Experiences in The Electrical Industry

Hank Pruim, a master electrician, shares his career journey and experiences in the electrical industry. He discusses his early education in shop classes and how he became an apprentice electrician. Hank also talks about the importance of trade schools and the benefits of hands-on learning. He shares near-death experiences he had while working with electricity and emphasizes the need for caution and respect when working with high voltages. Hank also introduces the concept of the Junior Board of Directors, a group of young girls who are interested in STEM and trades. He concludes by offering advice to young people to pursue their passions and follow their calling.

Connect with Hank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hank-pruim/

SPONSOR LINKS:

• This Episode was brought to you by David Turner at Process & Automation Specialists. https://processandautomation.com | 
  •  Visit Process & Automation Specialists at The Assembly Show South in Nashville on May 1st & 2nd at Booth 1360! Use code PASVIP for free registration.
  •  Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-turner-enterprises/
•  CAPTRON, the cutting edge manufacturer of capacitive touch sensor solutions. Follow them on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/captron-na )  or Check out their website ( https://www.captron.com/ )
  • Make sure to visit CAPTRON at Automate 2024 in Chicago, IL at booth 2886.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Failing. For you, it is me, your host, jordan Yates, and today I am joined by the. You know, I don't know if you guys have heard of the junior board of directors, but somebody, somebody has to be in charge of these, these directors, and it is the master, electrician and guardian himself, hank Crum. Hank, say hello to everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Hello. Nice to be on and join you.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Yes, we're so excited to have you here. But real quick, before we get started, let's hear a quick message from our sponsors.

Speaker 3: 0:51

Hi there, I'm David Turner from Process and Automation Specialists. In our world, process improvement isn't just a phrase. It's the key to unlocking efficiency in your operations. With over 20 years of hands-on experience in the heart of manufacturing plants, I've walked in your shoes, worked alongside teams like yours, and understand the ins and outs of your daily challenges. My journey from the plant floor to leading process solutions means I know exactly what it takes to elevate your operations. Interested in transforming your process efficiency? With a partner who's been there, let's connect on LinkedIn. Don't wait for the future of automation, let's create it. Process and automation specialists engineering efficiency together.

Speaker 4: 1:33

Go ahead, push our buttons. Actually, you don't have to physically push our buttons at all. Here at Captron, we specialize in innovative capacitive sensor technologies, which means better ergonomics for your workplace and, unlike mechanical buttons that break or malfunction after repeated use, our sensors are rated for 100 million operations. Durability is the name of the game and we're winning, and you can be too. Visit Captron at Automate 2024 in Chicago, illinois, on May 6th through 9th at booth 2886, or visit captroncom. Captron install once, replace never.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Captroncom. Captron Install once, replace never. I'm sure you guys have seen lots of Hank on LinkedIn, because that is where I see him and interact with him. If you haven't, then you need to connect with him because he's a pretty cool guy and has more experience in years than I have even lived, so he has you know so much to talk about. And so today we're going to kind of get into his backstory, learn a little bit about his career and hopefully take away some pieces of advice. So, Hank, are you ready to open the book that is your career?

Speaker 2: 2:50

Yeah, let's do this Awesome so you were saying you got started.

Speaker 1: 2:55

I guess it's been about 40 years ago that you've been in this industry.

Speaker 2: 3:00

Yes, so this June will be my 40th anniversary that I started as an apprentice electrician.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Okay. So how did you get started doing that? What drove you to be an apprentice for electrician?

Speaker 2: 3:14

So I grew up in the time when schools had some pretty amazing shop programs. So right from grade 7, like grade 7 and grade 8, we had a shop class and we also had a home economics class. So when I was in grade 7 and 8, I learned to sew, I learned to cook and bake and all sorts of stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 3:36

That was kind of a neat life skill but there was also shop class so it was a general. You know they had wood shop, they had a bit of welding some sheet metal stuff Then into my high school days, the high school I went to was more of a technical trades type, you know the blue collar kind of school.

Speaker 2: 3:57

So in grade nine in that school, when you took industrial arts, you got auto shop, you got machine shop, wood shop, welding, you did drafting, electricity, electronics. They had a printing shop that we learned how to run like printing presses and stuff like that, how to run like printing presses and stuff like that. And so through grade nine we did a little bit of everything and the intent was just to get you a little flavor of what's available, of what they taught.

