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Mind Blown

Sawyer's razor tooth handsaw broke.  The handle split in half.  I think maybe it was made for cutting the occasional limb and maybe a Christmas tree.  He has probably leveled, limbed, and turned into logs an equivalent of an acre of timber, so I think he got his money's worth, but he was pretty heartbroken.  

"Mom, I have some bad news.  Do you want to hear it?"

I braced myself and nodded.

"My saw broke."

I exhaled, and gave him the sympathy he was looking for.  Luckily, the depression was short lived because he discovered a new love the same day: the leaf blower.

He has always been skeptical of leaf blowers.  They are noisy, and that's been problematic for him.  The irony there...  

Anyway, his dad told him it was his chore to leaf blow and there was no arguing.  He didn't want to do it, but once the backpack was on and he got started...let's just say we didn't see him again until it started getting dark. 

Fischer also loves a good leaf blower.  He can handle the handheld one, so yesterday they each got suited up with ear protectors, their respective leaf blowers, and went to town.  We live in an oak forest.  There are acres of leaves to be blown.  And they blew them.  They blew them from one side of the property to the other and back again.  Then they started blowing them out of the trees.  When they got tired of that, they blew each other.  They blew the dirt off their dirt bike trails.  They blew the gravel off the driveway.  When they ran out of fuel, they came back for a refill and then blew some more.  

This morning, it was all they could talk about.  They had their school work and chores done before I had finished the breakfast dishes and were back in the yard waiting for me to start up their machines.  They blew leaves and dirt and each other until their arms and backs ached and I made them come in to shower.  

I'm not sure our yard looks any better than it did when they started, but the boys are a little stronger than they were yesterday, and they will go to bed tired and happy tonight.  I'm going to call that a success.  

Leaf blowers...who knew.



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