I use a wheelbarrow but, I also have one of these handy dandy carts, makes hauling things around the yard simple. They come with sides as well, you could line with cardboard or burlap and add your compost, it's lower the the ground and more stable and easy to pull. Just a thought
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I looked through all the family albums but could not find any photos of my beloved wheelbarrow, but I'll take one today. I found several portraits of my chipper. (Guess who's my favorite.)

Lowe's has a kind of neat thing that my friend gave me for my birthday last year. I just bought one for my sister-in-law's birthday last week, and a second one for myself. It's a plastic barrel shape, with a scooped front, on wheels. $25 It's nice for trucking smaller amounts than the average wheelbarrow holds. I've moved large plant pots with it and I fill it with potting soil and bring it in the house when it's time for seed planting. It's also how I moved my outboard around last year. It's quite rugged. I really like it. It would be ideal for someone who finds a wheelbarrow unwieldy.

Do not throw your shovel in it, though, from ten feet away. My first one now has a crack in the bottom and will no longer hold water.

Hi guys, I use a baby barrow that was my Mom's, but have seen the one AnnPat is talking about at Lowe's and just drooled. I envision a multitude of things that they can be used for in and out of the garden. I put it on my gift wish list with a dishwasher, chipper/shredder/mulcher, cold frame and compost sifter. My hopes are not high as the dishwasher has been on the list for 15 years now...I have even threatened to trade in hubby's john deere for a manual whirly push mower, no dice....(I figure if a guy has a garage full of tools to make his life easier, then a girl should have her own set of power tools, just sayin')

AnnPat, what kind of shredder do you have?

I was hoping you'd ask, sheaviance.

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I don't have any pictures yet, but my latest invention I am working on is a home compost spreader for the lawn. No one makes a low cost one for the average home owner, other than the barrel screen types, but I have seen mixed results on those. After searching for a drop spreader for months, I found one on Craigslist (older gentleman cleaning out his garage), locally for $7. Its an older all steel Scott's drop spreader with an agitator that rotates horizontally. Has a double steel handle so this is going to be the cats meow. I need to enlarge the opening and modify the handle to hook up to my rider, and and add some higher sides for holding more compost. I will proudly display pictures and and how to stpes if this works. To tell you the truth I am frustraded that I cant find any company that makes anything for under $800. i even begged Earthway to consider, but they say there is no market for them.

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Annpat - you really should have got that hand tucked in properly. Never leave evidence. (I assume you've seen Fargo.)

Still laughing at that one.

I have the usual steel construction wheelbarrow. Very heavy, very unweildy. However, I have been blessed with a very healthy, very strong 16 year old son. The boy can squat over 300 pounds. Even fully loaded that wheelbarrow is nothing for him. He helps me and I feed him. It's a win/win deal. The wheelbarrow is nothing special but I could post a picture of the kid.

I don't have any pictures yet, but my latest invention I am working on is a home compost spreader for the lawn. No one makes a low cost one for the average home owner, other than the barrel screen types, but I have seen mixed results on those. After searching for a drop spreader for months, I found one on Craigslist (older gentleman cleaning out his garage), locally for $7. Its an older all steel Scott's drop spreader with an agitator that rotates horizontally. Has a double steel handle so this is going to be the cats meow. I need to enlarge the opening and modify the handle to hook up to my rider, and and add some higher sides for holding more compost. I will proudly display pictures and and how to stpes if this works. To tell you the truth I am frustraded that I cant find any company that makes anything for under $800. i even begged Earthway to consider, but they say there is no market for them.

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I don't have a wheelbarrow - too unwieldy - but I have a garden cart that serves all my wheelbarrowing needs. Four wheels means I don't have to lift it to roll it around. Mine is an Ames Easy Roller Plus (the "Plus" gets you the rear wheels, otherwhise it's just a two-wheel barrow.) It holds about 3 cu. ft.

