How Small is Your Shop?

[Eli]

Well, we've gone from small shops to outhouses, which may be some sort of commentary on where everyone spends the real quality time, but I wanted to add one more thing, because it's relevant to where we ended up....

We just bought a new house outside Melbourne, and in the six months since we've been renting here at this first house, the subject of water economy has been foremost in my mind. Drought is serious business here at the moment. As a renter, I've been catching several hundred litres of water a week in barrels from the wash loads (two small kids) to put on the garden.

I've already decided to redo the downstairs bathroom in the new house, and I'm pretty sure I want to disconnect the conventionally plumbed toilet and put in a Clivus Multrum. A plumbed toilet uses 30 percent of the household water supply, which is an awful lot. The rest of the house water grey waste I'm hoping to run through reed bed purification and then into fish tanks before using it for gardening. In a few years I'm planning to add a small pond to catch this water, and then maybe I can use it yet again instead of losing it into the ground or down the drain.

What I'm trying to get at is that a lot of things that we think are old are new again, being rediscovered as breakthrough technology when really it was done right in the first place. It's why no matter how many Festools I get there will always be a toolbox full of sharp edge hand tools.

 

[gkeas]

Well, we've gone from small shops to outhouses, which may be some sort of commentary on where everyone spends the real quality time, but I wanted to add one more thing, because it's relevant to where we ended up....

Leave it to me to send a perfectly good discussion to the crapper...... ;D

 

[Tinker]

Well, we've gone from small shops to outhouses, which may be some sort of commentary on where everyone spends the real quality time, but I wanted to add one more thing, because it's relevant to where we ended up....

We just bought a new house outside Melbourne, and in the six months since we've been renting here at this first house, the subject of water economy has been foremost in my mind. Drought is serious business here at the moment. As a renter, I've been catching several hundred litres of water a week in barrels from the wash loads (two small kids) to put on the garden.

I've already decided to redo the downstairs bathroom in the new house, and I'm pretty sure I want to disconnect the conventionally plumbed toilet and put in a Clivus Multrum. A plumbed toilet uses 30 percent of the household water supply, which is an awful lot. The rest of the house water grey waste I'm hoping to run through reed bed purification and then into fish tanks before using it for gardening. In a few years I'm planning to add a small pond to catch this water, and then maybe I can use it yet again instead of losing it into the ground or down the drain.

Eli, about the outhouse discussions, I guess when you get down to the nitty gritty of it all, you realize we are all full of it.

I am interrested in your water saving projects.  You might be interrested to know the name of my business is Organic Yard Services.  In my landscaping work, I do not throw
anything away If we weed a garden, we put weeds into mulch pile or use to fill in troublesome holes in yard.  Leaves get broken down and reused on customers property as mulch, or they get taken home by me and next season sold back as mulch.  woodchips get used on property or taken where they can be used.

i will not use any chemical fertilizers.  Etc etc etc

I like your ideas for water uses/savings.

Tinker

What I'm trying to get at is that a lot of things that we think are old are new again, being rediscovered as breakthrough technology when really it was done right in the first place. It's why no matter how many Festools I get there will always be a toolbox full of sharp edge hand tools.

 

[Eli]

Eli, about the outhouse discussions, I guess when you get down to the nitty gritty of it all, you realize we are all full of it.

I am interrested in your water saving projects.  You might be interrested to know the name of my business is Organic Yard Services.   In my landscaping work, I do not throw
anything away If we weed a garden, we put weeds into mulch pile or use to fill in troublesome holes in yard.  Leaves get broken down and reused on customers property as mulch, or they get taken home by me and next season sold back as mulch.  woodchips get used on property or taken where they can be used.

i will not use any chemical fertilizers.  Etc etc etc

I like your ideas for water uses/savings.

Tinker

That reminds me of a story of course.

About 4-5 years ago, I was working on an episode of CSI Miami (yes, it's filmed in LA, just like everything else)

It was a scene where somebody discovers a body in a nursery, so we were at a nursery. I was standing around with a bunch of grips, waiting for a stunt guy to get hit by a car, and this short mexican guy all dressed in old green dickies comes up and he's grinning ear to ear.

So I say, "You sure look happy"
And he holds up a chipped mug and says, "Free coffee" and smiles like crazy. He'd filled up his mug at the craft service table, we've got coffee and food around all day.

So I start talking to him, and I ask him how long have you worked here, and he says about eight years. And I talk to him some more, and get the whole story out of him. And he walks off. And one of my grip brothers walks up and says, "Man, that guy is lazy huh? I haven't seen him work a lick the whole time we've been here"

And so I tell him the lazy guy's story. Eight years ago, he used to push a mower. He was a landscaper. Seven years ago, he had ten crews. Six years ago, he bought his first nursery. Two years later, he had five nurseries. And I'm walking with this other grip through this really big nursery, and we get to this huge machine that the 'lazy' guy showed me. "A year ago, he bought this thing", and I point to this huge yellow machine. It's like the hugest garden shredder you've ever seen, and on one side of it is a 30 foot high pile of old redwood studs, broken wardrobes, ripped out kitchen cabinets, all this demolition garbage. And on the other is a pile of shredded wood.

