February 14, 2022 • 28 mins
Last year I bought the Proletariat Wire Weeder (aka hoe, although that seems to get people in trouble on Facebook and Youtube). And so after using it for a season, I decided to give you my thoughts on it. Spoiler alert, I highly recommend it. And so I reached out to Never Sink Tools and asked for a coupon code and they delivered. Use code: HOMESTEADJOURNEY at checkout for 5% off any wire hoe or click the link below.
https://www.neversinktools.com/discount/HOMESTEADJOURNEY?redirect=%2Fcollections%2Fwire-hoes
Enjoy!!
Brian
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
This is episode number 116 ofthe homestead journey podcast.
Welcome, welcome, welcomeeveryone.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from 3dfarming homestead here in
beautiful upstate New York thisweek's episode is going to be a
(00:40):
product review episode.
I'm very, very excited to sharewith you about this product.
But before we do that, let'shead on over to this week's
homestead happenings, and I willbring you up to speed with what
we have been doing here on threebeef farm and home.
(01:02):
The first thing I wanted toshare with you was a bit of a
truck update.
I believe I shared with you lastweek that we had to put the
ranger danger into the shop.
Um, it had developed a bit of aknock in the engine.
And so I talked to the mechanictoday.
Um, there are two possibleissues.
(01:24):
It could be the first one.
He said can be repairedrelatively easy from the top
side of the engine and will costabout$400.
I think he said to repair, butif that is not the issue, then
the other one would require usto remove the engine from the
(01:46):
truck, tear it apart.
And it would cost me about$2,500.
And so.
Right now.
Um, I think the plan is going tobe for us to take a swing at the
$400 repair and see if thattakes care of the issue.
And then if not, um, I think I'mgoing to kind of wash my hands
(02:10):
of the ranger danger and seewhat else we can.
Well, see what else we can donow.
Certainly I have no interest nordo I have the budget to buy a
new truck folks.
It's amazing to me, it's mindblowing to me what a new truck
will run.
(02:30):
I mean, it's like 40 to 80grand.
For a new truck, it's justabsolutely mind blowing to me.
So I am looking right now at,uh, maybe late eighties, early
nineties of vintage trucks.
Um, if we're going to replacethe, uh, the ranger danger, uh,
(02:52):
but we will find.
Hopefully the a$400 repair willtake care of the issue and I'll
be able to get a few more milesout of that ranger.
Um, but if not, Well, so be itnow this week on the homestead,
it has been, it's just, uh,we've had some crappy weather
(03:15):
here.
Um, last weekend we had afairly, I wouldn't say
significant snow storm, but as Ishared with you, I believe on
the last episode, we kind of gotlike three inches of sleep and
concrete.
With snow on top of it.
Well, then we got a bit of athought this week.
And so right now, um, everythingis just kind of this slushy
(03:40):
mess.
Um, I actually slipped on some,I have slipped on ice more this
winter that I believe I everhave.
And this week I actually, when Iwent over to feed bear and his
two girlfriends.
Um, Sage and Bazell, I actuallyslipped on the ice and went down
(04:00):
and almost slid right on intotheir pen, underneath the HOD
panel there.
Um, and so then I was trying tokind of make sure that I didn't
get eaten by a pig.
Um, and, uh, so yeah, it's justthat time of the year where you
get that thought andeverything's kind of this muddy,
soupy nasty mess, becausethere's still.
(04:22):
Uh, enough frost in the groundthat there's not really anywhere
for the water to go.
Um, so it's kind of like, eh,uh, you know, just yuck, um, But
the upside to it is that I don'thave to carry as much water
because the waters don't getfrozen and that I don't have to
(04:42):
flip them over and kick the iceout and then fill them again,
except for Boris and hisgirlfriend, Beth swine, who
seemed to figure out a way toflip their stinking water over
every blessing.
So I have to lug water to them.
And of course they're the pigsfarthest away from the house.
Um, not that it's that far, but,uh, yeah.
(05:09):
Oh, well, it is what it is.
Uh, I don't enjoy that part ofwinter.
And I certainly don't enjoy thismud season and yet it's probably
going to freeze up and thenwe're going to have rock hard
mud.
I don't like that, but it iswhat it is.
(05:29):
Um, my grandfather used to saywhether the weather be cold
weather, the weather be hot.
The weather is the weather.
No matter what.
Whether we like it or not.
So, uh, Papa that one's for you,that's still true today as true
today as it was when you quotedit to be, uh, many, many years
ago.
Um, and so we won't complainabout it.
(05:49):
Uh, it just is what it is.
This week was a very busy weekhere on the homestead though.
Um, I did a lot of nonhomesteading related stuff.
And again, I've shared with youbefore this time of the year, it
really tried to lean into a lotof things that aren't
homesteading related.
I'm certainly not going to getinto all of that, but some of it
does revolve around skiing andsnowboarding.
(06:12):
I'm a snowboarder, as you know.
And so, uh, teaching at thelocal mountain.
And in fact, I just got back nottoo long ago from teaching.
I'm recording this on Friday.
Normally I record these episodeson Sunday evening, but, uh, I
have a lot of things going onSaturday.
And then Sunday, SuperbowlSunday, I am a huge Bengals fan.
(06:34):
So very, very excited about, uh,the upcoming, uh, game now.
By the time this episode drops,you will know whether or not the
Bengals have one or not.
So I may need notes ofconstellation or, uh, I may need
(06:56):
notes.
