Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, mtman and Ben and Andrew...... I replied to all on FB only to find it losing my replies..some of them were brilliant too.... so did them all again.

I am now ancient..... the big 60... crimoney.... that is old......

[glenn kangiser]

OK... this job shows little sign of letting me get back to the cabin much for a while .... so worthwhile info is in order to keep things moving here....

Working travel tips.....

Out of town.......extended stay due to not going home on the weekend..... running out of underwears and socks???   Whacha gonna do?  

Take your loincloth etc, and throw it on the bottom of the tub before you shower....  walk around on it a lot while showering and use plenty of soap.... squish them all around with your toes then rinse without soap as normal..... wring as much water out as you can and position them in front of the air conditioner or heater for the night.  By morning they will be almost dry with only a few wet spots.... [ouch]

Uncomfortable but better smelling than the alternative....

[Redoverfarm]

By turning them "inside out" should gain you a couple extra days.

[glenn kangiser]

Then there is also backwards..... very binding when working though....

I have a problem with one pair though.

Older ones. 

Yanked them up.... bottom half hooked on my knees... band was around my waist.  Tore them about half way around and was sagging all day......

[ben2go]

By turning them "inside out" should gain you a couple extra days.

Oh darn!Ya beat me to it.

[ben2go]

***  *** Things are only going down from here.   

Then there is also backwards..... very binding when working though....

I have a problem with one pair though.

Older ones. 

Yanked them up.... bottom half hooked on my knees... band was around my waist.  Tore them about half way around and was sagging all day......

[ScottA]

Back in my younger days I stayed in hotels a lot when traveling to jobs. I tried the wash in the sink and hang on the shower rod trick but I found it was easier to find a hotel maid to do my washing for a small fee. I'd put my stuff in a washable bag that she could toss in the washer without ever taking them out of the bag. Worst comes to worst there's always wal-mart.

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks guys... I guess I finally get to go home for a fresh change of non-recycled undies tomorrow night. The underwears are hanging in there....




literally... from just the elastic....   

Everyone is going to mutiny on the job tomorrow and a foreman told the sheetrock crew to put up rock even though he knows we have steel to put in and inspections.  I told him to get it down or I walk off the job and my client is not paying for it.  His boss already told me the Safeway was the priority through my client anyway.

On a lighter note, we have been hearing that our international friends have been arriving home safely and one of our great friends, Seeng from Botswana wrote from there to ask if I had to put on my nice Hot Pink Bikini safety gear again.  I asked if I was famous in Botswana yet? ..... 

She got a bit of leave time to rest up and be with her family.


With day and night turned upside down for them it will take a bit to adjust, I'm sure.

[glenn kangiser]

Well.... I am still here .... just stomped another pair of undies into the bottom of the tub and am drying them under the air conditioner fan as we speak....

They say I know too much and can't leave until tomorrow afternoon, as well as that they need me here Tuesday too.  I have to represent my client and the steel erection company Saturday to get a few things done and have a presence on Saturday.  I let my assistants go back to the shop as I had promised and the steel guys went in - they deserved a break.  Since I am responsible for getting this job straightened out for my client, I am the one who had to stay.  Actually I am more of a contractor to get the job moving- not so much to do all of the work.  My client tells me they will supply the labor.. I am to supply the brains.  Actually their men are very good - especially the guys they sent to help me on this job.  Gabino especially is a super fabricator, thinker and worker busting his buns to get the job done.  I am hired more to turn off the corporate red tape machine.  I like to think of myself as a mercenary.  Thinking on this I must mention that when ai first started business I studied a book called W.S.O.B.S.S.A.N.G.F.I.A.S.B.  It is where I got nearly all of the techniques I use today to handle these situations.  I recall a chapter Titled "Turning off the corporate red tape machine."  I remember it well.  