~CA

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I don't have that much to barrow so I just use a kids winter plastic sled. you know, the one that looks like a mini-toboggan. It weights no more than a plastic bucket and is low to the ground It also can be side dumped into a SFG. I also have hauled rock and harvest with it I have a spot in the garage i overhead store it or I hang on the wall. This thing is way better for me.

Curt#

Mostly use a regular wheel barrow. I have used a borrowed two wheel barrow a few times and generally liked it better -- the only downside is it does not corner as well in a tight turn. Sometimes alone and sometimes with help I have also moved stuff on tarps, in garbage cans, dragged on old carpet, in bare hands and arms, in buckets, balanced on back of car, loaded in back of a van, etc. I have seen and coveted lots of neat little vehicles from gator and others for just such purposes but that's too big an investment for a weekend gardener.

flora, Ha! I agree. It's pretty incriminating.

Curt, you and I think way too much alike. I have used the plastic sled so many times it's unbelievable, but the sides on mine are just a couple of inches deep. I use it for heavy, unwieldy objects that I do not want to lift into my wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is usually used for those things that I want up higher. Mother's day, I used it to screen 2-1/2 loads of finally finished, first ever batch of compost, and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

AnnPat, that's a beauty. Are you happy with it?

Flora, that is what happens to people who compost bread, >;)

Gardening with Annpat sounds dangerous, flying shovels, body parts hanging from chippers. I think a game of lawn darts would be safer.

Lawn darts while wearing a blindfold would be safer.

I don't have a "pic" but i hinted at xmas I would like a child's wagon...medium sized. For xmas my son and wife got me a wagon that I can pull and also has lever I can lift to dump the stuff out if needed. I love it. I saw in in supply book for $99 after xmas but my son told me before xmas they will go to a Farm or garage sale and see what they could find. It looks new. So I really don't know where they got it but she is a "Sale" type person and finds neat things.

Berryman
After looking at your picture I have to wonder is that made with plastic gears,if it is I don't think it will handle it also if you put on sides it might make it more difficult yet also I think you will need better tires I think they might just skid ...Just a few suggestions ,let me know how it turns out.....Applewood1

Oh! C'mon! I. Must. defend. myself! I've never hit anyone with a shovel, and the chipper incident was a solitary, unfortunate, lapse of judgment.

Now, I suppose, no one will play lawn darts with me?
I'm getting railroaded.

AP is also conveniently leaving out the story of freezing her poor, innocent, snowblower into the lake!

C'mon Ann, fess up, show the pics.

Lloyd

P.S. And just to keep it slightly on topic, my 'barrow, leaning up against the shed, far right hand side.

Gee Lloyd, you're actually not helping. (It was an accident. I meant the snowblower no harm.)
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I've gotta say---your wheelbarrow is not what I expected from you. I'd have bet a thousand bucks that your wheelbarrow had 18 wheels, ran on diesel, and was self-loading. It seem so inadequate from what we've come to expect. (It is a nice color, though.)

What is that tin can---a birdhouse?

What the heck is that chair behind it for???!!! I never noticed that before! Do you sit behind the blower?? ;-)

I use the 'barrow a lot for all sorts of things. Spotting bags of 'post when I'm topdressing and hauling around the yard when I don't need a tractor, etc etc.

Yup, that's a birdhouse. I was bored one day so I tried making a birdhouse out of a coffee can. It was doable but the can/birdhouse has to be in the shade. That was just an experiment and I left it hanging on the hook (we make those hooks) and never did get it place. Hard to tell in the picture, but there is even an awning over the entrance to keep the rain out!

The chimes were found in a bag of yard trimmings with the wooden disk on it broken in half. Put a large hose clamp around it and voila, chimes by the tumblers. Kinda Zen like around my 'posting area.

Lloyd

Hey Momstar, I'd like to see the kid.

