Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Outdoor Division

A very satisfying afternoon's work here at the Butcher's House, in which I got the leaves mulched up and put on the flower garden beds, which are now O-fficially asleep for the winter.

In the meantime, I had got the idea of encouraging the Llama-ettes to pick up sticks in the yard by promising them 10 cents per stick. (How things have changed - when I was a kid, my reward for working in the yard was to get only two beatings per day instead of the usual four. But I digress.)

Anyhoo, I had too much to do to stand over the gels and monitor them, so I was careful to impress upon the seven year old that the honor system was going to be in effect.

"Is that like pinkie-swear?" she asked.

"Yes," I said, "That's what grown-ups use when they promise to tell the truth."

She thought about this for a minute. Suddenly, all that Greek mythology we've been reading lately kicked in.

"I know," she said, "I can swear by the River Styx!"

Ah, kids.

Incidently, she really turned out to be quite a help. Indeed, we eventually had to cap her fee. She was good enough to say that this was okay and that she would have helped out anyway, even if we weren't going to pay her. As for the other two, the five year old racked up a respectable sum but came in under the cap. The three year old....well, she earned a dime.