Search The Oil Drum with Google
Recently on TOD:World
TOD:Local
- Streets: Utilitarian Corridors or Livable Public Space
- Summer Streets a Success!
- Plan for Hydro-Fracture Drilling for Unconventional Natural Gas in Upstate New York
TOD:Europe
- Oilwatch Monthly - November 2008
- The 2008 IEA WEO - Production Decline Rates
- The EU Strategic Energy Review: maybe not so depressing after all
TOD:Canada
- The Round-Up: October 24, 2008
- Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?
- Oil Megaproject Update (July 2008)
TOD:ANZ
Blogroll
Energy Sites
- The Coming Global Oil Crisis
- Die Off
- Dry Dipstick
- Energy Bulletin
- From the Wilderness
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Peak Oil Crisis
- Peak Oil News and Message Boards
- Powerswitch
- Rigzone
- Matthew Simmons
- Wolf at the Door
Environment & Sustainability Sites
- The Daily Green
- EcoGeek
- Eco Street
- Green Car Congress
- Green Options
- green.alltop.com
- Gristmill
- RealClimate
- Sustainablog
- Treehugger
- WorldChanging
Blogs
- The Big Picture
- Casaubon's Book
- Cleantech Blog
- Clusterf
k Nation (Jim Kunstler) - The Cost of Energy
- David Strahan
- The Energy Blog
- Entropy Production
- European Tribune
- GraphOilology
- jeffvail.net
- Mobjectivist
- Peak Energy (Australia)
- Peak Energy (USA)
- R-Squared
- Resource Insights
Finance & Economics Blogs
- Calculated Risk
- Ecological Economics
- Econbrowser
- Environmental Economics
- Infectious Greed
- The Mess That Greenspan Made
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Organizations
“My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel.”
—Saudi saying
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
- Editors: Prof. Goose, Heading Out, Stuart Staniford, Nate Hagens
- DrumBeat Editor: Leanan
- Contributors: ace, Engineer-Poet, Gail the Actuary, jeffvail, JoulesBurn, Khebab, Robert Rapier
- TOD:Local: Glenn
- TOD:Europe: Chris Vernon, Euan Mearns, Francois Cellier, Jerome a Paris, Luís de Sousa, Rembrandt, Rune Likvern, Ugo Bardi
- TOD:Canada: benk, Libelle
- TOD:ANZ: Big Gav, Phil Hart, aeldric
- Technician: Super G
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
While we are talking about great hand tools...
This spring I have been using my new broadfork:
http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1824&itemT...
It's a fabulous tool, and built to last a century. Surprisingly easy on the body (burns a lot of calories, though).
Hello Greenman,
Thxs for responding. Good tool that could be easily improved by simply adding a fulcrum point. After sticking into ground: swing out steel arms with metal pads on the end to act as a fulcrum point--then the leverage required is reduced by the teeter-totter action. Save your back and arms!
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Ah, you are missing the point. The crossbar is the fulcrum.
You step on the crossbar to drive the tines into the ground, then grab the handles and lean back. The crossbar on the surface of the soil is the fulcrum, and you just swing your weight back. Works very well.
Yeah, they're fun to use. Just make *sure* when using your broadfork in rocky soil, that you don't lean back into a *big* rock. The tines are quite solid, but you have tremendous leverage with a broadfork, and straightening those tines after you bend one on a big rock is not fun.
Got one and do use it. The idea is to initially double dig a bed using the French intensive system, then never ever set foot on the oil again. Use your broadfork every spring to lift the soil for aeration and to loosen it so that you can work in more compost with a spading fork. The broadfork isn't really designed for TURNING soil, but for LIFTING it.