Country Boy

I'm a bit late posting this, since it happened over a week ago, but better late than never! We were in Idaho over Memorial Day weekend, since my baby brother Aaron was leaving on his mission (Detroit, Spanish speaking, for anyone who's wondering. In other words, he's going to the hood :) Nick had a fabulous time at Grandma & Grandpa's house, especially since they live next door to a real policeman, and since the policeman just happens to be the impromptu neighborhood gopher catcher. Perhaps I should explain, for those not familiar with gophers. Basically, they're total pests, look sort of like moles or rats, and eat the roots off of any growing thing. In my parents' yard, their gopher ate the roots off their giant rhubarb plant--as in, the thing just fell over because all the roots were gone. In the case of the policeman/part-time gopher trapper Jeremy, gophers ate the roots off of all the trees he planted as a wind break behind his house. So far this year, he's caught 49 in the neighborhood--I'm thinking gophers might multiply a bit like rabbits. The Extension Service offers $1 for every gopher tail you bring in--just shows you that no one likes having them around. Anyway, so Nick's been hearing about Grandpa Dave's gopher and wanted to see it, so Jeremy took Nick and the rest of the grandkids, plus Aaron's city-folk friends, to check gopher traps. The first one was empty, but there were gophers in the other two! Nick wasn't the least bit scared--he climbed through the barbed wire fence and pulled out the second one. He was so proud to have caught a gopher, even if it wasn't Grandpa's. Checking the trap with policeman Jeremy So proud of the gopher he "caught" Late-night party with cousin Owen (they're only like 2 months apart) Life's rough--watching Cars and drinking pop. What did our parents do without DVD players in the car?? We also got to go to Aaron's friend Jessica's house to see baby farm animals. The kids got to see baby sheep (they're all bummer lambs and have to be bottle fed, which they also got to do), baby bunnies, baby goats (and the mama goats, which some of the braver kids milked. Nick wanted nothing to do with milking a goat), horses, and baby kittens. He was climbing all over the fences like he owned the place and was mad when we had to leave. Maybe someday we'll have a little farm of our own, although I'm not so sure I want to have goats that need milking. I like goat cheese, but not goat milk. Maybe chickens instead.