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Pirate Treasure
Worked a lot on the yard yesterday. The trench the plumbers dug for the sewer line collapsed a foot in the first big rainstorm of the season back in Februry, creating, in effect, a lawn-long funnel for run-off leading right to the foundation.
We bought a tiller Thursday and tilled all the soil along that line and then went after it with garden rakes and spades to level it out, and, hopefully, direct rain away from the house.
As we worked, we found that the plumbers weren't very careful about disposing of the old clay pipe and concrete sealer. Many times the tiller jumped and bucked as it hit a piece of tile, making for a rough go. As we found them, first with the tiller and later with the shovels and rakes, they were thrown against the fence for later disposal.
It is that later disposal that is my subject.
Kate was drawing by the steps with sidewalk chalk. Wheelbarrow before me, heading for fence line, I called to her, "Ahoy, Katie! Come wi' yer captain and let's look for pirate treasure! Arrrr!"
She bounded up, and the two of us, talking "pirate" the whole time, loaded all of the clay and cement pieces into the barrow for transport to our "pirate ship" (my Civic), which Katie dubbed the SS Lightning McQueen. I found a piece of hip bone - probably from a ham - and held it up for her inspection. "And here be the leg bone of the last scalliwag to try and steal our treasure." "That's right," she says, "he's dead now, we fed him to the fishes! Arrrrrrrrrr!"
And so on.
Of course, being six, she tired of the game after the first load and went back to the sidewalk chalk. She started drawing a treasure map, with labels and a big X to mark the spot. As I'm kneeling in the dirt, throwing shards of red clay into the wheelbarrow, she calls out, "Daddyyyyyyy! How many 'R's are in 'pirate'?"
This is the moment where I'd turn to the camera and smile, if there was a camera. I know what I wanted to say, but she wouldn't have gotten the joke.
We bought a tiller Thursday and tilled all the soil along that line and then went after it with garden rakes and spades to level it out, and, hopefully, direct rain away from the house.
As we worked, we found that the plumbers weren't very careful about disposing of the old clay pipe and concrete sealer. Many times the tiller jumped and bucked as it hit a piece of tile, making for a rough go. As we found them, first with the tiller and later with the shovels and rakes, they were thrown against the fence for later disposal.
It is that later disposal that is my subject.
Kate was drawing by the steps with sidewalk chalk. Wheelbarrow before me, heading for fence line, I called to her, "Ahoy, Katie! Come wi' yer captain and let's look for pirate treasure! Arrrr!"
She bounded up, and the two of us, talking "pirate" the whole time, loaded all of the clay and cement pieces into the barrow for transport to our "pirate ship" (my Civic), which Katie dubbed the SS Lightning McQueen. I found a piece of hip bone - probably from a ham - and held it up for her inspection. "And here be the leg bone of the last scalliwag to try and steal our treasure." "That's right," she says, "he's dead now, we fed him to the fishes! Arrrrrrrrrr!"
And so on.
Of course, being six, she tired of the game after the first load and went back to the sidewalk chalk. She started drawing a treasure map, with labels and a big X to mark the spot. As I'm kneeling in the dirt, throwing shards of red clay into the wheelbarrow, she calls out, "Daddyyyyyyy! How many 'R's are in 'pirate'?"
This is the moment where I'd turn to the camera and smile, if there was a camera. I know what I wanted to say, but she wouldn't have gotten the joke.