Nutsaboutflowers, I don't have pics to show but will have to take some when I get a minute. Don't anyone hold their breath tho as renovating the garden is taking a lot of time and energy.

I think the regular style wheelbarrows come in many sizes/weights so if you like that style you'll just have to try them out to see what suits you. My DH has been forced to 'collect' wheelbarrows because I am always filling them with various garden amendments (compost, soil, wood shavings, etc.) as well as weeds so he won't have one when he needs it if there are not several around here. I think we currently have only 4. Probably another coming this Saturday if he finds one at a yard sale as he knows that one of the last ones he bot me will become a planter soon as it's very nicely shabby and I forbade him to paint it! They don't cost a lot ($10. or less usually) but he only buys the ones with good wheels.

The style I like the least are the plastic/vinyl square things - they hold a lot but don't wheel well over rough ground. That style would work fine on a nicely smoothly flat landscaped property but that's not what we have. I usually fill it with weeds and DH dumps them in the ATV trailer. I also have 2 large children's wagons, one a Radio Flyer that was in like new condition he bot me at a YS for only $10. The other one is in not as good condition (needs painting) and was also $10. I use them when weeding or hauling potted plants around and they are very useful. Not large enough to haul compost tho.

Love your chipper Annpat! What model is it, and what is the max. size branches you can chip? I may have to ask Santa for one of those.

Oh, I see the awning! Very nice.
I'm impressed with the hooks. I have purchased some of that design, but not as well done.

You're a clever guy, Lloyd.

If one blows the picture up to it's largest size it's easier to see. And to show how soft hearted I really is, I installed some plastic tubing around the drilled entrance hole so that the little birdies don't get hurt going in or out and installed a perch made out of a bolt.

We made a couple of hundred of those hooks, a whack of singles and some wall hooks as well. Painted them all sorts of colours including metallic blue and green, people loved them.

Lloyd

...You all know how I hate to hijack...

the chipper is a WW Grinder, which I think is now called something else. It's an 8 hp and can handle a 3 inch branch. I primarily use it once a year in the fall---all day long---for leaf shredding. I bought it to comfort me after my divorce in the early 90s---one day chipping leaves---I was all better.

(Just kidding, I liked my ex-husband....but...I gotta say...I love my chipper!)

I keep missing your posts, Lloyd...
I did you a disservice. I wondered if the bird got scraped going in the entrance. Have you had a successful nesting in that birdhouse?

Wimps, I'm a 64 year old fart with a bad back, trick knee, and artheritis in one foot and every year I order a 10 cubic yard dump truck load of compost and have it dumped in my driveway as there is not enough room along the side of my house for a truck to get through. Then I have to move it in a wheelbarrow 170 feet uphill (part of it very steep) to my garden area in the back and spread it over a 49 foot by 70 foot garden. I counted it takes 100 round trips to move that compost, or 340 feet times 100 or 34000 feet or almost seven miles of pushing a wheelbarrow, half of it a fully loaded wheelbarrow uphill. Then I have to spread it out and rototill it in. If I can do it you can do it.

Ha ha, Californian, you're funny. =:)

Your description sounds a lot like the stories from "old farts" like yourself who had to walk miles into town every day for school, no matter what the weather was, all of course after milking the cows and slopping the pigs, etc.

I personally walked 4 times a day to school, rain, snow, shine, 1-1/2 miles each way. I've also shovelled and wheelbarrowed more dirt, compost, sand, crusher dust, bricks, trees, sod, than anyone I know, without any help from any power other than my own. I think I've earned a new wheelbarrow.

Be careful who you call wimps =:) =:)

Californian wrote:
"Then I have to move it in a wheelbarrow 170 feet uphill"

as the story usually goes....

170 feet uphill...both ways ;-)

annpat--- i now have chipper envy ---my dear wife bought me an electric one that will handle only up to about an inch thick branch-- but i get alot of use out of it --- and it is theraputical .........