Speaker 4: 4:33

And then when you move to grade 10, then you narrow that down to three choices.

Speaker 2: 4:35

And so in grade nine then I did electrical. I'm trying to remember what the other two were. I think one was drafting.

Speaker 1: 4:41

The electrical is so impactful that's like all you can recall.

Speaker 2: 4:45

That's right, that's right. So, and then grade 11 and 12, you focused in on a study zone and for me that was electricity and electronics. Now the two of them went together so you took half and half of each. So it was really a neat background for electrical to learn the electronics part of it. You know, learn like I know you do some stuff with soldering and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 5:07

So we learned how to do that, how to make our own printed circuit boards. We bought a heat kit Some people might remember the name heat kit so each semester we got to choose a Heathkit project that we made in electronics. And then on the electrical side, we learned house wiring, we learned how to bend conduit, we learned motor controls, motor wiring, and that was right through to grade 12. So that was the background there and actually at one point, oddly enough, I'd actually looked at going into the military.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 5:47

I had talked to them and expressed an interest, because you know it's the same in the US and Canada. You go in the military, you do your three years of basic and then you can focus in on a trade of some sort. So I was kind of looking at that as well.

Speaker 2: 6:05

Nearing the end of grade 12, we had the opportunity to join up with a company for two weeks of internship, co-op type of thing, and so usually it's got to line up with your school hours, so that would be like from 9 till 3.30 or something. But the company specifically asked for someone that could start at 6.30 and work till 5.30, because the job was about an hour away from Stratford where I live.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:33

And so the teacher talked to me and said you know, you don't really have to do this if you don't want. So I was like, yeah, sounds like a neat opportunity, let's go for it. And so that's my first introduction to actually electrical field wiring. So this company they specialized in water and wastewater treatment systems. So they built water plants, sewage plants, pump stations across the province of Ontario. So this one was about an hour away from where we live. So the journeyman that I worked with he picked me up at 6.30 in the morning and we went to this job site and he was a fantastic guy to work with. Like he didn't just say well, you're the co-op student, stand back there and watch me.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:16

He was like, okay, well, this is how you thread a pipe. So, and stand back there and watch me. He was like, okay, well, this is how you thread a pipe. So now I need all these pipes threaded. So I spent a day threading pipes and then he taught me how to bend, and this was all in a two-week co-op course. The one thing we did is they had a six-by-six square wire duct through tunnelways underneath the water plants. So if anybody ever worked in that, they know there's tunnels and pipeways underground and so we had to run. I believe it was 220 wires in this wiring duct, wow. So I spent two days setting up wires on a stand, numbering both ends, pulling them out you know 800 feet long and then going back and taping them together so we could put them in the wireway. And it was a really neat experience to work with them for two weeks like that, and so I thought you know, well, for me that was like you know, I could really do this for a career.

Speaker 2: 8:12

You know, at that point I'm 17 years old, still, you know, trying to figure life out. So about a week later I get a call from the journeyman that I worked with and he said listen, we got some work in town on the weekend. We're wondering if you'd be interested in coming in. He goes this is co-op, this one's for pay. If you're interested, you know you're more than welcome. So I went and worked with them for a Saturday and the owner of the company came in at lunchtime, brought in pizza for all the guys and he sat down and chatted with me for a little bit. Then he took off. And so the next week I think it was like a Monday or Tuesday the Bruce was his name he called me up and said hey, I got a paycheck for you. Want me to drop it off?

Speaker 2: 8:58

Yeah that'd be great. So he stopped by about 5.30 on his way home, handed me the check and he said listen, I was talking to Warren, the owner, and he said if you're interested in an apprenticeship, we're interested in hiring you. So I literally got done school on a Tuesday in June. And on Wednesday I loaded up and started my apprenticeship.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Wow, did your parents ever say, like hang, take a break, enjoy yourself, be a kid, or were they excited that you were excited about work?

Speaker 2: 9:30

They were very excited. So my parents. The back story to my parents is they both immigrated from Holland.

