The Tale of a Fateful Trip

You may recall our trip to Lowe's last year.  You would think we would have learned something about small cars.

Evidently not.

This year, determined not to make the same mistake, we engaged my sister-in-law and her SUV to transport the wood for our new garden box as well as Adirondack chairs we purchased in order to spend some time actually enjoying our huge back yard this year.  All went smoothly in the way of transportation, and we felt quite clever.

Then we decided to purchase soil for our garden box from a business that sells bulk soil instead of buying hundreds of bags from Lowe's.  Again, we basked in the golden sunlight of our cleverness.

However, in order to move the soil to the actual garden box, we needed some tools.  Namely, a wheelbarrow.  Which we did not yet own.  So off to Lowe's we went again, selected the smallest (and incidentally cheapest) wheelbarrow we could find, loaded it with mushroom compost (to enrich the soil), paid for everything, and headed to the car.

At this point, it occurred to us. 

We have a small car. 

Perhaps we should have realized this sooner, but...

The wheelbarrow definitely was not going into the car.  We tried it at a variety of angles, in multiple openings.  It just wasn't going in.

After several phone calls to people with larger cars (no one answered), we sat down to think.

My darling husband decided it was time to take matters into our own hands and Solve the Problem.  As it was the wheel of the barrow that stood in the way of our plan, we wondered if we might remove it.  After examining it, I found that it was only secured to the axle with a screw on either side of said axle.

Liam, the Problem Solver, announced that he would borrow a screwdriver.  I, of course, scoffed that such a thing would surely not happen.  But off he went, confident that there would be a screwdriver to borrow.  And, amazingly, there was.  We removed the wheel, proud of ourselves for being clever (starting to see a pattern here yet?), and attempted to shove place the wheelbarrow into the trunk.

It still didn't fit.

However, with the wheel removed, more of it was in the trunk than out.  So we decided to cut our losses and get out of there.  While returning the screwdriver, Liam found that there was twine by the door that was available for tying down trunks.  So we tied the trunk down and delicately drove home, with the barrow bumping the whole way.

And that is how we learned that cleverness is no match for a small car and a large wheelbarrow.  But a small car and a large wheelbarrow are no match for Liam the Problem Solver.