It sounded like a good idea. Kari was leaving the yard and I hollered to the kids “get your bikes, let’s go up on the land!” I loaded the bikes in the back of the truck while the kids jumped into the back seat. Excitement was surely in the air. Julia was jumping with joy. I am not sure why. I don’t think she understood that riding a bike with training wheels on the woods trail is not easy.
We saw a wild turkey, ducks, and geese. The fields were freshly planted with corn. The air smelled so fresh with the wind coming through the pines. I unloaded the bikes and the kids raced around the old cabin on the hill. I halted Julia and adjusted her training wheels up so she wouldn’t spin so much. She was happy and bragged to the older kids about what I did.
Becca tried to pump the old hand pump well. She didn’t understand that it takes more than one stroke to obtain the water. I pumped the handle and explained what was going on inside the pump and the water pipes. Shortly, rusty water came flooding out of the pipe; again the kids expressed their excitement. I reminded them not to get wet and that it would be cold and also they needed to ride in my truck home and I didn’t want muddy wet kids on my seat.
I retreated to the sandstone rock and sat down. I shut my eyes and listened to kids, shortly I was laying on my back with my left arm laid across my eyes. The breeze had a slight chill to it, but then the sun would could out from behind the clouds and warm me back up again. I listened to the kids. They were getting farther away from me. Soon I sat up to see where they ventured. They were at Pine Point and the first thing I saw was a big glob of mud flying through the air at one kid ~ and a glop came back in return. Well, I did tell them not to get “wet and muddy”, nothing about just muddy. Then I hear Justin hollering back to me, about seeing a Mom deer and a Baby deer and a Dad deer… I hollered back, softly “are you sure”.
The kids returned to the truck, with their bikes. I was a little surprised that they brought them back. Justin collected some corn stalks and expressed his plan to buy cattle and then feed them and sell them when they get bigger. His planned seemed to make sense, but then said he didn’t want to keep them in a building because their poop stinks.
We shared some Orange Crush while the mud on their clothes dried. We talked about woodticks then moved onto the moon. Becca told me there are four types of moons and explained the full, half, quarter and three-quarter moon. I also told Becca about how much I pay attention to the moon during hunting season. I reminded her of the times that she would see me step outside to look for the moon, and also look on the computer to track the moon’s position in the sky.
Justin asked if the deer like to come out and play with the moon. I explained that when the moon is over-head or straight up that it’s closest to the earth where we stand. When the moon is closest to the earth it creates a change in pressure and this pressure is felt in the soft organs of wildlife. This pressure is felt on the stomach and makes them hungry, hence a natural feeding cycle is created for animals with multiple stomachs. So when the moon is above our heads, a hunter should see more deer.
The kids now had orange pop stain on their upper lips. Theirs entire faces were muddy, they were barefoot and filthy. They had smiles and then asked if they can ride in the back of the truck because they are “so” dirty to get into my truck. Now, I think they were trying to pull a swift one, because riding in the back of the truck didn’t appear to be a punishment for them.
I took the back road home, slowly, and they never sat up once to see. I could see the older two talking. Julia watched through the back window from inside the cab. When I reached home and stopped, Becca remained in the laying position and Justin sat up and kissed Julia on the lips through the window. They laughed and did it again, and again. Now I have slimy orange lip marks on my back window.
I wanted to keep the filthy kids, filthy, so Kari would have a heart attack when she got home. But slowly I cleaned them up, one by one, checking for woodticks, and changing clothes. We washed our arms, we washed our legs, we faced our faces, we brushed our teeth.
Justin had a type of “zit” on the side of his forehead. I touched it and inspected. Justin was concerned, “Whats that! Whats that!”. I told him it was just a zit. He asked what that meant. I told him it means that you are growing up and getting bigger. He smiled, a bigger smile than I have seen all day, he took off running into Becca’s room “Becca! Becca! I have a ZIT! I have a ZIT! I am getting bigger and I am going to be a DAD!
I texted Kari to tell her the news.
