Back in August we were rebuilding some areas for the local beet dumps. Grandpa did this job while Tim was working on another job out of town. The boys *LOVE* to go to work whenever they can. Since this was a private job it was ok for them to go to work with Grandpa. Of course, we wouldn’t let Nathan go very often since he gets bored, but Grandma took him down there a few times. Here Nathan is discussing the job wtih Grandpa… asking him all kinds of questions, I’m sure.

I’m sure he needed to find out from Grandpa if he was doing a good job on his “work” area. He keeps a bag with all kinds of equipment in it close to the car. He’s rarely without them and can usually find some dirt to play with anywhere we find ourselves.

Josh, otoh, doesn’t get to “play” in the dirt anymore. He had to *WORK*! Grandpa *REALLY* needed an extra hand and Josh’s was just the right size! It started out with him calling to see if Josh could go down and help him jump stakes (surveying). That from one thing to another and the next thing I know Grandpa is picking Josh up at 5:30 every morning to GO TO WORK!

Evidently, Grandpa taught him how to run the roller while he had some downtime inbetween helping with the surveying. I still remember my dad teaching me how to read the gun (level) and how to mark the cuts and fills on the stakes MANY moons ago! I can’t believe how grown up Josh looks all of a sudden.

Do you know that you don’t need a license to run one of these things? Did you know that if Josh wanted to take the tractor and drive to town he could? There’s no law against him driving a piece of equipment down to the ice cream store, but he couldn’t take our car and go…..

Last week while we were in the “green room” (conference room) at church one of the singers asked if Emily, who was standing beside me, was the dd who brings me coffee sometimes. I said no and explained that she doesn’t have a drivers license yet so she can’t go get me any coffee. That led to MUCH LAUGHTER around the table as one of the pastors commented about how ALL of our kids drive!! Well.. not quite all of them. Nathan’s too short to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel at the same time, but as soon as he can he’ll be driving.

Living out here in the country the kids do learn to drive earlier than they would if they were in town. We get lots of comments about our kids being “farm kids.” We really don’t “farm”, but we do live in the country and our kids are NOT the only kids you’ll see driving down the road sitting up on a pile of books to see over the steering wheel following a piece of equipment here/there.

So. This story really doesn’t have anything to do with these pictures, but I had to write something and the pictures are at the beet dump. The farmers will be starting to dig beets any week now. Does that tie the story together with the pictures enough for you? Above, Grandpa is in the scraper – the big green one and Josh is running the roller. To my knowledge neither Tim nor Grandpa have taught Josh how to run the “big green one,” but I’m sure that day is coming. FYI. They all wear ear plugs… sometimes Josh likes to forget to take his out when he comes home and then he laughs when he can’t hear me talking to him (LOL)!

He is ONE TIRED BOY! He worked a FULL week or more! Grandpa would come at 5:30 a.m. and I wouldn’t see Josh again until almost dark.. 7:30 or 8:00 at night. Sometimes Josh packed a lunch for both of them and sometimes Grandpa took Josh out for lunch. This particular night Josh was SO TIRED he didn’t even eat supper. I had to practically drag him upstairs to bed.

Can you believe that the day before our *first* day of school, Grandpa called and asked if Josh could go with one of our employees to a town about 2 hours away where they had to load/unload something. The employee didn’t know how to do that, but Josh does know how. He does it all of the time while helping Grandpa and Daddy! So… our first day of school Josh was out the door at dawn thirty to go to work again. He was gone 1/2 a day and easily finished his assigned school work in a few hours that afternoon. Then, a week later he had to go do the same thing again! I’m so glad we have GOOD HELP right here in our home! Good employees are sometimes hard to come by you know (LOL)! On the 2nd trip, Grandma sent some $$ with Josh so he could buy the employee lunch since the employee bought lunch the first time. Josh tried to buy his lunch and he wouldn’t let him. He told Josh to keep the $$ and not tell Grandma (LOL)! Of course, Josh did tell and he even got to keep the $$. One of these days I suppose he’ll be turning in a time sheet, too!