We have three new hires for the summer season. Odin and Sayer are still in high school. Denzie has just graduated and will be full time after the summer. All three show great promise but have much to learn. We are keeping the newbies very busy on a wide variety of tasks all through the shop. Cleaning, shovelling, sweeping, tying wire, painting, mixing concrete and a whole lot more fill their work days. Everything is done under the watchful eye of our seasoned workers who offer frequent and helpful tips to make their tasks easier. We call these young fellows our future superstars!
Cleaning out the boneyard
Out back of our shop there is what we affectionately call the 'boneyard'. There are no bones there but there is a whole lot of other stuff. With each project we create all sorts of temporary brackets and stands. Once used they are taken out back and stored for possible reuse. Sometimes projects are started and then abandoned. These too are carted to the boneyard. Small cuts of steel pipe and tubing abound out back. There were a couple of stacks of assorted pallets and piles of wood scraps as well. This is also where we keep our skeletons, the scrap steel plate with holes plasma cut into it in every shape imaginable. Over time all this scrap material really tends to add up. Each summer, in our traditionally slowest time of the year, we take the opportunity to sort through that big tangle of material and decide which is worth keeping and what needs to be taken to the recycler. Today was the day to clean out the bone yard.
Wonderful memories... and confetti
Yesterday, as we listened to Becke and Grant exchange their wedding vows Janis handed me a slim cardboard tube. It was full of confetti. As I looked around I saw many others had similar cardboard tubes. Janis leaned towards me and assured me that Becke had made sure the paper was biodegradable. That made it perfectly OK. The wedding celebration was punctuated with an amazing burst of colour as the newly married couple sealed their commitment with a kiss! As I mowed the lawn today I smiled and remembered an old song by Red Sovine called 'It'll come back' which I've heard many times through the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo8sLZuPBhU
