Living Wild: The Dirt Delivery

Last summer we had the sewer line to our house replaced. Over the fall, winter and spring, part of the yard that was dug up and refilled with dirt sank down as the earth settled again, so Dr. Peds has been working out some plans to fill things in again and replant grass. Last Monday night he made a telephone call and within a few hours three yards of black dirt were delivered.

The delivery truck pulled up right as the freshly showered kidlets (back from swimming lessons) and I were in the middle of eating supper on the deck. Of course, supper was abandoned immediately, because who doesn’t want to see a load of dirt dumped on your very own driveway? It was a big deal. They all watched solemnly, with big eyes while the back of the truck was raised as tall as I it could go. They giggled as the worker who had to shovel the last bits of dirt off slipped and slided on the slanted truck bed. The truck drove away.

Within not even 30 seconds of the truck rounding the corner, the biggest three kidlets were on top of that pile of dirt dancing. While YaYa tired of the affair after about five minutes or so, that wasn’t the case for the other three. Mr. TOF grabbed a shovel and actually helped Dr. Peds move dirt for a couple of hours. He was so thrilled to be moving dirt. The middle kidlets spent just as long tromping and dancing and yelping in the dirt. Up, down and around the mound they traversed until it was packed down solid. When Dr. Peds filled in the sunken areas they pounded the dirt down like grape stompers with their bare feet, singing crazy songs as loud as they could. There were spats of mudballs tossed to and fro. It was a ruckus and an adventure, and they were enjoying every second of it.

I assure you when everything finally wound down, after all involved were hosed down outside and carefully directed to their second shower for the evening that the bathwater in the bottom of the tub and shower was caked with good old black mud.