Subject: RE: Favorite homestead tool

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 08:05:51 -0600 (CST)

..> made for myself.  The tool is simply a light weight shovel
> turned into a hoe.  The blade is turned 90 degrees and welded
> in place.  It that doesn't sound too useful, try digging out
> a small tree sometime using a regular shovel.  Then try the

When working in Indonesia I often came across this tool as the primary hand
tool for preparing rice paddies for planting.

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From: "Todd D. Ellner" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 14:43:47 -0800

[the hoe made out of a shovel]
The eye-hoe, also known as the Grape hoe and the Dago hoe [no offense meant
here; it's another common-usage name for the same thing] is a wonderful tool.
My wife grew up cultivating maize fields with one in East Africa and 
derisively refers to what is sold in the hardware stores as 'the Honky hoe'
or 'the toy hoe'. About a year ago Organic Gardening magazine reviewed a
number of hoes, and the Eye-hoe was one of their favorites. If you do get
one get the one with the elliptical eye and handle. When the round-eye one
wears at the handle the head rotates unexpectedly. 

Todd