Its that time of year again

On a very windy Saturday, we decided to get the rototiller out of our garden shed and rip into the desolate patch of earth that, once upon last summer, thrived overabundantly as our garden. That baby was my pride and joy.. Everybody who happened by our house last summer was given the grand tour by yours truly. Boy, was I proud of that carefully cultivated patch of earth. As Summer drew to an end and my tomato plants became too much to keep up with (like an idiot, I planted 20 plants.. I guess I thought I had an army to feed.. lesson learned).                                                                           Once the frosts came the remnants of plants sat there growing brittle, decaying, looking like tumbleweeds that were still attached to root systems. I dreaded cleaning all of that mess up when spring rolled around. I hoped that Chris would whip the tractor and chisel plow through the garden like he did last year, sweeping away all of the ugly plant residue as he went by. And just like last year, he took care of it for me. After he finished working the ground around our house, he came home and we started rototilling. Our rototiller is a fairly new item around these parts. We bought it last spring at Farm & Fleet, spending a pretty penny for the big one that looked aggressive enough (aka "manly" enough) to take on the job that our huge garden entailed. When we got it home we realized that it resembled a wild horse when your engaged the tiller.. If you weren't holding on with all your might, shifting all of your weight backwards, it was going to take you for a ride. As you can see above, Chris started out with it and my father-in-law, Joe, with infinite patience, ended up finishing the job.                                                                                                    Eventually the dogs wandered over to see what all the commotion was about and I snapped some shots of them when they weren't attacking my face with their tongues. In the photo of all 4 of them below, the chocolate lab in the back is our oldest dog, Honey. She sort of abandoned us for Chris's dad a few years ago and moved to town with his parents when we bought the farm. Joe still brings her out to the farm with him everyday while he works and then she hops in his truck and gets carted back to town at night. The yellow lab is Reagan. She'll be a year old in July. The chocolate lab in the front is Brick.. We named him that because we are Chicago Cubs fans and at that point we had another yellow lab named Ivy but she disappeared on day with the Brick's father and never came back. We believe they were dognapped :(  I saved the best one for last.. The spotted, midget of a dog you see below is Dottie. She was Chris's little brother's dog when they lived on the farm but she had to be left behind when they moved to town because she & Honey do not get along AT ALL.. She was advertised as a Jack Russell terrier but we think she's half Blue Heeler. So now you've met my dog family.                       On a side note, its been freezing around here lately. Temps have been getting down to freezing at night and the wind blows incessantly throughout the day. In the photo below of rototilling, you can see red plastic tubs sitting in the yard. I've been using those to cover my plants nightly. My grapes are looking pretty pitiful lately and I'm worried that if the weather doesn't perk up soon, they won't come out of it. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!