Tapping trees is always an adventure, but when you share that adventure with a 3-year-old, things are bound to be more fun.

My sweet little grandson, Nolan, called up to see if he could come up for a visit. I wasn’t home at the time, but I told him that he could as soon as I got home.

He arrived with his fireman hat and tools in a bag and we played for a bit, did some puzzles and he did some drawing. But, I was thinking about tapping some trees and I realized that I didn’t have a car seat for him. We discussed whether he wanted to help and that it would be a long walk, but we set out.

I couldn’t bring all the buckets, but I brought two, with the taps, the drill, and the hammer in them. He walked along, no problem, and was excited to throw some sticks in the water while I was drilling, to put the taps in the holes, and to hit some of the taps in with the hammer.

We did the first group of trees and I asked him if he wanted to keep going or to go home.  I showed him where the next group of trees was and he decided he wanted to keep going. At that spot he found his “relaxing tree” and he laid on that while having a snack of fruit chews I had brought with us.

We finished tapping those trees and I asked the same question again…more trees or home? He chose to keep going and tap the final group of trees. He has a lot of stamina for a 3-year-old!

As we were walking to the final group of trees we had to go around several very large puddles in the field and on the field road. Of course, puddles are very tempting to a 3-year-old, but I kept telling him, “If you get all wet, Mommy might not let you hang out with Grammie anymore!” so he walked around the puddles.

There was water near all three places we put taps in, and he was enjoying picking up sticks and throwing them into the water. At this final spot, there is a little brook that runs right behind these trees. We finished putting all the taps in and we carefully watched to decide which taps were dripping the fastest and placed our 2 buckets on those taps.

Nolan had a stick and when he turned, he knocked one of the buckets into the brook. I grabbed the hammer and reached around the tree to hook the bucket on the hammer claws and placed it back on the tap. I turned to pick up the drill and “SPLASH!” Nolan was in the water! I think he had tried to look at what I had done to get the bucket and slipped in!

I whipped him out of the water, but he had gotten wet to the waist! Of course, there were a few tears…who wouldn’t cry when they fell in the water in March in Nova Scotia?

I told him I’d call Mommy to meet us, but she wouldn’t be able to get the car all the way back, so he would have to walk back to where we store the farm machinery (Gravel Pit). He walked and calmed down. We chatted, but I knew he was pretty uncomfortable. I tried to get him to wrap up in my jacket, but he didn’t like that idea.

Mommy was waiting for us when we got back to the Gravel Pit. We pulled off his outside clothing and fastened him in the car. He had some stories to tell Mommy on the way home, I’m sure.

Later, when he was talking to his daddy he said, “Grammie said if I got wet Mommy wouldn’t let me go to Grammie’s again. I can though, right Dad?”

The next day we went swimming with Mommy and his brother along with his Auntie and cousins. He was quick to inform me that the pool was cold, but the brook was much colder!