Uh, you, you may hear me, uh,screaming and hollering and,
and, uh, jumping up and down andcelebrating, um, all the way to
Timbuktu.
Uh, if, if the Bengals can winthis Superbowl, I will be beside
myself.
Um, but if.
Then you may hear some weepingand wailing and gnashing of
(07:18):
teeth and you may not even givetwo fine flips.
You may, you may not be a sportsperson and it's all good.
Um, but I have been a longsuffering Bengals fan, uh, since
the mid nineties.
In fact, I became a bangles fanduring the darkest days of, of
bangled them.
Um, why I don't?
(07:39):
Well, it was because I lived inCincinnati.
Um, And anyhow, you didn't hearyou.
You didn't come to listen tothis podcast to hear about
sports.
So I'll get off of that, but,but anything else.
So that's why I'm recording thison Friday evening because of
just so much going on this weekand so much going on, uh, over,
uh, this coming weekend.
And it's just all non-homesetting stuff.
(08:01):
And in fact, I released thefirst blog post I had promised
you that I was going to do.
Doing some homesteading content.
And I released the first blogpost over at
thehomesteadjourney.net/blog,and really part of the, the, the
thrust of, of this post was thatI'm not ready for winter to end,
(08:24):
even though I hate schleppingthe water and I don't like the
mud season and all of thesekinds of things, I'm not ready
for winter day.
And I'm enjoying the non-homesetting related stuff.
And so if you had an over there,the homestead journey.net/blog,
you'll at least get my randomthoughts with regards to that
(08:46):
topic.
Honestly, that's probably goingto be what the blog is, are just
random thoughts.
Right now I don't have any kindof plan, you know, a six week
plan or a 10 week plan or a 52week plan.
I don't have any plan.
I'm just going to wing it.
But if there is some topic thatyou want me to cover, uh, Send
(09:09):
me an email, let me know.
And I will try to include it in,uh, in my ramblings over on the
blog, but, uh, check it out.
Thehomesteadjourney.net/blog.
Let me know what you think.
Um, this is, this is unchartedterritory for me.
And, uh, so I would reallyappreciate honest feedback if
(09:30):
you think it sucks.
Let me know that, um, if there'sa way that I can be.
You know, I'll help via theblog.
Let me know that.
Certainly that's always my goal.
My goal for this podcast and forthis blog is to be helpful to
people.
Um, You asked for it certainlythe based on the survey
(09:55):
responses back in November,there seemed to be quite a bit
of interest in some writtenhomestead content.
And, uh, so I'm looking forwardto doing that.
Just let me know how I'm doing.
Um, I would really, reallyappreciate that feedback.
Finally, I am been busy thisweek, lining up some great
content for the podcast.
if you follow us on socialmedia, you will have seen that.
(10:17):
I interviewed Amy Dingman thisweek from a farmish kind of
life.
And I am so excited about thisupcoming episode.
Um, I'm just so excited to shareit.
And it was such an honor, uh,to, to, to chat with Amy.
It was like, uh, I normallywould say a brother from another
(10:39):
mother, but I don't know asister for a minute.
They say a sister from anotherMister, but that's kind of
wackadoodle.
Um, but there's just thatconnection that you have
sometimes with people where it'slike, you, you feel like you've
known them your entire life.
And that's just the connectionthat I had.
Um, and the conversation withAmy, um, we could have kept
(11:00):
going and going and going andgoing, and I could have made it
a five-hour episode if she wouldhave been willing to, to stay on
that long.
Uh, it just, um, It was an honorand I'm so excited to share it
in her.
Her podcast is one, that's beena huge encouragement to me.
(11:20):
If, uh, if you haven'tdiscovered her podcast,
certainly check it out.
Her blog is great.
So anyhow, very excited aboutthat.
And next week, I'm actuallygoing to be chatting with a
couple of local mechanicfriends.
Uh, I figured if I've got thissituation where I'm potentially
(11:40):
going to have to look for a newfarm truck, uh, why not?
Um, as I'm going through thatprocess, uh, put together some
content that might be helpfulto.
My listening audience, who mightalso find themselves needing to
find a farm truck.
Uh, and especially if you'resomebody who is coming from
(12:02):
suburbia, this may be the firsttime you've ever looked into
buying a truck.
So what things should you lookfor and what things you should
you consider?
And I, I'm not, I'm not amechanical guy.
I don't, I'm not a car guy.
I'm not a truck guy.
I'm a guy that wants something.
That's going to get me frompoint a to point B.
I couldn't care less the color,the make the model don't care
(12:24):
about any of that.
I just want something that'sgoing to meet my needs and get
me reliably from point a topoint B.
And I'm not going to have tocontinually sink a bunch of
money into it and be wrenchingon it.
I want something reliable.
Uh, and I don't want to spend alot of money on it.
So anyhow, I'm excited aboutthat.
That's going to be next week'sepisode.
(12:44):
And then I also have beentalking to my buddy Jack, uh,
from the mindful homestead ongetting together and talking
about small scale maple syrupproduction.
As we kind of get into maplesyrup scene.
maybe that's something you'vebeen interested in doing.
And, uh, so hopefully, uh, Jackand I are going to be able to
(13:05):
connect in the next couple ofweeks.
And so really I'm going to beproviding a lot more interviews
than I normally would, uh, haveplanned as part of the cycle.
But I think it's going to begreat content and I'm excited
about it.
And you're certainly not goingto want to miss an episode.
(13:25):
Now, before we head on over tothis, week's charting the
course.
