This isn't Philadelphia

There are times when I get started on something and don't know when to stop.

Yesterday when I got home from work, the neighbor across the street comes up and asks if I have a saw she could use for a project. She knows perfectly well I have a saw, I've used it in the yard a few times to build our huge raised bed boxes. She's just being polite, I suppose. Rather than just entrusting my brand new saw to her, I crossed the street to see what she was gonna cut to see if it could be done with a different tool.

Her front yard is about four feet long by about twelve feet wide and the grass has been trampled by frequent foot traffic to the point where there is very very little grass at all. She acquired some small pallets (think 2'x4') and wanted to reuse them as a sort of fence. The bottom two skid boards needed to be removed, and she wanted a single central board cut off. She said she had tried to pry the skid boards off, but couldn't with their claw hammer.

I knew we had the tools, but I had just gotten off work. She kept talking about how she needed a fence, but had no money to buy a fence. We had picked up a little wire border fence thing for our front section next to the road for $20. It protects the cacti and weird little plants the wife has planted in there. I think the lady was trying to guilt trip me into helping her, I don't know.

Anyway, I went into my house, grabbed a mallet and a rock hammer and proceeded to take apart all seven pallets. I had to hammer the rock hammer's chisel back between the boards, pry them apart, and move on. It was hard because the joints were all connected by four long nails. Once the prying was done, I left and came back with the circular saw, made the seven little cuts, and then told the lady I had finished. She was very glad and said she'd pay me something when they were able. Then I was able to really "come home from work" and get on with my evening.

I could have initially just told the lady I couldn't help her, or that she could use my tools (probably not ever see them again), or that I would help her later... But I had the equipment, had the knowledge, and had the ability to do the thing that she and her husband couldn't do.

I think it's important to help people if they truly cannot do what needs to be done, but sometimes I get so far into something that I realize later I could have saved myself an hour of work if I were just a bit more selfish about my time.

Speaking of the boxes, we now have almost seven of them prepped out and ready for the dirt delivery. I just got paid, so we'll be making the trip out to see if we can find some decent compost/manure/soil for delivery next week. Hopefully we can get everything finished up and in the ground by the 14th. Any later and we'll be hedging our bets for final harvest time in the fall.