The Garden Dilema

Three factors in my life

are always between

me and progress;

1. no money

2. no pickup

3. no money

I was going to say 

3. no man

but unless the man has money

and a pickup

then it is still a problem.

I have no money because I have too many two's.

Two houses, two sets of utilities, two sets of taxes and insurance,

two vehicles and two teenagers who have not yet landed two jobs.

I am not complaining here, just explaining now the above factors

challenge me, but do not for a minute - stop me.

I needed a tiller.

I had a tiller, but it was a cheap built tiller

made by a company with the initials of Huskee.

One of the tines actually sheared off.

So, for the past three years, I have had no tiller.

The first year I borrowed my daughters pickup and

rented a rear tine tiller to till the grassed area where the garden now sits.

Said daughter has since sold her pickup.

The second year, which was last year,

we turned the entire garden over by hand.

I would consider doing it again, 

but I promised myself I wouldn't do that to the girls.

However, I needed the garden planted before July,

so I didn't attempt it myself.

I would love to do no-till

but need a pickup to haul the mulch.

Even Ruth Stout who just drops seeds on the ground

uses mulch.  I don't have any (yet).

I went to check on renting a tiller.

The only one that would fit in the van was 

a tiny flower bed tiller with tines that, if I was lucky,

would dig down 2-3".

If I wanted a bigger one, I would need a trailer to haul it

and a hitch on the van.

OR, I could rent a big UHaul truck and haul the tiller

as well as some horse panels and other things from

the house in town to the farmhouse.

I liked that idea, but not the price, right now,

just to get a tiller to the farm.

So I started shopping around a little more.

I found a tiller that had bigger tines than the one at the rental store,

and would dig deep enough for what I needed.

It was also electric, which I love because I can just plug it in and go

and don't have to crank, pull, tinker or adjust.

I was $199 and I did just get my income tax refund.

I pondered on it waaay to heavily for a day or so.

My fear was, is that I was being foolish to think it could do the job.

That I would once again end up with a useless piece of crap

because I didn't invest what I needed to into the equipment.

But I took a chance and brought it to the farm.

Now, don't you dare laugh

because this baby can get the job done.

It cuts a 9" path, but can also be adjusted to a 6" path

for weeding between rows later.

You can be sure I will space my rows for this.

It digs deep enough to turn the soil over, chop up roots

and turn under the compost.

I don't have rocks and the soil is not clay so it runs smoothly.

My two most favorite things about this tiller are

it's power and it's solid build.

The motor housing is solidly attached and

does not bounce around.

I am so happy to have one more problem solved.

I did this much tilling while just playing with my  new toy.

Now I can plant peas and greens.

What are small things for some,

are bigger for me.

I have two more pressing problems to work on this week;

1. Trying to find a contractor that will actually call me back

for an estimate on re-shingling the roof.

Money or not, this has to happen.

2.  see for yourself

Moles.

From what I have read, moles are hard to get rid of.

I read about a product that deters them with fear by smelling like a fox.

Anyone tried this?

The moles aren't the only thing that dig holes in the yards.

Snakes, rabbits, ground squirrels and 

of course DOGS

who go around making all the holes bigger.

We have flagged, spray painted and cement-filled

these holes but there are always new ones.

So far we have been lucky, but I know it is only a matter of time...

.