Gardening Tools That Mean Something To Me

A teenager trying to look "as cool" as a person possibly can on a tractor. Can a person really look "cool" on a tractor? .....At least he gave it his best shot.

Our garden started off this way. You know, with plowing. Uncle Bubba was plowing at first and then he had this idea to throw my oldest son on the tractor and let him give plowing a try. Things went well. The garden got plowed that day. This tractor belonged to my father. It was his pride and joy. I bet he would be tickled to know his grand child was using it.

You have probably heard a lot about Uncle Bubba. He is somewhat "crafty" and all (you know with all that outhouse building and stuff). A long time ago, he noticed that some farm implements are not exactly built for today's more modern farmer. (Face it, people were shorter in the old days.) He needed a push plow that was built for a person taller in stature. Do you know what he did? He built his own model of a traditional push plow. It's light weight and does the job. I got to use it the other day to plant some corn. It was easy to use as I am, kind of, on the tall side.

My Daddy's old roller tiller with a makeover

My father passed away some 6 years ago. He loved to hobby farm. I remember him using this old roller tiller out in the garden a few times. He would stagger around, trying to hold on to this monster and somehow, he managed to hold a cigarette in his hand at the same time. (Cigs are bad news guys) My father was a giant at 6-1/2 feet tall. This little mechanical device gave him a run for his money. Just seeing it brings back memories of my father every time I look at it.

I had never used the roller tiller until this year. It beat me silly. I was sore for days. Tylenol was my friend during those days. Last week, I used it again. I was glutton for punishment I guess. This time, either my muscles had grown accustomed to the abuse or the roller tiller decided to not be so rough on me this time. Either way, I managed to till out a nice little carrot/lettuce/cabbage patch.

You might have noticed that snazzy blue engine. It's new. Scott bought a new engine last year for the kid's go-cart. It didn't fit so he had the great idea to put it on "the monster tiller". Hey, the go-cart can't go faster now but at least the tiller can!

This is my Daddy's old seed planter

This is a handy little device that also belonged to my late father. It has little removable round plates that can be changed depending on the type of seed that needs to be planted. As you push it, it drops just the right amount of seed in the row and a little chain covers those seeds with dirt. I remember my father being so tired and sitting on a 5 gallon bucket in the shade. He would tell me to push this little device up the rows and plant his corn. He always said that the corn wouldn't come up unless I planted it. Back then, it was kind of annoying but I liked pushing this thing. The corn always came up too.

A little tidbit of information: he always said that if you planted your garden on a Sunday, God didn't like that. Nothing would come up or if it did, it wouldn't produce anything worthwhile. He proved it too. He gave up planting on Sundays after learning that lesson. Sunday is, after all, a day of rest.

Maybe I'm too sentimental but all of these things hold a special place in my heart. I guess it's funny to think kindly of a plow and the like but I'm just weird that way and that's OK with me.