Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Nov 4, 2018

Worx Electric Leaf Blower Review, More Winter Prep, Thrifting At Target




Worx Electric Leaf Blower Review-
Well it's that time of year when the leaves are falling and it's time to rake them up. A lot of our leaves are already down in the front yard, but we still have our big maple tree in the backyard holding onto some. After I was cleaning up our driveway and back deck I realized I never did a review on our little mini electric leaf blower! After using it for a few years I decided I would share my experiences here if you're interested. I bought it when I was having some back problems, and was having a lot of trouble sweeping the driveway and front sidewalks. I've never liked gas blowers that they tend to be really loud, would be overkill for us and you have to deal with gas/oil mixtures. When I saw this blower I thought it might be a good fit. It turns out I was right! It's lightweight, has a rechargeable lithium battery, and is really easy to use-

Small charger works great

Separate from just blowing leaves you can also use it to clear off your deck/turf, clear out your gutters of dry leaves, and blow leaves out of your flower beds in the spring. You can also blow them IN before winter. So there's actually quite a few things you can use it for. Ours came with the accessory kit to clean car interiors, but you may not need it.  It's just a nice extra feature. If you click on the tab you can see more info on features and accessories that come with it. The battery recharges pretty quickly, snaps right in. It has a simple on/off button, and runs for about 1-2 hours. So if you want something that's lightweight, easy to use, and quieter this is really a nice blower! DO NOT BUY the 20 Volt as that would probably be really under powered. If you click on this link you can also shop for the other versions-



Leaf Covered herb box

More Winter Prep-
With highs in the 40's is forecast for next week, lows in the 20s, winter is right around the corner! Last night I used some of our last counter-ripened tomatoes/jalapenos for salsa. We have a few more left that we will freeze and then we are done with the veggie garden produce. It's really great to be able to slice into a homegrown tomato and have the juice go all over the cutting board! We continued more of our winter prep yesterday since the weather was dry and it was actually pretty mild, 58 degrees. It rained last night and more for today, so we got going while the going was good. I washed my car, cleaned out the inside really well and wiped everything down. Dave did more mowing and raking of leaves to go into the compost pile. We packed up all the Halloween decor, inside and out. More leaves dropping soon-


We went to the local Ace Hardware store with multiple coupons and got some really great deals. We bought a heavy-duty exterior extension cord to power the coop, since the old one died. We also got another outdoor extension cord for heated bird bath. It's in the herb box above and I still need to harvest the Rosemary. It's easy not to notice when those power cords are getting too many dents and dings. Dave always inspects them after we haven't used them in a while. He works in the electrical field. Always better to replace when you need to, and if you can get a great deal, even better. I've also never liked the look of orange power cords laying across the yard, so for the same price we bought dark brown. It just disappears. We packed up all the tools on our garden work bench and I covered it up with plastic for the season-



 I gave it multiple coats of paint this spring so I wanted to protect the new paint job. The top gets the most wear from rain and snow. We always put all the tools in the garage in a bucket where we can still get them. We don't leave them out in the weather all winter. We also got two new heat bulbs, since the 2 pack was so cheap (coupon) to heat up the coop if needed. I have never seen a 2-pack for $10.00. I only use those if its really really low twenties or colder. I'm going to get out some of her homemade frozen pasta sauce tonight and make a big pot of pasta with some salad and French bread. Perfect food going into a cold week. I washed and put out winter comforter out with our new cover from Ikea. I bought a King size since they can run a little small and I like more coverage. We were warm and toasty last night! I stored the quilt and fleece blanket for next spring...




Thrifting At Target-
I haven't been to Target for quite a while and I needed to buy some spray-on water repellent for shoes. I had some that I needed a treat before going into winter. For some odd reason it can be hard to find. While I was there I went through there little dollar store section and found a few fun things. I bought a little fake feather tree fr the house, $1.00, about 6" high-


Also a fun little banner that I'm going to take a work to work that says Be Merry, $3.00


And my sign above that says Good Tidings... It was the last sign that they had and when I turned it over I realized that the hanging hardware was upside down. It was supposed to be $3, but when I got to the checkout register I pointed it out the cashier and he charged me half price! Pretty good deal so I was happy. Just goes to show you can still negotiate a few things here and there. I'll take off the upside down bracket and move it to the correct side. Luckily it had little tiny phillips screws, so I can unscrew them, move to other side. I dropped off more donations to a local thrift store. I decided, in the interest of saving money and Dave's labor, not to replace some of our exterior holiday lights. Some died last year and I appreciate the fact that he does most of the outside work on those. I help with some, but mostly concentrate on the inside. It will be a win-win. Less work and save money. And it will still look great! 

3 comments:

Susan said...

When I lived in the city, leaf blowers were the bane of my existence, LOL! I love to go through Target's bargain section - it's all I can do not to fill my basket! Cute stuff!

Nancy In Boise said...

Ours is quieter atleast :) Yes Target is fun!

Sheri said...

Spent many hours leaf blowing today. This review was helpful if I look into another. I pinned this! Thanks for sharing at the To Grandma's House We Go DIY, Crafts, Recipes and More link party. Hope to see you again next week.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...