“Come on in,” Pippa told the boys, as she closed the front door. “Billy made some room in the workroom window for us, where we can watch and be out of the way.”
Pippa was very happy to see Nico. He hadn’t been over to visit the dolls from The Doll’s Storybook for a long time. He had been missed!
“Frank said for us to stay indoors,” Nico told Pippa and Pauly, as the three dolls made their way up the stairs. Nico's elbows and knees don’t bend, so Pippa and Pauly would help him go up the stairs. He could do it by himself, but the dolls were in a hurry, because the men outside were already busy.
“They’re going to use some big equipment,” Nico told his two small friends, “and he doesn’t want anyone to get squashed, or for any of the workers to trip over a doll.”
“Who’s Frank,” Pippa asked. “Is that the name of Frankie’s father?” Pippa thought it sounded a lot like a grownup human person’s name, and she had found out that sometimes children are named after their parents.
“No,” Nico laughed. “Frank is Frankie. He told me he wanted to start being called Frank, because he thought ‘Frankie’ sounded too much like a child’s name.”
“Frank is 16 years old now,” Nico added. “He’s helping his father with the work out there today, so he says he’s grown up now.”
When the dolls reached the top of the stairs, they found the door to the workroom open, which was a good thing, because the door handle is pretty high, even for Nico to reach. Pippa can do it, but it takes more time, and they were in a hurry.
Emil and Billy were already at the window, watching what was happening below. “Not much to see yet,” Billy said, when he noticed the other dolls coming into the room. “They’ve just finished unloading some equipment. You haven’t missed anything.”
The three younger dolls climbed over the daybed and up onto the windowsill. “Why are they doing all this?” Pauly wanted to know.
“The Writer and her husband haven’t been able to get grass to grow,” Billy explained, as the dolls heard some kind of machine start up. “It takes too much water, and most people here who have grass that looks good use chemicals to keep it growing.”
“So they decided to take out the grass and put in rocks and wood chips,” Emil explained. “Then they’ll add just a few plants.”
“It’s called xeriscaping (ZEH-ruh-skay-ping)” Nico told them, showing off a little, because he’s very proud of his family’s landscaping business. “It uses native plants––those are plants that grew here before people came and started planting other things, so they already do well here without much care––and sometimes xeriscaping uses other plants that can do well with less water. A few plants will be watered with what’s called a drip system instead of sprinklers. Sprinklers spray water over everything. A drip system puts out water mostly right at the roots of the plants. Xeriscaping takes very little water.”
The dolls sometimes play in the sprinkler in the summer when it's hot. They can still do that in the backyard after the front yard is finished.
“The Writer told us that we live in what’s called a ‘high desert,’” Pippa pointed out, when she finally could get a word in edgewise. “A desert is a place where there isn’t much water.”
“Look!” Emil cried out. “They’re using that big piece of equipment to chop up the ground where the grass was…or was supposed to be.” The dolls had been talking instead of watching. They all looked out the window. They saw Frank use the machine to chop the ground with the grass in it into squares.
Frank’s dad and another worker were busy pulling up the chunks of sod (dirt with grass roots) in another small part of the front yard where Frank had already used the machine.
The men used shovels and pitchforks to pull up the big chunks of sod. A shovel is sort of like a spoon, and a pitchfork is like a dinner fork, only they are made for digging holes in the dirt or pulling up sections of sod. (Don’t try this with your mom’s dinner silverware!)
“The Writer let me use her big serving spoon in the garden,” Emil remembered. “I didn’t have a fork, though.” (He had permission, and it was just for photos!)
The men had a big load of broken-up little rocks called gravel (GRAA-vul) in the back of the truck.
The dolls watched the men put up some low metal edging to divide the ground into different sections. They filled in the area between the trailer driveway and the garage with rocks. They put rounded grey rocks next to the driveway. These rocks had been in a river and had become rounded by the water. Then the men put the gravel in the area between the grey rocks and the house. The gravel is made by machines that crush rock. It has sharp edges.
Rocks do not have to be watered.
Gravel does not need to be watered.
There will be some plants, though, and the trees that are already there, which The Writer and her husband want to keep. The yard wouldn’t need as much water, but it would need water just for the plants and trees. The new water lines would go to where each plant or tree was and give it water. While the dolls watched from the window, the men put water lines on the ground to take water to where plants would be. Then Frank’s dad tested the new water system by turning on the water. He found a leak under the big tree. He dug it up and repaired it. The Writer’s husband watched and helped, so he could learn how to fix it if it leaked again.
