Sunday, September 18, 2011

Driving and fruit trees

Boy is out in the backyard picking up pears and apples that have dropped off the trees.  He's going to feed them to the sheep and chickens.  It's taking him a long time to do this chore because he's by himself.  Girl got to go to a friend's house to play.  He's doing chores still.  I told him to hurry because he needs to help me with my chores too. 

What do I have to do today?  I bought 200 pounds of chicken food that needs to get put into the cans in the barn.  I was given a screen door that I want to put up to have a formal divider between the two chicken coops.  I'm not happy with just having the wire up between the two spaces because as it always happens, I am in one and want to go to the other.  This means I need to leave the one coop and walk around to the other.  It will be much easier to put the door in between.  I could do both of those chores myself but it gives boy a good sense of pride to be able to help the grownups with their chores. 

He wanted to know if he could press the pedals when I'm driving the truck from the front to the barn.  He went on to say that he could sit on the floor and push the pedals.  No, how about if you sit on my lap and you can push pedals and steer?  He's pretty excited but if he doesn't hurry I'm going to drive the truck back to the barn myself.  He's eight and hasn't driven since he was two or three, when I put the kid on my lap and let him steer while I slowly idled down the road.  I did that not too long ago with my four year old grandson.  I was in town and saw daughter-in-law walking with the boys to daughter's house.  I picked up the four year old and let him "drive" a couple of blocks to his aunt's house.  I took a huge chance.  We were in town, in a school zone, and I was letting the four year old drive.  Remember when that wasn't a big deal? 

Girl got picked up by her friend's mom this afternoon.  The mom said she'd come pick girl up rather than me driving her over to the friend's house.  Why?  The mom wanted to come pick fruit.  She said that the plums she picked the last time she was over were the best she had ever tasted.  It inspired her and her husband to go out and buy six fruit trees.  Good for them!  Today she picked pears and apples.  We have a few ripe oranges and a ton of figs and pomegranates but that's about all for the next couple of months.  Then the citrus really ripens along with the persimmons. 

I'm kind of feeling lazy today but have to get stuff done.  Boy just came in to tell me he's ready to drive the chicken food to the back.  I guess I have to get off the computer and work.

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