a couple of hours to spare and figured that now was as good a time as any to show you what I do with my tools through the winter time.” Gord strapping on his tool belt strolls over to the garage. Scratching his head, he looks back at me “you haven’t done anything yet!”

“Um, well I didn’t know you were coming over. Anyway, you never did explain what you had in mind.” I replied, trying to defend myself.

“Simple really,” he says. “All you need are some old 2-by-4 pieces of timber and some nails.” I scurried along behind as he whittled out what I needed to have.

Hammer, nails, drill, drill bit, screws, spirit level. All collected and ready for the task at hand.

“First off, have you cleaned the tools that are not going to be used through next year?” Gord asks.

“Cleaned yes, even WD 40’d.” I replied, smiling as if I was trying to impress a school teacher.

“Right, this is all you need do. Line up the tools along the wall, so we get an idea as to what will go where. Size is always important. It is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, everything has a place.”

Once we are both satisfied Gord then places a piece of timber on the wall with the level on top, ensuring we put it in the correct place, then screwing in several screws each end we slowly start to fill the wall. As each piece finds a new home tools are marked as to where they will reside.

Once finished, Gord and I stand back. Simple, clean and tidy. Every home should have one.