How'd it go today?

Cory, since Im slow right now, I gave me groundie the green light to pick up more hours at the bar he bartends at. He is happy for the break. I knocked 30 some pounds off of him this year and he is feeling a little burned out lately.
 
Cool, long as you can get him back again.

You didn't answer whether it was fun being a hired gun...
 
Yes its a blast. I don't have to give a shit about anything. Put my hooks on and get busy. Customer a jerk? Not my problem. Mechanical failure? Not my problem. Running a business full time, then taking a break and simply doing nothing but the work end of things for a bit is like a taste of heaven. Naturally, the pay is a fraction of what I net. But sometimes, a little sanity goes farther then money. For a little while anyways.
 
I wondered is that 'bonspiel' is a sort of wife's weekend or something, until I googled that its a curling tournament.

Glad to hear the works rolling in.
 
Been a fun week thus far... Bombing and simple rigging jobs..
HO clean ups.. I am getting spoiled....
Used this tree to rig another off a shop and now it goes next. Prepped it for our next visit When we will zip line the back and upper parts from over the roof.. I think we are taking down almost 15 trees on this place. Day turned cold towards the end and my glasses kept fogging.. Called it a day.
 

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Went to an exhibition of hand made goods done in prisons throughout the country, items for sale. A real diversity. from small items like sewn goods and leather work, up to furniture. Some nicely made shoes and other clothing as well. All the design is pretty basic, but the quality is quite good, all the way down to the small details. There was an instructor there from the prison a few towns over, teaching skills in the electrical trade. I had a real good conversation with him about the programs that they have running, and what it is like teaching in the prisons. The instructors are generally retired people from the trades that go into it, get a salary. The work seemed to have a lot of heart in it, commitment to want to make attractive things. Generally better work than you see at the trade schools around. The prisons are severe places, but they also have these good programs running. You can't really force someone to make nice stuff, they have to want to do it. Seems like a real good thing to help change a life for the better. The instructor also seemed to have a good and compassionate understanding of why a lot of individuals get sent to those places to begin with, often an inability to make wiser choices.
 
I would Leon, considered it before, but in my location the prison doesn't have a woodworking program other than carving, so without moving it didn't seem possible. The electrical instructor works at the fairly close by location, he suggested that there could be a possibility that if a teacher is wanting to do it, a program could be developed. Not something that I think I could do in the immediate future, but maybe when teaching seems like it might be more attractive than doing my own stuff. I think it might be a cool gig. I saw some photos of the shops and work going on, it looked kind of interesting. In the classes, people were sitting up straight! I directly asked what it was like for him teaching the inmates, the attitudes and atmosphere. He went on to say that things generally went quite smoothly. Pretty select apparently on who gets into those programs. I gave him my card, he offered to stay in touch and show me inside where they have the shops. Very pleasant guy. Something to keep in mind, I think.
 
There is a prison treeworker training initiative in my area. While it seems like a good fit for a lot of reasons, it also seems like a problem for the employer and HOs. I wonder if there are tax incentives to hire from a prison training program. Prison makes better criminals, somewhat trapped in the cycle of crime. Sucks.
 
I've been doing service work as a member of NA ever since I first got clean. That service has led me to visit aHere in this part of TN we've gotten several meeting started in the prisons, then after a year or so, we move on to another prison, and let the inmates keep it going. We've also started a sponsorship by mail program for inmates that want to work the steps. Being inside is a lot different than being out here when it comes to sharing stuff that working the steps can bring out of a person. They can't very well have another inmate to be a sponsor.
 
MasterBlaster said:
IME, reformed ex-cons make the best workers.
Click to expand...


Yes, REFORMED, I'll bet. Sifting through ex-cons for a good employee would be tough. I'm not talking about someone popped for agriculture, of course. I'm talking theft, burglary, etc.

I guy that I worked with who was on parole for shooting gun into the air made lots of such intelligent decisions on the worksite. I only thought I was going to have to maybe intervene in one fist-fight during the three months on the jobsite.
 
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