Eider took himself for a walk!

[longshadowfarms]

Argh!!! Gonna wring a child's neck when it comes home   Eider came in panting, happy, obviously had a blast, but doing what?  I looked out and the gate is WIDE open!  Who knows where he went or for how long!  I didn't even know he was gone!  He obviously had a blast though.  Child was running the wheelbarrow through that gate today and I chewed him out just a little while ago about making sure to close the gate after himself.     Grrrrrrrrr!  At least Eider came back in one piece!  Can't say the kid will come back in one piece when I get ahold of it.   We have TONS of gates on this place and I have been trying to hammer it into their little pea brains for YEARS to SHUT THE GATE and LATCH IT.  This one child seems particularly determined to ignore my lessons    Anyone care to help me devise the plan of torture?  I have a large hole that needs digging.  What say another hour of digging for punishment?  Wish I had some fence posts for him to put in as punishment.  I like to tie the punishment to the offence but I can't think of anything fence related at the moment.

[Winslow 151]

Hmm,

If eider constantly runs through the gate you might consider a shock collar or invisible fense. NOT FOR EIDER but for the offspring who can't remember the rules. ;-0

[Mom2Sadie]

How about landmine patrol? This is what other people might walk thru...

Wow Melissa, that's really evil...I like it!

[longshadowfarms]

Hmm,

If eider constantly runs through the gate you might consider a shock collar or invisible fense. NOT FOR EIDER but for the offspring who can't remember the rules. ;-0

Oooooo, in my particularly nasty frame of mind, I like that idea! 

Landmine patrol is useless.  This child might as well be blind as well as forgetful.  I'd have to go show it where each mine was.  I did come up with a suitably ugly dog related chore though!  Eider killed a stuffed animal this week that was FULL of tiny little plastic balls.  They were strewn ALL OVER the house!  I made said child go clean them all up and all the stuffing that came out as well.  THEN I sent him out to dig up the septic lines!  That job will take a few days but I did get a bit more done on it today thanks to the child.   He did learn a lesson though!  I'm CONSTANTLY telling children to shut the door, shut the gate, turn off the light, whatever.  Anyway, our kitchen door doesn't like to shut on its own.  You have to give it a little pull.  He went through and walked a step or two on, TURNED BACK, shut the door and then went on to what he was doing!  The child learned a new trick!  Still slower than Eider but there is hope!  Only took an hour of hard labor for the lesson to sink in. 

[Winslow 151]

Hi,

You could have the child install these. It would help both the child and the pets for those forgetful moments and not give the pooches a free neighborhood pass

http://www.hooverfence.com/woodfence/gatespring.htm

These are for a wood fence but I'm sure you can find a spring for any type of fence you have.

[longshadowfarms]

Thanks for that link!  I'll have DH take a look and see if he thinks that might work.  It is an 8' metal gate so it might be a bit tricky and we'd need a seriously heavy duty spring.  There's really no excuse.  Every gate on our farm (at least 30 of them) needs to be closed and latched after you go through it so it isn't like this is something new and different.  Just a child being lazy.  I can at least make it h*ll when he tries to chose the path of ease so that he learns that what he thinks is the path of ease is NOT easier!  He's off to take Prince Brat for a walk now to help burn a little energy off both of them!