Another Example of My Not-So-Superior Brain

A little backstory, first.

You may recall that last summer they tore up our street, and sidewalks, and almost every one of our front lawns. My front lawn was where they wound up parking all of their bulldozers, excavators, and even their Port-a-John. They told us that when it was all done things would be back to the way they were “or better.”

When they were done, they put my walkway bricks back, however, they were not level. They also moved the sidewalk close to the street, so now the walkway didn’t reach the sidewalk. All winter and well into the spring they had the seed/hay on all of our lawns. Honestly, some of my neighbors lawns look good. Mine, however, was patchy and a mess.

As I mowed recently, I noticed that there were huge clumps of clay and a lot of rocks in the soil. Well, I guess they didn’t have real dirt to put back, because most of my lawn was rocks and clay. No wonder it wasn’t growing back! So I took matters into my own hands.

I decided to borrow my father-in-law’s rototiller and I was going to rip the whole lawn up. The plan was to till it up, get some good soil and lay it down with seed and fertilizer. Over the weekend I started that project. This is how my yard looks currently.

Because of the rain, I have been unable to get out and drag it so that I can get the seed down. That is still to come. So let’s talk about my stupidity.

I get out the rototiller and get read to work. I have never used one before. I know enough to know I have to set the little digger/tiller things to the depth I want and when I pull on the handle, they will go to work. I look over the control levers to get a feel for what is where. I see that the handle, once engaged, will make the tiller move forward. There is a lever to pull if I want it to go backward.

I start up this thing and I begin to walk behind it. For some reason, I don’t feel like it is really working with me. As a matter of fact, I feel like I am pushing it. I finish my first row and start the next one. Again, I feel like I am struggling with this thing. The sweat is pouring down my face by now. “What the heck is going on?” I think.

My wife is watching me and offers to do it. I am not about to let her do this. If I am struggling with it, I certainly don’t want her to. I get down to the end of the third row and my shirt is now soaked with sweat, the sweat is rolling in my eyes, and I am out of breath. From where I am I throw the thing into reverse. That is when I realize the wheels are not working. I say, “This thing is suppose to be going in reverse.” My wife says, “Well, the hub is spinning, so I don’t know.”

All I can think is that I have broken my father-in-law’s new rototiller. I pull the reverse lever again and I look at the wheel. Sure enough, the shaft is spinning. (Are you getting ahead of me?) This is what I see when I let go of the reverse lever:

Do you see the problem? Once I did, I laughed and could not believe how stupid I am.

You see, the way that wheel is right now is the way it needs to be when you are just moving it around while you are not working. In order to get the wheels to move with you, you have to pull the pin, slide the wheel forward, place the pin through the wheel hub AND shaft, and bingo!

All of a sudden, the work became a lot easier! It moved forward when I wanted it to and backward when I needed it to. Of course, on the fifth row, the flood gates opened and it pour rain on me. That was the end of night one with the tiller. I was obviously able to get the whole thing tilled, but now I need to wait until the rain stops to finish the project.

This is a fine example of what happens when a typical guy like me says, “I don’t need to read any instruction manual!”