Long weekend - Time to work?

On long weekends, I often find myself drinking massive amounts of beer and barbecuing anything that I can throw on the Man-B-Q. But other long weekends have a more important purpose.
These are the weekends when your friends get you to do shit for free. They know you aren't going anywhere, so why not assist with Roto-Tilling three acres? Laying 2000 square feet of shag carpet? Delousing the rec room?

These things also come up when you least expect it. Usually you get all geared up to throw back 3 or 27 beers over the course of the weekend, but instead you're assembling a garden shed at the last minute because your buddy's wife asked him to get it put together.

There's no way to plan these tasks either. The instant you start talking about needing help with shit like this it's like the plague hit town. Guys are busy already, going out of town, doing their own chores, or have a chronic case of the gout. You gotta get sneaky and sucker them into it. Use beer and meat as a lure.

But sometimes, and this is really rare, you actually don't mind helping with the work. Usually these tasks outweigh "other" things your wife may want you to do. The lesser of two evils kind of thing. You know, help a guy put up a fence or go shopping for flowers. Pouring a cement walkway in 100 degree heat or choosing your wedding colours. That kind of shit. Make sure that you tell your wife that you HAVE to help. If you mention the importance of the task and how much the other wife wants it done, and if you help him, he'll help with a future project that she wants done. Sometimes she'll let you escape to the land of manliness.

Keep your eyes open gentlemen. Take a look at the whole situation before you commit to assisting in laborious tasks on long weekends. You might end up looking at window treatments all weekend instead of pulling a 350 out of your buddy's pickup.