The Case of the Missing Pruners

Have you ever put something in a place where you wouldn’t forget where you put it? 

Several years ago, I bought a really good pair of bypass pruners.  Said pruners have been missing since the end of January! 

As Ken and I prepared to go on a mission trip to Kenya, East Africa, for the month of February, I put said pruners out of the reach of my 2-year old grandson . . . who seems to be able to find anything!  . . . and in a “place where I wouldn't forget where I put them.”  Famous last words! 

In March, I began the search for said pruners.  I looked in all the places that I thought were "places where I wouldn't forget where I put them!"  However, after much searching . . . and praying . . .  I purchased another not-so-cheap, new pair of bypass pruners.  But I stalled opening the new pruners, hoping that by merely purchasing them the old ones would show up.  You know how that sometimes happens.  Well, not this time!

On Saturday, August 13, 2011 . . . I gathered gloves, hand tools, plant start, and my watering can from where I store them in a 5-gallon, gardening tote bucket, formerly a paint bucket.  There before my eyes . . . said lost bypass pruners!  I had used that bucket MANY times previously this spring . . . said pruners were NOT there!   

Ken just happened to be standing nearby when, with a bewildered look on my face, I said "Look!  My old pruners!  How did they get in this bucket?"  His face spoke volumes!  I knew he had played a part in said lost pruners showing up in my bucket!  As it turns out, Ken said he found them a month ago . . . in the place "where I wouldn't forget where I put them" . . . but decided not to tell me. 

Where did Ken find them?  In a very large flowerpot I use each year . . . except this year!  I vaguely remember putting them in that flowerpot thinking it a “place where I wouldn’t forget where I put them!”  I’m sure it made perfect sense in January to store them in that large pot.  After all, when it was time to plant that pot it would be time for my pruners, too!

Now I have 2 really good, bypass pruners . . . one by my back door and one by my front door (and a pair of gardening gloves with each pruner) . . . or maybe one pair to give to a friend! 

I really must add a page to my gardening notes . . . the “places I won’t forget where I put it!”