Tevye's Russian Whizbang Milk Cart(2008 Contest Entry #2)

That “old” garden cart is actually not as old as it looks. I’ll let Gabe Acrich from Colfax, California tell the story:

"My wife Sarah has been putting on community theatre plays for many years. Sound of Music , Oliver etc. etc. Lots of adults and tons of kids. The kids pass the hat at the end of the play and all the money goes to a charitable organization. Well this year it's Fiddler on the Roof. The lead character and center stage the entire show will be "the Garden Cart". It will serve as the sewing table , the master bed, turned on it's end the wedding backdrop, the Sabbath table and last but not least Tevye's milk cart.

Now for the building of the cart. Everything except a fresh sheet of plywood and the wheels came from the boneyard. It's amazing how much I had in order to build this and that's prior to adding all the extra aged wood to make the cart appear authentic. We searched high and low on the internet for wheels. Too expensive, not authentic, or shipping was too high. We took a car trip from our home in N. California through Arizona to New Mexico. Not for wheels in particular but we did take the van just in case. On our last day in New Mexico , there they were, perfect. And 26 inches as an added bonus. We had forgotten the size we needed but would have bought almost any size and made it work.

The first cast party had a pile of wood and tools awaiting everyone. We built the whole thing in three hours with about 7 men. 2 build and five watch and drink beer. The greatest idea was the extra axle support added at the last minute. It looks just like the leg support but shorter. It comes down just a few inches below the cart bottom and the axle goes through it as well. It adds a good deal more support for these extra heavy wheels. (sorry ,you can barely see the top of it over the wheel in this picture) Except for the wheels and support, and all the extra wood for looks, we followed the plans exactly. Oh, we also widened the cart by 1 foot. No metal across the top either. We gorilla glued the heck out of everything. Let it dry and painted the plywood.

I'll send you I picture while it's up on stage but that's many months away."

Thanks Gabe. That’s a fine cart. I wish you the best with the play, and I wish you the best as Entry #2 in this year’s Whizbang Garden Cart Contest.

2008 Cart Contest Entry #1

John Hudson (a.k.a., The Ancient Mariner) built that smart-looking Whizbang Garden Cart pictured above. The photo below shows Mary Hudson (a.k.a., "The Boss" or "Head Mess Cook" or "First Mate") with the unpainted cart.

The Hudsons live in Alabama. These pictures, and John's comments below constitute entry #1 in the 2008 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest.



Here's What Mr. Hudson had to say about his Whizbang Cart:

"The famous or infamous cart is finished. Materials pretty much as in the plan. 5-ply Ext grade Douglas fir plywood. Douglas fir for the handles, the rest pine. Unable to get the thin J-bead. Most around here is plastic. Finally found some heavy metal j-bead, gauged out to 1/32 inch and edges rolled and crimped. Little harder to work. Had to drill holes. But did the job. Finished with two coats Behr solid color premium deck, fence and siding stain.

Couple of mistakes
1. I read with interest the use of duct tape for masking when gluing. I have plenty of duct tapes so I promptly grabbed some blue painters masking tape and carefully masked it. Not a Good idea!! My only excuse is old age. I turned 80 in November of 07.

2. I’m a fan of coated deck screws so where possible I bought them rather then the plain wood screws. The inch & 1/4 worked fine. Didn’t notice the 2 & 1/2 were #10 so fastening the bottom to the handles heard a crack Figured I might have drilled crooked. Did the next, another crack. Turned the cart over, saw two partial splits in my nice straight grained fir handles. Removed the offending screws. Dawned on me that these were size 10 rather then 8. Redrilled the pilot holes , repaired the cracked spots and all ok. Don’t have a table saw for ripping . Picked up a gadget (ACU-RIP) for my skill saw and was able to do the required rip in the two by four. The cart was made primarily for the wife. So she wanted barn red She will name it at a later date."

