Agriculture

Last week I announced that the long overdue painting of the barn was about to take place. I am pleased to announce this week that it actually did take place, a group effort captained by "Macho Matt," who told the painting crew (me, Eric and Paul) when and what to paint. Eric and I finished the last of the unpainted surfaces at 7 p.m. Friday, stretching out the last ounces of paint, as Tom arrived for dinner. Et voila. The project took major parts of six days, as we all juggled painting with our office work responsibilities, painting largely before (at least in Matt's case) and after (for the rest of us) normal office hours. Thank God for the long daylight of early June and the moderate temperatures we enjoyed. Matt was a very particular taskmaster, wanting to make sure we were always painting on the shady side of the building and reserving to himself the high wire tasks requiring going to the top of the extended extension ladder. My younger compatriots have decided that at my age I should either be mo