Hazards of Country Living

I described in a previous post how Dear Son loves little objects that he can manipulate in his fingers. Often these objects get held in his little fist for hours and then ultimately transfered to one of his pockets until I discover them (if I'm lucky) on wash day.

Today in between Son's high fevers, which have been spiking to 102.5 a couple times a day, he pleaded to go outside. It is warm and spring-like (finally), though we've all been too sick to enjoy it. I suggested to the wee ones that we take a nature walk around the perimeter of our property. Dear Daughter thought this sounded FABULOUS! So off we went with a basket to collect nature treasures. We walked around the pond and across a few acres of woods before cutting through the middle of the yard and headed towards a small tree where Daughter discovered a cocoon several days ago. We are monitoring it daily. The kids have even given it a name. About this time Dear Son had wandered a few yards away and was squatting in the grass examining something. He poked at it and then said, "Treasure!" and rolled something in his fingers before he dropped it with a confused look on his face. I headed towards him hoping he hadn't found some poisonous bug or berry. He continued squatting and examining the ground with a puzzled expression. I quickly realized that he was squatting in a pile of deer pellets, and that's what he had been rolling in his fingers. Thank God I discovered what was going on before Son wrapped a deer turd tightly in his sweaty little fist or shoved one in his pockets. Fortunately he lost interest when I informed him that it was poop, and then we were off to wash his hands.

In the end I still feel quite strongly that deer poop is better than dog poop.