"Meaningful Work"

I am SO fortunate to have a husband that likes to do "meaningful things".  That is what he called starting the new addition to the fiber shed.  He had been doing a bunch of small projects and decided to start on the fiber shed while still in summer, whereas I was thinking more like next spring or late winter maybe.




John has been digging the footings by hand instead of machine.  He would start early and work until it got too hot, which some days was 9:30.



And today, the cement truck came to pour the footings.  Cement is heavy but all went faster and easier than I thought.  It was actually fun.  Now, we just wait for the footings to set up and we can start the block work.  I say we, but John will probably lay all

the block.  Not that I can't, I actually
took a course at a technical H.S. near us in MA and laid some block in our house and my greenhouse.  It is just that I have a lot of "meaningful things" lined up for this week before we go on vacation.

One of the meaningful jobs I must complete, is trimming 28 hooves ( 7 sheep).  The other two sheep had theirs trimmed not too long ago.  I just put the word out, for help, this morning and already I have a volunteer to hold sheep.  I guess more people than I thought are looking for "meaningful things" to do. I could use more help still, as I have noticed that after 3 or 4 sheep, the fun factor drops off.

Also, I recently found out, that someone I know, was hired to be the new Ag teacher at the high school.  I am hoping that this will give me access to a microscope to do fecal egg counts.  Naomi suggested that I even let the students do the testing for me.  Is that like white washing a fence or will they look at it as an opportunity to do "meaningful" work?  I will report back.