Toro Cordless 24-Inch Hedge Trimmer – Cool Tools

Homestead

Toro Cordless 24-Inch Hedge Trimmer

Battery-powered trimmer cuts through branches up to 5/8-inch thick

I just spent a glorious morn with this very cool tool. The past decade has been spent tackling Leylandii hedges and other native barrier hedging with a hand-powered trimmer. While good exercise, this 68-year-old body can find more pleasant ways toward fitness.

Gas-powered trimmers were out because the noise and fumes drive me more than slightly batty. Plus I hadn’t owned a gas car or all the other paraphernalia needed for years.

So, after a bit of reading reviews, I ordered the Toro cordless from Home Depot. I didn’t shop around, just bought it for about $200 including hefty taxes. There are cheaper cordless trimmers from 12-18V, but the bar length and good reports of battery life convinced me.

I did two long sessions with the Toro this morning. I wore out before the battery did. One-handed operation is fairly easy with the 6.8 lb tool and it easily cuts up to 3/4″ which is bigger than most new growth.

And another big plus was the first battery re-charge was just over 1 hour… far faster than me.

-- SalishSeaSam 10/5/15

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Hole in the Heart / Hattie & Hudson

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

A MOVING AND REFRESHINGLY HONEST LOOK AT RAISING A CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Hole in the Heart: Bringing Up Beth
by Octavia E. Butler (Author), Damian Duffy (Adapter), John Jennings (Illustrator)
Penn State University Press
2016, 288 pages, 6.8 x 0.8 x 9.5 inches, Paperback

This isn’t an easy read, but it’s an important and memorable one. Hole in the Heart, a memoir about giving birth to a child with Down syndrome, expresses anger, frustration, guilt, and many other parenting emotions. The book is moving and feels searingly honest, for instance when it explores Beaumont’s ambivalence about the outcome of her daughter Beth’s heart surgery. She struggles with the thought that it might not be such a terrible thing if Beth doesn’t make it.

The colors are starkly monochromatic, but Beaumont does expressive, figurative things with them that communicate emotional depths. This includes crying fat tears that threaten to drown her, or showing differences in moods using shadows.

Parents are under such pressure to be perfect, including saying all the right things. It’s brave of Beaumont to give voice to such complicated and difficult feelings in Hole in the Heart.

– Christine Ro

A LITTLE GIRL AND HER COLOSSAL FRIEND TEACH A MONSTER-SIZE LESSON ABOUT PREJUDGING OTHERS

Hattie & Hudson
by Chris Van Dusen
Candlewick Press
2017, 40 pages, 10.1 x 0.4 x 11.7 inches, Hardcover

Hattie & Hudson is a beautiful book in every way. When Hattie McFadden paddles out on the lake one summer morning for her daily dose of exploring, she is so happy, she begins to sing. “So come with me ‘cause there’s room for two, / We’ll be together, you and I. / Out on the lake in my little canoe, / Paddle, just a paddlin’ by.” Her calm, sweet song unexpectedly charms “a monster” at the bottom of the lake who can’t help but respond to the invitation. Though Hattie can see Hudson for who he really is, the townspeople are not so welcoming.

This story is a great in for getting kids talking about everything from persistence to profiling. Concepts of home and belonging, of loud, angry grownups acting out of fear, of power and voice all make it a book that works for many kids, on many levels.

Visually, Hattie & Hudson rivals Chris Van Dusen’s 2009 release, The Circus Ship, in its breathtakingly gorgeous Maine-inspired landscapes and achingly expressive Rockwell-meets-Pixar characters. But where The Circus Ship is silly and bouncy and quick, Hattie & Hudson uses the time (and space) needed to tell the story of a quietly righteous little girl and the power of friendship.

– Mk Smith Despres

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