Till 'Er Up

I like to work on my friends' farm. However, they are always warning me not to do this or that without supervision because they are afraid I am going to get hurt. I'm not sure why they have this fear since I am not the one who broke my leg stepping out of a horse trailer. I am not the one who scraped all the skin off my arm on tree bark. Nor am I the one who was trampled by a horse this summer.

That being said, last fall I wanted to rototill their garden. This I would do while they were both at work. Cherelyn sounded dubious, "Are you sure you shouldn't wait until Dennis gets back from work? I'm not sure you should rototill with no one here." How hard could it be? I assured her. Just pull the chord and give 'er some gas while following along behind. I had rototilled once several years before. I figured it was one of those skills you retained. With a doubtful look on her face, Cherelyn reluctantly drove away to work while I trotted out to the garden and the rototiller.

After a quick appraising look to figure out how to start it, I fired the rototiller up. It started easily, but I must admit I was at a bit of a loss as how to get it to go. Recalling it should be self-propelled, I looked around for some lever with the telltale rabbit and turtle on it. No offense to any do-it-yourselfers, but it was evident that this rototiller's rabbit and turtle lever had been broken and replaced with some home remedy years ago.

Not to be deterred, I figured since the tillers were tilling, I could just place them on the ground and the thing would go. Oh, it went all right. About a hundred miles an hour. Suddenly I was speed rototilling! Wind in the hair, dirt flying, me running behind, trying to maintain control. It was great. Only nothing was getting tilled except the top half inch of soil. I am happy to say that it only took three running, dirt flying swaths to figure out the self propel mechanism. And the garden did indeed get tilled thoroughly and deeply enough. I can't wait until next year when I forget how to engage the self propel again. Let the speed rototilling begin. . .