Evidence of the Pacific Northwest culture is never more obvious when a task calls for creative yet matter-of-fact use of resources.  

 

The story begins ... on a slow day in the rebuilding of homes in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi ... sometime between the completion of one set of jobs and the pending evaluation of several others, there came a time to Clean The Sidewalk.  While it may sound simple to most, along the Gulf Coast, such cleaning was no simple task, as Hurricane Katrina was clever enough to bury most of the sidewalks near the beach under a foot of sand or more.  Exposing the neat clean lines of the sidewalk would certainly do much to increase curb appeal and contribute to the return to normalcy of this devastated community.  Yet, with only a few shovels, a single wheelbarrow, and a plethora of gnats and mosquitoes, the task at hand was multiplied from simple to daunting.  

 

A few hours into this particular job, the Resourceful-Ness medal of the day goes to Mr. Rob, who sees absolutely no reason whatsoever that one should leave the tractor down the street unused and unoccupied.   Having no knowledge of how to drive the tractor was insufficient deterrent because the temptation to be More Efficient could not be resisted.  

 

And so it goes ... task completed, in record time.

 

And, we are pleased to report... Tractor and Driver (and curb appeal) are doing just fine.