Working in the Trades

[Campgottagopee]

Sometimes you have to spend a nickel to make a dime.

Yep, and there's also such a thing as a nickel holding up a dollar. The mason I worked for would always say that to me whenever he had to wait for his mud.

 

[Harvey]

Yep, and there's also such a thing as a nickel holding up a dollar. The mason I worked for would always say that to me whenever he had to wait for his mud.

I did that too. Making mud for a mason. I kind of liked it.

 

[tirolski]

I did that too. Making mud for a mason. I kind of liked it.

That must be the potter in ya or did ya do that before ya spun the mud?

 

[Harvey]

I can't remember exactly, maybe during. It was 1991. It was for a mason who was working on my house at the time. The front of my house wasn't properly founded (is that a word?). Just the very front of the foundation didn't go below the frost line, and it moved up and down each season creating cracks.

So we dug it up and added a full basement in that section. I saved some money by doing the grunt work myself. Moving all the cement down into the hole, and mixing the mud. He taught me how to get the right consistency. I also smoothed it with that metal tool, I forget what it was called.

We got to be close doing it. It was a good experience.

 

[Brownski]

Was it a trowel?

 

[Milo Maltbie]

It was a float.

mm

 

[Harvey]

No it was a thing that smoothed the narrow strip of mortar between the cinder blocks. Into a u shape. No idea what it was called.

 

[Ripitz]

I’ve always known it as a striker but it is also called a jointer

 

[Campgottagopee]

I’ve always known it as a striker but it is also called a jointer

Jointer is what I call them, or was taught what they were called.

 

[Campgottagopee]

I did that too. Making mud for a mason. I kind of liked it.

I did it for 4 years during my time in VT. Most other full-time instructors went on unemployment but I was lucky enough to get hooked up with these masons looking for help during my off-season. It worked great. It kept me in incredible ski shape. Humping mud and bricks all day will do that....lol