Building in the Backyard

Among the fruit trees lining my parents' backyard there was a noticeable enough gap where construction could fit. After completing this weekend project, my brother declared his ambition to build our family one of these. He'd drawn up plans & worked with Dad to figure out exactly what would become of his idea - of course, with Mom's approval. It only made sense that his work would be built in this gap of space, which would sit snuggly in between two fruit trees, nearly in a corner of the yard. The trees would then be able to grow over & around the project, completely accenting it.

This had its own place in the yard for many years; eventually, however, a fruit tree died & soon it found its permanent home atop the mulch mound where the tree had stood.

We all helped in some small way, although it truly was my brother's project. I'd helped finish digging the foundation holes; if I remember correctly there were five of them. He tended to be a bit more squeamish than me, which I learned years prior when I put handfuls of earthworms to him; he didn't take it well.

This again happened when building ended up on delay for a few more days than anticipated as our neighborhood endured an extreme rainfall. The rain fell while we were preparing the foundation holes, therefore too much water sat in the thus-far prepared base. Dad knew we'd have to wait for it to dry out, though, if memory serves me well, I believe that we might have scooped out a portion of the water. What I do clearly recall is that, upon revisiting the scene of the project we quickly learned that a visitor had stopped on by, yet fell in the dug hole, & with the rain water sitting in the base, & an inability to climb out, it died. When I noticed the situation I bellied on up to the task, retrieving a long handled shovel from the shed, reached in & scooped up the rat.

Dad was across the way, yet could clearly see what sat on the edge of the shovel I was holding. My brother was a mere few feet in front of where I stood, across from me - watching. Of course he technically wanted me to just disperse of the rat; toss it over the hill, etc. He definitely didn't want it anywhere near him, which is what I proceeded to do. I began walking toward him &, of course, he took off. He ran from the backyard, up the side yard, & onto the street. I was following him, carrying the shovel, still holding it as I'd been - with the rat at its tip.

The whole deal ended rather quickly as I don't run as fast as my brother and I had a shovel with a dead rat on it in my arms all the while I was running after him. We made it down the street, maybe a house or two, before he whined & complained, calling at me as brotherly as he could to basically let him get back to the house & resume working on his project.

When we got back Dad took care of disposing the rat & we all continued working on how to best get around whatever excess water remain around & on the project. At some point in all of this Mom brought us out drinks & took a few posterity photos. We've no photos of my retrieving the rat & "presenting" it to my brother, yet these are the mental images I recall most & plan to for a very long time 😊.

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