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There's more. My husband asked at the local furniture store when their
shipment of new stuff comes in. He made arrangements for Dylan to be
there and they watched and helped assemble some of the pieces. There
were bookshelves and bunk beds and coffee tables. They had a good time.

We also watched while a house was lifted off it's foundation in
preparation to be moved. If you hang around with a cooler full of soda,
you'd be surprised at how many of the crew will come over and talk to you
about what's going on.

We butted in on the city crew when they were cutting down dead cottonwood
trees two weeks ago on our street. Dylan got to climb on the front end
loader. They wouldn't let him be on it when it was running, but when
they shut down, he got to check out the dump truck, too.

The ranchers Arga supply gets a load of corn every other day and we can
go watch it be unloaded from the trains any time we like. They'll take
kids around on tours if they're not busy and this year one of the guys
called Dylan when the baby ducks and chicks were hatching so we got to
watch that.

We are lucky in this way to be in a small town because not too many
people here think about or worry about insurance liability. I still
think it's possible in other places, if you just go and ask, on the spot,
not giving them time to think of the other stuff. It's more fun that way
too.

There are folks with rock shops and jewelry making businesses that love
to talk to kids.

There are usually people in any town who have small engine repair shops
or small appliance repair shops, sometimes in their home or garage and
they are usually not so busy that they can't stop and talk. Dig out some
old broken radio and go. Ask if your kids can watch them take it apart.
Or just let the kids have it and do whatever.

Dylan has taken apart all kinds of things. ( some things we didn't
actually want him to! ) One homeshooling boy here learned about
computers this way, collecting old dead ones from people he knew and
dissecting them.

We were looking for a piece of brass to use as a kick plate on an old
door. No one had brass that size but the adventure of checking out all
the recycling places and metal working shops was wonderful. We finally
thought about a trophy shop and found a piece just the right size. We
also got to watch while they cut different pieces of brass and while
things were being engraved and the guy gave Dylan an old book about how
trophy's are made, and some little scraps of copper and brass and some
blocks of wood. I don't know what he'll do with them but I'm sure he'll
think of something.

Deb