Had to put my foot down this morning.  Things were not taken care of yesterday as I requested nicely so I went to the superintendent responsible and told him our work area would be uncovered by noon or I would go to his boss two or more levels up directly and it would be taken care of.  His upper level boss told me at the barbecue as he was walking out that he was leaving me and the next level boss down from him to take care of it.  A word from me would have ended a career and the super knew it.  I never saw sheetrock coming off of a wall so fast, clear to 30 feet up as I requested, plus he asked if I needed anything else done.  After he did his part I started cooperating with him again and we got a fix ironed out.  The super asked me to send him and his boss a copy of my e-mail to upper management.  I said, paraphrased... Like hell... I don't answer to anybody here and it will go direct.

He later said, everybody has to answer to somebody.  I said yeah that is true but He is not ready for me yet and doesn't want me there right now.... like I'd ever get there......

Then came the fake safety manager running around trying to make every body squirm.... I saw him heading to the top of the building and went up to the roof to meet him.

I said, "Hi John, I've been looking for you."...He said something like asking what I needed him for.

I said, "All of the shi-ters are full to the seats and I consider it a safety hazard.  The guys could get a disease. They are out of paper and the guys are using paper towels.  My man had to leave the site and go to a store to take a (crap) because he said his (butt) was too tender and sensitive to use paper towels."

I next took him down and explained that some from the primitive areas south of the border had to squat so climbed on the seat and splattered the seat so other people from north of the border could not use it.   (Don't get me wrong.. these guys are generally great workers and people even though their hygiene is not the same as ours).  I showed him a plastered seat.  When I saw him wince, I laid it on thicker.  

He said "I think it is just too many guys in one area.".. I said, "No, there are too many people working on the site for this number of crappers.  They are all full to the seat."

I went to the next crapper... pulled open the door and lifted the lid.  He looked and I said, "Look at that pile.  Any worker sitting on that seat would be dangling his B---s in that one."

I have to give him credit though.  He personally was seen carrying armloads of toilet paper to the crappers and the truck arrived within the hour sucking them clean as well as washing them out, filling them with the mysterious blue liquid and bringing a few more outhouses... La officina azul.....as I like to call them.

Good Job, John.... thanks.......

[glenn kangiser]

Party time... me, myself and I are attending.....



The Chicken Fettuccine, salt, limon, and Cerveza Pacifico are flowing as I sit here in my office away from home... the motel room.... [ouch]

Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary and Happy Fourth of July, as l spend all here in welder hell...... the fine Bay Area of the Republic of California....

...but it could be worse... I could be like many of the others in California... broke and without a job and not much sign of it getting better.  I'll drink to that... [burp]

Not much wrong with working.

A young friend told me not to spend too much time chasing vanity here.... he needs my help.  To me, it's not about the money or vanity.  I wouldn't do it without the money... I'm not a cheap whore.  

It's about integrity.  Keeping my word to those who support me and who I contract with.... verbally in this case.  They hired me to take care of the problem.  They pay me well to do it.  I said I would.  I am.  If people keep their word (a contract) things go much better.  For what I get paid to do, I intend to perform well.

No Vanity...I'm just keeping my word and doing my job the best I can.  Nothing else will do.  The rewards will come in continued trust and future work...and possibly turning an impossibly bad job into a passable product that will be successfully completed a bit faster due to my efforts.  

[ben2go]

  I call BS on the person over seeing the "office" sanitation.On a job that big,the blue "offices" should be checked at least weekly,sanitized,and restocked.That is the way it's been done on any major building sites I've been around.They're getting fancy around here now.They are bringing in those larger portable "offices" that have a fresh water tank to supply the toilet and wash basin, and a waste tank for the drains.I can't believe they let the sanitation get that bad.That's fowl to say the least.

Kind a like these.

[glenn kangiser]

You got it, Ben, but the job increased in workers from about 90 to maybe 150 in the last couple of weeks so checking every few days and increasing the number of honey buckets is in order.  They have large double handwash stations between every 2 offices.

A link to the above book... Highly recommended for new business owners who need guidance.... oldie but goodie...

