What pays for your Horse addiction

[Ed Kennell 38,021]

First, I want to thank Bryce @Professor1990 for starting this thread.   I have really enjoyed reading the posts and learning a little more about the members I feel I have known for several years.

I am amazed by the diversity of all the  occupations and how this common interest in these red tractors has brought us together.

 

So, for my story:

I was born and raised in the Appalachia Mountains in  Somerset County in SW Pa. 

My Dad had a small trucking business (3-5 trucks).  He mainly hauled Jeeps from Toledo Ohio to the docks in Baltimore, Md.  He also had  a dump truck for home delivery of coal to Cumberland, Md.  and a logging truck that we mainly used for hauling paper wood to the paper mills  in Keyser, W Va. and Luke, Md. 

My Grandad had a small farm  where he raised hogs, beef, and chickens.  He also had three hand dug coal mines open on the farm.

Both my Dad and Grandad were DIY jacks of all trades, so by the time I was 13, I had experience in farming, butchering, mining, truck driving and repairing,  and hunting. 

After studying  Mechanical engineering  at Potomac Stat College in Keyser,  Va.,  In 1964  I moved to York, Pa. and took a job with Allis Chalmers Hydro Turbine Co. as a Model Test Technician.   While working there, I continued my engineering studies at  York College, Penn State, Lehigh  and Drexel.   After several years, I was responsible for the design, manufacture, and testing of the model hydro turbines. 

For all the large hydro projects, i.e.  Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee, Three Gorges, Yacyreta, Etc., these model contracts are awarded to several turbine manufacturers  that do the development and then they are sent to an independent laboratory for competitive testing where the model with the best test results is award the contract for the full size turbines.    Much of my work involved inspection of existing power plants to verify and/or correct drawings of the existing equipment so a base line model could be built and tested.  The new replacement turbine was then developed in the laboratory.

The inspection of these power plants took me (and Mrs K)  to sites all over the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.

There are three independent labs where I took my models for competitive testing.   Lausanne, Switzerland, Graz, Austria, and Ljubljana, Slovenia.    So, Mrs K and I spent many months In these cities.  

Allis Chalmers was sold to Voith Hydro in 1987 and I continued to work for Voith till I retired in 2006.  I then continued to work for Voith as a consultant for another 5 years.

At the end of my tenure, these "models" were producing ~ 300HP and cost 1-1.3M USD to design, build and test.  I was building 6-8/ year.

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Ed Kennell

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,295]

Ed , Did you get to drive the truck that pulled that trailer or the truck that pushed it ?No wonder you like to tinker with the  , it keeps you hands busy while your brain is working on bigger problems. You have had one heck of a career .

[ebinmaine 67,265]

31 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

First, I want to thank Bryce @Professor1990 for starting this thread.   I have really enjoyed reading the posts and learning a little more about the members

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

4 hours ago, nylyon said:

I'm an Architect with IBM Cloud specializing in SAP applications, but I take care of a website here and there for kicks.

Where I have worked for last 20+ years SAP was introduced about 4 years ago for maintenance work orders and inventory ect, with the general production population calling it "stop all production", anyways grew up on an old school farm and while in highschool/votech ('87-'89)I took auto mechanics and graduated top of my class but never really took it much farther, first job out was wrenching/painting for the local IH/NewHolland/McCulloch dealer, then on to a independent garage/body shop to spring of '90 then an aluminum tube (IE tooth paste tubes ect) factory as a press operator/expoxy coater technician till winter of '96 then the spring of '97 Walker Muffler factory as press operator/department set-up person for 9 years then moved into the "tool room" to learn the machinist role and CMM operator, now in fixture department building/painting weld fixtures and going to school to be a C.A.D designer of fixtures, Jeff.

[Ed Kennell 38,021]

2 hours ago, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

Ed , Did you get to drive the truck that pulled that trailer or the truck that pushed it ?No wonder you like to tinker with the  , it keeps you hands busy while your brain is working on bigger problems. You have had one heck of a career .

Nope, never drove that rig Jim.  A Ford N/P Super Major tractor  towing a three wagon train of baled hay was the biggest rig I ever drove.

   I think that is a picture of  the Aswan High Dam runner that we trucked to Pittsburg, Pa. where  a ramp was built so the entire 300 Ton  rig could be driven on to a special barge.

It was then towed down the Ohio river, across the big pond to Egypt, and  right up the Aswan River to the dam site.

