How hard can it be to buy a pitchfork?

[debikm]

Apparently, quite difficult. Between yesterday and today, I've been to four stores (two different Lowe's, a Home Depot and Wal-Mart). All but Wal-Mart had the kind of fork I want, you know, a pitchfork. The kind you pitch hay or manure with. (All Wal-Mart had were the spade-fork thingy's. Not useful for leaves and straw.) The cheapest pitchfork I can find is $35.00. What are these things made of? That's not even a fibreglass handle, just the regular wooden kind that dries out and breaks after a few years of good use. I have a small yard. I could make do with moving the leaves by hand and rake as I have done the past few days, but this is Florida. Sometimes when you rake up a thick layer of dead leaves, some not-so-dead things are swept up with them. I'm not overly girly about bugs, but I still don't want the damned things crawling on me. There is a limit to what I'm willing to tolerate and then there's centipedes and other creepies that I don't want to touch. Still, I'm not willing to spend that kind of money on a simple device that has been in use for many centuries yet apparently has taken on a great deal of value to the Free World.

Another Wal-Mart will fall to my assault tomorrow. If that fails, it'll be feed-stores and Tractor Supply, who will not doubt have equally priceless artifacts of agricultural implementation to offer and I'll again refuse to pay. Until one too many bugs crawl over my skin and I cave.

But for now, strength in adversity!