The pond. A small glimpse into my childhood (without the financial payout).

Oh the memories. Every time I go home I cannot believe how much everything has grown. I still have VIVID memories of planting that lawn. My brothers and I all manned with rakes and my dad riding around on our three wheeler cracking the proverbial whip on us. That along with the building of the the home we lived in. Be careful what ideas and books you let John Peterson get wind of. He read some book about building your own home. . .and so we did. Talk about a man with a plan.

That same man also has a passion for fire, one that has yet to be tamed. A few weeks ago he was burning some dead bushes in my parents lower pond when the fire, well, it got a wee bit out of control. The fire department came, an ER visit ensued, and letters were sent to clean out the entire lower pond or else! Enter. . .a perfectly (and previously planned) vacation to Washington to visit grandma. Owen and Luke were enlisted in the cause and I by default as now I had to be there to crack the literal whip on my own children (kidding, but sometimes, I admit I do fantasize).

By the time it was over, we had made five (I think, the memory is already fading as a cooping mechanism) trips to the dump. We were quite a sight too. One trip to the dump my mother and I were particularly disgusted with some able bodied men. They're was five of them right next to us, me-great with child, my lovely mother-very able but still sixty-one years old, and my boys. We were unloading a huge load of obviously burned quite large debris but did they offer to help us? No, not even on the gigantic stumps that once had belonged to trees well over thirty feet high. For shame.

We worked hard and got-er done though. Owen worked so hard, I can't remember hearing a single complaint from that boy. Luke, bless him worked hard too; not as hard as older brother but definitely hard for his age. Lily did nothing. Except get in the way on multiple occasions. The boys were so excited to be working for money that they could hardly sleep at night. It's the most money that either of them have earned and it is still burning a hole in their pockets.