As we turn the corner into the Christmas season the stores are suddenly in the spirit. Decorations and holiday necessities are everywhere to help us get in the mood. At our house, we won’t decorate for some time yet as we prefer to saunter into the holidays at a leisurely pace. Even so, I enjoy seeing the Holiday items on display. Mostly, what I observe brings back fond memories of Christmas past. Yesterday, as I went through the grocery store checkout I saw some good-sized poinsettias on display. They made me smile. I used to buy a poinsettia every year for my mother-in-law. It started many, many years ago. The first year I found a very nice plant which she appreciated. The next year I found a slightly larger one. Each subsequent year I would search far and wide to get an ever larger one. It wasn’t long until I had to buy two good-sized plants and then re-pot them to make an acceptable display. Joy would always make a protest, and insist I didn’t need to bring such a big flower. But the game was on. I found a local grower and made arrangements to have him save the largest plants so I could always top the previous year’s gift. They became so large I had to haul them in the back of our van. My mother-in-law was always wondering how I could find such amazing poinsettias. Although I have no doubt she suspected my carefully planned schemes it was a fun tradition that was one small way to celebrate this wonderful season.
New hire.
We often are contacted by people who admire our work and believe they would love to be a part of our magic. Often these people have little idea of how we create our projects. The reality is that the bulk of what we do each day is hard physical and often dirty work. It starts with cutting and moving steel. Tianna, a recent hire got her first real taste of that process today as she cut up hundreds of pieces of pencil rod and then packed them to the rack. She did awesome, worked hard and really got into the task. By the end of the day, she was dirtier than the steel. Underneath the heavy work shirt and rain pants, her regular work clothes are already covered in paint. Despite the grime and sore muscles Tianna still sports a genuine smile and is eager to come back for more. She’s fitting in with the rest of the crew just fine!
North Star magic
The shop is now empty and clean in preparation for a large and exciting project to be started this coming week. We’ll begin cutting and welding the first of forty large steel structural frames tomorrow morning. While we begin that work the painting crew is over at the Hazelnut Inn going full blast in the North Star suite. All the ceiling and wall surfaces are now primed with the second, blended coat well underway in many areas. The maze of scaffolds and very high ceilings makes it difficult to get a good picture but by using the wide-angle setting I managed this shot to give readers a glimpse of the magic that is unfolding. We hope to have the large scaffold disassembled in the next day or two which will open things up a great deal. Stay tuned for much more…
