Double-Digging on Steroids!

We have acquired a tractor. We were going to wait and get a used one that we could pay cash for. But we kept looking around the homestead and thinking "We need to do X but to do that we'll need a tractor" and "We need to do Y but we'd have to rent a backhoe." We need to clear out ditches, put in a couple of drainage pipes, bury an electric cable to the chicken house, get gravel delivered and spread it on the drive... the list is truly never-ending.

We talked to some neighbors and decided that we don't know enough about tractors to be able to determine if a used tractor is a good deal or if it's been dogged and abused. So we opted for a new one with a warranty... and payments. But, we rationalize, we're NOT paying someone else to bury a cable or spread gravel on our drive. Works for us! :)

ANYWAY, now that we have this delightful machine on the property, we are giving it a workout. The modest first year garden plan has been replaced by an over-zealous insanely-ambitious garden plan. What folly!

We are "double-digging" our garden with the backhoe :D We dig the top foot or so off of an area and set that topsoil aside. Then we dump a bag of peat in the hole and fluff up the dirt in the bottom of the hole and mix the peat in well. Then we move the topsoil back into place.

Working the backhoe is fun! My husband is getting quite adept at operating it, and can maneuver it in multiple directions at once. I'm pretty spastic at it still. I occasionally move the lever in the opposite direction of what I want, though not nearly as much as when I first started using the backhoe. My big problem now is pushing or pulling the wrong lever. I'll need to push the right lever, for example, to extend the backhoe, and I end up pushing the left one instead, lowering it.

I spend a lot of time laughing out loud on the tractor in the garden by myself. The deer must be wondering what the big joke is.