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[maki2]

I recently thought about volunteering to do a job with the Coconino National Forest. Two nights after that I had a nightmare about not being capable of physically holding up to the work. Which is exactly what would happen if I tried taking the job.


We had a very nice 4th of July gathering. Some excellent grilled treats were served up. There are several people in this group who love to cook!

 

[user 37446]

How do you calculate a 150% turnover rate?

Based on how many they have hired compared to how many positions. The HR person I chatted with (I do security) said that’s where they are at.

They have hiring fairs at least quarterly, with 50+ applicants each time. There’s only 130 ish factory employees total on all shifts, they hire at least 80-100 every 6 months.

Some last just 1 day. Most are discharged for: walking off the job, no call no show, or 3 safety violations in 30 days.

Security has to walk them off the site and confiscate their badges. We are on our second 4” binder of badges in plastic pockets, 12 per page.
It’s ridiculous.

Heres 2 employee reviews posted on Glassdoor and 1 on Indeed:

1. Former Employee
   

   Difficult but tolerable if its temporary​

   Apr 25, 2023 - Customer Service
   Pros
   It was consistent work, and you knew when you’d punch in and out
   Cons
   The policy for attendance was extremely strict leaving no flexibility for a newly single mother like myself at the time. I had little to no resources from HR to help me get what I needed when I had another pregnancy. Once I had been in some sort of attendance contract for being within 8 min late 7x within the year, my pay and advancement was locked in for several months.
   Continue reading
   
   1 person found this review helpful
   Helpful
   Share
   
   
2. 1.0
   ★★★★★
   Former Employee, more than 3 years
   

   Sucks​

   Jun 23, 2023 - Anonymous Employee
   
   Pros
   None to share. They suck.
   Cons
   Everything sucks here. Don’t work here.

2.0

Very Unprofessional ​

Assembly Worker (Former Employee) - Trenton, SC - June 13, 2023

Indeed Featured review​

The most useful review selected by Indeed
The company itself may not be bad but the Trenton, SC location is terrible. There is no proper management, no proper HR and they never seem to know what is going on within their own company. They never handle altercations properly because there is never an HR department to talk to, you have to go days on days trying to catch someone to talk to. You cannot properly reach them because there’s no company phone at this location so you would have to reach them after hours on their personal phones. The job itself is very unprofessional! It’s very hard to move up within the company if you’re not a “favorite”.

Pros​

Hours are decent.

Cons​

Management, HR department, no overtime like promised, unprofessional environment

 

[Frood]

Might be a Kroger thing. When I told my daughter how the workers were acting at our local Kroger she said it was the same way when she was there. Ignoring the customers and sharing cell phone pics/memes across the aisle to the next register while I waited.

Poor management.

I had a friend who worked at a Kroger owned store. In the last 5-10 years I don't recall her ever
saying a nice thing about the place or their policies towards their workers. She finally left when she
took early retirement after spending a couple years trying to get an on-the-job injury taken care of.
She was a hard worker, did her job and put in plenty of hours and effort. When she needed the
company to reciprocate by showing the same loyalty towards her that she had given for years
they spent more effort to make sure they did only the absolute minimum they could get away with
almost inverse to the effort and loyalty she had given to the company during her work history. If a
company rewards people who work hard with punishment (more work without additional
compensation) rather than rewarding the hard work, what is the motivation to expend effort?

 

[Frood]

Funny thing about salt: it's hard to determine sodium content by taste alone. Fact check me on this, if you like, but I recall learning that there is more sodium per serving in chocolate pudding than in potato chips.

Salt refers to the chemical makeup of a chemical as well as the "flavor" we get from
traditional salt (food salt). Heck, most of the fertilizer used in agriculture and
gardening is actually a type of salt, but you definitely shouldn't eat it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(chemistry)
From the article:
Different salts can elicit all five basic tastes, e.g., salty (sodium chloride), sweet (lead diacetate, which will cause lead poisoning if ingested), sour (potassium bitartrate), bitter (magnesium sulfate), and umami or savory (monosodium glutamate).

 

[Zerpersande]

Based on how many they have hired compared to how many positions. The HR person I chatted with (I do security) said that’s where they are at.

I checked, and should have just focused on ‘rate’. Gotta’ have a time. It’s calculated on either a monthly or yearly basis. So it’s not monthly bc that require about 200 employees cycling through a month. Now 200 a year is doable and fits perfectly with the 50/qtr.

 

[maki2]

Looks like this coming Monday in Arizona the more typical monsoon season chance of having mid day thunderstorms will begin.

