The Industrial Age revisited

Tractors. Machines. All things with loud motors I do not like. Oh I definately use my car with pleasure. And I do love getting on an airplane and trains are one of the most fabulous ways to get about. And they all have loud motors. But somehow they do not bother me the way weed wackers , rototillers, tractors and other annoying motors do. But yesterday I had a change of heart.

Yesterday I began working on tilling a piece of land in College Park Md. I am going to be growing tomatoes and basil for a catering company there. It is a small piece of land, just a 1/4 acre in a suburban neighborhood. But I am excited about trying out my knowledge. So step one, till the land. Turn in the sod. Allow the grass and roots to decompose so we can plant in this little piece of earth. So we got a Rototiller. A big one and it was horrible. After 4 hours of tilling only 1/8 of the land was done...and my body hurt like it has never hurt before. I dreamed of the tractor. How a tractor in about 10 mins could have tilled up that soil. I thought of how it doesn't hurt your body at all. It doesn't shake and pull and make your forearms feel like they are going to explode. You just get on and drive.

Suddenly I got it. I get why people love tractors. I get why they are so wonderful. Basically because rototillers are not.

In the end we got a walk behind tractor. Also fabulous.

I have enter a new age and discovered that it was only because of my ignorance that I hated tractors. A horse and a plow would be best but the tractor isn't as bad as I once thought.