My friend Pat volunteers at the Wilbur D. May Arboretum in Reno and has been fortunate to work with someone there who is a tool junkie. He has introduced Pat to some pretty helpful lightweight tools that make jobs easier on the aging body. Pat has shared those tool ideas with me. Pat and I are both love to prune. We are both petite, so when she said she found an extension saw that was easy to use, I wanted more information. I find my pole saw/lopper combo challenging to use if I extend it beyond its 7-foot pole length. Pulling on the rope to make the lopper work is awkward and I’m always propping the pole into my hip to get enough leverage to pull hard enough to cut with the rope-operated lopper. I can’t use the saw at all. Pat said try the Hooyman extension saw instead. I looked online, www.hooyman.com, and found two collapsible saws. One extends to five feet and the other to 10 feet. The shorter one folds up to 12 inches and the longer to 28 inches. The site says “incredible cutting stability – even at full extension.” I might have to try one of these. Another tool Pat told me about that extends her pruning reach is the ARS LA-180ZF305 Telescoping Pruner with Razor Edge Head that has a ½-inch cutting capacity. The handle goes from 6-feet to 10-feet and weighs 2.75 pounds. There is a bypass pruner with sharp blades on the end operated by a trigger handle. Imagine pruning shears on an extension pole. This tool is not inexpensive. But if I could squeeze the trigger and have a 6-foot reach, let alone a 10-foot reach, I could do so much more pruning without needing a ladder; so, it would be worth it! The blade is designed to be replaced, just as all the blades are on my preferred and well-used pruning shears. One reviewer online reported that she learned to use it at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during a pruning course and loves it. Another tool I may invest in. We also talked about extra-long handled hedge trimmers that can lengthen our short reach. While I was exploring these, I saw a different long-handled tool that allows for trimming the grass edges while standing up. The cutting mechanism operates when the handle is squeezed. Trimming the grass without having to bend over or get on my knees could save both my back and knees. I’m getting more conscious of that as I age. Good tools make work easier! JoAnne Skelly is associate professor & extension educator emerita for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Reach her at skellyj@unr.edu.
