Digger Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 I'm finding your stories fascinating guys and consider this the most successful thread I've ever posted, thanks to you. Thank you all and more contributors are very welcome. I forgot to mention in my original post that when we bought the property we currently are on we came down weekends and planted up to 250 trees each weekend with a view to setting up a horticultural business based on Eucalypt foliage and native plants. We ended up planting intensively and totalling some 8000 plants. Our trading name was "Gumleaf Farm", and we were registered Primary Producers (farmers). For some years as well as our usual jobs we cut and bunched native foliage and flowers selling to a local wholesale business where our product went all over the country to be used by florists in bunches of flowers. I ended up growing a lot of stuff from cuttings and from seeds we'd collected ourselves and as such learned a lot about propagation along the way. Who says "Money Doesn't Grow On Trees?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Grocery store night crew- college during the day / working here at night. Didn't sleep much in those days. I did the same thing and it was so hard not to fall asleep in class! I stopped going to school and have been installing custom cabinets for the past 2 years. I've learned a lot of great skills and gone on some interesting work trips (2 trips to Hawaii). The work itself is fine but I hate driving all over the place here in Orange County. I usually spend at least 2-3 hours in traffic every day and it's starting to drive me a little crazy At this point I'm really trying to figure out how to turn my stompbox building obsession into a business that will allow me to quit my job, but there's a lot of uncertainty there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 In the slim chance that one of my X's reads this... I am an unemployed itinerant song writer. 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingarmadillo Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Were you teaching any courses? My wife's the one with the impressive gig in this household - she's been a structural engineering prof for the last 20+ years. Unlike many professors, she dosn't consult much, but she did work with the owner of the electroslag welding process that was used in the Wilshire Grand Tower under construction in L.A. ... No university courses while I was doing the research, but I did work with the local high school as part of the Toyota Grant and taught some environmental geology there and lead a few field trips to do environmental sampling. However, my first gig after graduating college was as a university Instructor (not a TA, I was faculty). I taught General Geology, Advanced Paleontology, Advanced Stratigraphy, and Oceanography. I've also taught Environmental Geochemistry as an adjunct at a local JC and was an EPA certified Instructor for HAZWOPR courses during my time in the environmental industry.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I worked in the Photography industry. First, 20 years in the Lab business, then 15 years as a contract photographer, for Walt Disney Imagineering. AKA "WDI!" Fun, and interesting job, with totally wacky hours (lots of "all night shoots") and other such Fun stuff! It was great, for me, because I tend to be a night- owl, anyway. Couldn't have dreamed up, a better job! CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digger Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 I worked in the Photography industry. First, 20 years in the Lab business, then 15 years as a contract photographer, for Walt Disney Imagineering. AKA "WDI!" Fun, and interesting job, with totally wacky hours (lots of "all night shoots") and other such Fun stuff! It was great, for me, because I tend to be a night- owl, anyway. Couldn't have dreamed up, a better job! CB "Nyeh! Whats up Doc". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 "Nyeh! Whats up Doc". Uhhh, Sorry Digger, that's Warner Brothers (Loony Tunes)! LOL! CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digger Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 Uhhh, Sorry Digger, that's Warner Brothers (Loony Tunes)! LOL! CB Oh well better luck next time....Grin~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 As a kid (that was a while ago) I worked in potato houses in the winter and potato fields in the summer...after high school I went to work in the forestry field as a wood cutter until I married the sweetest girl I ever met(41 years ago and counting)and raised two children ( both self sufficient contributing young people that have blessed their mother and I with 4 total beautiful granddaughters) made the move to truck driving then became an owner/operator for 13 years, sold out and started driving over the road for another outfit for 5 1/2 years then bought a snowplow outfit and did contract highway plowing for 13 years during the winter and ,with the addition of a couple of pieces of equipment did earthwork in the summer months. after an accident 4 years ago resulting in a debilitating back injury (multiple compression fractures) I quit the winter work and now do my earthwork business from early spring to late fall and just light commercial snowplowing during winter. As a youngster I picked up the desire to play music (specifically guitar)very poorly, from a favorite uncle...but after marriage and children that went by the wayside until a few years ago when I got saved and started attending my local church which had a couple of musicians that sparked my desires again to play music. I have been getting progressively ( I hate that word) better at it since and have now been playing for church, family and small gatherings for a while now and enjoy it a lot. I hope to live long enough to retire from the daily grind and relax with the bride to a little traveling but at this point (and I know it's getting a little late) it looks like I'll need to work a couple of years after I die to square up But for the most part I get to say 'I did it my way' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 In the slim chance that one of my X's reads this... I am an unemployed itinerant song writer. 