Odd Jobs

Work Through Your Hunger

September 23, 2006

Painted in Three Days Last weekend Titi, Lachlan, and I helped an aunt and uncle paint the exterior of their house. They had moved north some time ago, and the paint job was in preparation for selling the house. It was a long drive to the work site for everyone involved so it meant sleeping [...]

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They Call Me Animal

October 18, 2004

This past Saturday I picked up a new name. I’ve been called a lot of things in life, and now I’ve been called an animal. It all came as a result of a job I was working. I was asked to dig a ditch by a lady I shall call SB. Initially the plan was [...]

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XP in The Countryside

March 11, 2004

A Job Taking a phone call is like going on an adventure. You never know what will happen. Mom hands the phone to me and says it is someone who says they are a friend of Mrs. B and they have computer trouble. “Hello?” I take the phone, wondering exactly what this will be. I [...]

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Hitting The Bottom

January 30, 2004

I think we’ve hit the bottom of winter. This is to say I think we’re past the half way mark, not that the worst is over. I certainly hope the worst is over, but sometimes winter gives the worst in the second half. It’s been a pretty tough first half of the winter, so I’m [...]

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Working . . . In The Mud

October 19, 2003

Fall is the time when people around here start thinking (sometimes belatedly) about preparing for winter. Last winter K.D., a neighbor living a street over, had problems with her barn pump freezing up. As this fall came around, she thought it was a good idea to figure out what was causing her pump to freeze [...]

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First This, Then That

August 3, 2003

Cleaning Up Not this Saturday, but last Friday and Saturday (July 25 and 26)I cleaned up the debris of the fallen willow tree. I was not looking forward to this project because it would be both mind-numbing and labor intensive. Two or so years ago when I was cleaning up from the big maple tree [...]

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Work, Work, Work . . .

July 24, 2003

Haying Last Sunday was a hay crazy day. Two people wanted help haying, same day, same time. At first Arlan and Lachlan were going to try and do Ingrid W. and Kim D. (who were going in on hay together) as quickly as they could with my help and then go work for Frank the [...]

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Haying Begins

June 18, 2003

It is the season for haying. Yesterday Arlan, Lachlan, and I did our first haying job of the year. In case I have readers who are so urbanized as to not understand what haying is, I’ll give a quick explanation. Haying is the process where the grass of the fields is cut and dried, then [...]

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Farm Chores

May 8, 2003

A few weeks ago, I went down to Pennsylvania to do farm chores for my uncle Kevin so he could go on a short trip with his family. He hobby farms, which means he has a day job and keeps animals on the side. Number and type of animals varies with the year, but this [...]

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Working With Tony

April 23, 2003

I hope someday to earn my living from my writing. At present, this isn’t a reality, so I must earn whatever little spending money I need by working odd jobs. Some jobs are not bad, others are not so good. In either case, the work reminds me that such jobs are not what I want [...]

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