Aw Jon, you beat me to it! Uphill, both ways, is the standard saying at my house.

I also have chipper envy and an ex that would fit nicely. Just kidding.

I prefer to think of this as a tangent rather than a hijacking. I have long been envious of Jon's compost bins. Now the first picture I've seen of Lloyd's makes tears well up in my eyes. I have to admit, I barely noticed Lloyd's barrow the first time. I had to open the picture again to look at the barrow. I have a serious case of compost bin envy.

When I'm turning my piles by pitch fork this weekend (uphill, both ways) I will be thinking of you guys and your fancy schmancy compost bins.

Hey momstar,
If you are talking about that picture of Lloyds big tumblers,that isn't nothing..... you should see his piles, these are something to behold.... If those massive tumblers started to rock your boat...then Lloyds Windrows of Compost will simply put you over the edge ;-)

Lloyds composting is second to none... we are minions to the master composter...

Mine's a fat, yellow two-wheeler. Much easier to balance than those one-wheel jobs.

I've ordered a 5 cu. ft. two wheeled wheelbarrow that says it's easy to make small turns. (Uphill turns for a non-wimp)

I hope it works as well as its write-up says it will. It's only $85.00 though, I think, so I'm a little skeptical. It's from Home Hardware, and Mark Cullen's pick.

I sure didn't get many "show me your wheelbarrows" pictures, but all the other posts were interesting and amusing =:) I love the frozen snowblower LOL.

Really though, who takes a picture of their wheelbarrow! I just lucked out that the wheelbarrow was in the background. I use it a lot but it's not something I'd specifically take a picture of, it's just a wheelbarrow!

Hey Jon, if those are keys hanging inside the skidsteer, I might just have to take a little trip down to Oregon. What size trailer would a guy need to transport that puppy? Just asking.

;-)

Lloyd

And seeing as how I went way off topic anyways...Happy Birthday Jon!

Happy Birthday, Jon. My brother's is tomorrow.

Thank You Guys ;-)

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Not to hijack the thread but if you want to see some major league composting, check out this guy!

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=342651

I don't mess with a wheel barrow. I have two old Garden Way carts, a small and a large, that I bought at auctions. Wouldn't part with them on a bet!

How to Assemble a Cart, Smartie (Latest Revised Edition of Assembly Instructions for Muller's Smart Cart)

Figure A. Handle (proving that any bent tube can be called a handle)
Figure B. Legs (and any bent tube can be called legs)
Figure C. Cross brace (with a bent tab, unlabelled, but you will figure it out without our help. Eventually.)
Figure D. Little bags of unlabelled parts, except for the unique and obvious ones (haha. Isnt this fun?)

1. Attach the handle (figure A) to the legs (figure B), using the 2.5" bolts, ensuring that the nut is attached to the bolt with the plastic side facing inward.

2. Next, overlap the cradle with the leg/handle assembly and connect the "front" to the cradle using the pre-installed 2.5" bolts. What the hell is the "front"? Where the "handle" is or where your "neighbour" will be standing when he points out to you that the cross brace is installed backwards and upside down? Its always useful to define your terms, and what are all these "quote" marks for anyway? (You may be uneasy at this point: "Good")

3. Read the "Special Instructions" before continuing.

Special Instructions

Dont expect that because this cart has only a few parts, that it will be quick and easy to assemble. In the interests of ensuring that you remain humble and clearly aware of how much your week as a wage slave really took out of you, the parts are labeled rather vaguely. On second thought, not labeled.

The original instructions were typed up by someone who was expressly recruited, in order to show you the value of punctuation and formatting, by leaving it out. Remember hearing about the old radio joke in which the young woman fends off the bad man making unwanted advances ("Dont! Dont! Stop!! Dont! Oh, dont stop!")
Yeah, well, ha ha.

