Nap time

It is good to nap.

not quite yet

So there is not yet a motobineuse in my life.
Over the weekend, we have a fair amount of time to mess around in the garden, and JP discovered that the fork is quite adequate for turning over the parts of the veg patch that I plant every year. All covered with dried grass and leaves, the weeds don't get a hold, so all you have to do is rake aside this blanket and turn over the ready earth.
Being only mid-March, it is officially too early to be planting, but we bought a tunnel thing to keep the morning frost off the tender new tomato plants and the green bean seeds (not that there is frost).
While he was planting the new strawberries, I kept on with the row for the potatos, going beyond the usually cultivated zone and into territory that hasn't been turned over since I moved here. That is a workout.
JP planted three rows of potatos, all nice and neat. He actually used a rope and some stakes to make sure the rows were straight, and a stick to make sure there was a 'tato every so many inches, not more, not less. The potatos did not get a protective tunnel, nor did the salad he seeded.
Never have I had such a regulated garden. When the garlic comes up you will see a more or less random distribution.
Still to go are peas, radishes, corn, leeks, and zucchini.
And whatever else we think of.

Motowhat?

A motobineuse. This I must have.

What is, you might ask, a "motobineuse"?

Well, it's simply a motorized version of a bineuse.

And therein lies its charm. A bineuse might be useful, but with the terrain I have, a motorized one is really the ticket.

This is, naturally, Monsieur Gadget's idea. 

Monsieur Gadget has great plans for the veg patch this year. Visions of baby zucchini, tender peas, and lush, seductive tomatos already dance in his head.

Then he looked at the patch I have for planting, and instantly rejected the idea of turning it all over with a pitchfork, as I usually do. No, no, we will get a motobineuse and make short work of all that. Out of the question to break our backs at it.

Indeed, one woman with a fork and not a lot of time after work can usually get only about half of the fenced-off veg patch turned over and planted. I thought, one woman with a fork, relayed by a man with a fork and frankly plenty of time on his hands, could get the whole thing turned over no problem.

Ok, ok, the part at the back that's been allowed to grow weeds for several years now, perhaps that part warrants gasoline-powered help.

We can rent a motobineuse, just for a day. Just this once.

At 50€ a day to rent one, in less than 5 rentals you could have your very own. A red one.

Aw, but I like the workout that turning the earth by hand gets me. I like getting tired and sweaty. And the earthworms. You'll just chop them to bits with your bineuse. You won't even see them.

So it is possible that a motobineuse will be acquired sometime tomorrow while I am at work, and it is possible that it will be put to the task again while I am still at work, so I do not have to hear the awful sound of the thing or breathe its exhaust or regret the chopped earthworms, but can come home and *voila* Mademoiselle's garden is ready for planting.