I did want to remind you aboutthe homestead journey, podcasts
supporting listeners program.
You can sign up to be asupporting listener for as
little as$3 a month.
Then a cup of coffee atStarbucks.
And with that, you will not onlyreceive the satisfaction of
(13:47):
helping keep this podcastrunning, but you will also gain
access to the private membersgroup hosted over on discord and
folks.
It is a great group of peopleare really positive, fun group.
And I think you will find itextremely helpful.
I absolutely love being a partof it.
(14:08):
And, uh, I think I, I reallythink you will too.
Now there are also twoadditional tiers, a$5 a month
and a$10 a month tier, uh, thathave additional perks.
If you sign up in the month ofFebruary and celebration of
kicking off season three, youwill receive a small gift and a
(14:32):
handwritten note from me.
So head on over tothehomesteadjourney.net/support
for more information on thevarious tiers and to get signed
up today.
And I'm looking forward togetting to know.
So head on over there and let'sdo this thing together.
All right.
(14:53):
Let's head on over to this.
Week's charting the course, So,as I mentioned earlier in the
show, today's episode is goingto be a, another product review.
And I am so excited to reviewthis product.
It's actually a garden tool thatI purchased last year that I use
(15:15):
for the entire season.
And I'm going to just tell youright from the outset, uh, Love
it, it is none other than theproletariat.
And I hope I'm saying thatcorrectly, but the proletariat
wire ho from never synctools.com.
Now, if you're not familiar withthe concept of a wire hoe, a
(15:36):
wire hoe is a weeder that isconstructed as the name implies
from pieces of sturdy wire, bentinto various shapes and widths
that allow you to carefully weedyour garden with minimal soil
disturbance and plant damage.
No, never seen tools actuallyhas two wire hole lines, the
(15:58):
proletariat and the mutiny.
The proletariat, which is theone that I have, um, comes with
a four inch wire attachment.
And then you can buy a kit thathas additional sizes, a
two-inch, a four-inch offset iswhat they call it.
And really what that means isit's four inches with a little
(16:19):
bend in it, so that if you turnit on its side, it's got like a
one.
Um, piece, and then there's asix inch attachment that comes
along with it.
Now, before we talk more aboutthe proletariat, let me just
explain a little bit about themute.
Nearline the mute nearline doeshave the same head sizes
available in it as theproletariat, but the connect
(16:41):
mechanism, uh, between the twois.
Which means that the attachmentsare not interchangeable, but the
mutineer also has additionalsizes and configurations that
are not available with aproletarian.
However, the Muneer is moreexpensive and there are no
attachments that come with ahead when you buy it.
(17:02):
So any of the attachments thatyou want with a Munir, you have
to buy them.
Um, additionally, whereas theproletariat does come with a
four-inch attachment included inthe price of that.
Now it's my opinion that themutant airline is really geared
more, uh, for the marketgardener.
And the proletariat is gearedmore for the home gardener, not
(17:26):
to say that if you can afford itand you.
The quick attachment and soforth of the mutant year, that
it wouldn't work for the homegardener and maybe having all of
the different attachments wouldfloat your boat.
But I really do think that theproletariat for most people is
going to be sufficient.
Now, certainly I haven't usedthe mute.
(17:49):
Uh, the, um, mutineer so I can'ttell you what I'm missing out
on.
Uh, as, I don't know what, Idon't know.
But I do feel like the optionsthat I have with the proletariat
are more than adequate for myneeds.
And I really feel that thatwould be the same for most home
gardeners.
Now, keep in mind that I do alot of square foot gardening.
(18:12):
So that means that I am plantingmore plants in a smaller area.
Square-foot gardening is allabout density.
So that means that a traditionalgarden hoe or a stirrup hoe,
isn't always going to be asnimble as what I need.
(18:33):
It's not going to fit into a lotof the plant spacings that I
use, but not only that, I also.
Find sometimes that I have ahard time controlling the
traditional garden hall.
I have a tendency to get atraditional garden hose too deep
(18:53):
in the dirt and really kind ofdig things up.
Uh, and I also have a tendencyto damage the plants that I'm
trying to protect by weedingaround them.
And.
What I have found with theproletariat wirehouse is that it
is very, very nimble.
It's very light and it is veryeasy to use now, depending on
(19:18):
the garden method that you use.
You may find that the four-inchhead is more than sufficient for
you and maybe all that you need.
If you're using traditionalspacing of plants, then the four
inch wire head attachment may bethe only attachment that you
need.
But if you are someone like me,who does a lot of square foot
(19:41):
gardening, or you experimentwith a dense planting, um, then
I would highly recommend.
That you do go ahead and buy theattachment kit.
Now I absolutely love thisproletariat tool from the
standpoint of the ability tovery quickly with no tools to be
(20:04):
able to swap between heads.
In fact, what it uses is asimple, uh, window.
It's just a wing nut that youtighten and loosen, and then you
can swap in and out be thevarious attachments.
If you buy the kit, the kitactually comes with a Caribbean
(20:24):
or so what you do is you justclip that to your belt and the
different wire hoe attachmentshang off of it.
And then as you need them, youjust loosen the wing nut, pop
the one off, put on theCaribbean or pop the other one
in tighten the deal, wing thatup.
And you are back in business andon your Merry way.
If there's one complaint that Ihave though, with regards to the
(20:45):
proletariat attachments, it'sthat there is a gap in the
connection, and that reallyallows for them to slip off the
Caribbean and.
