Todays Herculean Achievement...

Wow two posts in one day! I'm on a roll. 

Anyway, we got up early this morning and piddled about a little. We took apart the lifting apparatus that I built and loaded into my truck. our original plan was to have some guys from the church come over and we were going to work on milling the logs, But while we were still taking apart our lifting apparatus our grading guy showed up, and we were ready to set the lifting poles.

We drilled the holes with an auger. It was pretty cool to watch, and it was much better than trying to dig a 4 1/2 ft hole with a post hole digger. 

Philip showed up a little later this morning and helped us set the other three posts. He also helped us set up the lifting apparatus, which we probably could not have done without the extra help.

 In his defense we were taking a quick break and resting for a while (shortly after he picked up the slack) 

But I still think this picture is hilarious. 

 

We were able to get the pole lifted most of the way with the track-hoe, we then pushed it the rest of the way with the tractor. Alan (our grading guy) was the only one operating the equipment so he had to jump from the tractor back to the track-hoe and back to the tractor. Alan had never done anything like this before, so needless to say the lifting of the poles was a little...precarious to say the least. I got the job of riding up to unstrap the log in the bucket of the tractor...again that was...precarious : / 

Here is the finished product.

As you can see we ran a line from the top of each log to the bottom of the log next to it, so that when we are lifting the logs into place the lifting poles will be counterweighted...or counter secured or something like that.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been going around hunting for a new job. I have applied at a few different printing companies so far. Thursday I took my resume into to a mail management company (they use machines similar to the ones I work on at Blue Ridge). They called me back Friday and scheduled an interview for Monday. I have never had to look for a job before, I started working at Blue Ridge when I was about 12 or 13 and have been working there ever since. So I was a little nervous about "cold calling" companies and asking about a job, but I have been learning to step outside my comfort zone especially since I turned 18.

I really like working at Blue Ridge, I love the people there and I love the work, but lately with the way the economy is going the work has just not been consistent. Right now I'm just working for them as a contractor, and there will be some weeks when we work two 12 hour shifts a days. And then other times they won't need me for two or three weeks at a time...so I'm looking for a job that will bring in a little more consistent income. I'll give you an update on Monday and let you know how the interview goes.