Impressed
 

On 10/27/15 3:10 PM, John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 12:05:39 -0700 (PDT), True North wrote:

One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

I suppose that was good training for a janitor's job, eh?
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


Why don't you give it a rest or, if you can't, take a really long RV
trip on which you can't log in here?

Impressed
 

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

===

Apparently technology has changed hay bailing a lot. When we drive
through farm country these days I see large round bundles that are
moved around with fork lifts. I'm not sure if they are still tied up
with bailing twine or not. Apparently they don't get stored in barns
either. Most often we see them in the fields with tarps over them.

Impressed
 

On 10/27/15 4:48 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 12:05:39 -0700 (PDT), True North
wrote:

One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

For just good old hard work, moving a computer system in the olden
days was right up there. You had a room full of "boxes" (computer
frames), the size of a commercial sub zero refrigerator, weighing up
to half a ton or so, connected with a buttload of cables about an inch
in diameter and up to 100 feet long. All of this had to be
disconnected and moved around all the while you were throwing 30 pound
floor tiles. Most of the time, the protective rings around the floor
tile cuts were gone and the saw cuts were razor sharp. Just another
little hazard to deal with.
... and they wanted it all to happen on a shift, maybe two.


It was a white collar job tho, since we were still wearing suits.

The biggest system frames were called "Elemax" (size), the largest
thing you can get in a standard office building elevator with the trim
off of the interior of the elevator and the covers off the machine.
It still got ugly some time when the weight would screw up where the
car stopped and it wouldn't roll off.
A "Johnson Bar" was a handy tool to have.



My dad had double decker steel dollies/display racks on wheels he built
for boats up to 20' long that enabled him to better use his floor space.
The boats on the top rack could be tilted so their insides could be
seen. Every two weeks, he liked to move everything around, and this
usually was done on a weekday when there were fewer customers around. So
the crew of three or four guys and one kid (if I happened to be around
after school) would move these mini barges up and down on the racks and
around the floors of the three showrooms. I always thought it amazing
that none of us got killed during these adventures. He had a crane
mounted on a Model A Ford truck outside to lift the boats off the
manufacturer's delivery trucks but towards the end of his life, the
boats were getting too large and bulky for his truck. Oh, and the new
outboards in their crate boxes, up to about 100 hp in those days, were
stacked two and three high along the side of the main showroom, and had
to be grunted up or down. My real job when I showed up, though, was to
clean out and wax and polish the beautiful wood decks and seats on many
of these boats. Wax on, wax off. :) That, and drive the jeep up to
Nick's Italian Grocery and Bookie Emporium to buy lunch on Saturday for
the crew. I might have been 14 when I started driving just slightly
illegally on the streets, but hell, I'd already been driving on the boat
yard property for three years. Heady days.

Impressed
 

On 10/27/15 3:05 PM, True North wrote:
One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.



Did they bounce at all if you dropped them? :)

Impressed
 

On Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 3:05:40 PM UTC-4, True North wrote:
One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

Don, my last comment to you was totally uncalled for. I apologize.

Impressed
 

On 10/27/2015 5:18 PM, John H. wrote:

On Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 3:05:40 PM UTC-4, True North wrote:
One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

Don, my last comment to you was totally uncalled for. I apologize.


:-)

Impressed
 

John H.
On Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 3:05:40 PM UTC-4, True North wrote:
One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

"Don, my last comment to you was totally uncalled for. I apologize."

OK...I'm just surprised that you'd want to channel the two worst agitators who used to post here.
Anyway, I did push a broom on occasion during my high school days when I worked part time at a local supermarket. We all had to at 9pm on Friday nights and 6 pm on Saturday nights when the store used to close. We didn't get paid overtime for it so we pretty well ran with the brooms around tardy shoppers.

Impressed
 

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

My mother's family were watermen on the lower Chesapeake (a little
south of Harry). I saw them tonging oysters and running crab pots but
I never had the urge to do that for a living or even an odd job.

Impressed
 

On 10/27/15 7:01 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

My mother's family were watermen on the lower Chesapeake (a little
south of Harry). I saw them tonging oysters and running crab pots but
I never had the urge to do that for a living or even an odd job.


I haven't seen anyone tonging oysters for a couple of years, though I
know it is still being done. The crabbers, of course, are everywhere.
Both are tough ways to make a living.

We buy softshells at least once a week from a reliable guy with a
refrigerator truck and a roadside electrical outlet in the parking lot
of a liquor store. Nice softshells run $3 to $4 each. Don't like banging
crabs with mallets for the little bit of meat they contain.

Impressed
 

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:57:11 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

===

Apparently technology has changed hay bailing a lot. When we drive
through farm country these days I see large round bundles that are
moved around with fork lifts. I'm not sure if they are still tied up
with bailing twine or not. Apparently they don't get stored in barns
either. Most often we see them in the fields with tarps over them.

They have a little square machine that bales these up. I may have a
picture somewhere but they were all over the Dakotas. They are tied
with twine (maybe poly). The farmers have a feeder station that will
take a whole roll at a time. I have seen then in pole barns or, like
you say, more often just out in the field under a tarp.
We did watch one "big old boy" roll one of these up to a feeder and
muscle it in himself when we were in Montana. He was a cowboy on a 4
wheeler.