Eating me out of house and home

My seven year old step daughter is well behaved. Unfortunately the rest of the family is not. They proceded to wipe me out of junk food provisions in minutes. Four bags of popcorn, four boxes of Little Debbie Snacks. They even emptied my supply of produce two pints strawberries, one blue berries and one black berries.

The small Maltese is too well mannered to bite the obnoxious kids. I constantly remind them that the dog is not a toy. He follows me everywhere for protection from the wild kids. I also sneak him bits of Turkey and Chicken all through the day.

The neighbor died on Friday. The West Indians do a poor mans version of the Jewish ritual of cooking for their neighbor. The locals made some type of bizzarre Cheese cake. Unfortunately, that left me baby sitting but all went well.

The Beloved Sprite listens to tales of Little Beaker and Rusty the Fierce Shepherd Collie Mix who loved kids and protected them on hikes through the endless forrest. Sometimes we also had Chico the Cocker Spaniel pointer mix who wasn't as loveable and fought with the stray dog packs. I also left out the part about small arms as my cousins and I usually carried air pump guns and were proficient. The great danger in those days were stray dogs. Today the danger is coyotes, bears and stray dog packs.

It was an idylic time youngsters picking wild berries and nuts, making camp fires, finding clay in the streams, fishing, endless wiffleball games and listening to radio shows via a tube radio. I think the first songs I remember hearing were Suspicious Minds, Hooked on a Feeling and the Polish Prince.

The Sprite also likes tales of the Land of Snow and Beer aka Vermont. She enjoys the tales of the rugged people and strange animals. I will have to explain later that porcupines are not evil and are kind of cute.