Nice Job John! Thank you for your sharing your Whizbang Garden Cart with the rest of the world. I hope it inspires others to get their cart done and enter it in the contest.

Announcing the 2008 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest

Build A Whizbang Garden Cart And You’re Eligible to Win One of Four Gift Certificates to a Seed Company Catalog

Grand Prize: $100 gift certificate to Pinetree Garden Seeds (or another seed catalog of your choosing)
Second Prize: $50 gift certificate to Pinetree Garden Seeds (or another seed catalog of your choosing)
Third Prize $25 gift certificate to Pinetree Garden Seeds (or another seed catalog of your choosing)
Fourth Prize: $25 gift certificate to Pinetree Garden Seeds (or another seed catalog of your choosing)

Note: Pinetree Garden Seeds is currently the only seed company catalog that sells the Whizbang Garden Cart plan-book.

Here’s How to Enter The Contest

1. Build your own Whizbang Garden Cart using the plans found in the book, Anyone Can Build a Whizbang Garden Cart

2. Take a picture of your finished cart. The picture must show the cart in a natural setting (for example, a garden), and there must be at least one person in the picture.

3. Do one of the following:

a) Send the picture of your cart, along with your name and address , by postal mail to: Whizbang Books, P.O. Box 1117, Moravia, NY 13118

b) Post the picture of your cart, along with a short explanation about it to your blog, web site, or another internet location with its own linkable internet web address. Then e-mail the location to: whizbangbooks@bci.net The link must be viewable until at least the end of 2008.

Contest Deadline
All entries for the 2008 contest must be received by December 1st of 2008.

Here’s How Winners Will Be Chosen
Everyone who enters the contest will have their name written on a slip of paper and put into a box. On December 31st of 2008, Prize winners will be picked at random as follows:

The Grand Prize and Second Prize winners will be picked from a box containing the names of people who posted their cart picture with an explanation about it to the internet.

Then, the remaining names in that box will be added to the box of names from people who sent their photo through the mail. From these two combined groups, the Third Place and Fourth Place winners will be picked.

Announcing The Winners
Winners of the 2008 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest will be publicly announced on January first of 2009 at this blog and at The Deliberate Agrarian.

If you mail in your entry, you will receive notice of contest winners by mail in January of 2009. Winners will receive their prizes in January of 2009 (in plenty of time to order seeds, plants, or whatever you want for the 2009 planting season).

Other Important Details
<>Those who enter this contest by posting an internet photo and commentary will be listed (with a link to their photo) at this blog.

<>Any photos and comments received by mail may be used by Whizbang Books for marketing purposes.

<>This cart contest, and the picking of all winners, will be conducted in a fair and honest manner. However, there will be no second or third party verification of the process. In other words, if you enter the contest, you must trust us to do it fairly.

<>Whizbang Books reserves the right to substitute similar prizes of equal value for the prizes listed above.

<>Only one entry per person or family is allowed.

<>Entrants who do not win a prize in the 2008 Garden Cart contest may re-enter next year’s contest.

<>Any questions about this contest and the rules should be directed to Whizbang Books. (whizbangbooks@bci.net). Whizbang Books reserves the right to modify these contest rules to further clarify them if needed.

Announcing the 2007 Whizbang Garden Cart Winners

Well here it is January first of 2008 and it's time to announce the winners of the 2007 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest for 2007. I announced the contest HERE back in May.

There was only one entry before the deadline on December 1, 2007. Don & Caleb Underwood, a father and son team from Nebraska, built a Whizbang and entered it in the contest. You can read all about it HERE.

So Don & Caleb have not only made the first Whizbang Garden Cart, they win the First prize of a $100 gift certificate to Johnny's Seeds. I asked Don if he would rather have the gift certificate from another seed company. He requested Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. So Baker Creek it is!

Don & Caleb... I received notice from Baker Creek yesterday that your gift certificate has been sent. You should get it in the next day or so. Congratulations and here's wishing you a great year of gardening with your Whizbang Garden Cart!