For those of you that watch thison YouTube, I'll demonstrate it,
it it's, it's kind of hard toexplain, but if you head on over
to their, their, uh, site neverseen tools.com you'll quickly
(21:08):
see what I'm talking about, butright here is the Caribbean
owner and I've got the toolshanging on it.
And if you notice at the edge ofthis, there is this gap on the
attachment.
And so if you're not carefulwhat ends up happening, and
that's not a good example, butlet me just.
You see that just fell rightoff.
Just if it gets knocked just theright way, it will come right
(21:30):
off of the Caribbean.
And I have had them fall out onme, out in the garden.
I've had to go look for them.
And so I certainly didn't likethat.
That's my biggest complaintabout these is that gap where
the Caribbean, or that they havea tendency to fall off.
Now, the nice thing about theMunir system, because it uses a
quick connect system.
(21:51):
That is closed up on the end.
And so it's not possible forthose attachments to fall off of
the Caribbean or, I really dolike that about the mutineer
system.
You just don't have that fear oflosing the attachments in your
garden.
So I think this year I'm goingto try maybe wrapping a little
bit of wire around those ends tokind of close it up a little
(22:14):
bit.
You have to be careful becauseyou don't want to get too far
down so that it won't connectproperly.
Um, but I think if I do it kindof right up at the top edge of
that, I think I can do it eitherwith a little bit of wire or
maybe with a zip tie and, uh,We'll see if that works.
But that's really, my onlycomplaint with regards to the
(22:37):
proletariat is, is that gapwhere those attachments can fall
off of your belt if you're notcareful.
But I really, really love beingable to swap those heads.
I mean, that really is whattakes the value of this tool to
the next level.
Now you may initially look atthe proletariat and say that's
(22:57):
expensive for a hoe because thehead where the handle is about
$50.
If you were to buy the head inthe handle from never seen
tools.com.
It's about 50 bucks, which isabout$20, more than a regular
hole that you're going to getat.
Lowe's right.
A regular hole at Lowe's rightnow is about 30 bucks.
(23:18):
And then if you buy theadditional attachment.
And top of that from never seentools.com.
You're looking at about another$30.
So if you add all of that up,you're looking at about 80 bucks
and you still haven't calculatedshipping, on top of it.
So.
Now you might be sitting theresaying, Brian, you're crazy.
(23:40):
This is not a good value, buthear me out on this.
First of all, I would suggestthat you order the proletariat
without the handle.
For less than 10 bucks, you canget a hardwood handle at a home
improvement store.
Secondly, think of it like thisby ordering the attachments, you
are actually getting four toolsfor the price of one.
(24:03):
You are getting a whole thatit's six inches wide, a hole
that is four inches wide, a holethat is two inches wide.
And then by turning the offsethole on its side, you're getting
a hole that's a little over aninch wide.
So if you were to price, all ofthem.
If you were to try to buy, and Idon't even know if you can buy
hoes and all of thoseconfigurations, I know you can
buy a narrow hose and you canbuy kind of certain weeders and
(24:26):
pulling the hose and all ofthose kinds of things.
So if you were to buy fourdifferent hose, four different
wits to meet all of those thingsand price, all of that out,
let's just assume that they were$30 a piece.
Now you're way more than theprototype.
And you're having to lug aroundfour different pieces of
(24:46):
equipment.
And who wants to lug that manytools out to the garden?
As I said earlier, I love hownimble this tool is because it's
like, It is very, very easy tocontrol.
I can really get in betweenplants that are closer together
in my square foot gardeningmethod.
(25:08):
And while eventually weeds didget the better of me last year.
And I confess that right.
You may remember that.
Um, it wasn't the fault of thistool.
When I was taking time to weedthe garden, you may remember
last year, I was like, I'm goingto weed 10 minutes a day.
Well, that 10 minutes a day outin the square foot garden.
(25:32):
My plan was to weed four to fivebeds each day.
And I can do that in 10 minutesusing this.
Because it is so nimble becauseit is so quick because it is, it
is so lightweight I could weedfour to five square foot garden
beds, some of them nine feetlong, some of them 12 feet long.
(25:56):
I can weed that many beds.
And about 10 minutes, it really,really works.
As long as you use it.
And when I kind of quit doingthat, well, then I did, you
know, we'd started to get thebetter of me, but that was not
(26:19):
by any stretch of theimagination, the fault of this.
Now, let me tell you this.
My favorite attachment is thefour inch offset attachment.
So that's the one that's aboutfour inches wide.
There's a little bit of a bendin it.
So if you turn it on its edge,now there's about a one inch or
maybe one and a half inch widecomponent to it where I can
(26:42):
really get in between thosetight spaces where I had plants
planted closely together.
And that really is the headthat's on my, my whole more than
I would say, 80% of the.
Maybe even more than that, uh, Irarely take it off because based
(27:05):
on the square foot gardenmethod, it just works well for
me, if I've got just one plantper square foot, I can really
work it around well withoutforeign side.
And then you know, Eight or nineper square foot.
I can really get in between themby just simply flipping the, a
hoe on its edge and using thatnarrower part.
(27:26):
So really, really loved thatattachment.
If you're interested in taking alook, head on over to never sink
tools.com, but I also have somegreat news for you this past
week, I reached out to them andI told them that I was going to
be doing a product review.
And I wondered if they'd bewilling to offer a coupon code
to my listeners.
And they graciously agreed.
(27:47):
And so if you order between nowand February 28th, 2022.
