find little engines (in mowers, string-trimmers, chainsaws, etc) to be utterly, totally invaluable and irreplaceable? And utterly infuriating?

The lawnmower didn’t like the cold and didn’t like the load that the leaf-catcher put on it, and kept stalling. It had to be on clean ground with exactly the right amount of choke/throttle to engage yesterday.  On the other hand, I can’t imagine raking all those gingko leaves…

And the string trimmer….getting it restarted after refilling the gas tank? Flood, wait, flood, wrench the wrist, flood, start! Then it runs beautifully.  And clearing the unwanted seedlings from five acres? While going around all the wanted saplings and seedlings? Well a brush scythe would do it, but it would take forever and not be nearly as neat.

Useful gadgets, but they certainly are prima donnas!