Another exciting day

Ken was originally scheduled to work on Saturday, so I signed up to help in the Church cannery canning green beans. Ken said things have been very slow at the store and he noticed that the Park City art show was on Saturday so he asked if he could have the day off and they said yes. So now, instead of me going to the cannery while Ken is at work, I go to the cannery while Ken goes to Park City--what is wrong with this picture?

Anyway, I haven't volunteered for a while there because I have had to work on the days our Stake was scheduled last time. And such STIMULATING work it was. My job was to make sure the salt water got into the cans before they went on to get lids on the cans. Since it is all automated, actually all I did was watch as they passed in front of me and jets of water filled the cans with the salt water. If the line of cans got stopped for some reason I got to turn off the water until the cans started moving again. What is that you said about mindless work Timber? I also got to help spray down some of the machinery after the shift was over. I managed to squirt myself in the face with a hose I obviously didn't have total control over. I also got to purchase a case of beans when I was done. I could have purchased up to 3 cases, but I didn't bring my checkbook, and I only had a little cash.

It was interesting to see how much of the work is automated. I was inside the cannery and didn't see in detail all of the work going on outside. I'm not sure who cuts the stems off of the beans, but they have machinery that washes, slices, blanches and moves the beans by conveyer belt past workers who sort out any leftover stems and bad-looking beans. Then it goes in a machine that tumbles the beans over the cans so the beans fill up and then workers make sure there aren't too many or too few beans in each can. Someone is continually weighing sample cans to make sure they have the proper amount in them. Then the cans have salt water put in (that's where I was) then they are heated again, the lid put on the cans and then processed in huge bins. I'm not sure if the bins are filled with hot water or with steam. They are constantly cleaning up beans that end up on the floor and all the machinery is cleaned real well at the end of each shift.

Can you imagine 8 hours of such fun? Boy I really love my job as Lactation Consultant!