The behemoth comes to town.

Saturday started out in a quiet manner, putting the second coat on several porch spokes and a third coat of paint on the railing.

Then I went to pick up the monster tiller.  It comes on it's own trailer, requiring driving 45 mph all the way home.  It took 2 hours and a long nap to bolster my courage so I could run this thing.

It weighs more than an elephant and is twice as cantankerous.  How many times did it shut down, perhaps 144.  After that I lost count.  How many times did I have to pull the start cord, about 287. After that I lost count.

How many times did it get TOTALLY STUCK in the new garden that is covered by 9 loads of alpaca manure, TWICE. After that I pretty much gave up.

The good news is I lost 13.2 pounds just pulling / pushing it up and down the yard and making U-turns.

You can imagine how much expostulating occurred when I returned it.  Explaining just which garden area I tried to till and how it would NOT do anything.  Thankfully, they refunded my money.

And  . . . as the big strong fellas lifted it up off the trailer when it was running, guess what came pouring out.  You guessed it, a ton of #%&*.

Turns out the tiller mechanism was clogged and the only way to tell was to lift the darn thing all the way up.

Sorry fellas, I did not take my superman pills this week.

The moral of this story is, find a tractor / tiller guy who will actually show up and pay whatever they ask, it's worth it!

Until then, keep stitchin' . . .