I am just about set up for that. I will finish my rainy day shelter cover for my generator today just in case I need it to top up my house battery. But the last few years I have never have had to do that as mornings typically bring in enough solar power.

Then I want to put a few small weep, drain holes in my shade cloth. It is 90% weave and the water accumulates on the top surface causing the cloth to develop a big, heavy, sagging, puddle up on top of the cloth. Easy job, I can heat up the tip of a Philips screw driver. Not hot enough to cause the screw driver any harm but hot enough to melt the polypropylene mesh and seal in a small circular drain opening without needing to install a grommet.

 

[maki2]

My Bernina sewing machine is going to new owners today. I bought it brand new in 1974. Still going strong. The new owners are people I met last summer while camping by Walnut Canyon in the Flagstaff area. They used to hike by my campsite and would stop to visit. This year we are in a different section of the forest but they also are camped in the area walked by and stopped to visit while I was outside sewing a project. I mentioned I was going to list my machine on Facebook marketplace when I got the project done. My machine then sold itself to them. They have canvas work projects to do but their vintage portable is not capable of heavy work loads. No better testament to its quality of what it can do than to see it in actual use on a heavyweight canvas work project being powered by solar via a house battery using only a small 150 watt inverter.

But it is a heavy “portable” 37 pound beast and I do need to downsize for space and weight. I am feeling a bit sad today though as it was the first great quality power tool I had bought and it is still a great one. It had a 30 year warranty (excluding the motor) and has never needed anything but cleaning and oiling. I was never going to have a hard time finding a buyer as the “Bernina Record 830” vintage machines are still being quickly snapped up by quilters. But I am glad it is going not to strangers but instead to fellow full time nomad community members who are really excited to have it.

 

[user 22017]

I was never going to have a hard time finding a buyer as the “Bernina Record 830” vintage machines are still being quickly snapped up by quilters. But I am glad it is going not to strangers but instead to fellow full time nomad community members who are really excited to have it.

They sure hold their value well. I checked prices on eBay. Yikes.

 

[maki2]

They sure hold their value well. I checked prices on eBay. Yikes.

As I was the original owner and I am not a tool abuser they got a very good bargain. Plus I had all the whistle and bells attachments including a walking pressure foot. That foot was essential for this last project so sewed which was polyester duck cloth with a PVC coating on the backside. I could not have sewed it without a walking pressure foot to feed the two layers through together.

 

[maki2]

I have followed a YouTube channel on tiny hoses for a lot of years and even toured the channel owners tiny house many years ago.

But today was a fun video of the location that is my official home-base location, Shilshole Marina in Seattle! The film features. a tour of a live aboard couple and their vintage tug boat. I have never met them but my partner Don very likely knows them as he is the most senior of the long term live aboards at that marina, 35+ years now. As you will see from the aerial shots it is a huge marina but in a very liveable neighborhood and location with lots of parkland and wooded trails, bicycle trails, shops, brewpubs, cafes, etc. .

 

[maki2]

Right size at the right price! Some days you get lucky. I stopped in at the Flagstaff AZ Sporrtmans Warehouse store today. I was just going in to buy some cans of butane for my Gas One Mini stove. But naturally I wandered around the camping gear section. I noticed a display of folding three legged stools. I have been looking for a reasonably priced one for several years and there it was, only $12.00 as it was a store branded item. Best of all it is taller than any other camping stool I have looked at with a seat height of just over 20”. Most of them are closer to 16” tall. For a senior it is easier to stand up from a higher seat than a lower one. But even better that height of seat is the perfect fit to use at the pullout work surface I created for my drawer in the counter that supports my vinyl cutter. My folding camp chair was much too low and bulky in width and depth to use indoors. This folding stool is “just right” for size, folds up compactly and was priced just right, plus it is comfortable and my body position is good because it actually helps me sit up straight despite having no backrest on it. .

Finding items that are just right for our small nomadic dwelling spaces can take time. Seems funny to be so pleased with a $12.00 folding camp stool but when it works, it works and it works indoors as well as outdoors. Easy to take over to a campfire or a neighbors. Glad to finally have that item off my shopping list of essential camping gear.

 

[bullfrog !]

^^^It is hard not to buy two of them as you don’t really have room for a spare and you know eventually you will need a replacement! Lol!!!

 

[txmnjim]

I have followed a YouTube channel on tiny hoses for a lot of years and even toured the channel owners tiny house many years ago.

