Piedmont Gardener

My spouse has been a proud federal employee for many years. No one works harder at his job. When he left his private-sector job for a federal position, his previous employer replaced him with three, count ’em, three employees, because that’s how many it took to do what he had been doing. When he is being paid, he is compensated for 40 hours/week, but he never puts in less than 60 hours/week, often more. His drive and energy are phenomenal, and many folks half his age have trouble keeping up with him.

Now try to imagine what it does to such a driven, dedicated man to be told he is furloughed for absolutely no reason, except that politicians refuse to get past their egos. Imagine how he feels to be told that he must turn off the government-owned electronic devices he uses to do his work, and that if he turns them on while being furloughed, he will be breaking the law and can be prosecuted for the transgression.

Imagine trying to find a constructive channel for all that frustrated drive and energy. Wonder Spouse decided to use some of it one day last week to build a wall. I call it the Furlough Wall — irony intentional.

This is a spot beside our house where we have been planning to build a flower bed for about 20 years. It was a low priority, because the slope of the area required that the bed be contained by one of the dry-stacked stone walls that Wonder Spouse builds for such areas. And, frankly, he hasn’t had time in the last 20 years to get around to it.

But time is all he’s got these days, so one day last week, he decided to build the Furlough Wall. I helped him load the stones onto the tractor cart. After we got it to the spot, my job was to brush off every stone and lay them on the ground, so that Wonder Spouse could survey his options. This three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle was a fun challenge for a guy who automatically builds maps in his head as he moves about the world; spatial geometry is one of his knacks.

We were both tuckered by the time he was done, and now I must wait for the next January thaw before I can finish filling the bed with aged compost from an old pile. But, after a 20-year wait, the bed will be ready for plants soon.

When the cold weather arrived, Wonder Spouse turned to writing and calling his congressional representatives. Their responses, as you might expect, have been nothing but political double-talk. Do they not see the heart-breaking stories about furloughed federal employees unable to support their families? Are they not worrying how long unpaid federal prison guards and TSA employees, forced to work as slaves without compensation, will be able or willing to protect the public from harm?

Wonder Spouse and I are using money saved for house-maintenance projects to pay our bills; we count ourselves blessed to have that option. A continuing problem is finding ways for Wonder Spouse to put his drive and energy to productive uses.

We still have some stones left. If this madness continues, I see more Furlough Walls in our future.

During construction, we disturbed a slumbering narrow-mouth toad and a winter-brown green anole. Both species should be very happy with their new housing options.