I'm sorry I missed this deadline. I do a lot of pruning - including teaching pruning classes for my local Cornell Cooperative Extension. My education is in occupational therapy, including assistive devices for disabled people. I am in my 50's and have a lot of arthritis and am of small stature. I use all of the named tools. Most of the pruning tools I now own and use I purchased from Lee Valley Tools in Odgensburg NY. My home in Geneseo is just south of Rochester NY. I live on a 1/3 acre village lot, but also assist others with pruning as a Master Gardener. I don't work off the ground (in trees).

Sorry for leaving the thread hanging I have been consumed by the Johnnys Seed catalog trying to learn Veggie Gardening 101 as I have joined a community garden and have no idea what I am doing.. For nearly $4000.00 I think the lawnbott should come with a number of add ons such as a fork that removes weeds as in mows! #7 Lawnbott The LB3510 is the newest and most sophisticated robot mower on the planet. User programmable for up to 4 working zones, the LB3510 also comes standard with a double capacity Li-ion battery to power this larger model, covering homes up to 1 ½ acres. If you want the best in a robotic, electric mower, the LB3510 is it! $3,999.00 #22 Electronic Slug Fence Stop those pesky slugs from ruining your Hostas, your vegetable garden or any other plants that are being attacked by slugs in your garden. This ingenious device puts a very small charge on a wire mesh fence and will repel the snails and slugs before they get to your plants. By Slugs Away $46.03 #19 HIDEHISA Japanese Ikebana Shears The blades of these shears are not laminated (a hard, tool steel forge-welded to a softer iron body), but rather they are made entirely of Hitachi YCS3-Steel. With traditional Japanese laminated shears, the problem is often that when cutting, the relatively soft iron body of the shears bends under stress and so the blades, however hard and sharp, no longer meet closely enough to provide a proper shearing cut. But if one makes the shears entirely out of the hard "Hagane" steel, they would be too susceptible to breaking, as the "Hagane" steel is relatively brittle. The modern alloy YCS3-Steel makes it possible to harden the blades to HRC 63, but to avoid the brittleness characteristic of high-carbon steels. It also allows the body of the shears to be engineered more finely, to a total weight of only 138 g - lighter than other shears designed to do the same job. The light weight staves off fatigue. These shears are particularly suited to hard and knotty branches due to their short, strong blades. HIDEHISA hand forged shears are manufactured in Sanjo, Niigata Province, Japan by an old, established firm well known for the quality of their wares.

Hi all. Thank you for good sugestions. Claire Trypod is very usefull tools. able to lift and set boulder up side down, sideway up or any position. Boulder or large tree can be move with trypod where heavy equipment can't to be use. Once trypod is elected, 1 to 3 ton boulder can be handled by 3 men over 3 ton, 4 men can handle larger than 3 ton. This is not thing that I cann't explain in writing. To handle heavy boulder need to know how to make knots, how to plece wire cable right way,or place. boulder can go over 2~ 3 feet hight wall, Go steps up and down without damaging surounding/shurbs, hard scape. I can set extion ladder 20 feet high not touching tree branchs. or use ladder where no other type of ladder cannot be use, edge of pond, steep hill side. If gate has 32 inch wide and boulder width 30 inch, I can move boulder without touching the gate. I taught Cady how to use rope to accend and decend in tree. When She came to my class, I asked Cady if you want to climb up tree with tree sadle and rope. I showed her how to use rope and use own body to climb into tree. Cady took about 20 minutes to climb half way to large oak tree. Showed her how to split bamboo, how to identify age of bamboo, how to transport bamboo and prune, how to make bamboo fence, how to tie. Make some tool with bamboo, such as trowel, pin, nail, knife, bamboo broom, flower vase, sheath for sharp knife or hachet, scraper, how to bent large diameter bamboo or small piece. How to make bamboo bonsai etc. Gardening is not rocket science. If you see it and do it your self, it is easier than most people think. When you do something new or need to have safty of work, then you need to have some guidance from expierenced people. If middle aged Cady can climb up tree( sorry Cady ), you can climb up tree too. Christian who came form GreenvillSouth Carolina, to every my Japanese garden class in 2003, 200 miles away , Scott from Birmingham, Ala 120 miles a way, Cady from Salem, Mas 1100 miles away, Edzard was also going to come From Albert Canada but he snowed out. Shortly after I showed Christian how to make bamboo fence, not only showed him, he made bamboo fenfe with Cady and Richard, then he made bamboo fence him self. I can give him A+. Some of bamboo fence called " Nanako gaki " is very simple to make. Every one can make it once you see it. Thank you every one of you who responded to my question. I should to respond to your posting much earlier. Some how I am limied to access to PC and I am very slow to type and am sorry for it. I posted usefull hint today in other thread. I am thinking to write about wisteria. how to transplant, potting , controle growth and make it more flower, how to prune, hint for arbor, how to identify flowre bud.perhaps how to make wisteria bonsai etc. If proper to do it. Japanese Wistria " Texas pride" one of wisteria I had from Monrobia nusery Cal....... Sorry I am making many misspellng/ writing without dictionary . I will use dictionary next time ............................... mike

Problem is a lot of my easy recipes can have 5 or more different seasonings! The number of ingredients doesn't make something easy or difficult in my opinion. I think ribs (especially country style) may look difficult but are easy to make and a turkey breast is also easy, but it makes for a real feeling of satisfaction when you make it, don't overcook it and find that it's not that difficult. OTOH, some things like cooking rice can be easy to ruin. Without knowing age, likes and dislikes it's impossible to give recipes but I can give suggestions and that is to concentrate more on techniques than hard and fast recipes. In a tater tot hotdish for example, instead of a given amount of ground beef, it can be chicken, turkey, pork, ham or otherwise. Doesn't *have* to be tater tots, could be fresh potatoes or any number of frozen or canned ones. Veg can be your choice, in it or on the side. Cream soup is convenient but you can use other alternatives for health or taste desires. Cooking for a beginner can be so simple. And really should start with some of the basics. How to boil water sounds simple but it's a basic. Simple pasta dishes are great learning ideas. And even knowing how to heat up something from a can, doctor it up (can/jar spaghetti sauce can be made quite tasty) and food safety, sanitation and the like are basics that are so often overlooked. How to use a meat thermometer. And so on. Some things that are simple in theory can be difficult for some. It took me a long time to get the knack of boiling potatoes without overcooking at least some of them. So I wound up with box flakes for too long. And like I mentioned, adjusting recipes to your likes is a basic thing but not always obvious. My old GF wanted a no-boil lasagna recipe. I don't use a recipe per se for my lasagna but she couldn't understand a guideline - it had to be a written recipe. So I found one for a spinach lasagna that gave the technique in writing and easy enough for her to follow. She refused to try it. "I DON'T LIKE SPINACH!!!!!" And of course "THEN LEAVE IT OUT!!!!" went over like the Hindenburg... Till the day she died, I was unable to get through to her that recipes are guidelines, not rules. My last suggestion is consider your definition of cooking. Warming up a can of soup can be cooking, and an accomplishment to someone who has never done it before. Embellishing it is another type of cooking. You don't have to raise the meat, grow the veggies and make your stock all the time. Start slow (baby steps it's often called) and work up. Nothing wrong with shortcuts, especially for a beginner.