Scott, a few years back I got in a long conversation (the only kind I'm capable of) with a Bahco PR guy. I gave him some input that he was going to forward to R+D (yeah, maybe, but you know PR guys)and he sent me a free package of saws and hand pruners and, even new, the saws don't come close to the Japanese jobs by either ARS or Silky. Felco seems to get their seconds sometimes and you can wind up with blades that bind on largish wood with them. I used to use the Felcos until they ran into this quality problem and then switched to ARS but then discovered that Silky makes the best handles. Try the Silky Gomtaro 300 coarse tooth and I guarantee you'll put less stress on your joints. Just be sure to wear leather gloves as a careless moment can cut to the bone. The gloves will at least reduce damage.

Hi Leisa, I started noticing aches & pains when I was 39. Intuition told me I needed to get serious about exercising. Lucky for me I found Nia. It is a dance exercise of sorts yet low impact. I have never been a workout sort of girl and this is the only exercise I have managed to stick with. Been doing it a least 2 times a week for 3 years now. Not sure if there is a class in your area though you can go to nianow.com and take a look. Also started taking flaxseed oil about a year ago. Omegas are suppose to be good for joint issues. It definitely seems to help. Been doing lots of yard work these past couple of days and can happily report I have no major aches. Hope you find the best solution for you. ~Amy (stlgirl)

Sorry to hear about your sore hip and back, Kasha. Hope the pain can be relieved while you are healing. Jerry, sorry that you suffer as well and hope your treatments are helpful. Having someone else do the chores around home can be a joy as I found with my back problems this past winter. DH has been a trooper carrying things here and there for me. Happily I have worked hard in the garden digging up sod and edging beds the last couple of days and haven't had any back pain. I give credit to the strengthening exercises that I have been doing. Perhaps I am cured! Well, for a while anyway. Next week I go in for total knee replacement so no rest for DH for awhile.

Ahh, A boat ride. I was blessed with a note in my mailbox that someone needed help clearing out a garden and to bring your shovel and pails. I did. She wanted it all gone, granted she had about five other gardens, even more full. But she was moving and wanted this garden gone. I took a lot and came back the next day to clear the rest. I spent a good 4-5 hours sunday planting the 100+ asiatic lilies, columbine, phlox, daylily varieties. This garden fairy godmother also split some praire smoke, pasque, saxigragia, yarrow, delphinium, husker red, iris, and others! I had an area 80 feet wide by 10 feet deep to fill and this gave me a great start, since we have a very big lot which we had to scrape nearly clean since it was so overgrown(mostly by perennial weeds)! Unfortunately I was not able to get the names for many of the plants, or in the hurriedness they fell off when I could. But nevertheless, it was great! I then took some advil and we went out on our boat for a ride. I was hoping to tan my face so that not just the back of my neck is tan from looking down in the garden. Iced coffe sounds good, I bought a latte before and couln't take another drink, I heated up too much! great string! Holly