😎 Dan, did you ever write that book you were considering? I think you titled it....'How to turn $20,000 dollars into $12,000 dollars worth of used guitars in three years' Lol, I chuckle about that every time I look at my modest collection...thankfully I didn't have nearly that much money to 'convert' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbrian66 Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 but after marriage and children that went by the wayside until a few years ago when I got saved and started attending my local church which had a couple of musicians that sparked my desires again to play music. I have been getting progressively ( I hate that word) better at it since and have now been playing for church, family and small gatherings for a while now and enjoy it a lot. That's how I got back into playing. I played in crappy high school bands back in high school but then life happened and I hardly played at all. Then I started going to a church that had a live band playing every Sunday. Well someone in the band saw a pic of me on Facebook with a guitar and an invitation was extended to start playing with them. Been doing it ever since and my playing is better now than it ever has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 ...we've got some pretty high-profile cases, e.g., google Darrien Hunt... This case has really taken some weird turns. Darrien was a young black guy shot and killed by police. Deadly force is justified only if the police or anyone else is in immediate danger of serious bodily injury or death. That wasn't the case here, and the city settled pretty quickly for $900,000, which is a good settlement for this very conservative state. Problem is, the mother, our client, expressly OK'd the settlement, but then backed out of the agreement, fired my boss, and hooked up with some franchise "Johnny Cochran" lawyers out of Georgia. We'd put a lot of time and money into the case, so standard practice is to file a lien on the case. Meanwhile the city filed a motion to enforce the settlement, which was vigorously opposed by the Georgia attorneys. Just yesterday the court issued its ruling. The motion is GRANTED. This was a BIG win, even though we're no longer representing anyone in the case, just an "interested party." The court's order instructed the parties to submit briefs on the lien issue. We were working on contingency, so should get a pretty sizable percentage. Does this mean I get a big bonus? Probably not. :mellow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vangoghsear Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I do mechanical engineering. I do not have a degree in engineering, but I have been in the field for 30+ years and have accumulated some experience. One of my projects won a couple of awards, one of those was the highest engineering award in my state. Usually that award goes to major public works projects, such as bridges or dams or other multi-million dollar projects. I won for a public restroom renovation to stop condensation forming on the toilets! The design also delivered up to 8 tons of air conditioning, and simultaneously up to 96,000 BTUH of water heating used to raise the dew point of the fixtures, with just a 1/6 hp pump and some creative piping added to the existing water supply and still met the requirements of the plumbing and mechanical codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 1456085335[/url]' post='1743564']NHRA? Boy, would my husband LOVE to talk to you! He has been into drag racing for as long as I've known him - if not longer! He races our 72 Nova at Cecil County Dragway in Maryland and at Atco Raceway in NJ (our home track). It's still in my blood. You can never get it out of your system once you did it. I had two cars I learned mostly with at first. A Barracuda, then a Camaro in two different classes, then when I had more experience, I went full out in Pro Gas with a 1971 Dodge Colt. I had Arrow Dynamics build me a all Crome Molly tube chassis with a 12 point cage and went all Fiberglas and aluminum as much as I could. Had a Chrysler Hemi for it but we started with a small block Chevy 350 engine and it ran very first pass off the trailer a half second under our index. So we left that engine in. We were points leader at Scribner. We also ran at Thunder Valley, and at Edeville Iowa and a few other places. I came very close to buying a dragster in Kansas once but I didn't fit the cockpit too well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 1456170606[/url]' post='1743928']I did the same thing and it was so hard not to fall asleep in class! I stopped going to school and have been installing custom cabinets for the past 2 years. When I worked at UPRR, I signed up at UNO college and tried to get back into my art career. Working days, doing all that homework, and trying to teach a bible Study class for a friend while he was gone for awhile. I was lucky to get any sleep lots of nights. I remember two days and nights without any and going back to UP again. Finally I had to drop the UNO, just too much stress. Couldn't believe the amount of homework they gave you. Not for a working person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I do mechanical engineering. I do not have a degree in engineering, but I have been in the field for 30+ years and have accumulated some experience. One of my projects won a couple of awards, one of those was the highest engineering award in my state. Usually that award goes to major public works projects, such as bridges or dams or other multi-million dollar projects. I won for a public restroom renovation to