Fun in the Sun and Dirt

Today I had planned to share the recipes and photos of how each batch of my homemade weed killer worked but then I decided I would rather show you the fun we had with dirt today.

This morning my top soil was delivered. My neighbor had her three-year old grandson who is obsessed with trucks so I asked if she wanted to bring him over to watch the dump truck drop my soil. Before she could get out the door the neighbor boys who are here daily saw me spreading a tarp in the drive and came to see what I was doing.

From the moment the truck left my plans to fill buckets and haul the dirt up to the raised beds changed and I ended up sitting and supervising while the children did all the work.

There was a bit of fighting at first because I only had two pails and one shovel but once I threatened to send them home and do the job myself they worked out a solution.  Can you see the pail on the bike handles? That’s how one child decided was the fun way to carry the dirt.

This girl often asks if she can work with the boys but has a short attention span and soon leaves to play. Today the only difference was she decided playing in the dirt was more fun and soon dug a hole to sit in on one side.

It was a hot day so jugs of water were on hand for the children to stay hydrated and they took frequent breaks.

We’ve been slowly dragging down retaining blocks that were used to build a fire pit under the large maple tree in the yard. I get worn out moving them but have hesitated in allowing the boys to help me fearing they would be overconfident in their strength and drop one breaking a foot. Today the youngest boy devised a plan to bring more blocks down, his snow sled and a bike. When bringing two blocks down at once was too heavy to drag his brother jumped in to help.  Never once did they think to remove one block or skip the bike in the equation.

Next thing I knew the bricks were forgotten and the sled had a new use. Elsa kept an eye on the kids for me.

They brought a child’s wagon over to fill with dirt too because too pails wasn’t enough then dragged everything up the ramp and into the yard.

Late in the afternoon, my neighbor’s other two grandchildren stopped to visit but saw the pile of dirt and never even bothered to go say hello to her they came directly to my drive and inquired about what we were doing and asked to help.  I felt bad at first but she informed me it was fine and came over to visit the boys while they helped.  By this time one of the older boys had designated himself the pail-filler and the rest of the boys carried the dirt to the yard.

The  little one above is just four years old and wanted in on the fun. He soon came back with an ice cream bucket that he would carry dirt in.  He was adorable. He would walk by me and show me he could carry the full bucket with one finger and grin telling me how strong he was. I so enjoyed watching the grin he wore as he joined in the big boy work.

The children were here off and on for seven hours today. In the end I split $20 between the children a bargain for me.

There’s still a more work to be done to get all the beds filled and I have a feeling I’ll have it pretty easy as the boys can’t wait to come back and finish the job. I received a call a little while ago telling me the children all fell asleep early tonight. Mom couldn’t believe how tired they were – I wasn’t surprised I knew how hard they worked and how working outside will ensure a good nights sleep for any child.

Yesterday, Live and Learn, suggested I should open a summer camp for kids. I think if I did I’d have the camp full as soon as I announced it. One thing I noticed today was that I never once heard a parent yelling at a child, a first I think.

Right before I called it a day and sent everyone home the neighbor, with the grandchildren, came to tell me she had a child’s kitchen her grandchildren no longer played with and wanted to offer it to me before putting it out for the trash. Knowing how much my granddaughters love to cook (real or pretend) I accepted and now have this to surprise my granddaughter when she gets back from her vacation.

It needs cleaning as it was out in her yard for a month or so and has grass all over it but that’s fair.  I’ve considered building a kitchen set for the grandchildren and preferred not to have a plastic set but I have too much to do at the moment to consider building a kitchen plus I kept this out of the landfill.

Do you have a memory involving dirt?