At lunchtime the men left for a while. The dolls stayed on the windowsill and talked about how they thought the new landscaping would look. They didn’t want to leave and maybe miss something when the men came back.
The workers came back after lunch, bringing fresh dirt to cover the ground where plants and wood chips would be and to cover the new water lines. After they had unloaded the dirt, one of the workers left again with the truck.
The truck came back with a load of wood chips to put on top of the dirt and the water lines. This kind of wood chips is often used at playgrounds, so children can run around and play. If they fall, they are unlikely to get hurt, because the ground won’t be hard. Pavement used for sidewalks and streets is OK for playing hopscotch and basketball, but it isn’t as good under swings or things to climb on, in case a child falls. The Writer and her husband wanted the rest of the front yard to be safe for children and dogs to play on and for a few plants to grow.
The Writer had an old bench in the backyard. She wanted to put it in the front and have a little walk leading to it. Frank’s dad set up the low metal edging to mark the area. He placed blocks right where the feet of the bench would go, so the feet wouldn't sink into the ground.
Then he moved the bench away and lined the walkway and bench area with some material that would make it hard for weeds to grow through. While he was doing that, Frank and the other worker brought more of the wood chips to that part of the yard and began spreading it around outside the area where his dad was working.
Then a worker brought up some ground-up rock to fill in the walkway and the area where the bench would be.
They used the hose to wet the ground-up rock, and another machine to pound it down and flatten it. Then they wet it down again and used the machine a second time. They repeated all that again. The new walkway and bench area would be almost hard, but prettier than street or sidewalk paving. It would dry to be strong and almost hard.
When the workers were done, Jolena went out on the front porch to talk to Frank’s dad, because she wanted to practice her Spanish. He was a little surprised that one of the dolls wanted to talk to him, but he encouraged her and told her that her Spanish was “muy bien (MOO-ee bee-EN),” which made Jolena happy. She told him, “muchas gracias (MOO-chus GRAH-see-us),” thanking him for the compliment.
After Frank, his dad and the workers had left, the dolls could look down from the window. They could see the old bench in the shade of the big tree. It sat in the middle of a little area at the end of the walkway made just for it.
All the new front yard needed now was some special plants and a low fence around the part of the yard the bench was in, so the real dogs could run around while The Writer and her husband sat and enjoyed watching the birds and the squirrels and waved at people walking their dogs.
“I’d better go,” Nico said finally. “Frank doesn’t play with me anymore, but he likes to tell me about his day in the evening. He will have a lot to talk about today.”
“How’s the problem with the papers, Nico,” Pippa asked, as they helped Nico down the stairs. (Pippa remembered how Frankie’s…Frank’s…dad and mom had been worried about how they were going to stay here where their landscaping business was without having the right papers. Their customers and the people who worked for them had held a car wash to help Nico's family pay for a lawyer, who would help them with the court.)
“I think it’s going to work out,” Nico replied. “Frank’s parents were afraid to go to the court, because some people were getting arrested there, so their lawyer arranged for them to use their laptop to meet with the judge from home. It’s called a remote (ree-MOTE) hearing. They talked with the judge on Frank’s parents’ laptop. The judge agreed that they should be able to stay. Now they're going to have the papers they need.”
“I wonder if Jeffy will decide to change his name when he gets to be 16,” Pauly mused when they were about halfway down the stairs.
“Maybe he’ll change your name to Paul if he does,” Pippa suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Pauly replied. “Dolls don’t grow up like human people. I think I’ll always be Pauly.”
The three dolls all wondered what it was like to grow up and maybe have to change what others call you.
It was interesting to think about.
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, “Chosen” from My Doll Best Friend
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
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Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.
“The Doll’s Storybook” is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Our latest book is available from BookBaby and other booksellers: Mandy's Little Science Lessons: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook. Mandy and her friends explore insects, atoms, weather, trees, gravity and fossils while they run around in The Writer's house and neighborhood.
Royalties go to an organization that provides pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don’t get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to our designated charity. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. The Writer’s author’s page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you, or ask your library to get our books for you.
Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post and no AI has been used.
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