Kid tested, mother approved

In an effort to minimize weeding (a job Ken and I pretty much detest and rarely do) we had a landscape company deliver a huge load of barkdust yesterday. The plan was to lay down weed fabric everywhere we could and then put 3-4 inches of barkdust on top of it, with the hope we won't have to pull another weed until the next decade.

The downside of barkdust is, of course, splinters. The kids are outside every day without shoes on, and I didn't want to take on the role of Shoe Nazi just because I hate weeding. But I spoke with someone at the barkdust company and she said one of their varieties (dark hemlock) has little to no splinters. She uses it in her own yard, and her ever-barefoot kids have never gotten a splinter.

Sold!

So the dump truck delivered a load of it yesterday and I tried to work on the front yard while Laurel was napping. It was a very slow and tedious process, though, and I didn't get much done. Even worse, the pile covered both sides of our driveway so the pressure was on to get it spread out if we ever wanted to get our cars off the street.

Then late yesterday afternoon I came up with an ingenious plan. I'd give each of the kids a normally forbidden shovel and let them go to town moving the barkdust around on the driveway. Hopefully this would be so NOVEL! and EXHILERATING! they would stay in one spot while I worked in the yard. And the plan worked. I'd look over every once in a while and see them completely occupied with the shovels, leaving me free to work on the flowerbeds. I was brilliant!

About twenty minutes into the job, though, I glanced up to check on the kids and found the shovels on the ground....and the kids CLIMBING THE PILE OF BARKDUST AS IF IT WERE MOUNT EVEREST. They were coated in bark dust.

My first thought: OH MY GOD THE SPLINTERS!! Sure the woman's kids had never gotten them with this variety, but I doubt they had FROLICKED in it.

My second thought: WHERE'S MY CAMERA??




I let them play for a bit, but the anxiety that they could have hundreds of splinters covering their bodies eventually got to me and I made them go in the house for an immediate bath. Barkdust was in their hair, in their ears, in their diapers...ugh.

But - there were NO SPLINTERS.