The Keeper of The Flame, The Pied Piper, and The Farmer's Shadow have all spent exactly four full weeks in town over the last eight weeks. They had no choice, they were told to get in the car~so they went. We are blessed to spend time in a town that desperately wants to be a suburb, but its not yet found a city to belong to. The town once resided in the country, and it seems to think it still does...but now that we live in a true country setting(okay, we think it is...we have to drive 40 minutes to get to a WalMart and our nearest neighbor is a mile away as the crow flies, isn't that true country?) we kinda chuckle. This is a town. A bonafide, curb-enhanced, paved, town. Complete with two gas stations and four restaurants.
For boys who have only grown up in the country, and on a farm...coming into town is different.
First of all: no peeing outside. This is an actual issue. Country boys are used to watering the tires. Even some country girls can do it (I heard tell). But in town they will have NONE of it! So zip up those pants and wait until you're inside.
Secondly: Please don't flush the toilet for fun. In town you have to pay for that water going out, and the water coming in!
Safe-fun only: My country boys tend to be the knife tossing, hatchet wielding, hole digging kinda boys. But in town...well...the police aren't so happy about eight year old knife throwing boys. Especially when they think the best targets are the trees in the front yard, next to the road...
And though we have lived in a recreation of the WWI trench wars...we don't want to go back, so please leave the turf in place now.
"What CAN we do?" , they ask after the Wife has shot down any hope they had for outdoor fun.
"How about you build a fort with sticks for pine cones? You could make an obstacle course and time each other running through it. OR fold laundry!"
"What's the fun in any of that?", they ask.
I have no answer for them.
An hour later the Wife found this in the back yard....
Its definitely big enough for pine cones, a large dog, or an eight, ten and twelve year old...but they say they built it for the six, four and two year old (whatever).
And as a side note: this structure is NOT safe! Those logs are all stacked on top of each other. There's no stability at all. The six, four and two year old did not get to play long in it, before a wall fell down and there were tears. Thankfully no cracked sculls.
"Girl" chores: we aren't gender neutral around here. There are specific "boy" chores and "girl" chores on our farm. The boys do the hard work and heavy labor. Basically, the nasty stuff the Wife doesn't want to have to do again. Like cleaning the barn, stacking hay, and trimming goat feet. What on earth do boys do in town? The Keeper of the Flame has cut the grass(which is the size of a postage stamp) twice! And I fear it's not going to come back it's so trimmed! The garbage has gone out of every room...hourly, every day, just to give the Pied Piper some work to do! In a final act of desperation, the Wife gave the Farmer's Shadow a "girl" chore: unloading the dishwasher. The poor boy, he's a sweetheart, he did it, but he nearly cried as he began putting away silverware. The other two hid-I'm not sure if they were concerned that they might have to help, or just felt the Shadow's shame. Since then, they have been folding laundry, loading dishwashers, washing pots and pans, vacuuming and sweeping. The house has never been so clean with ten people in it!
Country boys in town find trees to climb-usually in front of some poor lady who never heard of tree climbing children, or maybe had only read about them in a book and cannot believe that the Wife would permit her children to climb a tree in a public place.
Country boys end up on the roof of the garage. Or the house. Or have one on the garage roof and one on the house roof and begin sending signals back and forth using mirrors.
Country boys spend a LOT of time at the beach with a net and goggles trying to catch the elusive cat fish they imagine lives under the pier. They find dead fish and dissect them in front of all the other children on the beach. They get dark and dark-er tan.
Country boys say "HI!" to every passer-by, and pet every dog. They laugh loud and shout to each other when they walk down the sidewalk.
In the end...they will go back to the country and talk all winter about the fun they had. When they were made to use the bathroom EVERY time they had to "go", when they build forts for little siblings, and they only had to do "girl chores". In the end, it will be a fond memory...when the Country boys went to town.
