Building weirs in about 35 sanitary manholes (of course no safety harness, no fresh air etc) and then measuring the flow round the clock for something like 5 days. A crappy job so the youngest on the crew was sent down the hole, certainly not the boss, he was standing up top directing the whole thing. That was about 42 years ago. I've been in far fewer than 35 manholes total, since then!
Probably my last time doing farm work.
Me and my partner (the owner's son and my first wife's brother) cleaned out a stall barn about 6' (yes feet) deep in cow scat. I don't reckon it had been cleaned out in our life times. We had a Bobcat with the scoop bucket and a manure spreader hooked up to the tractor. The smell didn't bother either of us being we were used to that part of it. What I did NOT realize was the smell would get all in my clothes. I have no idea how many loads we spread out in the fields that day but it was a lot - probably around 20 or so. I mostly operated the tractor and spreader being Richard was better at running the Bobcat than I. "Stuff" flies everywhere and it don't care who or what it sticks to. We got the barn all cleaned out just fine and we both had dates that night so I headed home. My car's interior was all clothe so that meant the smell on me transferred just wonderfully.
Being I/we were in the smell all day we didn't notice nor pay it any mind. I get home to shower up and Dad just happened to walk out the door as I was about to come in. He stopped me cold and wouldn't let me in the house without stripping right outside. We lived in town so that wasn't going to happen. I told him to open the garage door and let me in there, bring me a towel and close the doors behind and I'd strip down. He did. Neither would he let me bring in my dirty clothes. I had to hose those down outside.
So I get all gussied up and pick up my girl. She piles in the car and immediately gets back out asking what I'd been up to all day. Needless to say we didn't take my car that night - or for a couple weeks until it got plenty enough aired out. 😀
Like I said, when you're in it all day you don't notice. Dam everyone else sure did!!!
I do miss working on the farm. I didn't have eyes for Richard's sister at time but when we did get together it never phased her a bit. I guess between her Dad, Big Ted, and her 2 brothers I wasn't anything new - well, except for those other activities of course. wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean? Say no more - eh?
Like I said....
. Learned a valuable lesson.... never bend over to pet a small dog who's growling at you... 😉
BTW, I was 10. So, of course, it was all part of growing up. I learned later on that many cockers (especially older ones) are notorious biters :pissed: who defend their home turf w vigor.
Nothing worse than the smell of opening up a sealed can of worms after they've been setting out a few days. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!
Cleaning the primary filter rack on the first settling tank at a waste treatment plant in July in Mississippi. LOTS of unusual solids there along with the expected.
:-X
Cleaning the manure out of our dairy barn with a pitch fork and shovel. Helping pops castrate hogs. They all ran over to a corner and hid their behinds for a while after getting that treatment. I was just a kid and would think "ouch, ouch, ouch..."
Baling hay was a picnic.
> Baling hay was a picnic.
Roger that! The bailing part and stackin up on the rack wagon was a breeze compared to being on the receiving end of the conveyor when it came time to put up in the loft.
Experience putting in hay for many years of my youth was prominent on the list of reasons I went to college. You forgot to mention that it was often 100 degrees outside, worse in the barn, and if there was any breeze it blew the dust from every bale into your face or down your neck. And occasionally the bale would have a snake caught up in it or a spider that had been hiding there.
When unloading hay on to the elevator or conveyor, I used to try load up the elevator leaving no gaps between the bales and burying the guys in the barn. They did the same to me when it was my turn in the barn. I helped out a neighbor once and they didn't find the humor in it like we did...:-P
Security Guard.
Try standing and doing nothing, absolutely nothing for 8 hours in the graveyard shift. I didn't know 8 hours could go by so slowly.
I lasted two weeks. I got a full time drafting job soon after I quit that job (1984).
I can get nostalgic about most of the farm work, including hay, but I never miss the days I rode an old-fashioned combine, running the bagger and the dump platform, out in the open, in barley. Wheat and orchard grass, not so bad, but barley . . . ugh.
Henry
Bussboy in a fancy restaurant.
Got fired after a few weeks.
Which one to chose???
Did it happen to you, like it did me, that every time you went around a corner of the field you though of the same topic you had last time around that corner? Couldn't escape it. Borderline insanity after a while.
I worked on a Sanitary Sewer Engineering and Inspection Team, yes we cleaned manholes. It was a two man team, one on the top and one in the hole. We used a shovel, bucket and rope and a honey-wagon. I hated my job, working on the top in the sun all day long hauling buckets of crap out of that hole. The other guy loved his job, he worked all day long and didn't take any crap from anyone. 😉
I've done the newspaper delivery and it was bad. But I think my worst is when I was 14, I was given the opportunity to hold a two inch hose pressurized with water coming through a small 3/4" ball valve in the belly of a bull hauler's trailer full of cow manure while dressed in a rain suit. Did 4 a day. Can't remember how much I got paid. It was not bad, but boy those things stink. Some would be very wet and easy to clean, some... very dry and very difficult.
Which one to chose???
".. Couldn't escape it. Borderline insanity after a while."
Good God! To this day, it's moving for me. If anyone needs to move; friends, neighbors, relatives..i've never heard of you.
Moved sis to college in Lubbock one weekend. Spent 12 hours working in the Texas sun only to find out when i got to her house around 6pm, NOTHING WAS LOADED INTO THE UHAUL!
Little brother cut out on me, and dad had car troubles somewhere, so that left me and sis. We finally got going around 1am and the sun finally came up on I-20 somewhere West of Fort Worth when those sleep-deprived numbing psuedo-existential thoughts of:
Am i really here..I know i think i'm here...i can see things which tells me i'm here.. became the mental exercise. Remember passing a giant castle somewhere off to the side of I-20 somewhere. Miraculously made it to Lubbock, only to find out sis had rented a third story apartment. Oh and sis got to sleep the whole ride up there.
Which one to chose???
Oh, that so sounds like many a topo I've done. Head north for a thousand feet stopping every 25 feet for a shot. Move over 25 feet and head south for a thousand feet stopping every 25 feet for a shot. All day long. Goodness. Sometimes I'd consider moving east/west for a while just to relieve the tedium, but that meant I could lose track of what I'd done.
That evening I'd download and watch the crosses marching up and down, down and up, and know that was me one shot at a time.
Walk, walk, walk. Good exercise, though. No need for a gym membership.
Engineering Technician.
Cutting pines for fence posts
My father worked a deal with a fellow. For every three 6 foot long pine logs he delivered he'd get back 1 creosote fence post. For 3 weeks I cut down, measured, cut to length and loaded pines. Every night I'd have to bathe in motor oil to remove the pine tar before showering. Wore the same clothes every day because whatever you wore was ruined after an hour anyway. Oh, and just for fun this was August in south Georgia when 80 was the low at night. And THEN I got to unload the creosote posts. Living on a farm can be tough, but looking back it was a dang good life.
Andy
I worked one late summer/early fall back in the mid '90's sand blasting and painting/coating the inside/outside of large fuel tanks for PHI (Petroleum Helicopters) here in Lafayette. I was taking a forced break from college. Pay really sucked, I was making about $1 above minimal wage. The experience made me appreciate college. Working inside those tanks in the late August LA summer was HOT, even with the fresh air breathers. And the paint job had to be flawless. My supervisor was a slave driver. I lost about 30lbs of beer fat those four months. That was probably one of the good things about the job was that I was leaner.