There are many tools that simply don't crop up in day-to-day life, but are tremendously useful to smallholders, when we find out that they exist!

When Hugh and Fiona started smallholding, they anticipated needing run of the mill tools, but they didn’t anticipate some of the less common tools that have really made life easier.

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WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

We've got new neighbours. A lovely couple that drags us out to the pub quiz that’s held in a Church with a bar (it’s a long and very Lincolnshire story). The other day Andy (the neighbour) was breaking down pallets to use the wood. Let’s be honest, most smallholdings seem to be made from pallets, from compost heaps to planters they get used for all sorts of things. Anyway, we said, “do you want to borrow our pallet breaker?”. The response was a puzzled look. If you've never seen one (as we hadn’t when we started smallholding) you wouldn’t think that a specialist tool would exist for deconstruct pallets into planks, but they do and they make short work of the job!

IT’S A PRYING SHAME

One tool that we didn’t anticipate using as frequently as we do is a pry bar. Actually, many pry bars in many sizes. Or smallest is one around 25cm long known as a “cat’s paw”. This is the best tool ever for removing nails in planks, far superior to a claw hammer. But we use a whole variety of sizes for many different purposes. The most frequently reached for sizes are the 90cm variety shown that is great for prying apart logs during splitting to straining stock fencing by running though the mesh. We even have a 1.5m monster with a point on one end that is used as a digging bar for fence posts and levering out tree stumps! When we started smallholding, we didn’t realise just how important the principle of leverage would be.

CATCH OF THE DAY