Garden work

Sore (sôr) adj. The condition of feeling like Radagast and SO after four hours of cutting sod and tilling soil in their front yard.

We've made great progress on our mission to remove a 7 by 30 foot section of grass from our front yard and replace it with roses and bulbs. We rented a sod cutter and tiller, and started off using the sod cutter to remove the grass. Sod cutters have to be one of the best inventions since, well, gas-powered tillers. In less than an hour we removed all the grass from the area and had it (somewhat) neatly rolled up. The $40 rental charge for the sod cutter was well worth it.

The tilling was not as easy. After spreading out 27 cubic feet of steer manure and 6 cubic feet of sand (the sand alone weighed ~600 pounds) we started the tiller up. Unfortunately the dirt was pure clay (anybody want to make some pots?) and the tiller was just bouncing off the "soil". We dug some trenches to start the tiller in, and after about three hours of very bouncy tilling we declared the area done. Actually, the tiller was the one who decided to call it quits, as it began belching white smoke on our last pass through the area.

We're just about to head off to lunch with an old student of mine, and after that we get to come back and dig planting holes for our 12 new bareroot roses which are soaking in the back yard.

[Updated to properly label my definition of sore as an adjective, not a noun]