Birthday Equipment

Today was Vicki's Birthday. I could tell you how old she is but I think she might kill me!!! Anyway, one of benefits of getting a year older is that you get PRESENTS!

For the last two/three years the bulk of the work at Long Bean Farm has been done with a combination of a tractor (basic land prep) and a hoe. Both pieces of equipment are very useful and have their place. But the farm seemed to be missing something.

Mostly more hoes!!! I say that in the most polite way....but you just never seem to have enough hoes around when the spring and summer grass starts sprouting.

How do we fix this issue??? This has been a question that comes up almost every weekend. The answer seemed to be that we needed something smaller than a tractor but bigger than a hoe. It was decided that we would get a tiller that would be big enough to make rows yet narrow enough to till between rows. The decision was made.....

After hours and hours of surfing the net and mucho phone calls to equipment sales people we were more confused than ever! It seemed like there were 100's of choices. All had benefits and drawbacks. The project would require more thought! Well, the discussions continued...and the grass continued to grow. At some point you just need to close your eyes and hope for the best.

So, this week for a "not so romantic birthday present" Vicki got a tiller that is self propelled and can put up rows.

Ok, we all know that birthdays for your wife require a "romantic present". Too many of us husbands buy practical gifts for our wives birthdays thinking that we are doing something to make their lives easier and that our wives will really like that. But, we very soon find out that we missed the boat entirely and we should have just bought something soft, lacy or chocolate.

Well, I hope I didn't fall into that trap....but you never can tell. So, to hedge my bets (really the tiller) we made an impromptu stop at the nail salon after the farmers market!

Once Vicki gets the hang of her mechanical hoe I'll post some photo's and a review of the equipment.....