So in the next two weeks afterthis episode launches use the
code homestead journey, all oneword, no spaces, homestead
journey at checkout, and you'llreceive 5% off any wire ho
(28:10):
again, that'sneversinktools.com.
So I hope you found this productreview helpful.
If you have any furtherquestions, send me an email,
brian@thehomesteadjourney.net.
And until next time everybodykeep up the good work.
This is episode number 116 ofthe homestead journey podcast.
Welcome, welcome, welcomeeveryone.
My name is Brian Wells.
I am coming to you from 3dfarming homestead here in
beautiful upstate New York thisweek's episode is going to be a
(00:40):
product review episode.
I'm very, very excited to sharewith you about this product.
But before we do that, let'shead on over to this week's
homestead happenings, and I willbring you up to speed with what
we have been doing here on threebeef farm and home.
(01:02):
The first thing I wanted toshare with you was a bit of a
truck update.
I believe I shared with you lastweek that we had to put the
ranger danger into the shop.
Um, it had developed a bit of aknock in the engine.
And so I talked to the mechanictoday.
Um, there are two possibleissues.
(01:24):
It could be the first one.
He said can be repairedrelatively easy from the top
side of the engine and will costabout$400.
I think he said to repair, butif that is not the issue, then
the other one would require usto remove the engine from the
(01:46):
truck, tear it apart.
And it would cost me about$2,500.
And so.
Right now.
Um, I think the plan is going tobe for us to take a swing at the
$400 repair and see if thattakes care of the issue.
And then if not, um, I think I'mgoing to kind of wash my hands
(02:10):
of the ranger danger and seewhat else we can.
Well, see what else we can donow.
Certainly I have no interest nordo I have the budget to buy a
new truck folks.
It's amazing to me, it's mindblowing to me what a new truck
will run.
(02:30):
I mean, it's like 40 to 80grand.
For a new truck, it's justabsolutely mind blowing to me.
So I am looking right now at,uh, maybe late eighties, early
nineties of vintage trucks.
Um, if we're going to replacethe, uh, the ranger danger, uh,
(02:52):
but we will find.
Hopefully the a$400 repair willtake care of the issue and I'll
be able to get a few more milesout of that ranger.
Um, but if not, Well, so be itnow this week on the homestead,
it has been, it's just, uh,we've had some crappy weather
(03:15):
here.
Um, last weekend we had afairly, I wouldn't say
significant snow storm, but as Ishared with you, I believe on
the last episode, we kind of gotlike three inches of sleep and
concrete.
With snow on top of it.
Well, then we got a bit of athought this week.
And so right now, um, everythingis just kind of this slushy
(03:40):
mess.
Um, I actually slipped on some,I have slipped on ice more this
winter that I believe I everhave.
And this week I actually, when Iwent over to feed bear and his
two girlfriends.
Um, Sage and Bazell, I actuallyslipped on the ice and went down
(04:00):
and almost slid right on intotheir pen, underneath the HOD
panel there.
Um, and so then I was trying tokind of make sure that I didn't
get eaten by a pig.
Um, and, uh, so yeah, it's justthat time of the year where you
get that thought andeverything's kind of this muddy,
soupy nasty mess, becausethere's still.
(04:22):
Uh, enough frost in the groundthat there's not really anywhere
for the water to go.
Um, so it's kind of like, eh,uh, you know, just yuck, um, But
the upside to it is that I don'thave to carry as much water
because the waters don't getfrozen and that I don't have to
(04:42):
flip them over and kick the iceout and then fill them again,
except for Boris and hisgirlfriend, Beth swine, who
seemed to figure out a way toflip their stinking water over
every blessing.
So I have to lug water to them.
And of course they're the pigsfarthest away from the house.
Um, not that it's that far, but,uh, yeah.
(05:09):
Oh, well, it is what it is.
Uh, I don't enjoy that part ofwinter.
And I certainly don't enjoy thismud season and yet it's probably
going to freeze up and thenwe're going to have rock hard
mud.
I don't like that, but it iswhat it is.
(05:29):
Um, my grandfather used to saywhether the weather be cold
weather, the weather be hot.
The weather is the weather.
No matter what.
Whether we like it or not.
So, uh, Papa that one's for you,that's still true today as true
today as it was when you quotedit to be, uh, many, many years
ago.
Um, and so we won't complainabout it.
(05:49):
Uh, it just is what it is.
This week was a very busy weekhere on the homestead though.
Um, I did a lot of nonhomesteading related stuff.
And again, I've shared with youbefore this time of the year, it
really tried to lean into a lotof things that aren't
homesteading related.
I'm certainly not going to getinto all of that, but some of it
does revolve around skiing andsnowboarding.
(06:12):
I'm a snowboarder, as you know.
And so, uh, teaching at thelocal mountain.
And in fact, I just got back nottoo long ago from teaching.
I'm recording this on Friday.
Normally I record these episodeson Sunday evening, but, uh, I
have a lot of things going onSaturday.
And then Sunday, SuperbowlSunday, I am a huge Bengals fan.
(06:34):
So very, very excited about, uh,the upcoming, uh, game now.
By the time this episode drops,you will know whether or not the
Bengals have one or not.
So I may need notes ofconstellation or, uh, I may need
(06:56):
notes.
Uh, you, you may hear me, uh,screaming and hollering and,
and, uh, jumping up and down andcelebrating, um, all the way to
Timbuktu.
Uh, if, if the Bengals can winthis Superbowl, I will be beside
myself.
Um, but if.
Then you may hear some weepingand wailing and gnashing of
(07:18):
teeth and you may not even givetwo fine flips.
