Down on the Farm

We are heading to the farm this weekend to plant trees. Five hundred trees! My cousin acquired them at an incredibly cheap price from some tree conservation group. We’re driving up Friday evening and will place each sapling lovingly into the ground on Saturday. I imagine that my back will be aching on Sunday. The weather there has been beautiful this week, but, of course, it is expected to turn cool and wet for the weekend. Jacob is extremely eager to go because I told him he could drive around the “back forty” of the farm. In past years he would sit on my lap and steer the car on our old cow paths. Last summer, however, he was finally tall enough to reach the gas and brake pedals, so I allowed him to sit alone in the driver’s seat and go for it. He did a fine job – better, in fact, than some adults I know. And, yes, of course I am always with him and we all buckle up. I am glad that he likes to drive since it was like pulling teeth (Yikes, that is one of my mother’s sayings!) to get Adam behind the wheel. I will try to take a video of Jacob driving and post it here. Or maybe not, because then anyone who disapproves of an 11-year-old maneuvering a two-ton vehicle on his own would have tangible proof of my child endangerment practices.