Friday, December 31, 2010
The Curious Mrs. Giveon: Zen Daddy
The Curious Mrs. Giveon: Zen Daddy: " In the Last Blog, the definition of Loppers came up as a question. My Zen Daddy, Charlie, taught me a different definition for Lopper..."
Zen Daddy
In the Last Blog, the definition of Loppers came up as a question.
My Zen Daddy, Charlie, taught me a different definition for Lopper .
He repeatedly reminded me that if I didn't take my hands off of whatever he didn't want my hands on, he would chop my loppers off. The meaning of Lopper to me was my fingers. Or anyone's fingers who had their hands on whatever Zen Charlie Daddy didn't want their hands on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loppers
Loppers are a type of scissors used for pruning twigs and small branches. They are the largest type of manual garden cutting tool. They are usually operated with two hands, and with handles around 65 cm long to give good leverage. Some have telescopic handles which can be extended to a length of two metres, in order to increase leverage and to reach high branches on a tree.
The word lopper can be used in the singular or the plural, with precisely the same meaning. The plural form, most common in speech but less so in print, seems to be on the model of a pair of scissors. The name of the tool is derived from the verb "to lop", meaning to cut branches or twigs, which in turn derives from the noun of precisely the same form: a "lop" is a period or session of branch cutting. The noun and verb first appeared in Middle English, but have no known antecedents or cognates in other languages.
The main distinction among loppers is between bypass and anvil types. Bypass loppers operate like scissors, with two sharpened blades that bypass when closed. The jaws of bypass loppers may be straight, curved, or one curved with one straight. Anvil loppers have a single sharpened blade, with a straight edge, that closes against a flattened edge, usually made of a softer metal than the blade.
Anvil loppers have the disadvantage of tending to crush rather than cut, sometimes leaving an untidy wound, more vulnerable to infection. Their main advantages are of relative strength and of being less likely to jam with fibrous material. Very hard or resilient branches can sometimes deflect a bypass lopper so that material either binds between the blades or even levers them apart, which can be dangerous both to the tool and the operator.
Both types of lopper generally have a sprung adjusting screw at the fulcrum, which can be used to tighten the blades as they loosen in use. With bypass loppers, it is also useful for releasing material jamming the blades. Anvil loppers usually have a screw for adjusting or detaching the plate, so that it can be moved to compensate for wear or replaced entirely.
My Zen Daddy, Charlie, taught me a different definition for Lopper .
He repeatedly reminded me that if I didn't take my hands off of whatever he didn't want my hands on, he would chop my loppers off. The meaning of Lopper to me was my fingers. Or anyone's fingers who had their hands on whatever Zen Charlie Daddy didn't want their hands on.
Loppers are a type of scissors used for pruning twigs and small branches. They are the largest type of manual garden cutting tool. They are usually operated with two hands, and with handles around 65 cm long to give good leverage. Some have telescopic handles which can be extended to a length of two metres, in order to increase leverage and to reach high branches on a tree.
The word lopper can be used in the singular or the plural, with precisely the same meaning. The plural form, most common in speech but less so in print, seems to be on the model of a pair of scissors. The name of the tool is derived from the verb "to lop", meaning to cut branches or twigs, which in turn derives from the noun of precisely the same form: a "lop" is a period or session of branch cutting. The noun and verb first appeared in Middle English, but have no known antecedents or cognates in other languages.
The main distinction among loppers is between bypass and anvil types. Bypass loppers operate like scissors, with two sharpened blades that bypass when closed. The jaws of bypass loppers may be straight, curved, or one curved with one straight. Anvil loppers have a single sharpened blade, with a straight edge, that closes against a flattened edge, usually made of a softer metal than the blade.
Anvil loppers have the disadvantage of tending to crush rather than cut, sometimes leaving an untidy wound, more vulnerable to infection. Their main advantages are of relative strength and of being less likely to jam with fibrous material. Very hard or resilient branches can sometimes deflect a bypass lopper so that material either binds between the blades or even levers them apart, which can be dangerous both to the tool and the operator.
Both types of lopper generally have a sprung adjusting screw at the fulcrum, which can be used to tighten the blades as they loosen in use. With bypass loppers, it is also useful for releasing material jamming the blades. Anvil loppers usually have a screw for adjusting or detaching the plate, so that it can be moved to compensate for wear or replaced entirely.
Pruners Don't Wrinkle
I broke my pruner yesterday.
Winter trimming in South Florida is about preparing for hurricanes.
When the job of trimming the higher trees comes down to dragging visiting relatives in, then out come the pruners. The pruners aren't the relatives; they're the garden shears that lop off branches no wider than 2" thick.
Regular oiling of the blades has probably kept my lopper (the larger of the garden shears) in operation for many years but all it took was one stubborn branch....dead as could be...but still wouldn't go into the woody graveyard.....so I hacked at it with my heavy lopper....
and the lopper blade shattered. :(
It was my oldest and best garden buddy....been with me through all the Hurricanes after Andrew.
So looking up websites for a new one, little did I know the variety out there.
My buddy was an Anvil variety. I don't know why they call it an anvil....it had no similarity in image. Maybe it was once upon a time hammered when the steel or iron was hot upon an anvil?
There are mostly the anvil and bypass types. Again...I have a friend who just underwent Double ByPass surgery and I hope nothing like that lopper was used on him.
Here's a good link to lopper varieties:
http://www.orchardsedge.com/tools/all/loppers
also, Amazon has a few:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=loppers&x=18&y=14
enjoy the cool weather where you don't prune from oversweating.
Winter trimming in South Florida is about preparing for hurricanes.
When the job of trimming the higher trees comes down to dragging visiting relatives in, then out come the pruners. The pruners aren't the relatives; they're the garden shears that lop off branches no wider than 2" thick.
Regular oiling of the blades has probably kept my lopper (the larger of the garden shears) in operation for many years but all it took was one stubborn branch....dead as could be...but still wouldn't go into the woody graveyard.....so I hacked at it with my heavy lopper....
and the lopper blade shattered. :(
It was my oldest and best garden buddy....been with me through all the Hurricanes after Andrew.
So looking up websites for a new one, little did I know the variety out there.
My buddy was an Anvil variety. I don't know why they call it an anvil....it had no similarity in image. Maybe it was once upon a time hammered when the steel or iron was hot upon an anvil?
There are mostly the anvil and bypass types. Again...I have a friend who just underwent Double ByPass surgery and I hope nothing like that lopper was used on him.
Here's a good link to lopper varieties:
http://www.orchardsedge.com/tools/all/loppers
also, Amazon has a few:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=loppers&x=18&y=14
enjoy the cool weather where you don't prune from oversweating.
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Curious Mrs. Giveon's Speech
The Alligator Naming Project is my ongoing interest in sharing what's wonderful about Earth to the next generations. I was taught about Florida nature by the artist and historian Martin TwoFeathers, a Blackfoot Native American living among the Seminoles. We each have the vision to share the Earth with the young generation so this project was my delight to forward on what he taught me personally about the alligators he handled. This manifested a Vision of Holistic Education where children are motivated by real nature (an actual alligator) , Fine Arts, Science accepted by the public schools since the vocabulary words and concepts came right out of the 3rd Grade Science Text, and Language Arts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL1gGSj7Leg
http://www.pbcgov.com/parks/nature/daggerwing_nature_center/alligatorcontest.htm
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/west-boca/fl-brf-gator-1222-20101222,0,7104189.story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL1gGSj7Leg
http://www.pbcgov.com/parks/nature/daggerwing_nature_center/alligatorcontest.htm
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/west-boca/fl-brf-gator-1222-20101222,0,7104189.story
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