W is for WeedEater ....

 . . . . and for Winter.

Last week I hauled out the old rototiller to stir the dirt in my vegetable garden plot. This is the third location on the property in 14 years for said garden plot. The one thing in common for all three is that we dig them up and till them with the indefatigable WeedEater rototiller that my in-laws donated to the cause when we moved to the 10 Acre Wood on Labor Day weekend in 1997.

This sturdy little beast starts up every spring with very little coaxing. Somewhere along the years I managed to lose the belt shield. It had a spell of spitting the belt off it's wheels now and then. I would have to remove the guard to re-thread the belt and lost track of it at some point. Seems the belt doesn't jump off at all now that it's not guarded.

I love tilling dirt in the spring. The smell is so promising of good things to come.  This year we committed to building a raised-bed Asparagus trench. I can hardly wait to get the new crowns planted. There will be no harvest this year, but worth the wait.

What?

Oh! The W is for Winter part? Well, it's Friday, April 15 (normally Tax Day but for a strange holiday celebrated in the District this year), and the temperature is dropping with the extremely persistent and blustery wind that is bringing SNOW. Yes, snow.

So the perfectly tilled garden awaits warmth and future activity. The trusty Weedeater stands by in the shed, ready to loosen the soil again. Spring will come.

It will!

I'm certain of it.