stop condensation forming on the toilets! The design also delivered up to 8 tons of air conditioning, and simultaneously up to 96,000 BTUH of water heating used to raise the dew point of the fixtures, with just a 1/6 hp pump and some creative piping added to the existing water supply and still met the requirements of the plumbing and mechanical codes. Very cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Left a little... right a little... Yeah. I was the knucklehead with the pole. Standing out on the beams of the bridge before the concrete was poured, while the surveyor wan on solid ground "shooting deflections". Whatever that meant. The beams were pretty wide, but when you're up about 30 feet with nothing tied to you, they seem a lot more narrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vangoghsear Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Very cool! Thanks BBP. It was funny, the client was a state agency who okay'd the design over the strong objections of the site maintenance supervisor who did not believe it would work. There was no direct precedent for the design; similar systems work out West, but not on the East coast, where my project was. I figured out how to make it work on the East Coast. It worked better than expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosemarie Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 It's still in my blood. You can never get it out of your system once you did it. I had two cars I learned mostly with at first. A Barracuda, then a Camaro in two different classes, then when I had more experience, I went full out in Pro Gas with a 1971 Dodge Colt. I had Arrow Dynamics build me a all Crome Molly tube chassis with a 12 point cage and went all Fiberglas and aluminum as much as I could. Had a Chrysler Hemi for it but we started with a small block Chevy 350 engine and it ran very first pass off the trailer a half second under our index. So we left that engine in. We were points leader at Scribner. We also ran at Thunder Valley, and at Edeville Iowa and a few other places. I came very close to buying a dragster in Kansas once but I didn't fit the cockpit too well. If you don't mind my asking, what is your name? My husband said he thinks that he has heard of your car and may have seen videos of it. If you would prefer to send a private message, that is fine. Our Nova has a Small Block 350 in it. Used to be my brother-in-law ' s motor with a tunnel ram on it. He only got it to go 13's, deemed it to be a "junk motor" and gave it to my husband who has had it ever since and has had it going 10.90's. We have had this motor in a '79 Malibu station wagon, another '72 Nova and a '63.5 Ford Falcon before this Nova. My husband runs Super Street. If you ever want to, you should check out a racing site called Yellow Bullet. They run a race at Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, MD every Labor Day that he runs in. We are currently saving up to rebuild the converter that decided to go Kaboom last year just as he was running First Round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 RE: Mesa Verde... As I barely recall, we were there on a family vacation somewhere between 1951 and 1955. Yeah, I'm old and sometimes feel older! As for the folks involved in domestic violence work, my younger brother taught DV investigations to police for years... and I had a rule as a journalist who often accompanied police on various calls. If it was bad guys shooting, if needed, I knew how to unlock their shotguns but usually left my own arms at home, or helping at a car wreck or whatever, I'm 110 percent with 'em, and took a lot of vehicle accident photos for years for them, along with occasionally helping at accident scenes where there weren't enough uniformed folks to help. But domestic violence calls? My rule was I stay in the vehicle with a window open to see if I heard shots, and if so, I'd use the radio. One of my martial arts students who was a police officer told the tale of escorting papa down a narrow staircase from an apartment where he'd been beating up mama. He heard the door open, looked up the staircase in time to duck when she dumped a pan of boiling water on him. Nope, not my kinda gig. Being shot at by questionable guys, which did happen a time or two, was a lot safer, IMHO. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 1456356068[/url]' post='1744874']If you don't mind my asking, what is your name? My husband said he thinks that he has heard of your car and may have seen videos of it. If you would prefer to send a private message, that is fine. Our Nova has a Small Block 350 in it. Used to be my brother-in-law ' s motor with a tunnel ram on it. He only got it to go 13's, deemed it to be a "junk motor" and gave it to my husband who has had it ever since and has had it going 10.90's. We have had this motor in a '79 Malibu station wagon, another '72 Nova and a '63.5 Ford Falcon before this Nova. My husband runs Super Street. If you ever want to, you should check out a racing site called Yellow Bullet. They run a race at Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, MD every Labor Day that he runs in. We are currently saving up to rebuild the converter that decided to go Kaboom last year just as he was running First Round. My nick name is Butch. When I raced, it was in the late 60's to early 70's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Dan, did you ever write that book you were considering? I think you titled it....'How to turn $20,000 dollars into $12,000 dollars worth of used guitars in three years' Lol, I chuckle about that every time I look at my modest collection...thankfully I didn't have nearly that much money to 'convert' Ha - I'm still working out the kinks, and am still 0ver $10 k worth of guitars, so the system seems to be applicable long term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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