It started and ran rough for a minute or so, but then settled down into a modest roar. “Better get a new muffler,” Jasper said aloud. “Neighbors will have my head.” With a pleased smile on his face at his successful refurbishing of the old Sears rototiller, Jasper gripped the control that tensioned the drive and fast walked the tiller to where the new garden was going to be. He stopped, dropped the drag bar down and squeezed the handle again, the tines of the tiller beginning to cut the turf. It took three hours of steady work to complete the first pass of the tiller over the garden area. Jasper’s hands and arms were numb from the vibration of the tiller. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Only the top three inches of the ground were turned, but the grass was incorporated into the soil. Using half a dozen soaker hoses he’d picked up one or two at a time at yard sales the previous year, Jasper began to water one section of the new garden.
