Counting My Blessings With Joy - Josiah, Row Your Boat Ashore

April 16, 2008

Josiah, Row Your Boat Ashore

I love cleaning Mr Bill's house. He's always got something interesting to either say or do or show or give. The other day I caught a tarantula in a jar. Didn't think of getting any pictures of it. The kids did, but it was too blurry. Well, I called Mr. Bill to see if he wanted it and he did. He said he would trade me some morning glory seeds for the tarantula. Yesterday was my cleaning day and he told me to bring the kids because he could do a lesson with them using the hairy creature.

So while and my oldest daughter cleaned, Mr. Bill taught them about the tarantula. Here's my youngest daughter's account in her own words, uncensored and in its entirety: "Melody, what did you learn about the tarantula from Mr. Bill?" " its fangs, the two back legs that aren't really legs, he showed us a dot... kind of like a hole in the middle but I don't know what it is... I forgot. Oh he put oh now another thing about a scorpion well he said they're poisonous some are and some aren't and geko and never mind. Gekos are always having a heart on their back and they always go in cities. but he was kidding.... " All this was said to me while she was looking at the Gecko picture that's on an advertisement for Geico. Let's see if Grace can fill us in:

Grace? "that their poisonous. They always tuck their fangs in and their fangs are very very sharp and the little tarantulas fangs are this big. They eat crickets and grasshoppers. They can live without eating for a month. And he said the babies are really really tiny. And he showed us his black widows and he said he got bit by one. I think he said he had to go to the doctor or hospital or something. I think he said his nervousness ... when you go like that (extending your arm) you touch the wrong thing. And his other one he has now killed the other one. Mr Bill ripped open the egg sack thing and there was tons of eggs in it. He said they are really dangerous. Tarantulas have these little claw things on their ends and he let me touch them - they get stuck on my finger. He said that was so that if there's a storm they can climb into a bush. If you put two tarantulas in together, they'll eat each other."

After the tarantula experience, Mr Bill took the children on a little "hike" up the road to harvest some greens for dinner. They included tumbleweed and something else but i only know what it is in Spanish... quelites. We chopped up the tumbleweed and put it into our salad. The kids weren't too impressed . The quelites are a lot like spinach only the leaves are smaller. I've used them before. I fried some chopped onion and tomato and added the quelites. My hubby introduced them to me.