SOLO TURTLE: Gardening and Power Tools, OK -- Dance Shoes and People Who Do It Better, BIG FEAR!!

Last night I visited my friend Norm. He's one of those people who is the epitome of "good friend and neighbour". Everyone knows the age old story of the neighbour who runs next door to borrow a cup of sugar... well, Norm is the guy who would GIVE you that cup of sugar; partly because he's just that type of guy, and partly because it would be too much hassel to return a silly little cup of sugar!

In my case, last night I stopped by to borrow a mower. Not just any mower, a beat-up old rusted-out mower.

What makes this mower so special? It has a power-rake attachment - a scratcher that turns your lawn into a complete dust bowl, churning up all the dead thatch and over-the-winter debris that's been trapped under the snow (well, OK, maybe not so much this year!) for months and months.

Once the dust settles, however, and the debris removed, you are in theory left with a clean, well raked lawn that can now breathe.

The result? At first your neighbours might be tempted to call Bylaw Bob to complain about the dust and the mess, but in about two weeks you end up with the greenest grass on the block.

So, last night I power raked. By the time I was done I did, in fact, have a dust bowl... truly. I decided to return the mower right away - stopping by the store for a big bottle of New Zealand beer to share with my friend. We sat in the kitchen and yammered on mostly about unrelated stuff.


This morning, about 6:30 I started in on the process of raking up the debris on my lawn...
which had also been strewn across the driveway and sidewalk. After the removal, I ended up with this:



Hard to tell by these photos, but if you look closely, you can see the ridges I missed. I'm new with this tool, but I'm pretty proud of the result!


A couple shots of the back yard which will be raked up tomorrow morning.


A shot I took on the fly that just sorta worked out really well!
There you have it. Gardening tools and I get along really well.








Then there's the mystery bag...



...these tools and I need time to get to know each other!


Salsa Class #2 is tonight at 5:30. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, so I'm not going to say anything here!


(can you see me shaking in my boots???