OK - I got the tree in early January. The photo attached was taken right after it was unwrapped. It is a Chinese Elm (Ulmus Parvifolia). It has since been placed outside where it receives morning to midday sun and is partly sheltered from any wind (I live in coastal Los Angeles so it's a pretty temperate climate.) I feel that the location is fairly good according to what research I have done. I say I need to do some pruning because with all the rain and then sun we've had, it has thrown out new shoots and gotten very bushy. These shoots have grown longer than the original small branches and the leaves themselves are larger than anything that was on the tree before. The foliage part of the tree is perhaps almost twice the size as it is in this photo taken just 6 weeks ago. There are also some small branches that have appeared coming off the main trunk (in a perpendicular manner) and I know that these need to be removed to keep the balance of the tree. Tho I am a newbie to bonsai, I have been doing research since I got it and all signs seem to point that this guy needs a little tidying up. I will try to take an updated photo in the next day or so, so the experts here can see it and tell me if I'm crazy (but it's starting to look less like a bonsai tree and more like a shrub) OH! and the reason I say which toolS - is because tho I may only need a concave cutter right now, I would like to give them the names of a few different tools (so I don't end up with an ugly sweater or hat that I will have to wear every christmas from now to eternity) :) Here is a link that might be useful: my original posting

Ouch! Pray you don't move to a house with a smaller lot :). It sounds like you are about done on your tool purchases, especially big ticket items. Stages is a good idea for drip when starting out. There are some different parts that later I found better solutions for or did not use. Corn benefits greatly from the drip. Or if you have something else that would benefit from measured watering and will be in the same configuration year to year. After you get into drip, you'll start thinking of timers and eventually move into ground moisture detection. You can easily spend thousands on the things. I ended up with a simple timer that I would have to turn on manually. It was way better than anything else I was doing and less overall hassle than the full blown set. For a 20'x50' garden it ran me about $200-300. The hard part was designing the layout so that I could isolate the section water requirements and allow for changing layouts year to year. You probably get a kick out of using all the things you bought. I hope you have a trimmer, blower and chainsaw. Some other tools I enjoy using that can cost some. I'd like to have a chipper but I just can't justify the cost for my yard. Good luck with it!

I've always preferred a small hand held fork for weeding.

A good starting point would be 1/3 to 1/2 of current replacement value. The problem with Craftsman stuff is the quality has been on a steady descent in the last 45 years, and you current replacement may be worse or no better quality than what you have. I'm just not a big fan of Craftsman power tools as they have tended to go to the lowest bidder du jour and parts start to become a problem after just a couple of years. Even quality hand tools have taken a nose-dive in prices. I went to an auction last month and most planes were going for about 1/2 what they would have fetched just 10 years ago. My pet theory is that places like Craig's List and EBay have made the market much more wide and liquid. It's just no longer that tough to find a crispy model #271, for example.