But today was a fun video of the location that is my official home-base location, Shilshole Marina in Seattle! The film features. a tour of a live aboard couple and their vintage tug boat. I have never met them but my partner Don very likely knows them as he is the most senior of the long term live aboards at that marina, 35+ years now. As you will see from the aerial shots it is a huge marina but in a very liveable neighborhood and location with lots of parkland and wooded trails, bicycle trails, shops, brewpubs, cafes, etc. .

really cool. we stopped to visit a buddy's friend who lived on boat on Lake Union(?) many years ago on our way up to explore Freemont.
we really love Seattle!

 

[maki2]

a friend who stopped by to visit gave me the loaf of cinnamon bread he got from the food bank, he does not like cinnamon bread.
Breakfast today was cinnamon toast French Bread! I has a couple of eggs so I cooked up 6 slices and I also had some bacon on hand so I cooked that up as well. Real maple syrup too! Enough for breakfast and tonight’s dinner too!

Yesterday I shopped at a Bashas grocery in Flagstaff and they had a sale on large Mangoes, 3 for 99 cents so I also have fresh fruit for my luxury breakfast meal.

 

[user 22017]

As I was the original owner and I am not a tool abuser they got a very good bargain.

I've been following Drake's channel for many years. He owns a large sailboat and sails around the world. He has quite a few videos on finding the right sewing machine to repair his sails. Thought you might enjoy the sewing episodes. He did a beautiful job reproducing the original curtains on his boat.

Now he is covering hand sewing with a stitcher/awl thing. I just ordered one from Amazon, because I bought a popup camper that has a tear in the canvas.

I dreamed about being a "live aboard" for years

 

[VanFan]

Mangoes, 3 for 99 cents so I also have fresh fruit for my luxury breakfast meal.

Yum! My husband just learned a new way to peel mangoes using a drinking glass, so they are higher on my list of favorites than before. We also recently learned how to peel kiwi fruit with a spoon. (Who knew?)

By the way, Maki, I owe you a big thanks for sharing a tip about using a jar opener to break the vacuum seal on jars! I've tried using the bottle cap removing end of a manual can opener on a small jam jar and a large pickle jar so far. Worked beautifully!

 

[maki2]

Using the sewing awl device for mending canvas on a popup camper is going to be be a two person job, one person outside the other inside because you can’t reach both sides yourself in that situation.

Sorry but you have misjudged me as far as my wanting to watch a person who has never before used a sewing machine.
I have literally been doing sewing and mending projects since circa1955 including canvas work projects, curtains, drapes, cushions, clothing, bedding. I was making tents in the early 1970s and putting headliners and wall panels in a camper van in the early1980s in 1983 while on layoff at Boeing I had a job doing upholstery and custom window coverings for custom aircraft interiors on smaller passenger planes. I made an all new popup canvas top for my travel trailer and created measured CAD drawings for it that I posted on the fiberglassrv forum for others who own the same model of trailer. I did canvas work for my friends sailboat. I even took classes in tailoring, skin and fur sewing, native beading designs on leather, weaving, costuming construction and design for theatrical productions etc in the 1970s at while at university in Alaska. I am tired of sewing, long since “been there done that” so I sold my machine to someone who is excited about such projects. If I need to I can always borrow or rent a machine or use one from a tool lending library or one at a senior center.

I do have had one of those awls but I really do not need it or even like it. I prefer using a bent leather sewing needle, so I will put the awl in a free pile at the next van build. I will enjoy the space saving freedom of having just a basic mending kit that fits into a small bag and no more big sewing projects on my list of things to get done

 

[maki2]

I was given a kiwi to eat with fiends a couple of days ago. We ate the peels. Surprising It was OK eating them, just a different texture but no offensive flavor. That is how my friends were eating them so I just followed their example instead of saying anything about peeling them first. A good traveler adapts to what the local natives do

 

[user 22017]

Sorry but you have misjudged me as far as my wanting to watch a person who has never before used a sewing machine.
I have literally been doing sewing and mending projects since circa1955 including canvas work projects, curtains, drapes, cushions, clothing, bedding.

I figured you were expert at it. Thought maybe you could give Drake some tips, if you felt so inclined He struggled with finding a way that worked. But, he finally got the sail sewn.

Ps. Thanks for the tip on the awl.

 

[Frood]

really cool. we stopped to visit a buddy's friend who lived on boat on Lake Union(?) many years ago on our way up to explore Freemont.
we really love Seattle!

Back when I was living in SF Bay I was considering this option as housing prices were getting insane even back then. The only problem I found was that nobody was letting go of their long term live-aboard marina berth with their boat, and the ones that were available were even more expensive than regular housing at the time...

Otherwise I may have wound up an aquatic nomad before I had even considered doing so land based...