The tools of the trade at Long Meadow Farm are those that are operated by humans using their own muscle power. Last spring, we traded our only gasoline-driven farm tool -- an aging Agway rotary tiller -- to a friend for two gallons of maple syrup.

The big three in our arsenal of human-powered implements are the wheel hoe, the scythe and the pick-mattock.

Then comes an assortment of rakes (hay, bed-making and leaf rakers); hoes (stirrup, broad and narrow; circle, trapezoid, square, triangular and more), shovels (barn and digger varieties); forks (hay), spades (four-tined), trowels and a variety of small hand cultivators, including our favorite, a hand hoe we call "homies" (a sharp-edged tool that cuts weeds at close range).

None of these tools is cheap, but together they are all cheaper than a farm tractor with all needed attachments. Plus, they come without the noise, fumes and petroleum consumption. While they require muscle power, they save wear and tear on the old buttinsky. Tractors force you to sit down all day as you "work" and we know the large-scale results that occur from that.

Even better, human feet don't compact garden beds like tractors tires do, although it is pretty verboten here to walk in the raised beds, even by mistake.

And you can have human-scale conversations at any time during the day -- about anything that comes to mind.

So the "back-breaking" work associated with human-power farming has a very enjoyable conversational side to it. Personally, I've never yet seen a back break from the kind of work we do -- backs tend to get stronger, along with arms, legs and hands. Most people I know with "bad backs" have never done sustained work that involves using your back. Mostly, they can't.

OK, one of our three precious wheel hoes got broken in the process last week. This is about the fourth time we have cracked an arm of a Valley Oak wheel hoe over the last six years.

The company has been trying hard to strengthen its tool, largely, we believe, because we have complained bitterly about their fragility (perhaps others have, as well). As a result, it has done a credible job strengthening the long "arms" of the tool, and we think they are the best designed wheel hoes in the business. We have just used them very hard in our clay soil.

They are our rototillers and our tractors but better than either because they don't grind the soil into a dusty puff. They can coax the long quackgrass rhizomes out of a bed instead of chopping the rhizome into a hundred new plants that must then be tilled or handpicked out of the bed. Eventually, the quackgrass loses against the wheelhoe, I swear.

And wheel hoes are powered by a notoriously low-emission sources: humans.

We have actually broken two scythes over the last four years -- the Austrian design does not relate well to our heavy grass cutting. We've also learned that cutting in early morning when the grass is tender prolongs the life of a scythe. Thankfully, Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow has replaced the scythes without cost.

The stone used to sharpen them is also breakable. We found that out when an apprentice of two years ago dropped it on the concrete floor in our shed. It shattered into a half-dozen unusable pieces.

During the early mornings this week, we had three or four scythes going on the perimeter of the garden, with one person raking the mown grass. Besides helping with appearances, the cuttings are used to provide heavy mulch over rough beds for the coming winter.

The pick mattock is another version of a pick axe that has one arm flattened out and the other pointed. When a bed has sodded over -- as happens in spring, or this year, during the heavy rains of June and July, as well -- the pick mattock comes to the rescue. The wide blade can skim the sod off to be carted away, making way for the next steps: wheelhoeing and re-building the beds.

Over the past few years, we have built a few sod mounds that would have caused envy among some Midwestern Indian tribes. Over time, the sod breaks down and can be returned to the garden as soil. Of course, the mound is covered with sod that needs to be pick-mattocked until the soil is revealed underneath the surface. A good sweat can be had by all.

Forks and four-tined spades are pretty straightforward. Hay forks do hay very well but little else. Spades don't do hay well, but they are great for lifting matted compost, digging potatoes and carrots and loosening the soil in beds.

Hoes are the most varied of our tools. Big square ones are good for bedding up; cute little circle hoes work well in tight spaces; triangular hoes can make a very nice furrow for planting or watering.

Rakes? Good for bedding up (using a regular garden rake) and moving hay (using, of course, a hay rake). Our old style wooden-toothed hay rakes become broken messes over the summer, but I have begun to appreciate our steeled-toothed hay rake with its long handle and curved teeth. The curved teeth make it difficult to handle since the hay won't let go. So I give the pile a strong stroke over the top and then it comes free.

Finally, the small hand tools are about the only way to get weeds out of planted beds without injuring the plants.

The only really dangerous tool in the bunch is the scythe and it is virtually impossible to hit yourself with it. People in the field, however, are warned to stay out of the "circle of death" of another scyther. We had one unfortunate incident two years ago when an apprentice was holding a bull frog when it abruptly jumped out of his hand and landed on his scythe blade on the ground. Instant evisceration.

So, blessed are the tools, the tool makers and those who help us do what we do.

Denis Thoet, with his partner Michele Roy, own and manage Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner, www.longmeadowfarmmaine.com.