The vintage rototiller that I inherited from my grandfather and used for 10 years died recently.  We had arranged to rent one once the soil was dry enough.  Now the soil is finally dry enough, and the tiller we were going to rent is out for repairs.  We called every other rental business in the phone book, and nothing was available.  I found an ad for a used John Deere 450 rototiller on Craigslist.  Tom called, drove out and purchased it.  He loaded it by himself and brought it home.  He hooked it up to our tractor and started to till, but almost immediately the drive chain broke.  So he drove to the equipment dealer and bought a new chain.  He came home and worked on replacing it.

Below is the first pass with the fixed tiller.

And Tom tilling.

Here he is checking out the tilled garden.

Another view of the garden.

And new broken ground (with Sunny and Izzy).

While Tom was doing this, I did all the animal chores, sold wool, ran errands, cleaned the windows, and cleared out the gutters.  I am now tired, sore and sweaty.  I do not think I smell like dirt which was my goal for the day.  But nonetheless we accomplished a lot on this spring day.