The Woes of the Gardener

It's Spring time in the Wasatch, and we have begun the season of gardening at our household.  It has not been as serene as it could have been, though.

We inherited a tiller from my wife's grandmother.  We used it last year and it was wonderful.  It's old and showed signs of wear, so over the winter I took the handle off and stored it in the garage until my wife could transport it to her dad's shop and have it welded in prep for this year's use.

After that was accomplished, I put the tiller back together and discovered that the cable from the handle to the pulley that engages the tines was not moving through the sheath, and once I engaged the pulley the cable would not release, so it was all tines all the time.

Not a terrible problem, I tilled until something inside the gear box broke, maybe the chain that drives the tines after the pulley is engaged.  Nonetheless, no more all tines all the time, no more tilling.

I eyeballed the design of the frame. It would require lengthy de-construction just to get into the gears that the chain runs on, so I went looking for other options until I can get up the motivation to tear down this old tiller.

I didn't have to search far.  My brother heard my dilemma and rescued me by letting me borrow his tiller Saturday just past.  What a nice machine it is!  2 years old, smooth and neat.  I had the garden patch whipped into shape in no time, ready to plant, then I decided to do just a bit more in some hard packed ground.

Well, I now have two broken down tillers at my place, and am awaiting shipment of the part that broke on my brother's tiller so I can repair it and return it.  I hate borrowing expensive things and I should have realized that something would go wrong, but I still hate it.

Now I just have to focus on the end results that we will get and let it offset the work and trouble we've had with the tiller drama.

Those tomatoes and other things better be really good this year!