Need A Break?

Okay, you've all read about the garden and the bunny and the chickens and the kids, lack of television and video games and the crazy whole foods I force down them. But it's not like they don't get "their way" sometimes.

Rex has been building his own trebouchets, bows, arrows and other implements of war for quite some time. He'd been lobbying for the Red Rider BB Gun for what seems ever. (Really, I think he wanted this before he ever saw the movie "A Christmas Story"). I took great relish in responding with the requisite, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"



Well, this past Christmas Uncle Dave came to the rescue with a soft pellet gun. I still didn't want it at my house. I figured the little plastic pellets were bad for the chickens and the gun was just bound to be misused. Rex and Michael swore about gun safety and set up a little target practice range in a hidden part of the yard by the back fence. (Rex used to have bales of straw back there for his bow practice ... now there is a pile of junk and a can on a string dangling and some paper targets). It's really an eye sore. But, it is hidden.

A soft pellet gun is the gateway gun to a BB Gun, apparently. It's true, we do have a rat problem. I think my boys had been using it to snipe rats. I may be mistaken. They try to take care of gun related things out of my line of sight.

Sunday afternoon while Michael was in the duck and cover mode in Florida (big storms) I was wrangling kids, dinner, etc. My phone rang. Much to my surprise it was my neighbor right behind me. "Why, hello Mr. Bee. How are you?" He informed me that he was doing well. He'd just returned from a glorious vacation to Mendocino. My inside voice told me that this was not the reason he was calling.

After indulging in the polite conversation he asked, "Does your son have a BB gun?" Uh oh.



Turns out he came home to a broken window and a back yard full of soft pellets and a couple of BBs.

Doh!!! Needless to say, I was very contrite, Rex apologized and I, of course, offered to pay for the window.



Storm or no storm, I got on the horn to Michael. Those guns have got to go.

Maybe he can set up the straw and revert back to his bows and arrows? And point the range toward the other fence?

Well, on the plus side, he's not sitting around playing video games and watching Spongebob.