I walked outside and stuck my big toe into the dirt of the garden.Warm dirt, it is time.I wiggled my whole foot into the warm earth to see how deep the sun had warmed the ground.
Grandpa would be planting his garden in the next few days.He loved pulling on his boots and walking the rows of the garden several times a day.But first he had to get it ready.Mr. Carpenter has a mule and when it’s planting time he is waiting by the phone for someone to call him to bring his mule, named Elvis, over to plow up the field.
Elvis wasn’t so happy about working but it seemed he was smiling today as he was strapped to the plow.His big yellow teeth looked huge when he curled his pink lips up as he walked the rows of the garden.Grandpa knew what he liked though and Elvis remembered that when he finished the garden a big oatmeal cookie filled with white icing would be his treat for a job well done.As Elvis saw Grandpa coming to the edge of the garden unwrapping that big oatmeal cookie he just could not keep quiet. “HEE HAW, HEE HAW,” he said as he wiggled his mule ears back and forth.
Grandpa held the oatmeal cookie out and Elvis ate the whole thing in one bite, licking Grandpa’s fingers at the same time.
That afternoon Grandpa walked row by row dropping fertilizer in the newly plowed ground.It smelled so good and the warm sun made his shoulders feel good too.But, there was a problem.A situation was brewing.Sitting on the branch of the big oak tree at the edge of the fence was a big, shiny black crow.He had been watching the day’s events.Grandpa spotted him and took out his handkerchief from his overall pocket and waved it over his head.The crow was not about to be waved away by a handkerchief, but he ruffled up his feathers and flew a wide circle over the whole garden.He swooped down one time and grabbed a big worm that was trying to dig back into the fresh plowed earth.
Grandpa knew this crow was going to be trouble, so as he walked row by row he was planning how to scare the crow away.He decided to go into the kitchen and get some old pie pans and some shiny aluminum foil and make a shiny contraption that would scare the crow when he flew over.
The old black crow settled back on his branch and started to call his crow friends, ”Caw, Caw, Caw,” he squawked as he summoned his friends.
Grandpa found an old mop handle and nailed the shiny pie plates in the middle so when the wind blew they would twirl around and the crows would be scared to come close.Grandpa put streamers of aluminum foil on the mop handle also.It was a pretty pole and Grandpa loved his garden and he was proud of it so he put an American flag on the pole also.It was awesome.
The next morning Grandpa went to the seed store and bought a huge bag of corn seed, butterbean seeds, and two dozen tomatoes plants. He took his hoe to the garden and dropped the seeds in the little rows of freshly plowed earth and he gently covered the seeds up with the soft warm dirt.Just as he got to the end of the row he looked back and sitting right up on the top of the pole he saw the old black crow.The pole wasn’t working to scare him away.“Shew, Scat, Get Out of Here, Ole Black Bird,” shouted Grandpa.The old black crow swooped down and pecked the corn kernels out of the ground as fast as Grandpa put them in.Grandpa sat down on the ground took off his hat and scratched his head, trying to figure out what to do next.
Grandpa thought maybe his dog would scare away the crows so he called her from the front porch.“Candy, come here bark at that old black crow,” he commanded.Candy came running but as she got to Grandpa she just sat down beside him looked up at him with big brown puppy dog eyes, wagged her tail and laid down right in the middle of the garden and went to sleep.
Grandpa was tired and hot and hungry.He took his hat, stuck it in his back pocket and went in the back door to make himself some lunch.He opened the refrigerator found his baloney and cheese and sat down to make his sandwich.The grandchildren had been over the night before and the littlest boy had left a brown paper bag on the table.Grandpa took his knife and spread the mustard on the bread and settled in the chair to eat lunch.He looked in the bag just to see what was left.Bubblegum. There was a half bag of bubblegum.Each wrapped piece had twisted ends and suddenly Grandpa had a brilliant idea.He ate his sandwich in two bites.He was chewing as he walked out the door – actually he was almost running out the door.
As he headed for the garden he started unwrapping each piece of the sweet smelling bubblegum.Grandpa went right to the garden row that had the corn and he planted a piece of pink bubblegum every foot all the way down the row.In a few minutes the warm sun made the bubble gum nice and sticky.
The old black crow was sitting on the fencepost watching the new plantings.“Caw, Caw, Caw”, he squawked to summon his crow friends to come take a look.
Grandpa got to the end of the row, wadded up the empty paper sack, put it in his pocket and waited.Within a minute the old black crow dived right down poking his sharp yellow beak into the dirt.He grabbed that bubblegum in his mouth and the more he tried to Caw the bigger the bubble came out of his beak.The crow’s friends had come quickly and they followed their leader.In no time there was a circle of crows diving in the ground, pecking up the bubblegum.Each old black crow’s beak got stuck together with bubblegum and every time one of them tried to caw they would blow a big pink bubble.Their beaks were stuck together with bubblegum and they could not eat any more of Grandpa’s seeds.Grandpa thought it was the funniest sight he had ever seen.He went inside and called the Grandchildren to come over to see the sight.
That night as the sun went down and the crows went to the big oak tree to roost all you could see was black crows with pink bubbles up in the tree.
Now to this very day when Grandpa plants his garden he buys a big bag of bubblegum to keep the crows from eating his seeds.
