I made an effort to go to the cities that had stores for their closing sales. I enjoyed them, while they lasted and I will probably keep their stainless steel shovel and spading fork forever as they are well made and have already outlasted their predecessors from local (so-called) hardware stores. Thank God for the internet. There are still quality tool manufacturers out there, but now they are harder to find. I'm also finding that shipping from there to here (aka out in the boondocks) is sort of break even. Sometimes it's cheaper to go and buy in person, but often shipping is less than a four or more hour drive each way. An interesting catalog arrived very recently. A.M.Leonard has been my go to place for replacement blades and parts for our army of Felco secateurs and loppers. All of a sudden, this spring, A.M.Leonard has a pretty, home gardener directed catalog (as opposed to their old one that was more directed to professional gardeners.) One thing I didn't get at Smith and Hawken (the prices hadn't come down enough) were some very large ceramic planters. I saw some at good prices at Sam's today. Here is a link that might be useful: Now A.M. Leonard is here, for a while, at least

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Mortgage_Lifter Edie, there are many here who believe that it was Radiator Charlie Byles who first developed Mortgage Lifter and it was Jeff McCormack at SESE who recorded that story and published it in his catalog and website and it became widespread. The history behind the Radiator Charlie story I linked to above and all it needs is to be cut and pasted as a link by anyone who wants to or go to Tania's wonderful tomato data base to read it. Below I've linked to the history of the Estler one. Chuck Wyatt, who passed away in June of 2002, was a good friend of mine and he was sent information from the Estler family claiming that his family bred it before Charlie did. At another message site there's a good thread about this as I recall, but GW does not allow for other message sites to be linked to or presented here, so I'll go ahead. There were newspaper clippings that were sent to Chuck that confirmed that Estler was the first to develop what was called Mortgage Lifter and that's in the link below. Chuck sent me seeds for it and I've grown it several times and prefer it over any other Mortgage Lifter I've grown, for there are other so called strains, which really aren't strains at all, they just have the name of the person who first SSE listed it attached to it. The Estler one I prefer b'c it's smoother and I think has better taste. I'm not sure there's any story here but please accept my condolences on his passing and I'm going to share this with others at other message sites. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Mortgage Lifter, Estler

Research those casters. Those are old style with metal wheels. Admitdely, these could have been installed after the table was made, but these seem to be original pieces. The level of quality may be indicated by the wheel bearing. If the wheel has no bearing other than its own plain sleeve and some lub, it could be old or a newer wheel of low cost manufacture. If the wheel contains a low friction ball bearing, it would be a quality and higher cost item. Old casters with cast wheels had nothing special for bearings, just the rivet pin and some lubricant. Those wheels could have been made by casting or machined from solid rods. If machined, the metal could be brass, bronze, or steel. These wheels can be formed by forging, but that is expensive and overkill for this application. The trunion fork is not a sheet metal stamping. It appears to be a casting. I don't recall seeing casters made like these after 1940. By 1960, caster wheels were becoming molded plastic with larger diameters. Those old casters took a beating when the floor was cleaned, especially if the floor was wet mopped. Mop water invaded the plain bearing and later resulted in a 'squeaky' wheel having a lot of friction. Floor mopping and spills were primary sources of corrosion in the bearing.

Houzz wants to take control, this you can see when you google a topic in their wheel house.. You must identify Houzz and delete it from your search. If you don't most of what shows up is something that is Houzz related. You cannot copy and paste a picture from their site only "send" it through Houzz or save it in your Houzz scrapbook. Good business for them bad for consumer and another form of controlling. I am a designer and find their marketing irritating.There are many good design blogs that show wonderful examples of good design but having your house on Houzz does not necessary mean it was good design. I have often sent their pictures for what NOT to do. That being said they have so many examples and pictures in their site if your builder needs a picture of what you want done it is easy to locate one that comes close in design and style. I just don't like the "Big Brother" aspect of the site. Think they have control at their core. I doubt if Garden Web followers will benefit from this move. Hope somebody from Garden Web made some $$ to make this worth the loss. I understand profit so no hard feelings. Get ready folks it ain't gonna be what you think.