Built a Dam
Leah and Shnai came up on Saturday. All 3 kids (Darwin added to the equation) ran around the house screaming and fighting with endless energy. Whilst we were building a marble course (by the way, I’m sure I invented this game as a youngster. See blogpost, A Lad with his Lad out!) I gave them all strict instructions to:
a. Not to roll any marbles down the course whilst I was building it.
b. Do not touch the course whilst in construction.
Both rules were broken within a matter of seconds, forcing me to ask the question to them, “Are You Mental?”. What’s up with kids??
Later on Leah, Darwin and I went for a ride on the bikes and we stopped by the local stream to make a dam. Leah and Shnai haven’t had much exposure to country life it seems, consequently I have to be on my guard when we say hello to the animals as they always, and quite naturally so, are on the defensive when they see an animal they are unfamiliar with. And rather than choosing to admire the species from a safe distance they much prefer to opt for the ‘scream at it and throw a rock at it’ option.
So at the stream I explained what a dam was and then we set about building one. During the construction of it we saw a number of animals including a dogblane leaf beatle, a white slug and a caterpillar, Leah got stung by a stinging nettle and she subsequently cured it with the rubbing of a dock leaf and we saw many species of flowers. All in all it felt remarkably healthy and we all had a good time. I even felt like a mini Ray Mears for a time.
On a slightly related note, Rik and I once made a dam on Bannister Brook in Leyland (53.696603, -2.704088). We used several scaffold planks with angle irons holding them, large rocks and turf to pack the holes. Within an hour the brook on one side had virtually run dry and on the other the water was higher than our heads. And then came the ultimate reward when building a dam, the destruction of it. It produced a tsunami large enough to equal the Japanese one the other year, well, maybe not quite, but there were complaints from the guys in the allotment down the road.
a. Not to roll any marbles down the course whilst I was building it.
b. Do not touch the course whilst in construction.
Both rules were broken within a matter of seconds, forcing me to ask the question to them, “Are You Mental?”. What’s up with kids??
Later on Leah, Darwin and I went for a ride on the bikes and we stopped by the local stream to make a dam. Leah and Shnai haven’t had much exposure to country life it seems, consequently I have to be on my guard when we say hello to the animals as they always, and quite naturally so, are on the defensive when they see an animal they are unfamiliar with. And rather than choosing to admire the species from a safe distance they much prefer to opt for the ‘scream at it and throw a rock at it’ option.
So at the stream I explained what a dam was and then we set about building one. During the construction of it we saw a number of animals including a dogblane leaf beatle, a white slug and a caterpillar, Leah got stung by a stinging nettle and she subsequently cured it with the rubbing of a dock leaf and we saw many species of flowers. All in all it felt remarkably healthy and we all had a good time. I even felt like a mini Ray Mears for a time.
On a slightly related note, Rik and I once made a dam on Bannister Brook in Leyland (53.696603, -2.704088). We used several scaffold planks with angle irons holding them, large rocks and turf to pack the holes. Within an hour the brook on one side had virtually run dry and on the other the water was higher than our heads. And then came the ultimate reward when building a dam, the destruction of it. It produced a tsunami large enough to equal the Japanese one the other year, well, maybe not quite, but there were complaints from the guys in the allotment down the road.
Comments
Post a Comment