You may, you may not be a sportsperson and it's all good.
Um, but I have been a longsuffering Bengals fan, uh, since
the mid nineties.
In fact, I became a bangles fanduring the darkest days of, of
bangled them.
Um, why I don't?
(07:39):
Well, it was because I lived inCincinnati.
Um, And anyhow, you didn't hearyou.
You didn't come to listen tothis podcast to hear about
sports.
So I'll get off of that, but,but anything else.
So that's why I'm recording thison Friday evening because of
just so much going on this weekand so much going on, uh, over,
uh, this coming weekend.
And it's just all non-homesetting stuff.
(08:01):
And in fact, I released thefirst blog post I had promised
you that I was going to do.
Doing some homesteading content.
And I released the first blogpost over at
thehomesteadjourney.net/blog,and really part of the, the, the
thrust of, of this post was thatI'm not ready for winter to end,
(08:24):
even though I hate schleppingthe water and I don't like the
mud season and all of thesekinds of things, I'm not ready
for winter day.
And I'm enjoying the non-homesetting related stuff.
And so if you had an over there,the homestead journey.net/blog,
you'll at least get my randomthoughts with regards to that
(08:46):
topic.
Honestly, that's probably goingto be what the blog is, are just
random thoughts.
Right now I don't have any kindof plan, you know, a six week
plan or a 10 week plan or a 52week plan.
I don't have any plan.
I'm just going to wing it.
But if there is some topic thatyou want me to cover, uh, Send
(09:09):
me an email, let me know.
And I will try to include it in,uh, in my ramblings over on the
blog, but, uh, check it out.
Thehomesteadjourney.net/blog.
Let me know what you think.
Um, this is, this is unchartedterritory for me.
And, uh, so I would reallyappreciate honest feedback if
(09:30):
you think it sucks.
Let me know that, um, if there'sa way that I can be.
You know, I'll help via theblog.
Let me know that.
Certainly that's always my goal.
My goal for this podcast and forthis blog is to be helpful to
people.
Um, You asked for it certainlythe based on the survey
(09:55):
responses back in November,there seemed to be quite a bit
of interest in some writtenhomestead content.
And, uh, so I'm looking forwardto doing that.
Just let me know how I'm doing.
Um, I would really, reallyappreciate that feedback.
Finally, I am been busy thisweek, lining up some great
content for the podcast.
if you follow us on socialmedia, you will have seen that.
(10:17):
I interviewed Amy Dingman thisweek from a farmish kind of
life.
And I am so excited about thisupcoming episode.
Um, I'm just so excited to shareit.
And it was such an honor, uh,to, to, to chat with Amy.
It was like, uh, I normallywould say a brother from another
(10:39):
mother, but I don't know asister for a minute.
They say a sister from anotherMister, but that's kind of
wackadoodle.
Um, but there's just thatconnection that you have
sometimes with people where it'slike, you, you feel like you've
known them your entire life.
And that's just the connectionthat I had.
Um, and the conversation withAmy, um, we could have kept
(11:00):
going and going and going andgoing, and I could have made it
a five-hour episode if she wouldhave been willing to, to stay on
that long.
Uh, it just, um, It was an honorand I'm so excited to share it
in her.
Her podcast is one, that's beena huge encouragement to me.
(11:20):
If, uh, if you haven'tdiscovered her podcast,
certainly check it out.
Her blog is great.
So anyhow, very excited aboutthat.
And next week, I'm actuallygoing to be chatting with a
couple of local mechanicfriends.
Uh, I figured if I've got thissituation where I'm potentially
(11:40):
going to have to look for a newfarm truck, uh, why not?
Um, as I'm going through thatprocess, uh, put together some
content that might be helpfulto.
My listening audience, who mightalso find themselves needing to
find a farm truck.
Uh, and especially if you'resomebody who is coming from
(12:02):
suburbia, this may be the firsttime you've ever looked into
buying a truck.
So what things should you lookfor and what things you should
you consider?
And I, I'm not, I'm not amechanical guy.
I don't, I'm not a car guy.
I'm not a truck guy.
I'm a guy that wants something.
That's going to get me frompoint a to point B.
I couldn't care less the color,the make the model don't care
(12:24):
about any of that.
I just want something that'sgoing to meet my needs and get
me reliably from point a topoint B.
And I'm not going to have tocontinually sink a bunch of
money into it and be wrenchingon it.
I want something reliable.
Uh, and I don't want to spend alot of money on it.
So anyhow, I'm excited aboutthat.
That's going to be next week'sepisode.
(12:44):
And then I also have beentalking to my buddy Jack, uh,
from the mindful homestead ongetting together and talking
about small scale maple syrupproduction.
As we kind of get into maplesyrup scene.
maybe that's something you'vebeen interested in doing.
And, uh, so hopefully, uh, Jackand I are going to be able to
(13:05):
connect in the next couple ofweeks.
And so really I'm going to beproviding a lot more interviews
than I normally would, uh, haveplanned as part of the cycle.
But I think it's going to begreat content and I'm excited
about it.
And you're certainly not goingto want to miss an episode.
(13:25):
Now, before we head on over tothis, week's charting the
course.
I did want to remind you aboutthe homestead journey, podcasts
supporting listeners program.
You can sign up to be asupporting listener for as
little as$3 a month.
Then a cup of coffee atStarbucks.
And with that, you will not onlyreceive the satisfaction of
(13:47):
helping keep this podcastrunning, but you will also gain
access to the private membersgroup hosted over on discord and
folks.
