I went to see my parents on Saturday. The week prior I had taken my pickup to a local outlet and purchased my father a new tiller. Actually, we both paid half, but I was the one who handed the money over to the cashier and hauled it home.

It is a really big and heavy tiller with rear tines and dual directional blade and wheel rotation.

So far I have used it for a few hours and already I wish I had never seen it before.

Let me start at the beginning. Right after getting the tiller, I tried to use it to till in the rabbit manure, nitrogen and lime that he put out in the fall. I was also trying to till any old roots under and all of the old bugs up to the top where they can freeze to death. I don't know if it will work or not, but I am hopeful that more will die than live.

At any rate, I went out there and tilled two rows and already had to try and remove about 20 rocks from in between the tines. So, using a rare moment of intelligence, I opted to till after more rocks had been removed. Once I started getting the soil cultivated like I wanted, I realized that the ground was full of rocks. They ranged from cannon balls to fist-sized quartz, all of which will stop a tiller cold or at least make it jump up and down and rattle your teeth half out.

The garden spot hadn't been utilized a great deal until lately, at least until I started helping my parents work it more. I kind of feel bad about all those years that I didn't do more to help them. However, yesterday is gone. I can only do better today.

So, after my parents had raked up some of the rocks and piled them up beside the garden, I returned to get to work. They really enjoy working in the garden, just like I do. Every time there is a warm spell I get growing fever and start wishing it was time to plant already.

Last year, my parents hired a fellow with a tiller on the back of a tractor to come and work the soil. He didn't do all that well. Not only that, but he didn't come when he was supposed to, he charged too much and he didn't get it deep enough to suit me.

So, when it came time to think about it again, I figured we'd be better off just to work it ourselves. The tiller I chose was the biggest one they had, but it didn't have the biggest price tag, thank goodness. You know, something about a man just yearns for the biggest piece of equipment possible. I once looked into getting a tractor, but kept finding myself on the wrong end of the parking lot. While I really went to look at a reasonable tractor, I was magnetically attracted to the giant diesel with the covered cab, backhoe, front-end loader, plow and tiller. Total ticket price? Out of this little farmer's price range.

In fact, I don't think I could have afforded much more than half of the price of the tiller I managed to buy.

I just thought of something. I may be getting in trouble with one of my sisters right now. Last year, she and her husband bought dad a used tiller and gave it to him. Of course, they work and live in southern North Carolina and couldn't really be here to till the garden. So, I tried to start it and got it to run a little ways and quit. Since it would do that repeatedly, I figured it needed a carburetor or a seal for beneath the carburetor. I couldn't find parts for such an old machine. The tines were also worn, but they were all one piece. So I figured I would just bite the bullet and help my folks get a new one.

Perhaps it was really just some subconscious game of sibling one-upmanship that I was playing, but I wouldn't really know if it was subconscious. "Mom always did like you best," the Smothers Brothers used to say. By the way, I don't think they were Communists, either. Commies just aren't that funny.

As for my complaints, first of all, it is top heavy. My parents' garden is on a grade, which makes running a tiller on it interesting to start with. I have figured out that it is best to start at the top and work your way down, going along the contours of the hill.

However, I didn't really know that to start with. Knowledge, sadly, isn't something we gain or retain easily.

I started at the bottom, where the ground was flattest and worked my way up. Needless to say, by the time I got halfway up the hill, the tiller was trying to roll down into the soft dirt rather than chop and mix the hard ground. So I wised up and went to the top and started over. It went much better with the soft ground leveling the tiller up as I went.

However, by that time, I had already developed a nagging backache. You don't realize what laying up all winter does to you until you get that first hard work of spring going. Not having a wood stove to keep up this year has really hurt me. Cutting, stacking and splitting wood aren't just a good way to save money. It's good exercise, too. Tilling isn't even that hard, either. I can say that beating rocks out of the blades and helping to pick them out of the garden isn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but it sure isn't the hardest. Oh well, as warm weather comes, perhaps we'll all grow more hardy.

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