Today was neighbourhood-junk-exchange a.k.a street sale day. I was looking for yard tools for my son’s soon-to-be-purchased house. Though I didn’t find anything for him, a neighbour down the street was selling his 5hp chipper/shredder because he was tired of storing it. I just had to try it out this afternoon: after I turned my compost piles, I had a pile of sticks and brush to chop. The machine is noisy but it works great. It even chops up pine cones into little bits if I feed a few at a time into the branch port rather than using the brush hopper. I had planned on buying an electric shredder but this is more powerful and I paid half the price for this apparently not used very much model.

Now I guess I’ll just throw out my electric vacuum-mulcher with the chipped plastic impeller blades. I had dissassebled it but found the impeller and motor shaft were one unit. I hadn’t gotten around to taking apart the motor. Even on the Internet I couldn’t locate parts for the unit. Besides it is those pine cones or the “cores” left by the red squirrels that break the impeller blades when I suck up a pile of leaves with those hidden inside.

Today’s weather was great for a 12 km run. The park and ravine paths are dry for the most part and the air was cool. Instead of wearing a hat, I now put sunscreen all over my head and wear a sleeveless top to avoid a “farmer’s tan.”