Having eight children of his own, my grandfather knew how to get kids working in the yard.  A blend of trickery, finesse, and good ‘ole parenting would always have us grand kids either raking the leaves of the twenty or so live oaks that called his yard home or hoeing his remarkable vegetable garden.  One day, he asked my brother and I if we’d like to learn how to use the manual front-end loader.  Thinking this was some cool piece of yard machinery used to demolish anything in its path we fought for the privilege to be the first to try.  Imagine our dismay and disappointment when he handed us each a shovel.