unintended consequences

We built two raised beds for the garden this year. And raised beds require extra ground to, well, raise them. And through an annoying quirk, the delivery trucks have an 8 foot gate in which to drive to the backyard. This limits our choices of delivery trucks. We had 5 yards of ground barely squeak through the gate a week or 2 ago. Henry thought he had the worlds by the tail. A mountain of dirt! He was suitably crushed when we* shoveled the dirt into the garden beds.

We have a sand circle underneath the play structures. When we added the monkey bars last year, we needed more sand to go under it. But for various reasons (cheap, lazy) I stalled on the order. But it seemed perfect to entertain Henry for the last week before school ended. And so yesterday, the sand man (I laughed all day as Henry waited for the Sand Man to come) brought 6 yards of sand. Still an 8 foot opening, but a different truck.

Henry was the king of the sand hill for about an hour before he came over to my mom and said he found a thing. It was grey. And had lots of little holes in. You know, like where the, hmmm, what are they called? They live it in. After some miming, my mom guessed he found a  hornet’s nest. She freaked out a little bit. She hurried over and said, now where is it?

H: It was under the fort in the playset.

Grandma: [looking] I don’t see it.

H: Oh, I picked at it and it fell and I threw it.

Grandma: Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

And then my mother stepped on and broke the nest. And it seemed old and defunct. And not like it had hornets in it when he threw it. And then she scared the pants off of him. She seriously and thoroughly warned him that bees nests are nothing to mess with. That only grown-ups and preferably Grandpa should poke at them. And that he should never throw one.

And it worked. Henry is now very afraid of bees swarming him. [less afraid than he's be if he had been swarmed by bees] He is afraid of the playset. The yard. The grass. Even his beloved sand pile.

Sigh.

Miranda has been iffy on the great backyard all year. Too much texture. And bugs. She has been jumpy about the bugs getting her. My grand summer gardening experiment is going to be like an episode of Scooby Doo, with M&H playing Shaggy and Scooby and the bugs plays the ghosts. I better stock up on Scooby Snacks. And hope that Bella isn’t playing Scrappy Doo.

* A footnote for everyone who knows us in real life, Rob did not shovel any of the dirt. We in this case refers to me and my parents.

Henry said what?