My oldest son Mark, although he  doesn't drive the truck, as Manager of Voith Field  Service, he is responsible for the installation of all Voith Hydro projects in North  and South America.

 

[ClassicTractorProfessor 5,314]

Glad you guys are enjoying the thread...I too find it interesting the diversity of our members...

 

I too consider myself a Jack of all trades...My first job in high school was for a local farmer...done everything from taking care of his cattle to harvesting wheat and driving grain trucks...even did some repair and maintenance work on his equipment.

 

Then my senior year of high school I was in the welding shop one afternoon and the owner of a local oilfield service came by...he took one look at my welding and I was immediately hired after school and on weekends to work as a fabricator in his shop. 

 

After graduation I was going in the Navy, but took a temporary summer position with the county until I shipped out...made it through 4 weeks of training before I was medically separated due to a knee injury from years back flaring up again.

 

Upon returning home, I worked for a short while as a janitor/maintenance man for the school I graduated from, then in a tire shop, and finally scored another oilfield job doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing now, all the while serving as a volunteer firefighter for my small town.

 

After the oilfield shut down in 09, I worked for a while as a carpenter, then for a salvage yard,and then in a mechanic shop, before opening my own business remodeling houses. Also did some side farm work during this time.

 

In summer of 2014 I was in a bad car accident that left me confined to a wheelchair for a while and ultimately causing me to close the doors on my construction and remodeling business...ended up moving to southeast Oklahoma and working for the Choctaw nation building crates for the military until I could get back on my feet, which is when I purchased my bucket truck and started my own landscaping and tree service. Ironically that business is what got me into Wheel Horse tractors and ultimately led me to here...did that up until the first of the summer when I took the job I am working now 

[PeacemakerJack 10,738]

There are those times when you see a thread and think, “that’s a great idea!”  Thanks @Professor1990 for thinking of this one!  I’m enjoying it.

 

As a teen, my first job was working on my grandpas dairy farm which is, as mentioned above, a jack of all trades start to life.  I’ve always enjoyed all things mechanical and thought for sure in high school that one day I would operate my own auto repair shop. However, that wasn’t what I was supposed to do for a life’s work. My parents built a house the summer between my junior and senior years of high school and that was my first real interaction with residential construction. I loved it. However, the year before that, I took my first missions trip to Eastern Europe (just shortly after the wall had come down) and it gave me a desire to minister to others.  

 

So starts my story of dual vocations...

 

After high school I spent the summer in Belarus, a small country on the northwestern corner of Russia, as a short term missionary doing: construction, mechanical work, evangelism, you name it.  I had a great time and it cemented in my heart the importance of reaching out to others.

 

When I arrived home from that, I needed to find something to keep me busy while putting change in my pockets and so I looked for a job—in the classifieds of the newspaper (Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet).  The local lumber yard had an opening and landed a job within a week. Little did I know that the time spent there learning that part of the construction industry would help me immensely a decade later when I had my own construction business.  Looking at @ebinmaine pics of his delivery trucks, it makes me think of all the time I had behind the wheel in those years. Our company didn’t have a Moffet back then but those things are SUPER handy for deliveries to my sites today!  I’m very thankful for them. 

 

My heart was still in ministry and I went Bible Institute for 3 years and got my degree in pastoral ministries thinking that I’d be a missionary or pastor within a couple of years. Meanwhile, I had an opportunity to begin work as an apprentice carpenter.  I spent 5 years getting my training, and then my boss retired.  Next thing I know, my buddy and I are setting up our own construction company.  That has been my bread and butter for the last 17 years but all the while I’ve been ministering to the youth (primarily the teens) at our local church.  They chose me as the youth pastor about 7 years ago and I’ve been faithfully ministering to teens trying to prepare them to face the world of adulthood which seems more confusing and complex today than it has ever been...

 

When people know me only in the construction realm dressed like this...

doing stuff like this...

 

they can hardly believe it is me if they happen to see me in my “Sunday best”...

I really enjoy building homes and general carpentry but my heart will always be in ministry.  

 

What i enjoy about the GT hobby is that it gives me the opportunity to work on the mechanical things that I have enjoyed since a child without the expense and space constraints that is incurred in some other types of mechanical related hobby’s. Most of all, You guys make this hobby even more special and interesting and I’m glad to call some of you (who I’ve had the opportunity to meet) my friends and look forward to meeting more and making more friendships in the future as our paths cross.  

