We were eating breakfast yesterday morning when the local Sears store called to tell us that our tiller was ready for pick-up.  As soon as we finished eating, we went to get it. 

It was in a big crate.  We backed up to the loading dock, and the store employee scooted it right into the bed of our truck, no problem-o.  There was a problem-o getting it out of the truck.  We finally had to peel back the cardboard crate, remove the wooden supports, and hoist it out with a chain and Pop-Pop's hydraulic lifting thing.  It took us about 30 minutes to get the handle and gearshifts on it. We oiled it up and gassed it up and plugged it up (it has an electric starter). 

With one push of the little red start button, the engine cranked. 

Hallelujah!  Joy!  Joy! 

This may very well change my life!  :)

We couldn't take it for a test plow, because the ground is too wet.  But you can bet I'll be trying it out before the week is up, if we don't get any more rain.

I took a look at the garden after we stashed the tiller in Pop-Pop's shed.  There is now an electric fence around the potato rows.  Something - raccoons, we think - has been digging up the potatoes we planted last week. 

I guess they've already eaten the ones we threw over the hill when Pop-Pop wasn't looking.