Britton's Blueprint

As most of you know that my fiance works on the pipeline, he meets a lot of people. That being said, I don't usually get to meet all of the people that he comes into contact with. Usually I only hear stories, or what they do and where they might be from. For those of you that don't know much about the "pipeline" people come from all over to work on gas sites. Kevin (my fiance), travels to different gas sites  to sand-blast and paint the different parts of the gas well. In order for him to do his work properly there is a paint inspector to measure the amount of paint that is on the pipe. Each company requires a different amount of paint on the pipe, well-heads, and valves. I never get to meet the inspectors, but they seem to be really cool people from all over the country. As I went to Kevin's work this past week to take him dinner as he would be painting until after 9pm. I pulled in and to my surprise his inspector was still there. I was actually able to talk

This past week has been nuts, as a teacher I have been super busy planning and modifying based on maple season. Sap runs on warmer days with cooler nights, so we have been having a good last few days here in Erie county. When it is time to boil, its ALL hands on deck. Thus means modifying lessons in order to have the needed help to keep the maple process happening. I have learned to really like maple production, and all the students seem really interested in it as well. When I don't have students in the woods checking maple lines we are in the classroom doing other cool things. Something I learned about tapping trees is that being tall is an advantage. Me I am 5 feet 2 inches and at some points I felt as though my rips were stretching trying to teach the taps. I actually said that out loud while tapping trees, about stretching my ribs and still not being tall enough. Mr. Honeycutt laughed, which caused some students to fully realize that I am not average height. When the s

Talk about a long day, I get to the school around 7 in the morning, and usually I leave around 4 in the evening. For those of you that are unfamiliar it is maple season, that means longer hours, because of boiling the sap to make the syrup. Maple syrup is a huge thing in this part of the state. I learned that there are students that are actually willing to stay late and help boil the syrup. Once you start boiling you can’t stop until all the sap is boiled. It is really amazing to see all of the community members step up with not only help, but with advice as well.  Yes the 7 to 11 was hard, but it was super fun and I learned a whole lot about maple production. My question this week is : how long is too long to stay after school and work on school stuff? How do you set your limit?