He will, as dads are supposed to do, come up with something practical and dangerously close to being defined as “work.”

Beth Peterson’s children, Brock, 8; Colby and Carver, both 10; and Brookelynne, 12, found that out Wednesday.

Her husband, Nate Peterson, supplied the inspiration.

“He said have them grab bags then have them clean out ditches,” Beth Peterson said.

-Submitted photo
Brock Peterson, 8, of rural Harcourt works on picking up ditch litter Wednesday near his home. He and his siblings made a day of it and collected over 20 bags of garbage.

Turns out, the children enjoyed it.

“They were begging me today to go again,” she said.

The litter patrol resulted in 22 bags of various sizes full of garbage. She said the family cleaned about two miles of ditches, including a stretch along Iowa Highway 175.

They didn’t find anything too unusual so the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa remains a mystery.

“It was mostly pop cans, beer bottles and paint cans,” she said. “Nothing unusual.”

The only thing close to odd: a large dead bird.

“Well, Brock did find a pheasant, he wanted to keep it but I said to leave it,” she said.

She hopes picking up the tossed garbage of others will help provide a lesson for the future.

“Later in life,” she said. “I hope they decide not to throw stuff out the window.”

Peterson, a special education paraeducator at Fort Dodge Senior High, is home, too, during the school closure for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both her and her children would like to return to school.

“I miss my kids,” she said. “Mine, they want to go back to school.”