Rent-a-Son

When I married a man with 5 sisters and one brother, I guess I shouldn't have expected a houseful of boys. And having no sons at all isn't really a great surprise to us. We KNEW Aubrey would be a girl. Then 2 years later, we hoped Brenda would be a girl so we would have two in a row. 5 years after that, I had a dream and KNEW we were having a boy. We named him Warren Kincaid, after my grandfather. But that was back in the caveman days before Sonagrams, and apparently dreams are even less reliable than ultrasounds - we did NOT have a boy! When she was born, Jim said, "It's a girl, Robin!" And I literally answered with, "Are you SURE!?" (I was so certain of Warren, I made Jim's manly T-shirts into nighties for my little boy - poor Chelsea had a lot of blue things when she was an infant.)

So then 7 years later when we finally got Danielle, we picked out a boy name just in case, a 'D' name, Dane Joseph. And the one ultrasound they allowed did NOT show anything 'cus she was curled up asleep. We had to wait once again and be surprised - or NOT, since we had another little girl. We were totally fine about it since we knew girls and she would fit right in.
She was GORGEOUS (well, all of them are, but she got the most compliments.) So we were surprised when a waitress thought she was a boy. Jim was kind about it: "That's okay, you didn't know we specialized in girls." That was us, procreative specialists. We love our four lovely daughters.
But when it comes to yardwork, we've felt a little shorted. The girls all have taken turns helping stack wood and mow lawns, but over the years we found ourselves hiring local young men to do what we didn't seem to find time to do. I never did much more than mow and garden, so I didn't understand the fine art of trimming and edging that goes along with that.

Today as I watched Alec and his dad out front, I realized that every time a new young man has come to do the lawns and weed and trim bushes, his dad has come along with him. First was Adam Snider back in Sandy, UT. His dad and he got down on their knees together as he showed him how THEY edged the lawn - not with the electric trimmer, no no! They did it by hand, inch by inch around where the grass met the driveway and walk. Adam was learning how to work, and learning the satisfaction of a job well done.

A couple of years ago Chris Otterson came with three of his sons Alec, Adam and Andrew (who did this for us in trade for their clarinet lessons) and he showed them the ropes.

Last year, Thomas Russon was here alongside Brent, working out in the sun, helping him get the hang of the weed-whacker and persnickety mower.

And today we had Dale and Alec Porter. For a day that promised to be 108, coming in the morning helped a lot as it was hitting 90 by the time Alec was done. He got the hang of the trimmer and weed-whacker and clippers, and did a great job... the yard looks really nice! Thanks, Alec!