On how some stuff just turns out terrible.
We went to Canada this summer on a mission to be more creative as a family. I LOVE wandering in the woods looking for sticks that can be turned into the windowsills, doorways and chimneys of tiny houses. When I first saw the sloping, moss covered ground on the walkway to the lake, I immediately decided to turn it into a village for chipmunks.
It was a delusion destined for destruction.
I blame it on the mosquitoes. And the fact that the other three people building the houses said I couldn’t use superglue.
We were really into ‘Little House On The Prairie’, and Jon and the girls said that if the Ingalls family didn’t have it, I couldn’t either. We stood in the aisle at Walmart arguing about whether or not Pa used twine and I was like “Oh my gosh people he TOTALLY did! How on earth do you think he kept Pet and Patty from running away back to the Indians?!” And they let me get some.
But even the twine didn’t help.
I spent about 47 hours on this.
Kalley tried to help by carving a door.
And then it looked like this.
This is when we got out the pocket knife and tried to notch the sticks. DID NOT WORK.
I was able to build a bridge.
But I watched the chipmunks for WEEKS after I made it and NONE of them ever used it. Probably because it went to the lame-o twine house that I already showed you.
Jon came up with the idea of just making doorways.
But honestly, if I were a chipmunk trying to find a nice place for my family, this would just hack me off.
So we left our mossy bank pretty much like we found it.
It is said that, in writing, you must kill your darlings. In this case, we abandoned them in the woods and drove off.
