thoughtsofagyrovague.com

April 3rd, 2008

The High Calling Blogs is doing a good job reminding everyone that work, no matter what the work is, has value. We have a meme going on. Here are the rules:
1. Write about the Strangest Job I Ever Had and tell what I learned from it.

2. Link to other “Lessons from Odd Jobs” posts.

3. Tag my post “Lessons from Odd Jobs”.

4. Tag other bloggers, in or out of the HC network.

5. Link back to the Lessons from Odd Jobs page and and email this month’s host at “Marcus AT highcallingblogs DOT com”.

Here it Goes

I once was a Fart sniffer. Yup, you read it right, a fart sniffer. I was 14, I was making money bucking hay and building my football playing muscles during the summer. It was good money, unless you got hurt. I fell off a collapsing pile of hay and broke my arm. Yup, out for the rest of the summer AND football.

One place I bucked hay was at a 300 acre farm that was owned by the University of Colorado Agricultural Program. While I was down I still wanted to make the money, and thus I became a fart smeller. If you want to make it sound official you could say I was a flatulence technician. Apparently you can tell the quality of the diet of a cow, the health of the cow, and the hormonal disposition of the cow, just by sniffing.

While I gather my dignity, and while you stop laughing, I will tell you that it paid almost as much as bucking hay did, and I got to go home without the sore muscles.

I can not think of much that I learned from it except how to hide from my friends at the end of the day when they came wanting to harass the crap (or the crap smell) out of me. I did learn though that a lot of work goes into something as seemingly simple as getting food to a cow on a daily basis. I learned that without a team you are pretty much stuck up crap creek without a paddle.

I wish to point you to L.L. Barkat and Marcus Goodyear two of the more prolific High Calling Bloggers and see what they have to say.

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