Speaker 2: 9:37

Oh wow, the mid-50s. So they, you know, they were very hardworking and they always encouraged us to do well. I mean, we always had jobs around the house that we had to do, and my dad was a machinist, so he was very hands-on and so, yeah, so he was very encouraging, you know, and for them it wasn't. They didn't push us to go. You know, you have to go to college or you have to go to university or you have to do this. They said you do what you know, you do something, but you do what fits you. So you know, the one thing my dad always said is I don't expect you to be the best there is, but I expect you to be the best you can be.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Yeah, that's really nice to have that kind of like realistic expectation from a parent, rather than thinking like you need to do these like very set steps. Of like you graduate, you go to college and then you figure it out Like the fact that you already knew what you liked and it seems like you were pretty lucky with your high school. Of, like you know, getting a taste of that so young and getting to learn such hard skills at a young age probably helps, like you know, cemented in your brain a little bit better. So do you do you ever feel like working alongside the people early in your career that like they were shocked by how much you knew, for how young you were?

Speaker 2: 10:56

Yeah, there was some of that. A lot of it was just good work ethic as well. I think that more came into play in trade school. So in Ontario when you do an apprenticeship, it's about five years, okay, and there's three terms of trade school in there. So you got your beginner, intermediate and advanced, and then each one of them when we go into trade school. We were talking about stuff that that a couple of us had already done in high school, because we both.

Speaker 2: 11:25

We all went to the same high school, yeah, and like the teachers were just blown away. They're like you did this in high school so. But we had a fantastic uh, electrical teacher too. He was. He was a bit crusty, but you know, if you tried, he would try really hard to make sure you learned and knew what you needed to know as well. So that was definitely a big boost there.

Speaker 1: 11:49

Yeah, no, that's really nice to have. There's also this discussion around, like people deciding between hey, do I want to go to a trade school for something I'm passionate about, do I want to pursue a four-year university or maybe a two-year one? What would you say your experience was at trade school? To where would you say you advocate for that? Or do you feel like it's really person to person Like? Or would you say you're pretty hardcore on like, listen, trade school worked awesome for me, like. I think more people should be thinking about it. Like what's your, what's your thoughts on that topic?

Speaker 2: 12:26

So so when I got into the trade, there wasn't the pre-apprenticeship courses that they have now.

Speaker 3: 12:33

It was.

Speaker 2: 12:33

It was a case of where you got the apprenticeship, and then part of your apprenticeship was these three eight-week terms of school.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 12:43

So it wasn't that I went to college first.

Speaker 2: 12:46

Now, I had friends that did that I had a couple of friends that went through for electrical technologist and that sort of thing and after two or three years of college they typically ended up getting an apprenticeship anyways and doing. You know, they got some hours off their apprenticeship for their schooling but they ended up doing the apprenticeship anyways. So and you know and I think it's up to the individual Like, if you like the engineering part of it, then by all means go do your university. You know, I have a friend right now. His son is graduating high school this spring and so he had actually gone to one of the local universities for a day to look at the engineering program.

Speaker 2: 13:25

And he was like no, that's too intense. I don't think I can do that.

Speaker 4: 13:30

So I had the opportunity.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Well, yeah, to realize that at that point, before you waste, you know, a year or two in university and realize that I blew all this money and I'm not going to finish it. So there's a couple of really good community colleges near here that have excellent technical programs. Conestoga is the one that I recommended to him. They have a mechanical engineering technicians program.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 13:56

It's all about. They do robotics, they do PLC programming, they do design. It's an excellent course that they do. It's a I believe it's a three-year co-op course, okay. So, you'll do six months of school, six months in a work term and, most from what I understand, speaking with one of the instructors there that most of the people that take that course have job offers before they're done.

Speaker 1: 14:19

That's really nice.

Speaker 2: 14:20

They walk right out of college to a job.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Yeah, no, it's nice because they come out with like actual skills, whereas, like I feel like sometimes I mean I did an engineering degree and I feel like I still need to go do trade school because I feel like I don't know a whole lot from my engineering degree because it's so much theory and then you just kind of like learn whatever job you go to from there and then you learn it on the job.

