Recycling for Labels

I had a lot of fun last year making my Kahlua labels - I cut out pretty pictures/ads or other images that appealed to me and turned them into labels with a silver pen and a little glue.

I thought they turned out nice, and it was a little recycling to boot!

This year, I decided to cut up the J. Peterman catalog. I don't usually get catalogs, but I have always enjoyed reading this one. It's sort of fantasy and romance, mixed up consumerism...probably not good for me, since I am trying to significantly cut down on the whole consumerism thing! But, I thought the pictures and descriptions would make really fun labels - and they did! It's more fun for me since I get to see them all together and my recipients might not understand the whole fun factor for me. And I tried to match the items with the recipient. A friend who loves jewelry will be getting the label with the over-the-top necklace...

I also wrote a little description for the back label - very tongue in cheek. And again, I don't know if anyone would actually read it or get the jokes...but it was fun for me!

Free Chipper

I have been wanting a chipper for many years. Yet, the price is just too exorbitant to justify my desire. In the city I live, I have to pay to drop off my yard waste, they turn it in to compost and then I have to pay to buy the compost. Seems like the city is making out on that one. Personally, I would like my own yard waste to stay in my yard and feed my plants.

While talking to my neighbor about pruning and waste, he mentioned he had a chipper that he hasn't used for several years. Last month I became the lucky recipient of a free chipper! He said it had been sitting in the rain for a while and was all locked up.

On Christmas, my dad, my brother and his dad all gathered around the chipper in my garage and tried to figure out what was wrong. First thing they found was a large metal padlocked jammed in the blades...go figure. Once that was taken care of, they got the engine started but only if they continuously poured gas directly in the carburetor. Realizing that this would not be a good, long term solution and $111 later, the chipper runs beautifully - except it wont chip anything.

Explaining this to Darrin just brought confusion:

"Did you get it running?"

"Yes, but it's not chipping."

"But, it's running?"

"Yep."

"Then how's it not chipping?"

"You'll just have too look for yourself to understand."

After he tried chipping and realized what I had been trying to say, we took it apart and found that the blades were so dull as to not be considered blades anymore. After much struggling to get the blades off, we decided to try to have them sharpened instead of spending $65 on new ones and just adding more stuff the landfill...

So, I now have freshly sharpened blades and a chipper that was taken apart several weeks ago, ready to be reassembled this afternoon and finally chip and the trimmings I have been pruning for the past several months!