>>So do people tell you that it is cheaper to buy it than to grow it and how do you respond? Yes, they do. They are not, however, always correct. I grow fresh berries far cheaper than I could possibly buy them, and I can have them when they're not available fresh at any cost (I have everbearers that produce 2 crops or sometimes even are true day-neutrals that trickle out their crops; farmers prefer single-croppers because of their harvesting overhead). Cane fruits and strawberries are, by the way, quite cheap to grow; the cost at the supermarket is due to the fact that they are difficult to mechanize their production, expensive for the farmers to harvest, and hard to ship intact. I am also cost-conscious. I always ask myself how I can keep my costs down, build my own productive infrastructure or do without, recycle, and make use of out what would otherwise be wasted. For example, I always grow some nitrogen-fixers in order to save on fertilizer costs. I try to salvage the minerals in kitchen scraps by composting them. We're going to have chickens next year to convert our scraps into valuable eggs and, um, fertilizer. I plant a high ratio of semi-permanent crops, because it gets labor-intensive to till the soil every year. My fruit trees, berries, artichokes, asparagus, perennial herbs, and rhubarb don't need annual tilling. I use the best hand-tools I can find. Cheaper to buy and operate than mechanized tools, and more effective and longer-lived than shoddy tools. My produce requires far less processing and handling than its commercial counterpart to reach my table. Pick, pick, waddle over to kitchen sink, rinse, and it's at the point where the commercial produce was after days of processing and transport. So, they are not always correct that it is cheaper to "just buy it". But savings on fresh produce is not the only objective, as many of you have already pointed out. There are crops I want but could not get fresh at any price, but can grow, there is a quality factor to consider (my produce is fresher and my fruit is fully ripe), and the garden keeps me off the streets and is cheap recreation.

First, what kind of grass do you have? Some like to be cut short (Bermuda 1"), some like to be cut tall (St.Augustine 3-4in. I don't think you can go wrong with a Toro. My first toro I owned for 15years without any problems, and I gave it to my brother-in-law and still runs fine. I purchased the Toro model# 20072 Variable Speed about 1 year ago for $320. I am very happy with it and I've had no problems with it. It's start first pull every time and requires very, very little effort using the pull start. Some of the best features of the Toro line in my opinion, is the cutting height of 4.25in. The cutting height can also be adjusted in 1/4in increments (Nice). I also like the high rear wheels, great for turning and uneven ground. It also does an excellent job of finely recycling the grass clipping. With alot of oak leaves it might take 2 passes, I find that one pass forward and one pass backward (like vacuuming) works best. and for the price difference, I feel its a great buy. so you have to restart the mower if you walk away from it. How often do you walk away from you mower anyway?

"alphonse, Please explain more on your statement." Sorry for a late reply, I was out of town. You have the gist of my comments though. Bigger cylinders and heavier steel tolerate the higher system pressures or the developed pressure and racking from any misalignment between cylinder mounting and the tracking during extension. The larger the cylinder diameter (force area of the piston) the lower the system pressure, though that equates to slower flow. "I felt the bypass at 2,500 on the 3,000 psi gauge basically showed built-in protection in the hydraulic system." Yes, you need a pressure relief valve. On the splitter I built which has a 5" bore piston, the relief is set at about 60% of the cylinder rating which is plenty of force but conservative of all components. Some reliefs can be adjusted to give greater pressures but without knowing any ratings bumping pressure up can be playing with fire. "When needed I run the 1 HP motor on a 25' 12-3 (12 gauge) extension w/o feeling the extention getting warm, is that heavy enough?" Should be. The longer the cord, the greater the voltage drop which will "starve" the motor, causing overheating and possible failure. 220V gives an advantage there, the transmission wire can be smaller though consumption is unchanged. Tangential splitting and the ramp are good ideas. My splitter has a table that the ramp hooks to and allows big stuff to be repositioned without having to pick anything back up off the ground.

I have to help the economy... Who knows if I'll ever see another 20¢ packet of seeds with the way prices go up... I'm only 99.9% sure I have this one at home. Which means there's a small chance that I don't have it. I can't take that risk. I'm sure some newbie will need these. I don't mind sharing for them next November/Dec when the seed racks are gone. I might forget to collect the seeds from these. I might forget to label the plant and have UNK seeds; can't have THAT! I'm starting my own Save the Planet One Seed at a Time campaign ("seed," "packet," "basket-load"...is there really a difference?) I'm hosting the Monarchs migration in my yard next year. (Yes, ALL of them.) I need all these extras in case the world runs out of birdseed.