I like all my toys tools but ya, probably the most used hand tool is the old 5-tine fork (left upper corner). Dear 'ole Dad would have been tickled pink to see me still using it! I found it in one of his old wooden granaries that is just filled with old junk good stuff.

Heck even a picnic table is considered essential somedays!

Lloyd

Most used tool in the compost for me is a potato/spading fork.

tj

Yep. you can't beat those 5-tine forks. My father always thought buying someone something new would be more appreciated than giving them something used until the day he saw me drooling over this fork he had in the garage. It had been there for years, never used but worn from years of work at another humble abode. My father, being a doctor, had never used it. Don't know why he took ownership at one point in time, but all things happen for a reason and it's my firm belief that it was to make it's way to me in it's lifetime.

Now my father never gives me anything new and I get the neatest things!! :O)

Definaly skidloader is my favorite (:

Well, mine is my truck. My second truck, both purchased for one reason only---I'm a composter.

You're all making me wish that I had my father's five-tined fork.

I turned compost for 28 years with a spade!! A friend of mine insisted that I needed a fork, and when I didn't get one, he bought me one for Christmas one year. What a difference.

Compost tools I wouldn't want to be without:
1. 5-tined hay fork
2. cement mixer to make compost/mulch with wood shavings, compost, alfalfa tea, etc.
3. ATV with trailer to pick up horse manure from our pasture
4. pick-up truck to carry wood shavings/bagged leaves/whatever I can find
5. square vinyl pond liner which fits perfectly in the back of the van and holds "messy things" for compost

somehow i couldn't do it without my 5gal bucket----great for snagging UCG's from da bucks and makes a great seat also-------JB

I use my spaded fork more than anything else. It does a good job of moving stuff around from freshly added materials all the way to nearly finished compost. I think my second favorite tool is tied between my mower; which I use to shred everything before adding it and my mantis tiller that I use to mix the pile up once things are broke down enough not to bind up around the tines.

Great idea on the Mantis Tiller they are light enough to do that?

Curt :-)

My favorite tool is my manure fork, but it sure does make my back hurt from using it. I'm about to construct an electro-mechanical device that will turn the piles for me. It will surely become my favorite "tool" throughout the winter months.

EG

A 10 tine fork and biostack bins.

Karen

I use my garden fork the most, but my actual favorite is my long thermometer. It's completely unnecessary, but I just love to poke it in and see the reading.

#1 Other peoples grass catchers!
#2 manure fork

This is my favorite compost tool.

Our neighbour with the big horse has a beauty of a five-tine fork as pictured above, which I always borrow to shovel JLo's manure. If we still turned our compost piles, which we don't, I would buy one myself and use it, so another vote for the five tine fork.

Way too funny BP!

:-)

Lloyd

My big gardening fork & my push-it-yourself old-fashioned lawn mower which I use to shred leaves, mine & OPBL. It would be nice to have a shredder but I read that pushing that thing uses about 400 calories in 1/2 an hr so it makes it much more enjoyable.

Riding lawnmower with grass (leaf) catcher, Mackissic Mighty Mac 12p chipper/shredder, manure fork, machete.

I didn't get the truck going in time to get the leaves. Turns out that the new/old engine doesn't want to pump STP oil treatment through its old oil pump. But it's now ready for other chores like picking up manure from nearby stables. When that happens, it will become my favorite compost toy.

I'll post a picture of it soon.

My favorite compost tools are an old five-tine fork found in my father's toolshed, which I wrapped in tape because of the splinters, a fancy kitchen compost bucket, one of several 5 gal buckets for UCG, and a basket to carry out torn-up paper. Oh, and the rock to hold cardboard waiting for rain to soften it up. Most of that pile has been spread already.

{{gwi:314379}}

I'm also considering spreading birdseed on the working compost pile - these turkeys have done a wonderful job of scratching up the ground under my birdfeeders - maybe I can use them to turn the pile.
{{gwi:314381}}

Claire

aaah, the critter turning method. Very good.
I like it.
My favorites are
3 my knee high rubber boots
2 my 5 gallon buckets(work great as chairs too)
1 my garden fork(must have for me)
runner ups...
Airing poking stick( rake head fell off of, cheap bunch of $#!*). but great for non turning weeks.
new rake and
hoe
:)Laura

ooops,
how could I forget my top favorite!!!
Golf clubs!
place a rotten apple in front of the pile, and lets the kids practice their swing. *warning* very messy but fun. also works great on other rotten produce. Older kids must stand much farther away.
:)Laura

My hands down favorite composting tool...My hunk of a husband!
"Sweetheart, would you turn the compost pile for me this afternoon?" Works every time.

My favorite tool is my truck also, it has airbags "adjustable suspension" and a loud train horn.
This year my compost was so big a post hole digger was employed and it did fine just gopher holing here and there.

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engineeredgarden Wrote:
"I'm about to construct an electro-mechanical device that will turn the piles for me."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
engineeredgarden, I would be interested in your ideas for a project like this. I'm a retired millwright and I have some building experience with "one offs". Bluezman

Here is a link that might be useful: One of my own projects.