It is a great group of peopleare really positive, fun group.
And I think you will find itextremely helpful.
I absolutely love being a partof it.
(14:08):
And, uh, I think I, I reallythink you will too.
Now there are also twoadditional tiers, a$5 a month
and a$10 a month tier, uh, thathave additional perks.
If you sign up in the month ofFebruary and celebration of
kicking off season three, youwill receive a small gift and a
(14:32):
handwritten note from me.
So head on over tothehomesteadjourney.net/support
for more information on thevarious tiers and to get signed
up today.
And I'm looking forward togetting to know.
So head on over there and let'sdo this thing together.
All right.
(14:53):
Let's head on over to this.
Week's charting the course, So,as I mentioned earlier in the
show, today's episode is goingto be a, another product review.
And I am so excited to reviewthis product.
It's actually a garden tool thatI purchased last year that I use
(15:15):
for the entire season.
And I'm going to just tell youright from the outset, uh, Love
it, it is none other than theproletariat.
And I hope I'm saying thatcorrectly, but the proletariat
wire ho from never synctools.com.
Now, if you're not familiar withthe concept of a wire hoe, a
(15:36):
wire hoe is a weeder that isconstructed as the name implies
from pieces of sturdy wire, bentinto various shapes and widths
that allow you to carefully weedyour garden with minimal soil
disturbance and plant damage.
No, never seen tools actuallyhas two wire hole lines, the
(15:58):
proletariat and the mutiny.
The proletariat, which is theone that I have, um, comes with
a four inch wire attachment.
And then you can buy a kit thathas additional sizes, a
two-inch, a four-inch offset iswhat they call it.
And really what that means isit's four inches with a little
(16:19):
bend in it, so that if you turnit on its side, it's got like a
one.
Um, piece, and then there's asix inch attachment that comes
along with it.
Now, before we talk more aboutthe proletariat, let me just
explain a little bit about themute.
Nearline the mute nearline doeshave the same head sizes
available in it as theproletariat, but the connect
(16:41):
mechanism, uh, between the twois.
Which means that the attachmentsare not interchangeable, but the
mutineer also has additionalsizes and configurations that
are not available with aproletarian.
However, the Muneer is moreexpensive and there are no
attachments that come with ahead when you buy it.
(17:02):
So any of the attachments thatyou want with a Munir, you have
to buy them.
Um, additionally, whereas theproletariat does come with a
four-inch attachment included inthe price of that.
Now it's my opinion that themutant airline is really geared
more, uh, for the marketgardener.
And the proletariat is gearedmore for the home gardener, not
(17:26):
to say that if you can afford itand you.
The quick attachment and soforth of the mutant year, that
it wouldn't work for the homegardener and maybe having all of
the different attachments wouldfloat your boat.
But I really do think that theproletariat for most people is
going to be sufficient.
Now, certainly I haven't usedthe mute.
(17:49):
Uh, the, um, mutineer so I can'ttell you what I'm missing out
on.
Uh, as, I don't know what, Idon't know.
But I do feel like the optionsthat I have with the proletariat
are more than adequate for myneeds.
And I really feel that thatwould be the same for most home
gardeners.
Now, keep in mind that I do alot of square foot gardening.
(18:12):
So that means that I am plantingmore plants in a smaller area.
Square-foot gardening is allabout density.
So that means that a traditionalgarden hoe or a stirrup hoe,
isn't always going to be asnimble as what I need.
(18:33):
It's not going to fit into a lotof the plant spacings that I
use, but not only that, I also.
Find sometimes that I have ahard time controlling the
traditional garden hall.
I have a tendency to get atraditional garden hose too deep
(18:53):
in the dirt and really kind ofdig things up.
Uh, and I also have a tendencyto damage the plants that I'm
trying to protect by weedingaround them.
And.
What I have found with theproletariat wirehouse is that it
is very, very nimble.
It's very light and it is veryeasy to use now, depending on
(19:18):
the garden method that you use.
You may find that the four-inchhead is more than sufficient for
you and maybe all that you need.
If you're using traditionalspacing of plants, then the four
inch wire head attachment may bethe only attachment that you
need.
But if you are someone like me,who does a lot of square foot
(19:41):
gardening, or you experimentwith a dense planting, um, then
I would highly recommend.
That you do go ahead and buy theattachment kit.
Now I absolutely love thisproletariat tool from the
standpoint of the ability tovery quickly with no tools to be
(20:04):
able to swap between heads.
In fact, what it uses is asimple, uh, window.
It's just a wing nut that youtighten and loosen, and then you
can swap in and out be thevarious attachments.
If you buy the kit, the kitactually comes with a Caribbean
(20:24):
or so what you do is you justclip that to your belt and the
different wire hoe attachmentshang off of it.
And then as you need them, youjust loosen the wing nut, pop
the one off, put on theCaribbean or pop the other one
in tighten the deal, wing thatup.
And you are back in business andon your Merry way.
If there's one complaint that Ihave though, with regards to the
(20:45):
proletariat attachments, it'sthat there is a gap in the
connection, and that reallyallows for them to slip off the
Caribbean and.
For those of you that watch thison YouTube, I'll demonstrate it,
it it's, it's kind of hard toexplain, but if you head on over
to their, their, uh, site neverseen tools.com you'll quickly
(21:08):
see what I'm talking about, butright here is the Caribbean
owner and I've got the toolshanging on it.
And if you notice at the edge ofthis, there is this gap on the
attachment.
