Graf Kids at summer cottage to be
This morning while my two grandsons were playing on the Wii game, my five year-old granddaughter and I went out back to check out the two compost rows where we are turning cow dung to worm castings. When I said we were going to check on the worms, my granddaughter said she had to wear her mittens. While keeping her distance from the worms she asked me all kinds of questions of what the worms were doing, what did it matter, why we were interested in cow and worm ‘poop’ and on and on. I explained the process to her as best I could about how worms’ basic job was to eat waste, even cow dung, turn it into good soil and how they reproduce themselves in multiples. I think she got because at the end she said: “The worms really do their jobs.”
These worms in the cow dung were thriving. Back home my wife and adult son are taking care of the gardens and the worms. Worms, as many of us (including my granddaughter) know, do not take much care. All we need to do in the summer is to make sure the compost does not get too hot, and that they have water.
My granddaughter’s interest in worms was only out-shone by her interest in a new fishing rod I had brought to add to our rods for fishing with the grandchildren. She immediately declared it “her rod” and only agreed to share it with her brothers when I told her that we all shared our fishing gear with each other.
At noon we were on the road. The first stop was a diner on Lake Shawano which is famous for its homemade pie. After pie and lunch we went to visit the cottage we are renting for the Graf Family Reunion in July. The kids and I were impressed with the house and lake frontage.
Finally we were going fishing. Lake Shawano is not a good place for fishing off shore, so I went looking for an island off the lake on the river where we had fished successfully before. Not finding it we settled for spot under a bridge. All during the trip my granddaughter kept asking us when we were going fishing with her new rod but once we got there her interest took a radical turn. First it was the intricacies of casting that did not interest her so she allowed her big brother to do it. Than it was our use of worms. Despite all her interest in worms in the morning it turns out she is afraid of them. Her brothers would tease her by saying they had a worm for her. Her interest and in “her rod” and fishing suddenly disappeared and turned to going back to car for the snacks we had brought along. Actually fishing was not any good at this spot and soon we all left for home and Wii.
Where her fear of worms comes from I do not know. But she was relieved when I was putting her to bed tonight and said that tomorrow we were going to the library and not fishing. At the library I will try to find the children’s book, Diary of the Worm. Perhaps an informative but cute children’s book about worms will lessen her fear of worms.
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