Jim Ruen

For 68 years, Dowling Community Garden has put the “community” in Minneapolis community gardening.

Shop Talk blogger Jim Ruen explains how to use a string trimmer safely.

Shop Talk blogger Jim Ruen explains how to properly hold a string trimmer.

Shop Talk blogger Jim Ruen explains how to safety remove the battery from a string trimmer.

My 8-acres of forest—planted to oak, black walnut, elm and ash—has filled in with more than its share of cottonwood and box elder. Had I planted my trees in rows, I could have simply mowed the errant seedlings, but my trees were broadcast seeded and grew the old fashioned way: where they wanted.

An old friend of mine called this spring with the news that he and his wife were buying 15 acres in the country. They had gotten a real good deal on the place, but the buildings were in questionable shape.

The other day, my daughter wanted to hang a shelf she had made. The challenge was that it was a corner shelf and I only had one appropriate hanger for the job.

Hearing the words “out of stock” is normally a precursor to frustration. That is especially true living in the country.

One of the joys of my job as a farm-machinery writer is getting to try out tools. It’s especially fun when the tool turns out to do the job it was promoted to do.

Electric motors are great, and modern life wouldn’t be the same without them. Let an electric appliance stop working, as our clothes dryer did recently, and you are quickly reminded how vital these machines are.