Living in the country has been full of new experiences for us. Last week, Peanut Head proclaimed that we were going to have a Family Ditch Day in the upcoming weekend.
At first I was just stunned into silence because, honestly, that does not sound like a fun day.
And I was correct. It was not a fun day. However, it was the nicest weather day we've had so far this year. At one point while we were moving the 17,689 tumble weeds out of the ditch for the second time, I was giving myself a little pep talk wherein I said "I am not going to complain about being hot. I am not going to complain about being hot."
You might be asking why we even need to clean out the ditch, and I'll tell you, because that was my first question. I mean it's a ditch, right? How fancy does a ditch have to be?
Well, since this ditch is how we get water to flood irrigate our pasture, it has to stay clear.
And just because you clear out the ditch doesn't mean it will stay that way. It's kind of like cleaning your house. You can't evict your tribe just to keep it that way.
This is the ditch after removal of the multiplying tumbleweeds.
My Zoe Bug is little, but she is mighty.
As you can imagine, Peanut Head was the Task Master for the day. Most of the day the girls and I were working together and he was off working in another area.
That was a good thing because we did a fair amount of whining. I'd see Peanut Head coming and I'd whisper shout "Shush! Don't let him hear us whining. He'll get mad and give us more work."
So we'd put on our happy faces and ask him what the next task was. One time I let slip a little "Your Highness" and I was scared for myself for a few seconds. It's like it was out of my mouth before I even knew it was coming.
It's so hard to control the snark. Even in moments of extreme danger.
The only good thing I have to say about tumble weeds is that they burn very, very well.
And fast. It's really quite fascinating to watch.
No pyromania here.
One of the jobs the girls had was to walk the field and pick up rocks, while I drove around and waited for them to put the full buckets of rocks into the ATV trailer. I had the cushy part of that job.
Then we had to walk the buckets of rocks into the corner of the property where Peanut Head was using them to shore up the eroding portion of the ditch.
Sadly I couldn't even carry one bucket without making some very unladylike noises and hobbling forward a few inches at a time while leap frogging the bucket as I went. After thirty seconds and eighteen inches of this, Stinkerbell rolled her eyes with a huff and impatiently took my bucket away from me.
She's a big show off.
This is just some of Peanut Head's handy work. Thankfully we did not have to carry any of these rocks. Peanut Head humped all those in by himself, and then some. Ooh-rah!
Stinkerbell can back up a trailer like nobody's business. I have tried and tried and tried to learn how to do it, but so far I have been an abysmal failure.
Zoe Bug kept trying to sneak in little breaks wherever she could. I really can't complain because she's a very hard worker.
This was a little over the top though. She was supposed to be opening the gate for me to drive through. I really need to get a big air horn mounted on the ATV. It can sit up there with my pitch fork, don't you think?
In the end, Family Ditch Day lasted about nine hours. It was nearly the longest day of my life. I almost cried.
It's over though, and Peanut Head was very appreciative for our help so I guess it was worth it.
He doesn't need to know how much whining we actually did. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?