Today, I bought a cheap hammer. I may spray paint it pink! I have a problem with my tools running away every year. I have green pliers and striped open end wrenches, and blue shovels. I buy new water hoses each year and they simply disappear in a short time.

Each spring, I make a seasonal raid in the shops and barns and vehicles to find things I have missed that should be in my tool drawer. Some tools I find are from several years before. I mark most of my things with any spray paint I can find; I also zebra striped a shovel last year and guess what? it is now gone along with it’s tell tale stripes. If I search the shop and I think I will find it at the "Color Zoo" with the rest of my shovels, rakes, hoes and hoses.

I need my very own tool shed placed in the back of our house with a lock and key of my own... An old toilet would do. I wonder if I can find one? With one bathroom and the other one unfinished since 1976, I might just leave the holes in it for those unexpected emergencies. With five living here and so many grandkids over nights, we need some method besides taking numbers.

One year I looked in all of the out buildings for my new and quite expensive garden hose. I am sure that there was a mistake in the price when I bought it at a Lumberyard in Enid. Others were taking advantage of the bargain too. I purchased 200 feet of rubber garden hose for less than $20.00 that fall. The next Spring when I went out to set them up in my flower beds, not even one of the hoses could be found. After fussing about it one day, one of the boys grinned and asked me if I had looked in the corral. I went out right then and there was all 200 feet intertwined in the fence from the water hydrant to a cattle water tank on the far side of the corral. I did plenty of dressing hubby down, but left it for his cows and removed it that fall.

I have bought four or five hammers in the past 5 years. Sometimes, I find one where someone has left it and sometimes I find it in one of Wayne's tool boxes. I have painted them, written my name all over them and it makes no difference. Once I bought a tiny hammer for a dollar to use for hanging pictures and when Wayne told me he needed a hammer right away. I reluctantly handed him my cheap one. It literally broke off at the head with two licks. He told me I had just wasted my money on it. I gave him a few words in retaliation too.

My problem stems from letting people know my "hidey holes." Beth gave me a set of nice Sears Craftsman wrenches for Christmas. I have them stowed away in my computer desk with "my" tools. I now own a set of screw drivers, a new hammer, pliers a measuring tape, paint brushes and a couple of flash lights. I am not easy anymore!!! Now, if I can find a solution for my pens, pencils, scissors and scotch tape, I will feel I have the world by the tail!!