Friday, 23 November 2007

• A Week in the Life of a Business Man

  I started my first official project this week.   People are asking me how it is going;  so for their sake, and the annals of history, allow me to tell you the whole story.

  Week 1:

  Objective:   Frame a 30'x32'x12' Pole Building and have it ready for steel by Wednesday afternoon

  

  Lets Just say things didn't go quite like I planned

  Sat Noon

  Call my helper to confirm he's working Monday,  Tuesday and Wednesday   Something else came up and he can't work Monday

  Call the rental yard to make sure they have a post hole driller they do, but I can't have it till 8:30

  Call another yard,  they have one and I can pick it up at 7:30 (the time I had wanted to be at the site)

  Sun Eve

  It starts to snow like crazy

  Mon Morning

  Get up and we have an inch of snow with more falling   Deliveries are scheduled and things are coming,  I have to go for it.

  Wait around for the rental yard to open,  Load the post hole driller on my truck,  Its a piece of junk

  Get to the jobsite,  they have 2 inches of snow.   The lumber was delivered 3 hrs. earlier then I told them.   They dumped it in the wrong spot. I'm missing some of the the items.

  Wait around for the skidsteer.

  Trusses are delivered.   The price is higher than what the estimate said,   checked my paperwork and realized I used the wrong number on the estimate

  Skidsteer finally shows up.

  Push snow off site and begin turn site into a muddy soup

  Have a half hour lunch meeting at 11:30    Leave for it at 11:15 and don't return till almost 1

  Site is a muddy soup

  Post hole driller is a piece of junk,  takes several wacks with a sledge to convince it to fit on the skidsteer.

  Post holes drill easy except for several convincing rocks.  

  By the time I'm done drilling it's time to get the post hole driller back to the rental yard, so I call it an early day.

  Tuesday

  Pick up my helper bright and early and we head out to the site

  Miss my gas station I wanted to stop at for coffee,  no more stops between here and there.

  Get to the site and its raining.

  Carry all the poles 150' to the site and get ready to set poles.

  Discover that we are 3 pole short.

  Realize that I must have used the wrong piece of paper for the limber list cuz I'm short on other things too.

  By now its raining heavier, so we go to the lumber yard.

  Spend an hour at the lumber yard talking with the salesman and getting things ordered, helper is out in the truck sleeping

  Go back to the site and decide to man up or leave

  Set poles in the mud

  My phone keeps ringing, everyone else is in the office and wants to talk

  Get the side purlins on,  everything is covered in mud

   

  Wednesday

  I meet with a group of guys for a Bible study at 5:00am at Shady Maple.    It's usually over by 6:45 and then I needed to stop at the lumber yard then drive up to the site,   I should be there by 8:30.    The evening before I give my helper instuctions on what to do till I get there and drew him a map how to get there.  

  Get to the bibble study and my phone beeps low battery

  Helper calls at 6:45 to ask if it's okay to stop for coffee.  I say sure

  Try to make a call at 7 and my phone dies

  Get my lumber and remember that I need my ladder back at my shop in Reading

  Drive up to Reading, get my ladder and head for Myerstown

  Get to the site at 8:45 nobody is around.

  Try my phone, still dead

  run to town, buy a charger, call helper

  He's lost,   the map was wrong

  give him directions,

  head back to the site,  he calls,  can't find the road yada-yada-yada

  find him lead him over

  finally get started around 9:30

  keep it moving and get the trusses set. and get the stone truck stuck in the back yard

  pull the truck out with my pick-up, make ruts and tracks the whole way out.

  Use up all my lumber and get the thing to the place where we're ready to start putting steel on next time we come.

  

  So, to make a long story short, it has been a very real-life initiation session.     Sure it has it's challenges,  but that's what job doesn't ?  

  And, regardless of my story-telling, we accomplished our goal,  getting the frame up and ready for steel.

   

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