A book called W.S.O.B.S.S.A.N.G.F.I.A.S.B



http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0930566017/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[ben2go]

I'm checking that book out.Thanks for the referral.

[glenn kangiser]

My pleasure, Ben.  Read it over and think about what it says.  It can come in very handy.

I have pretty much followed a lot of what is said in there in tough dealings.  

I try to treat people like they treat me.  If they are nice I am nice.  If they want to act like a-holes then I show them how well I have perfected the art of being one.  As soon as they straighten up I go back to being a nice guy and give them one more chance.  Usually they do not want to cross me again.

I tell them I am not limited by my client.  I do the dealing as I need to to accomplish what I have to then report to my client how I handled it.  I run it like it was mine.... but I expect full support from my client within reason and I get it.  Never had a complaint about how I handle it, and generally they are amazed at how I get what I want from the customer and make them like it.  

[glenn kangiser]

Home for two days - first time in two weeks as I worked Saturday and Sunday last also.... but there won't be a lot done around here as I have to go get the water going at the project up the hill.. so working there today.

The project in Burlingame needs me back on Tuesday so no extra days off either.

Hopefully a few pix in the next day or so of whatever I manage to accomplish around here this weekend.

[glenn kangiser]

Got the Bobcat ready for work today and after putting the grapple/digging bucket on I cleared the fire trails on the terraces.

As I was assessing the fire danger there, I snapped a couple pix of the Hugelkultur Bed.  It is the only green space in that area that has not been watered.

The potatoes, a radish, a few Jerusalem Artichokes and a couple of beans are growing well despite being only watered by the unseasonal government weather modification project inspired rains.   






The rest of the plants were eaten by the quail as soon as they popped out of the ground......   

[ben2go]

There been any wild fires around this year?What is recommended to keep fire from spreading to houses?I see some people grade in a gravel yard around their living quarters.

[Dave Sparks]

Glen do you reccomend letting the lime slip into the Pacifico bottle or do you have some sort of berm or ram that you use?

[PA-Builder]

Happy (belated) Birthday Glenn ... I was up at the cabin without 'net capability and missed this notable event 

[glenn kangiser]

There been any wild fires around this year?What is recommended to keep fire from spreading to houses?I see some people grade in a gravel yard around their living quarters.

None close by this year, Ben. 

Around here they want a 100 foot radius from all structures weedeated and flammable materials - dead branches etc removed.  Fire can still creep over weedeated grass though so I personally like to take my Bobcat and make a few fire trails around the perimeter wherever possible scraping a clean dirt area clean to stop the fire from creeping across straw, etc.  That has a better chance of stopping fire from continuing to move uphill.

[glenn kangiser]

Glen do you reccomend letting the lime slip into the Pacifico bottle or do you have some sort of berm or ram that you use?

Dave, it is common for me to violently hit the lime shooting it to the bottom of the bottle with my forehead..... kind of like slamming down a Tequila shooter but higher.  [ouch]

This provides a great head on the beer and decreases the amount of time from too many Pacificos to headache significantly. 

[glenn kangiser]

Happy (belated) Birthday Glenn ... I was up at the cabin without 'net capability and missed this notable event 

Sorry you were offline and missed that, G. 

An offline cabin is a great place to go to if hiding from the Feds... but not so great if you need to find out about my birthday or my Hot Pink Safety Gear. 

[PEG688]

An offline cabin is a great place to go to if hiding from  my Hot Pink Safety Gear. 

  Yes , yes it would be! Sadly I don't have mine built yet!!

[glenn kangiser]

Well you better hurry, PEG... there is no place to hide....

[glenn kangiser]

In my list of things to do on my two days off of work, was to check the potatoes.  Sassy said the tops were falling over and they were not looking good.  Gophers again? 


Guess not this time.... sunk a spade into the ground and out fell nice gobs of various shapes and sizes af nice fresh potatoes.




Yummy 


Sassy fried a bunch of them up tonight for the last supper....


before I go back to the Bay area.....





Great hot with gobs of salt....