[Ed Kennell 38,021]

                                                                Great read Jack....Thanks for sharing your world.

[ebinmaine 67,265]

1 hour ago, Ed Kennell said:

                                                                Great read Jack....Thanks for sharing your world.

Yup Yup 

[19richie66 17,500]

 I second that "Yup Yup"

[953 nut 55,062]

      Yup     Yup    Yup.  Looking forward to meeting lots of new friends at the Big Show.            

[WHX?? 48,762]

Tough acts to follow here fellas but I'll give it a shot.

Graduated high school in 1977 where I was had a real good job for a young kid at a small appliance shop repairing  and reconditioning stoves, refrigerators washing machines you name it The owner was an old guy set to retire and wanted me and his 2nd in command to take over the business. Said I was a natural at appliance repair and it broke his heart when I had to tell him I had signed up for the Navy before I even was out of high school. Figured if I didn't go out and see the world now I never would so at the tender young age of 17 1/2 I found myself in boot camp in Great lakes IL. Somewhere along the line and I have no idea why I signed up to get in submarines. Got shipped off to basic enlisted submarine school in Groton CT. Graduated that with ease and commendations from the CO for helping out other students figuring out what hydraulics and 400 cycle power was! Didn't mean much as I still got shipped out to my first seagoing command the USS Andrew Jackson SSBN 619 Gold crew where I started out as a real greenhorn! Was still a fireman recruit but was promptly told by a salty old Chief Petty officer if I was savvy enough to make it through sub school I better get some stripes on my sleeve!   Spent my first patrol mess cooking, 2nd patrol on the deck gang where I did become qualified in submarines which is a HUGH accomplishment for all submariners. From ther on up the rest was gravy and seven patrols later was considered a "heavy" meaning you knew every system on the boat forwards and backwards and what every single switch, valve and lever did and had more time in the reactor compartment than most guys did in the head. Even the captain would go to a heavy when he wanted to know what was going on on his boat. Left that command as an Interior Communications Electrician 2nd class and did short stints as a base master at arms, damage control instructor and @Sparky's  favorite, sub trainer instructor chief of the watch and maintenance tech. Those things were awesome then Sparky can't imagine what they are like now! Back then everything was analog, we hadn't quite entered the digital age so I was a whiz at servos, syncros and control transformers.

 Was offered promotion to 1st class and any duty station anywhere in the world but decided to get out and come home. I loved CT, submarines and the places I lived but much like Dorothy said there's no place like home.

Bad decision at the time, came home to a high unemployment rate and couldn't find a job washing dishes. Found a brief job building huge machine tools but got promptly laid off when orders slumped.  Went to back to school briefly and enlisted in the Naval Reserves. Was about to pack my bags again and head back to New England where I was offered a lucrative job with Raytheon a well known defense contractor. Met a guy in the reserves  who offered me a job working on farms and servicing and installing milking and other farm machinery equipment. Fixing manure pumps stunk and the pay was lousy but it was money.  Shoulda moved back east!

 

Mean while time in the reserves flew by and before I knew it I had fifteen years in so I decided to stick it out for the long haul. I was set to make Chief Petty Officer but going through a particular nasty divorce in 2001 and my kids needed their dad every weekend.   Retired in 2001 as an IC1(ss) as a Master Damage Control Instructor @ Naval Reserve Center Green Bay, WI. Not a regret though as I got to work and cruise on just about every type ship made on many military bases all over the world. including stints in Germany, Hawaii, New Orleans just to name a few.

 

I was then offered a job installing furnaces for better pay but after two years got laid off. Promptly got another job where I cut my teeth on large commercial & high end residential HVAC work. Ten years flew by and in 1997 I was offered  a job by my old boss who was going to retire and wanted me to manage his business. The rest they say is history and after 20 years running a Lennox dealership again no regrets. Pay is enough now that I am an empty nester with enough moolah to buy nice sno shovels for the Missus and put a few  horses in the Barn!

 

Sorry no pics  but I may have a few pics of subs I may have to scan (can we still do that? ) and edit in. You guys would like those.

BTW Dan @Achto I still say those air cleaners on that genny are disguised missile launchers!  

[Ed Kennell 38,021]

Nuther great story...thanks Jim, and yes, we want the pic.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,295]

This is a really great thread , glad @Professor1990 started it . It is very interesting to see how folks started out and what they do now. "You can't judge a book by its cover " or amount of grease under their finger nails unless it is @squonk and @Big_Red_Fred. Ok you two , what are your stories and also @stevasaurus.

