Hints of Spring

I sort of dropped the ball last fall in keeping up with this blog. We became so busy picking and preserving that I didn't take time to blog. The bottom line is, we had a wonderful harvest, Elton canned all kinds of things, and we had tomatoes after frost because I picked all the green ones and we enjoyed them for quite awhile.

I did clean out the tomato patch, but I have tons of work ahead of me. It's been chilly, but I've been out a few times, beginning to cut yarrow and rake leaves out of the flower beds. I discovered the paper whites in bloom, and tulips are poking through. I'm not pleased to see weeds already greening up -- before anything I want to see growing, of course.

So I've done a lot of thinking about this year's yard and garden, and came to the conclusion that two things I really wanted was a wheelbarrow and a weedeater. I priced them, and wheelbarrows were a lot more expensive than I expected... around a hundred dollars. Weedeaters aren't too bad; about $30 for an electric one. I got a wild hair and put an ad in the "wanted" section of craigslist asking if anyone had a used wheelbarrow that they would sell for a reasonable price. A guy e-mailed me and said he had one he would sell me for $15.

Elton and I went over to pick it up yesterday, and the guy was really nice. He and Elton had lived in Germany at the same time so they talked about that. As we were leaving, he said he had some other stuff he was going to put on craigslist, a couple of weedeaters. I perked up at once. Weedeater? He had an electric one, and said he would sell it to me for ten bucks. He has to dig it out, though, since he just moved. He is supposed to call or e-mail me.

So, the way I look at it, I saved about a hundred dollars getting this stuff on craigslist. I'm going to remember this for any future things I need! Like a patio umbrella.... ours is looking a little rough.