I, in my longing for peace and quiet, gather dogs, rifle, bear spray and 4 kids for a nature
walk.
Questions, questions. They all want to know exactly what a nature walk is. Jeez. These pampered pets.
We all put on rubber boots and get a Wal-Mart sack, each. The sack really confuses them.
We start down to the pond. It’s slow going. The baby dawdles and sits down a few times. I task the older 2 to hold her hands and pull her along. Works, kinda.
Our first stop is a bird nest laying on the ground. We are looking and I point out feathers. And explain how the wind probably blew it down. Oldest grandson asks where the bird lives now. I’m answering and Betsy the Beagle walks over sniffs the nest and pees on it. Well, we are not putting that it a sack. The baby starts crying. I show her acorns she can put in her bag.
We walk on. The baby is picking up anything she can fit in her bag. I swear she picked up a smashed beer can. Her bag was ‘hanging low’ by the time we got to the pond.
At the pond we see lots of interesting things. Frogs, crawdads, stick bugs, spiders and webs. Littlest grandson starts filling his sack with rocks. His brother waits til he sits down the bag and dumps all his rocks into the water. This starts a dirt clod war. Mud in someone’s hair (mine) puts a stop to that war.
We continued around the pond to the levee. It’s a steep climb for little legs. The baby sits down and starts crying. I told her to quit squawking and use her words. All I got was “My sack is loosed!”
I sent oldest Grand-wrek to go back and find it. We wait. And wait. And wait. Okay.
Let’s all go back to the house.
Nature walk is over. Oldest Grand-wrek is sitting on a swing. :smack:
Those are some lucky grandkids, nana beck! There’ll be some “remember the time” stories from that nature walk! And I love the littlest one putting everything she found in her sack. It’s not about nature, it’s about treasures (like old beer cans)!
Bedtime is sacred around here. I send the boys to bed promptly at 9pm. The little shit Chihuahuas at 9:30.
(If you believe that I have a ocean front property for sale in Arizona)
The Chihuahuas are crated at night. It shuts up their barky-barky instantly. I woke up Monday night and turned over and heard growling. Turned on the light. Instead of 2 dogs at the bottom of my bed, I had 4.
It seems they had a midnight jail break.
That was alot of fun. The rodeo ended about 3am.
So ~VOW, guess what we did?
No nature walks today. We have been gardening. Got my tomatoes out.
I got each Grand-wrek a pot and soil and flower seeds. Moss roses and marigolds. They each planted a pot. We put them on the steps up to the deck. I’m gonna sneak and add some more seeds to each pot. I’m not sure if they got the seeds in the dirt or what.
I don’t how teachers watch more than 2 kids at a time. All I see is hands moving and hear mouths going. Confusing.
Beck do you plant Cantaloupe and watermelon?
Purple Hull peas?
I didn’t mind shelling peas because I loved eating them so much. My family and I spent many an evening together talking and shelling peas. One of the few times we met like that and passed the time.
Shelling peas would be a great activity while stuck at home sheltering in place.
Love melon for dessert. My uncle always included a melon patch in his garden.
I sure hope the local farmers market opens. We buy the shelled peas now. I’m ready for a big bowl of peas and cornbread.
Acey: I have a big pea patch. I do grow cantaloupes. I have some special beans planted this year. I usually have pintos.
3 kinds of greens. Onions. Corn. Cabbages. Arkansas girl and Bradley Pink tomatoes.
My garden is bigger this year. I have live in help. We will eat good if I can keep it growing.
When I was a kid we had a ginormous vegetable garden with every conceivable kind of veggie. Some of them were treated with DDT :eek:. My specialty was watermelon, though I never got a melon larger than a softball. A friend of mine grew pumpkin vines with no fruit. One night his mom went out and placed a huge pumpkin by one of the vines. I don’t think he ever learned the truth.
Regarding your baby’s bag of treasures: When I was a wee tyke I used to come home with pockets full of all sorts of critters - bugs, worms, crawdads, etc. - many still alive. And I kept it all in my pockets to be played with in bed. Mom must have had fun doing our laundry.
I’m thinking one shirt each to dye and one each to wear as we’re doing it. That shirt might be cuter in the end.
Mid-daughter does not like the idea at all. She’s a party pooper.
So is DIL.
Makes me want to do it more. The lil’wrekker is game