The person who wrote the instructions has also clearly assembled thousands of these "smart" carts and thinks the person who is having trouble understanding the instructions is an idiot (I know, I can see him rolling his eyes RIGHT NOW, you probably can too and he looks exactly like the math teacher you had in grade 10 who couldnt explain anything because HE already understood it. Only you are less cowed by his arrogance now than you were back then (even if you have been beaten down by life, and who hasnt? You never thought that assembling a $350 wheelbarrow would be your ultimate breaking point, did you?).

Note that there is no picture of the assembled cart included in the instructions or in the packaging. That would be cheating. Dont bother looking for the Lee Valley catalogue: you gave it to the neighbour and theyre away this weekend.

Remind yourself that you are not dyslexic and that it is unseemly for a fifty year old professional with a postgraduate degree to yell Olde English expletives in the backyard on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Besides, the next step is hysterics, drinking and falling asleep on the couch and then the next week will begin and the cart will still be in pieces on the patio and the crow (dont ask) or the raccoon (ditto) will steal the unlabelled parts and take them away forever. All will then be lost. On his return, the neighbour will laugh at you (not at all kindly) because after borrowing many garden tools you were finally in a position to confidently offer to lend him something and had offered it to him next week when hes back and *** knows you cant take the ******* week off to assemble the cart. Not to mention the fact that when he asked you if you had to assemble it yourself, he said, "****, hope you have all weekend!" to which you (poor innocent) replied, "oh, no problem, its not like it was manufactured in CHINA and you both laughed in mock horror at the thought. But that was another time, the good time.

While you are practicing your good yoga teachers calming breath exercise, notice, suddenly that your husband/wife is no longer speaking the words of Despaire and Gloome that are their normal coping device in such situations (while you hyperventilate, not calm at all, because like Proust with the madeleines, you are filled with the horror of Bicycles That Came in Boxes. And, IKEA.) But, Calming Breath. Could this silence be the eerie calm before the storm?

But wait. There is a curious peaceful quality to this silence. Do not, I repeat, do not, say a word while you become aware that your husband/wife, normally not the Assembler in the family, apparently recognizing your imminent mental Breakdown, begins to quietly and effectively identify what parts go where and assemble
them into something. like. the shape of. a wheelbarrow.

That's absolutely hilarious!

I'm not going to even attempt to find my Lee Valley Catalogue, just in case I happen to see the wheelbarrow you've described.

Thanks for the entertainment =:)

Hah!!

I'm guessing I enjoyed that a lot more than you did, gatineauhills.

That was a lot of fun to read about.

Isn't the most amazing thing how one spouse cusses and throws things and just throws a good old fashioned caniption fit putting one little bitty thing together. (I would hazard a guess it's the same one who won't ask for directions when lost) While the other can almost do it in 15 minutes, blind-folded with one arm tied behind their back? I think you just described my marriage, LOL

We upgraded our wheelbarrow, and built it an attachment.

yeah Baby!!

Lloyd

Can you believe the woman at the store convinced me a 4 wheeled garden cart was better, so I bought it instead of the two wheeled wheelbarrow? I don't like it at all. It's the shape of a kid's wagon, so when you dump it, not all your material comes out =:( I'm using my old orange wheelbarrow.

Sure wish I had a small version of Bob T Cat. The picture is too dark, though. What's the attachment??

What's the attachment??

It's a grapple attached to an old bucket.

Lloyd

We use either buckets set in a green 4 wheeled garden cart or a 15+ year old Ames garden cart (gray with front plastic wheels).

My son & hubby prefer the cart heaped high for less trips. They like it that it's easy to dump. I'm amazed at how long this old cart is lasted.

I prefer the buckets, so it's not too heavy & I can carry the compost on paths & right into the garden to mulch plants. The cart has drop down sides that comes in handy sometimes.

Here is a link that might be useful: garden cart

My old 3rd hand wheelbarrow goes back to about '48 and sure has hauled a lot of concrete, rocks, sand, peat moss, compost, and manure.