Don’t forget the old ways.

I have a section of my yard that is a creek/drainage for the neighbourhood. While it stays wet for most of the year, during July and August, it drys out enough to mow/clear/clean up….

There is a section that I can’t use the mower due to the significant possibility of death on the slope, and its too thick to use the trimmer, so I use a scythe.

Growing up in the country, I was exposed to many tools hanging in old barns, that my younger self looked at with mild curiosity, and not much else. Why use a scythe when I had a mower? Well, skip ahead 40 years and I realized it is the perfect tool to clear that section of the yard safely. And its a great workout!

I regularly have to remind computer people that sometimes the “old way’s” work better. They may not be sexy, or impressive, but in the end they get the job done. As technology people we should learn and deploy new stuff… but should never look on the old stuff as useless tools hanging in the barn.