Yard Work is Hard Work

During the Memorial Day weekend, the family was outside enjoying the weather and trying to get some yard work done.  The boys were getting a bit bored so dad asked them to help with some yard work.  After gathering the shovel and the cart, the boys wheeled the cart across the yard and that is when they realized yard work can be hard work . . . and we haven’t even started the hard part yet.

I gave them their assignment . . . “You guys need to help shovel this dirt because we are going to remove this tree stump.”  It was a small stump but it was going to be some work to get the roots exposed enough to chop and pull out.  I figured, kids, dirt, and mud . . . they would love it.

Still tired from pulling the cart across the yard, they became even more tired from trying to shovel the first layer of dirt. Their excitement diminished but I almost got them excited when we started finding worms but that excitement quickly disappeared.

By now, you can tell they weren’t into this great idea of playing in the dirt and helping out dad.  This soon lead into a five minute lecture, from both boys, about how I was killing Mother Earth by killing trees and killing worms.  I’ll fess up to the tree killing part but I wasn’t going to take the heat for the worm killing.  I was NOT killing worms . . . . on purpose.

I couldn’t take the lecturing and the guilt, so I told them to go back to playing. I think was their intent since the shovels were dropped and they were off and running before I could finish my sentence.  Well played Ben & Andrew, well played.

They went back to what they were doing before but they weren’t bored anymore . . . well played Dad?!?  Yeah, that was my intent, I’ll stick with that story.