And so if you're not carefulwhat ends up happening, and
that's not a good example, butlet me just.
You see that just fell rightoff.
Just if it gets knocked just theright way, it will come right
(21:30):
off of the Caribbean.
And I have had them fall out onme, out in the garden.
I've had to go look for them.
And so I certainly didn't likethat.
That's my biggest complaintabout these is that gap where
the Caribbean, or that they havea tendency to fall off.
Now, the nice thing about theMunir system, because it uses a
quick connect system.
(21:51):
That is closed up on the end.
And so it's not possible forthose attachments to fall off of
the Caribbean or, I really dolike that about the mutineer
system.
You just don't have that fear oflosing the attachments in your
garden.
So I think this year I'm goingto try maybe wrapping a little
bit of wire around those ends tokind of close it up a little
(22:14):
bit.
You have to be careful becauseyou don't want to get too far
down so that it won't connectproperly.
Um, but I think if I do it kindof right up at the top edge of
that, I think I can do it eitherwith a little bit of wire or
maybe with a zip tie and, uh,We'll see if that works.
But that's really, my onlycomplaint with regards to the
(22:37):
proletariat is, is that gapwhere those attachments can fall
off of your belt if you're notcareful.
But I really, really love beingable to swap those heads.
I mean, that really is whattakes the value of this tool to
the next level.
Now you may initially look atthe proletariat and say that's
(22:57):
expensive for a hoe because thehead where the handle is about
$50.
If you were to buy the head inthe handle from never seen
tools.com.
It's about 50 bucks, which isabout$20, more than a regular
hole that you're going to getat.
Lowe's right.
A regular hole at Lowe's rightnow is about 30 bucks.
(23:18):
And then if you buy theadditional attachment.
And top of that from never seentools.com.
You're looking at about another$30.
So if you add all of that up,you're looking at about 80 bucks
and you still haven't calculatedshipping, on top of it.
So.
Now you might be sitting theresaying, Brian, you're crazy.
(23:40):
This is not a good value, buthear me out on this.
First of all, I would suggestthat you order the proletariat
without the handle.
For less than 10 bucks, you canget a hardwood handle at a home
improvement store.
Secondly, think of it like thisby ordering the attachments, you
are actually getting four toolsfor the price of one.
(24:03):
You are getting a whole thatit's six inches wide, a hole
that is four inches wide, a holethat is two inches wide.
And then by turning the offsethole on its side, you're getting
a hole that's a little over aninch wide.
So if you were to price, all ofthem.
If you were to try to buy, and Idon't even know if you can buy
hoes and all of thoseconfigurations, I know you can
buy a narrow hose and you canbuy kind of certain weeders and
(24:26):
pulling the hose and all ofthose kinds of things.
So if you were to buy fourdifferent hose, four different
wits to meet all of those thingsand price, all of that out,
let's just assume that they were$30 a piece.
Now you're way more than theprototype.
And you're having to lug aroundfour different pieces of
(24:46):
equipment.
And who wants to lug that manytools out to the garden?
As I said earlier, I love hownimble this tool is because it's
like, It is very, very easy tocontrol.
I can really get in betweenplants that are closer together
in my square foot gardeningmethod.
(25:08):
And while eventually weeds didget the better of me last year.
And I confess that right.
You may remember that.
Um, it wasn't the fault of thistool.
When I was taking time to weedthe garden, you may remember
last year, I was like, I'm goingto weed 10 minutes a day.
Well, that 10 minutes a day outin the square foot garden.
(25:32):
My plan was to weed four to fivebeds each day.
And I can do that in 10 minutesusing this.
Because it is so nimble becauseit is so quick because it is, it
is so lightweight I could weedfour to five square foot garden
beds, some of them nine feetlong, some of them 12 feet long.
(25:56):
I can weed that many beds.
And about 10 minutes, it really,really works.
As long as you use it.
And when I kind of quit doingthat, well, then I did, you
know, we'd started to get thebetter of me, but that was not
(26:19):
by any stretch of theimagination, the fault of this.
Now, let me tell you this.
My favorite attachment is thefour inch offset attachment.
So that's the one that's aboutfour inches wide.
There's a little bit of a bendin it.
So if you turn it on its edge,now there's about a one inch or
maybe one and a half inch widecomponent to it where I can
(26:42):
really get in between thosetight spaces where I had plants
planted closely together.
And that really is the headthat's on my, my whole more than
I would say, 80% of the.
Maybe even more than that, uh, Irarely take it off because based
(27:05):
on the square foot gardenmethod, it just works well for
me, if I've got just one plantper square foot, I can really
work it around well withoutforeign side.
And then you know, Eight or nineper square foot.
I can really get in between themby just simply flipping the, a
hoe on its edge and using thatnarrower part.
(27:26):
So really, really loved thatattachment.
If you're interested in taking alook, head on over to never sink
tools.com, but I also have somegreat news for you this past
week, I reached out to them andI told them that I was going to
be doing a product review.
And I wondered if they'd bewilling to offer a coupon code
to my listeners.
And they graciously agreed.
(27:47):
And so if you order between nowand February 28th, 2022.
So in the next two weeks afterthis episode launches use the
code homestead journey, all oneword, no spaces, homestead
journey at checkout, and you'llreceive 5% off any wire ho
(28:10):
again, that'sneversinktools.com.
So I hope you found this productreview helpful.
If you have any furtherquestions, send me an email,
brian@thehomesteadjourney.net.
And until next time everybodykeep up the good work.
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