Sunday, April 19, 2009

Learning Earth Day lessons
whether we like it or not


Even in the desert, we have to keep weeds from taking over our yards. The yard may be made up of cactus and landscaped with pebbles, but during our rainy season, weeds can sprout up through the rocks and grow like crazy.
This is the case in our neighbor's back yard. And since she is allergic to the poisons that most neighbors use to knock the weeds back, they've gotten kind of out of hand.

She'd been looking forward to her 18-year-old grandson's visit over Easter weekend. Of course it was going to be great to have him in the house, but Dottie also thought she could get him to spray the weeds. She reported in this weekend:

"He wouldn't do it," she said. "I offered him $25, but no."

"He's 18-years-old. He's taking classes on the environment. He lectured me about the poisons seeping into the water table... he just wouldn't do it."

She was a little amused, but kind of irritated by his stand.

"What did you do," we asked. Thinking maybe he'd help her pull them or dig the weeds out.

"I offered him $50!"


He may have needed the cash, but Dottie's grandson stuck to his guns. No way would he spray poison to kill weeds.

Dottie's weeds are still there. The rainy season has passed and they are drying out and should be easy to dig up soon.

And because of her grandson's stand on helping to keep our environment clean, we're thinking a little more seriously about Earth Day on our block.

Robin, Tempe

11 comments:

Lori Lavender Luz said...

I respect him for turning down the $50, but I'd respect him more for pulling the weeds!

You've just raised my awareness, too!

PerfectMomentProject said...

exactly. we were thinking the kid really should have helped his grandma out. ... maybe not like we did though. we sprayed the front yard for her weeks ago! ooops.

Kristin and Christa said...

I second Lori's comment. He should have said, "For that money, I'll pull the weeds."

Anonymous said...

Most kids would have taken the money and ran.

Jessica R. said...

That was a great post! He's a good boy for standing up for his ideals, not always an easy task when faced with the lure of cold hard cash!

Tia Holmes said...

I love this stories and I look forward to digging more weeds! Thanks for your comment.

XO
Tia

Stacie said...

Great story! But, as Lori said, I think he should have pulled the weeds then! :-)

Melissa said...

That is great. I am trying to grow my garden without chemicals, it is hard though. The bugs eat it before we can lol.

Peeveme said...

I'm so glad he stuck to his principles and perhaps taught his grandmother something...ok maybe not the second thing. But there are fewer chemicals in the air and water.

The Young Environmentalist said...

That was good of him. I wish all people were like that. So what if he didn't pull weeds, at least he didn't spray poison. I'm glad he's educated on the dangers of spraying poison.

Anonymous said...

LOL. I thought the story was perfect right where it ended at, "I offered him $50." and I just assumed he took the money.

As a self-employed entrepreneur since I was 15 (almost 30 years now) I applaud him both for sticking to his guns and knowing what his time was worth.

But as an entrepreneur, I would have taken the $50 and paid a neighborhood kid $20 to pull the weeds.

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