My Water Boy

CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!

   Despite all the times a certain little boy of mine makes me cry or provokes me to violently slam my cabinet doors shut,  I can't put into words how much I love him. Thankfully, this winter isn't proving to be as harsh as last years and we've even been blessed with "almost" spring-like weather the past several days. This means Carl and I can venture outside, even without having to wear our ski pants! It's been much easier work on the Shawhan farm thanks to Mother Nature's generous gift - Dan was finally able to pry the barn doors free this weekend from the ice that was keeping them permanently shut!

 

  We've been trying to take advantage of this nice weather spell while we can. Yesterday afternoon Carl and I went up to the dairy and took in the sights (and smells) while riding the gator. Today it was back to work out in our own barn.

 

  Carl already has a great attitude when it comes to work. He is always more than eager to "help" me in whatever task it is I need to get done (even when in the long run it creates more work for yours truly.) For example, when I clean out the horse stalls he likes to point and grunt to all the fecal balls that I don't pick up with the manure fork. He has even been so kind as to pick them up and bring them to me. YES! You read that correctly. The first time it happened I almost died. The air sucked out of my lungs and when I was able to gasp it back in again I ran in slow motion over to him all the while crying out "NNNNOOOO!!!!" in a deep, drawn out voice. Well, that has been a couple of months ago now, and Carl is alive and well, so I guess it didn't hurt him too bad.  I will be keeping a thing of soap out in the barn from now on for such instances in the future. (It's funny because other moms apologize for their kids sharing germs with Carl and I just think and laugh to myself, 'You have no idea what my son has touched.')

 

  Anyhoo, other than pointing out "You missed a spot", I think Carl's favorite barn chore is changing the chicken water. He has always liked doing this, from carrying the lid of the waterer down to the spigot

 to splashing his hands in the full container, he now knows that when I open the coop door, the water is probably coming out.

 

  Today was no different. Though he failed to bring me he lid, which is fine because I don't need it at the spigot anyway, he did pretty much put the lid on all by himself! I was a little impressed!

  This must be some gene he got from Dan because Dan's first jobs on the dairy when he was a little boy were to refill the calf water buckets and feed milk to them.

 

  Carl got the stubborn gene from me, because after I helped line the lid up on the waterer, it turned into a  clash of the Irish temperament tug-of-war fight to get the waterer out of his hands so I could put it back in the coop. Carl can carry a lid; he can't carry a full container of water.

 

  Thankfully the melt down didn't last long and I can't get mad at a kid who wants to help.

 

  And, might I add, that my little water boy is a whole lot cuter than that Sandler guy!