I spent the morning at the hospital for a couple of work meetings. At 2:00pm I headed over to the Lindon Cannery to do some family canning. I've really enjoyed being able to take advantage of this resource and the work there is very intriguing.
Today we were doing Chili with beans and meat. It's a pretty messy job, and I don't need to eat chili for a while after smelling it for 2 1/2 hours. When you arrive, you watch a funny orientation video about all of the rules and then you head to the production lines. You are given a job by the supervisor. Sometimes there are 10-15 people working, and sometimes as many as 40. Today I was in charge of unloading the cans after they come out of the pressure cooker. It is the first time I've helped in the "back", after the cooking is done. I operated a hydraulic lift to move a giant basket of cans up to a conveyor belt. Then we would use a big steel bar to move each layer of cans over to the belt. More than once I had to chase a can down the belt because we knocked it over.....oops! After you slide off the cans, you use the lift to raise the basket for the next layer and so on. Up to date it's the easiest job I've done while I've been there.
The cans that left our station went under the drier and then onto the "label-er". It was a temperamental piece of equipment! The glue belt had to be lined up just right or none of the labels would stick. After being labeled, the cans lined up in shoots and were dropped into boxes 12 at a time. When the box doesn't line up just right, it goes ________! and you have cans rolling on the floor. The boxes were made at another station (the coolest tape machine I've ever seen) and went along a different belt that met up with the labeled cans. After the boxes were full, we closed the tops by hand and the belt would take the box under a second tape machine and seal the top. Then we stacked them on a pallet. My favorite part of today was the big turn table that the guy with the fork lift put the pallet on. You get to push a button and the entire thing spins and gets wrapped in plastic....then it's off to the warehouse.
It's fun to be part of a production line for about 30 minutes, the next hour is so so, and by the end of my 2 1/2 hour shift, I'm always glad I have a college education.
It is a blessing to be able to serve in the welfare program, and to be able to purchase high quality food for my family, so I'll be back often. Beef stew is next and they just announced jam for the spring!