Hills Skills

I'm constantly amazed at the skills people have here on the mountain. I needed some specialty welding done today that I don't have the equipment to do. So, I stopped by the local machine shop in Whitehead but the fellow there didn't either. But he whips out his cell phone and in half an hour I'm in this guy's basement who welded nuclear reactors in a former life. He had everything needed and the skills to use them. Beautiful work. Reasonable rates.

When I walked in with my job he said, "Hmmm, this is the second one of these I've seen this month. Winemaking must be getting popular."

"Yup," I replied. "Seems so."

I was concerned at first that he wasn't a "real" welder. He wore clean clothes and every hair was in place. Didn't even have a bandanna on his head. You could have eaten lunch off his welding table. Everything was in it's place and he knew where everything was to be found. And, when he finish my job he and his shop were just as clean as when I arrived. I just didn't know there was such a thing as a neat and tidy welder. He even had a business card!

This fellow must have had three dozen sets of deer antlers on the walls. He's quite an avid deer hunter and has already "tagged out" this season. That's why, of course, he was at home in the middle of deer season!

He heats his house with wood burned in a wood stove he built himself. Quite a piece of work.