[squonk 41,020]

Retired or not, You don't have enough time for my story Jim! 

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,295]

Come Squonky just the condensed version. If you don't tell us we will think you are a weenie and your brother @stevasauruswill be upset . You have a reputation to up hold. How about this what was the minimum wage when your started working after school and what was your first piece of crap (POS) car?  

[ebinmaine 67,265]

2 hours ago, WHX12 said:

Tough acts to follow here fellas but I'll give it a shot.

Ha !!

I'd say ya "followed" alright....

 

2 hours ago, WHX12 said:

buy nice sno shovels for the Missus 

What's wrong with buyin' YOU a nice shovel !!??

 

14 minutes ago, squonk said:

Retired or not, You don't have enough time for my story Jim! 

C'mahn Man... spillitt!

[squonk 41,020]

OK James:

First POS car 61 Falcon 170 cu.in. "Stump Puller" 6    3 on the tree.

 

First job: Golf course. Learned how to drive std. on a big Jake Golf course tractor. If I popped the clutch, all the garbage I just picked up would spill out of the trailer and I would have to pick it up again.

First job out of college in 79 was at a small Chevy dealer for about $3.50 hr. in change. Worked at different dealerships including an RV dealer until 94. Got tired of flat rate and no work in the shop. Did manage to get my Master Technician  award from Chevy and a nice leather jacket that was late arriving due to the SanFrancisco quake.

 

Started at a Napa store and worked there for 10 years. In that time I saw 2 big garages burn down, We went thru 3 owners. Saw my vacation cut in half, bonus & 401K  eliminated.Took night HVAC classes to get my Refrigeration EPA Cert.

 

Started at  the local Hospital. Worked there for 13 yrs. Got up to Mechanic 3. Did Boilers, Cooling Towers, Pneumatic Tube Transfer systems like the banks use in drive thrus, Building automation, All the Chillers and AHU's, Kitchen Equipment. 

 

Got tired of the politics and nepotism and got a state job at a local Board of Cooperative Education Services as an HVACEngineer. CIVIL SERVICE! 

 

Work on an awful lot of kitchen equipment now. Lots of dish machines. But we were on a roof this AM with 0 windchill working on a freezer unit. 

[stevasaurus 22,706]

Well, I'm going to have to do this in Chapters.

   Chapter 1:   I started out painting stick figures in caves on the walls...tales of hunting beasts that are no more and things like that.  When we discovered fire, we kind of got away from hunter/gatherer and started growing crops.  We discovered fermentation, which took some time, and that is how civilization started...no more nomads.  This went on for some time.  It was hard work, but invention was the mother.  The invention of the wheel ruined everything...people lost their jobs...recession...soup lines.  It took many years for it all to even out, but we survived.  End chapter 1. 

 

[squonk 41,020]

I left out the part about when I was a kid, I blew up model cars for a living! 

[AMC RULES 37,127]

49 minutes ago, stevasaurus said:

Well, I'm going to have to do this in Chapters.

   Chapter 1:   I started out painting stick figures in caves on the walls...tales of hunting beasts that are no more and things like that.  When we discovered fire, we kind of got away from hunter/gatherer and started growing crops.  We discovered fermentation, which took some time, and that is how civilization started...no more nomads.  This went on for some time.  It was hard work, but invention was the mother.  The invention of the wheel ruined everything...people lost their jobs...recession...soup lines.  It took many years for it all to even out, but we survived.  End chapter 1. 

 

 

                                                        

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,295]

@AMC RULES Craig your turn .  Since @stevasaurus started chapter one , and it sounds like my  start. @squonk First job with a paycheck ( from the world's worst Burger Join - Hamburger cost $0.15) paid $1.00 per hour late 1964 ,first car at the same time frame 1953 Chrysler 4 door something (POS) with some thing called fluid drive ( I think ) had a clutch petal which had to be used for 1 st and reverse. 2nd and 3rd you shifted into without clutch.

[AMC RULES 37,127]

My first job was washing dishes for three Italian brothers...

nuff said...ruined me for life.  

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

2 minutes ago, AMC RULES said:

My first job was washing dishes for three Italian brothers...

nuff said...ruined me for life.  

No not the mafia...

[AMC RULES 37,127]

Umm...yeah, pretty much.