September 20

Our workaholic neighbor, engineer, operator, foreman, estimator, truck driver, job superintendent, main laborer, lead man, instructor and birthday boy was here bright and early yesterday and began to work on the wall. Forgetting his workaholic type addiction, I asked if he wouldn't rather do something else that he might enjoy more on his birthday. He told me that he enjoyed working on the wall!

So the rest of us along with a new recruit, Scott, Ruthie's son, picked up our tools and a little grudgingly began our tasks. Another neighbor Gary Carr came and perspired along with the rest of us after he ran out of shingles for the new roof he is installing on the community well house.

It turns out yesterday was the most enjoyable day of them all. It was pretty hot but the thing is, we got the wall laid! We could see it coming for quite a spell so that might have been a major factor in the joy we experienced. There are still many things to do but the wall is up! Finished it around 5:00 pm. We did remove several blocks from the wall so the neighbors could walk through but they will be easy to put back into place.

Sitting around admiring the wall, we made an astonishing discovery! You may not believe this because I still find it hard to do. Unbelievably, after doing the math with the stones we had left over and broken the total stones in the wall was 335. Here is the shocker! In the initial planning stage, our workaholic neighbor, engineer, operator, foreman, estimator, truck driver, job superintendent, main laborer, lead man, instructor and birthday boy, during his estimating mode had checked his figures and drawings and concluded the project would require 336 blocks. Is this close or what? Wait, I'm not done! Above the pipe we bridged over a block sized gap for the surface water to flow thru. If we had used a block there Can you believe it? .........Yep! 336 blocks exactly! I think more folks than I was amazed but Mr. Struebbe acted like it was no surprise to him at all.

Thank you Dale!

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. ~Albert Schweitzer