March 29, 2007on the road in New Zealand
March 29, 2008celebrating the building of a kickass work bench
Yesterday, I shoveled poo out of a barn for the first time in my life. There is something inherently contemplative about this activity - perhaps it's the idea that shoveling shit ranks low on life's ambition list.
Well, I got to tell you - I LOVED IT! Except, I was a bit concerned that the dry poo was kicking up a lot of dust. As I was inhaling it, I asked Bill if we should be worried about diseases - could I get bovine encephalitis from horse poo???
(before)
(after)After getting silly questions and the need to say "bovine encephalitis" out of the way, I started thinking about how we got to be shoveling shit in our barn in Indiana on a weekend. A year ago we were in New Zealand, having just tried pâté for the first (and last) time.
Photos of March 29, 2007:
We were drinking lots of wine, eating fancy cheeses and trying not to worry about the jobs in DC that (for various political reasons) we were both very possibly going to lose - imminently. My job involved working on outreach materials - convincing people to get involved with an organization I hated...a different kind of shoveling shit.Photos of March 29, 2008:
Working in our barn yesterday afternoon, I realised I felt infinitely better about how I spent that day than I ever did after a day of work in DC. Three cheers for literal poo shoveling!
lol love the commentary. However, I am a little behind, and thus must go back a ways to figure out from whence came the poo in the first place. Did you finally get your goats?
ReplyDeleteoh yeah this is McKenzie but I can't figure out the password thingy below. Yay for technology!
what a great entry!! I love the time lapse between the pictures. I often wonder what I have done on a day, years before- maybe even at a certain time. Isn't it amazing where our lives take us, even in one year. Who know that you would own a house, have maple syrup and be shoveling poo!!
ReplyDelete(ehhehe) Good comparison, and so. very. accurate.. I'll agree, even though shoveling poo is pretty low work, I always feel like I've accomplished something afterwards. Plus, after a year that pile becomes an nice little batch of yummy compost to make giant zucchini! Bonus.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy reading through your posts. You did something! I'm not reading in order - so I don't know if you lost jobs forcing your hand - but frankly I don't care. I think big change is one of the hardest things in the world to do. g
ReplyDelete