a local mallard providing his inspection of the garden
Good Evening, Morning, or Afternoon Steemits.
We've had a pretty successful day, and I wanted to share with you a bit of the progress we made.
That's a pretty daunting task for a guy who's only real experience with roto tilling was done at my previous home, and by hand. Fortunately we have access to our gas powered tiller. It was Doris, our friend with the goats birthday today. Once we finished with church services, then lunch and more socializing we finally got back to home about 14:30 and got changed, then started. We called it quits at 20:00 and almost completed the job.
It was a gorgeous day today. Stayed around the 27ºC or 80ºF until the sun really started to go down.
In the past I preached @Nateonsteemit about how tilling isn't necessarily the way to go. I had this feeling of shame inside me the entire time that I did this. But here's our excuses/reasons, leading to the justification that I gave my father several times this afternoon: it's the last time for this piece of the property:
Tomorrow we are having some friends over in the afternoon and evening to lend us a hand with raking the soil into the beds which will become our no dig gardens. They're also going to help us with laying down a pile of wood chips that we will be using for both the no dig garden paths, and the top layer of our future food forest. Having the chips used for the paths in the no dig garden allows that part of the ground to hold more moisture, so as to make it later available to the plants in the no dig bed as the day, sun and heat progresses. Piling the wood chips on the top of the rotting straw we have laid in the food forest will create a barrier to stop unwanted plants and weeds, like grass or dandelions from growing through the straw which will compost and become soil. Of course it serves the same purpose here also, in that it will hold moisture for the trees, and edible plants in the food forest.
It was a fun day with Dad and my gorgeous wife.. I'm so exhausted. I'll throw out some photos to keep you updated on how things are looking tomorrow! I didn't get around to taking any this afternoon/evening besides the one that my dear wife 
I want to recognize that I'm wearing rubber boots with shorts to match my amazing rat tail. Things like this used to matter to me a lot more than they do now I suppose. haha - Life's much better this way!
I'm excited for tomorrow to get back to it. Take care Steemit folks. As always, if there's any questions please ask!