Garden tilling

Finally! Finally I have my garden dug. I guess better late than never?

I started digging my garden after my relatives left in May. My plan was to borrow Bob & Jan's rear tine rototiller to dig up my garden. However between Bob's doctor visits, repairs needed to the tiller, and the rainy weather, time passed and passed and no tiller. While waiting for the tiller I started digging my garden using my shovel.

My garden is large: 32' by 76'. While the soil is soft I was slowed by having to pull weeds and their roots. Up until this weekend I had dug only half of the garden.

Saturday the rototiller was ready. I tilled Bob & Jan's garden. Then they insisted I stay for supper. Salad, steak, hamburgers, homemade pie... I haven't eaten this well since my relatives were here.

I was so full from the meal I had to wait until Sunday to dig my garden. First I spent some hours pulling the weeds whose roots would come out of the ground. Did I say hours?

The cattle were in the front yard when I started the tiller. Many were taking a siesta under the big pine tree near the road. They all stood and bunched together between the tree and the road and watched me and the commotion I made. I hadn't even dug one row when I saw a heifer standing on the road. Outside the fence on the road.

What? How is that possible?!

I ran to move my pickup blocking the entrance and then opened the barb wire gate. By now the heifer moved into the ditch by the hayfield. Just like a deer she crawled under the fence - barely. The fence is barb wire and old 2x4s dad nailed to the posts. She rubbed on the lower 2x4 and for a minute looked like she was going to take the fence down.

She slipped through leaving some of her winter fur behind. She ran a few steps in the hayfield then noticed tall grass and stopped to eat. The rest of the herd followed her on the yard side of the fence.

After I closed the gate and put the pickup back I herded the cattle into the corral and closed the gate. The heifer followed on the hayfield side of the fence. With a little effort on my part, as she kept stopping to eat grass whenever she could, I herded the heifer back into the yard and into the corral with the others.

While I had found one of the fence boards broken and off the fence I doubt she slipped through that opening. I then found one wagon wheel by the driveway entrance was tipped over. I think she stepped over the wagon wheel, and between the pickup and the gate she slipped under the gate.

I replaced the wagon wheel and for the rest of the day kept an eye on the cattle whenever they were in the yard near the pickup. No further jailbreaks, thank goodness.

While on the road she left behind a souvenir of her brief visit, and to which the passing traffic flattened into a brown spot.

Back to my garden I realized I didn't know where my sunglasses were. I remembered wearing them when pulling weeds... I still haven't found them days later even though I was only in the house and garden when wearing them.

This is the second pair of sunglasses lost while working on my garden. Days earlier I remember setting that pair on my wheelbarrow's handle. Later I couldn't find them. Still no idea where they disappeared to. I looked all over the garden and fruit tree area. My garden is the "Bermuda Triangle" for sunglasses.

The tilling of the garden was slow work. I found the tiller didn't chop up the remaining weeds as a number of whole weeds - roots and all - lay on the freshly tilled dirt. I tried to gather and toss the weeds as I tilled. That made steering harder as one wheel kept sinking into the previous row's fresh tilled dirt. I spent more time than I wanted wrestling with the tiller.

Then a bolt came off which disabled the drive and tiller controls. I had to turn off the tiller to stop its movement and then go find a new bolt, washer, and nut.

Later as I started the second go around of tilling the garden the drive stopped working. The drive belt had come off. However after fixing the belt only reverse would now work. The belt was older and stretched enough that forward wouldn't engage.

That's it! I had enough. I took the tiller back to Bob & Jan's. I guess I was meant to dig my garden by hand.

This afternoon I finally finished digging all the garden. (I'm tired). However before I could start to plant my seeds the rain came. So much for getting my garden planted before the cold and wet weather arrived.

Someday I will finish my garden. However this is the first week of June - who knows what will be ready for harvest by Fall and first frost.