Home Made Common Sense

Hi Everyone,

Once a year I, err... we, my wife and I, have the job of trimming two Burning Bushes. Now these are not your average run of the mill size Burning Bushes, (Euonymus alatus), for those of you who need to know. Most that you see are low to moderate to the ground. But no.... we have one that is 12 feet in diameter and anywhere from 13 to 18 feet tall; depending on the sloping ground below it. I have no idea what the circumference of this almost two story tall "bush" is, but it must be big. After strategically removing certain lower branches, I have created a summer time, permanently shaded area, that is about 15 degrees cooler. Underneath this bush, there is enough room for at least eight chairs not including a park bench. Our second Burning Bush is smaller. It is about 10 feet in diameter and about 10 feet tall.

Cutting these behemoth things is no easy feat! We are both so glad we only have to trim these once a year. Besides having to use a ladder, ed note: my friend lent me his special tall ladder, you must also use a hedge trimmer. But again, not just any hedge trimmer, or should I say attachment. I can not take credit for coming up with the idea for the attachment, another friend gave me the idea 20 years ago. But I definitely made it. But before I made it, I visited all the hardware stores in the area, another ed note: all those hardware stores are now long gone, thanks to Home Depot. Anyway, all the hedge trimmers that came with extended handles, up to I believe, 10 or 12 feet, literally felt like it weighed a ton. The different models weighed between 12 to 16 pounds. Just the weight of any one of those, was an arm killer. I knew I could never last the couple of hours needed to trim these guys. With that much weight, extended out in front of me, while I'm standing on a ladder, wasn't going to happen.

So I got creative. I found an eight foot long, 1 1/2" square aluminum pole. I was able to attach my 24" hedge trimmer on the end by only using rope to attach it. Boy Scout knots worked wonders and no it does not loosen up. My trimmer now has a reach of 10 feet. The weight of my trimmer and the non retractable handle is around 5 pounds. The lighter weight makes the job possible and doesn't wear me out. But then the inevitable happened this summer. The end of the aluminum pole broke. I knew that I wouldn't be able to find a replacement pole and being two feet shorter was not an option. Since all the hardware stores no longer exist, I went to my only option, Home Depot. I first walked straight to the hedge trimmer area to see if the new models were lighter than the ones I checked out years ago. Much to my surprise, they still weighed too much and even had shorter cutting areas than my 24". So the decision was made. I had to repair my own pole. I brought with me the shorter two foot section and found a wooden dowel that fit perfectly inside it. I cut the dowel so that it fit in the inside of the entire pole. Now it works just like it did some 20 years ago.

The moral to this story is that by my using common sense, I built an easy and much lighter extended hedge trimmer, albeit non retractable. It has stood the test of time and will continue to do so, for a long time. But best of all, since it only weighs about five pounds, it will not wear me out at all when I use it for extended periods of time.

Til next week.

Peter.