Category: Daily Living
Hey guys,
Curious what you all do about this: So a couple weeks ago, I went to clear up the yard, you know, after winter plus some neighbors' tree pruning next door left us a veritable mess to pick up. I went with the yard debris container the recycling types give us, a leaf rake, a tree saw and a pair of clippers. The idea was fill the container with goo and pooh from the front yard, take it to the back and dump it on the leaf compost we're using to fill in this hole our predecessors left us, then fill the bin up again with real yard debris, brush and the like, to let the recyclers have themselves a field day. No big deal; stick the tools in the belt and go. The minor problem with where we now live is, there are a lot of trees. Where that starts to hang me up is, I leave the yard debris bin in one spot, go to start raking, and due to the roots / holes as well as just the general sound off that many trees, well, it's easy to forget where the debris bin is. Hopefully this makes sense to someone on here, as people I know in real life don't really understand this, but the sound that bounces off of stuff is often where I can find where it's at when doing this sort of thing in open spaces like working in a yard or whatever. The problem is the sound that bounces off that yard debris is equal, or at least very similar to, many of the trees. So I found myself spending time just looking for the stupid thing sometimes. And while I was willing to just keep pulling it with me, it got to weighing in the hundreds of pounds after awhile when I had it really packed with bark dust and goop from the front yard. When you're gonna move that over tree roots, holes, and the like, you want to make sure you're going in the right direction, which is why I would scout out where I was gonna take it through, and such. The major problem always was finding it. And to be honest, though I don't mention it in real life, this is the sort of frustrating thing that really does happen - especially when doing yard work, say hauling a ton of rocks or bricks or whatever from some freestanding unit to where you want them. Fortunately on that Saturday, I had me a big cigar to be puffing on, but for real the losing of something is pretty inefficient and frustrating.
So I was curious what you all do. Especially if you can get my drift of what I'm trying to say regarding how I locate stuff in a big space like a yard. Have you all ever used an electronic device? I just found this one on the net:
Wireless Sound Beacon
Never heard of that organization, and you can thank Google's sponsored results aka click-through advertising for me even finding it. But it sounds pretty cool, as it doesn't continuously emit beeps, annoying everyone else, but you just push the remote control button to find out where it's at. Sounds pretty portable, too, so you can attach it onto whatever you need, clip it on the fence or wherever.
I didn't used to ever use any specialized anything except a screen reader and Braille, when I had the mentality of some on the awkwardness boards, but seriously a beacon of some sort would prove highly useful. Even last summer I'd find myself having to go find where the stupid stump was, last year when I was digging a bunch of them out, and would get called away or run into the house for some reason. Basically speaking from experience, even GPS navigation software can't work without two basic things: data points (the x/y coordinates of where you're at) and data (the map that shows what the coordinates mean). But when the data is indistinct, aka you have a ton of stumps, and your yard debris bin, or are looking to see which one you've been digging on, it can get really challenging to find it. I know, I've heard it all before, you should be able to just find it, or whatever, your navigation skills should be good enough. That's all rot, unless there's data that makes what you're looking for distinct. To me, that's why city travel, even across parking lots, is so straightforward, while trying to find stuff in an open space like a yard can be tricky.
So that's why I'm considering a device like the one on the page above, but since I don't know anyone personally in this boat, was curious what you use or have seen others use, especially if you for real understand what I'm talking about here. For me, when I'm working in the yard, it's all about "get 'er done", and at my age I'm frankly not concerned about whether the way I do it is 'normal' or not, despite what some of you claim regarding awkwardness. Caring about that basically means doing what you're doing far less efficiently.
By way of example, I know most people I know use a full-sized axe to cut off tree roots. Well, I'll use an axe to split a stump in half or something, but I just knelt down with a hatchet as I could get a hell of a lot more precise aim at the root when hacking it off. And as to the 'normalcy' of it? Nobody cared. Except maybe that the ugly stumps were gone.
I welcome any words from any realists on here.
Bingo! I was wondering when someone would bring this up. I wish I could answer your questions, but unfortunately, they're all my questions as well. Thanks for bringing it up.
a beacon is a great thing to have. i was going to suggest this for you. they are also good for putting on beach blankets etc too.
additionally when i put something like a debris bin out i situate it near something else like a particular tree trunk, or in line with the patio etc. does this make sense?
Yes it does, and I think I will invest in one of those beacons. I would love to get a Braille compass again; had me one of those as a boy, and I can totally see how useful it would be in some situations aka out on the beach or whatever.
Just got the Wireless Sound Beacon. Nice and small and has the clip they said. Haven't actually used it yet, it's still the middle of the week and yard work waits for the weekend usually. But it beeps a few times on each press, and the remote control is tiny / fits in the pocket.
And the Braille Bookstore is really quite professional, their shipping was extremely quick. I've paid a lot more for slower.
Hmmm! You could also try locating something somewhere where you know you'll have no trouble finding it. For example here, mum will normally leave the big outdoor wheely bin somewhere where I can find it, either in the corner of our car port which is like a permanent lean to shelter thing, big enough to store the car when you're not out and about in it, saves all that scrubbing of windscreens to get ice and condensation off, or, the bin's just next to the double garage doors, well, between them and the drain pipe on the wall just outside our front porch. As for finding your way when you have to move things around, how about acquiring an extremely long rope, string or washing line with brightly coloured ribbons or something tied on at intervals so sighted people can see where it is and not go sprawling over it braking their necks, lol. My Grandparents thought of this when I used to be outside playing in their large garden which was quite easy for me to get lost in. The lines came in especially useful for things like easter egg hunts where the flower pots with the chocks under them were placed next to several bamboo canes with the clothes line or string threaded through hooks on top beforehand so I wouldn't lose the plot and get totally lost. If I should have my own or a rented house in the future, I guess I'd attach one end of a piece of rope, string, clothes line Etc, to a non-movable object like the back or side door frames, the outside tap if it's close to the house, a drain pipe on the wall Etc, then I'd attach a tent peg on the other end and move around with that, driving it in to the ground a foot or so short of where I'm working so it shouldn't be hard to locate my string trail after I'd finished at that particular spot, then I'd attach another line also with brightly coloured ribbons or something, to some immobile object near the bin and/or the compost heap or wherever I wanted to move the rubbish while I was tidying up.
Jen.
wow! That string thing sounds kinda handy... but complecated too. too much string laying around for me lol. I don't have any good ideas about this either except putting it near the house or something that you can identify easily... trees arent good as you've found out haha. The beakin thing sounds cool. Think I'll check it out.
Well as I said in Post 5 the wireless beacon works, at least for me. But I only use it on stuff if I'm in the yard moving it around and the like, or head back inside to refill a drink or whatever, beep it when I get out so I cn find it quicker.
This is probably not the answer you are looking 4 but I have a wind chime on my porch and try to remember where I am at from that. It just gives me some kind of direction of where I have to go and how to get back.
what about a transistor radio placed near it and turned up oloud?
I used to use this when my dad and I were putting fence in in the pasture to find the pile of posts. it worked great.
you could even put 2 radios out there if you needed them; one for the bin and one for the debris pile in the back yard. cheap and easy to replace.
All those are great. The concept of the beacon I use is it only makes noise when I want it to, meaning I push the button it goes off. But yeah I like the chimes too, and having a radio with batteries definitely can help.
how about on the beach ? i suspect the remotecontrols are not really waterproof lol :)