Gumballs

Gumballs stink.

For those of you fortunate to live in blissful ignorance of what a gumball is--consider yourself lucky.

They're spikey little balls that can turn a walk through the yard into a hazardous journey.

Especially for a blind bassett.

They also love to cling to one scottie's fur like velcro pom-poms.

And if you have the misfortune to slip and fall on some....it hurts.

We have one of these lovely trees in our yard and five in our neighbors.

They are a joy (are you catching my sarcasm...).

Each winter brings these missiles hurtling down from the trees and landing all in our yard.

You can't mow over them (they become projectile weapons), and you can't suck them up or blow them along with a leaf blower.

It's old fashioned raking and bagging.

A couple of days ago I had a brilliant idea: why not offer the boys some money to help???

The going rate is a penny a gumball.

Now, before you think I'm horribly cheap here's what they tallied in fifteen minutes yesterday:

Kieran: 277 gumballs (that's almost 3 weeks of ice cream money to him)

Keenan: 103 gumballs (he just likes to put change in his bank)

And there's a whole lot more where that came from.