Oh, one more thing Don, congratulations to you and Gina on your 13th wedding anniversary.

Hey everyone else......
Stay tuned for details about the 2008 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest. I'll be posting them here in the next few days.

Here's wishing you all a great year in 2008.

Herrick Kimball

2007 Cart Contest Online Entries

1. History has been made........

Don & Caleb Underwood in Arizona have built the FIRST (that I'm aware of) Whizbang Garden Cart! Don has written about and posted pictures of the cart at his blog. Here's a link: The Underwood's Whizbang Garden Cart.

Don & Caleb are now officially entered in the 2007 Whizbang Garden Cart Contest

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2. Who's next?

The Whizbang Garden Cart Poultry Brooder

We recently bought a dozen day-old turkey chicks. I set up a simple temporary brooder for them inside my workshop using one of my Whizbang Garden Carts. The picture above pretty much tells the story (note the curious chicken that has come into the shop).

I layered some plastic in the bottom of the cart, dumped in some wood shavings, rigged up a heat lamp, added some food and water, and the chicks were safe and comfortable. Such a brooder is only good for a week or so before the birds start jumping out. But it was an easy way to get them off to a good start.

This next picture shows the plywood board I made to block off the open end of the cart. The plywood is notched to fit around the handles. A piece of pine board screwed to each end serves as a place to put a spring clamp and hold the board in place. Then a couple of spring clamps at the bottom, over the handle, hold the bottom in place. Since the cart is in my shop, there was no need to put a protective wire top over the cart, but that could have been done easily enough.



So, as you can see, the Whizbang Garden Cart isn’t just a hauler. You can even use it to get your poultry flock off to a good start.

To learn more about the homemade Whizbang Garden Cart and find out how you can get plans to build your own cart CLICK HERE

The Whizbang Garden Cart Portable Work Table

If you drive by my house, and look carefully, you will notice that two sides are nicely sided with cedar shakes. But part of the back and one side has tar paper on it. That’s the way it is when you build your house yourself, and you aren’t flush with money, and you have an aversion to borrowing. Which brings me to the following picture:



That’s a view that you won’t see driving by the front. Not pretty. But give me time. It’ll all come together in time. I plan to put a patio of paver brick off the back door. And maybe even a pergola over the patio. With grape vines growing over it. And, of course, I’ll finish the cedar siding.

Last week, however, I took time off from work to do other things on the house that needed doing. Specifically, I needed to remodel a bedroom upstairs. My three boys have been in the bedroom for 16 years. Marlene and I had the other bedroom in our house. We decided to switch bedrooms. They get ours (because it is bigger) and we get theirs. As you might imagine, after 16 years of boys living in the bedroom, it was in rough shape. I had to patch the drywall, skim coat the walls & ceiling, replace the window, put in a new door, put in all new trim, do some rewiring, paint, and wallpaper.

It was a lot of work but it is done now and Marlene couldn’t be more pleased. I did it all for her. After all, I sure didn’t need a new bedroom. I could sleep in a sleeping bag on an old mattress on the floor and be satisfied with that. But women aren’t like that. They like a real pretty bedroom. So that’s what we got.

Well, anyway, the picture shows how I made a handy work surface for my chop saw and portable table saw, and assorted tools. I simply laid a partial sheet of plywood over the top of my Whizbang cart. The work surface is about 30” high which is perfectly suited to a work surface.

I put the plywood on at my workshop, loaded the tools on the work surface and inside the cart, then wheeled it all to where I wanted it. When I was done with work every night, I threw a plastic tarp over the whole thing and secured it with spring clamps on to the plywood. When the project was all done, I wheeled it back to my shop and unloaded everything.

So there you have an inexpensive, low-tech, and highly effective portavle work surface! And there you have an exceptionally handy cart!

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To learn more about the homemade Whizbang Garden Cart and find out how you can get plans to build your own cart CLICK HERE