"Yeah, so what's this?" the guy says.

"He charges people to drop off construction waste"
"Yeah"
"He shreds it"
"Yeah"
"He puts it in a big pile for a few months"
"Yeah"
"And then he sells it as compost"
"No way"
"Way. The guy told me he's losing $10,000 today by being shut down so we can film here, but he wanted to see what a film set was like"

FREE COFFEE!!!! That mexican guy is my hero of all time.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Great story, Eli.  Proves you cannot accurately judge a Mexican guy by his chipped mug!  He might even have been "lazy" - but clearly a much smarter entrepreneur than most.

Dave R.

 

[Dan Clark]

Anyone who can afford to loose $10,000 a day has WAY more money than I have.  I wish I was as "lazy" as that fellow!

Dan.

 

[Tinker]

Great story, Eli.  Proves you cannot accurately judge a Mexican guy by his chipped mug!  He might even have been "lazy" - but clearly a much smarter entrepreneur than most.

Dave R.

I have been self employed for well over 50yrs.  during that time, i have hired many young people, teens to early 20's.  (don't believe all of what you may have heard about how lazy teen agers are today, 't ain't nec'sarilly so).  Some of those youngsters were very hard working and ambitous.  However, i found that often, the laziest were actually the most productive.  They listened to what i tried to teach, they did it the way i taught, did it right the first time and almost never had to perform a task a second time.  (One of my methods for teaching teens was to tell them, show them, start them and then leave the job.  A short time later, i would come back to check progress.  So many times, i would find the results to have been somewhat lacking in, especially, perfection.  I would tear it apart (this was in my masonry days), or in some way, make them start all over.  The ones who did not care would soon self destruct and soon would be gone.  te lads who really wanted to do better, especially my own son, would just pick up the pieces and get back at it.  The lazy ones either never got to the point where i could trust them alone, or they learned to do it right the very first time. 

Often, i found that laziness was not necessarily an attitude, but more often interpreted as "thinking time."

Tinker

PS:  I have been having problems with my printing on this site.  Often, i cannot fet anything to print unless I go to "quote" Sometimes, everything works fine.  Other times, my printing gets included in the quote.  Sometimes, i can only print if I go to "preview"  sometimes, i can get nothing.  This time, I have done the complete report in "preview" having been able to go there only by going to "quote" first.  It looks as if the only part of the "quote" that shows in "preview" is the word "Dave R. quote."  This sequence, never the same each time, has been happening more and more. 

 

[Eli]

They say the perfect grip crew has:

A tall guy, over 6'- He can fix a stage light without a ladder or grab something coming off the tailgate of the 40 footer while he's flatfooted on the ground. His wingspan will tell you whether scaffold or a camera crane can be rolled through an opening.

A really short guy- He can fit through small openings and inside a room where all other available space is taken up by lights, actors, the camera, the dolly and dolly grip, etc. He can crawl under cars and the raised floors of second story sets built on the stage floor. He's light so he won't come through the roof of a set while walking across suspended beams.

A strong guy- obvious. This guy is never out of work.

A fat guy- Long before there's any work to be done, he can identify the future job, how everyone can do it the easiest way possible without him getting in the way, and how long it will be before he's back at the food table chatting up a makeup girl.

 

[brandon.nickel]

Tinker,

I've noticed your difficulty with the quoting.  I encountered the same confusion when I first tried to quote someone who's text included another quote.  The "Quote" button includes both quotes as well as your text.  You just need to make sure that the number of "/q"'s equals the number of quotes and then type below the last /q.  I personally like to delete all but one quote, so I only have one /q to avoid.

-Brandon

 

[Tinker]

Tinker,

I've noticed your difficulty with the quoting.  I encountered the same confusion when I first tried to quote someone who's text included another quote.  The "Quote" button includes both quotes as well as your text.  You just need to make sure that the number of "/q"'s equals the number of quotes and then type below the last /q.  I personally like to delete all but one quote, so I only have one /q to avoid.

-Brandon

Brandon, many times, i cannot do anything.  i just tried answering you post without quoting.

NO LUCK

sometimes, i can not get anything by quoting.  Sometimes, I can go ahead and print, even tho printing won't show as i type.  I then go to "preview", where all of my printing shows and i can continue.  Other times, it still won't show.

It does not always happen the same way, but once i have a problem with a thread, that thread remains screwed up as if it is now off limits.  This thread has a new set of problems i have not run into before, but i seem to be able to work arond the problems.  each time i work arond them, it is a different way.

i am wondering if this is related to my problems with trying to send pics.  The couple of times i have tried, I not only failed with the pics, but lost the message also.

Tinker

 

[Corwin]

One little idiosyncrasy I have found with inserting a quote is that I have to click the "Insert Quote" a second time before it does anything.  before it does anything.  ;D

 

[dsweetser]

Some shots of my shop this morning, while working on a toy chest for a new grandchild.[attachthumb=#]/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 5.jpg/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 6.jpg/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 7.jpg/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 8.jpg/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 9.jpg/Users/donaldsweetser/Desktop/Shop 10.jpg

Don Sweetser
Adirondack, NY

 

[UCLA Fan]

My shop is so small....

even my wife thinks I should build a new one!

;D