Speaker 1: 14:42

But my little sister's 18 and she's trying to figure out what she wants to do and she's done a little bit of community college.

Speaker 1: 14:49

But this morning I was actually texting her and sending her like links to all these trade schools and I was like I'll pay for it if you just like pick one of these and do something and like try to figure out what you like, because you could do a three month course or a six month course and like actually get some skills rather than, like you know, taking years of basics and then figuring out oh do. I think I like this and it's nice when you're just not sure and it's not as long as a commitment and there's so many options out there for education. But I think it's cool that they do have that and that it is kind of a big deal right now in our industry pushing for more of the like. Just go get some technical experience for a couple years at a trade school and then join us in the industry when you're ready. But I'm curious before we hopped on, you said you've had a lot of near death experiences in your job.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Now we might've been exciting people to join this industry, but now we might be scaring them. So I'm curious about these stories. What has happened, Hank? What are you doing? What wires are you crossing?

Speaker 2: 15:49

So. So one of the biggest ones was when I was a second term apprentice so myself so we did a lot of out of town jobs.

Speaker 2: 15:58

So we would leave very early on a Monday morning and we would work hard. We would work 12, 13 hour days, but we would come home on Thursdays, so we would have Fridays off. So we would do 40, 48 hours in four days and then come back home. This particular job we were doing is in a town called Kirkland Lake, ontario. Now Kirkland Lake is about an eight hour drive north of here, so it was cold. It was a cold. It was minus 40 for about a month and a half.

Speaker 2: 16:27

Wow Up there and so you just dress for it and you know, away you go. But we had just the week before we had just powered up the motor control center, so it was. I think it was about an eight or 10 section motor control center. It was live and the voltage here in Canada is 600 volts, so I know in the US the industrial is 480 480, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:52

Yeah, so here it's 575, 600. So we were getting ready to pull wires for one of the motors so my journeyman said okay, well, you fish the conduit and these conduits come up underneath the mcc. So he said you fish the conduit, I'll go grab the fish tape when it comes out. So I said, okay, well, are you sure? And he goes yeah, no problem. Said okay. So I gave him a couple minutes and started pushing. Now it's a metal fish tape Like.

Speaker 2: 17:20

I don't know if people know what I'm talking about with a fish tape, but it's spring metal fish tape. It's about an eighth inch wide, so I'm shoving it through the conduit and about three minutes into this, suddenly all the lights flash in the plant, in the sewage plant we're building, and I hear this noise that sounds like a hundred arc welders going off.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 17:42

And I immediately dropped the fish tape, like I had no idea what one lights and all I hear is my journeyman yelling pull it back, pull it back. And then he comes flying in the room. He's like are you okay? Tell me you're okay. I said yeah, I'm fine. What happened? I said what happened? He goes, you just blew the NCC up. So I get off of where I'm sitting Like I'm sitting over top of a tank on some planks fishing this in. So I come out of there and we walk in and so these panels are eight feet high and about 20 inches deep and the whole end of the panel I don't know so there's three bus bars in it and that whole end of the panel is missing, like there's a hole burnt. And so what happened is the fish tape went up the back of the mcc, flexed over and shorted out two of the bus bars and we had a major arc flash that blew out.

Speaker 2: 18:38

It melted back about a foot and a half of the copper oh my gosh and just moments before there was a guy doing, uh, drywall at the end of the mcc. He had just gone down and walked around to get a drink of water when it happened. And so then we're standing there, like you know, somewhat in shock a bit, and I look up and I realize the lights are still on, the power is still on, so the journeyman jumps on the main breaker and so through the course of the day we take a bunch of sections off so we can liven it back up, get the lights and heat back on again. It turns out that the manufacturer, the MCC, put the wrong main breaker in. They basically put a switch in, not a breaker.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Oh my God, so it should have.

Speaker 2: 19:26

If that happened, it should have just tripped.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:28

But it didn't. It caused a major arc flash. Wow so yeah, that was a scary, scary situation. That was actually somewhere I was looking for it. I couldn't find it. I have a piece of copper I call it a copper splat, it's maybe about this big and it was a piece of the molten copper that hit the floor like a water drop.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 19:53

I got it. I got it sitting in a box somewhere. I got to find that it's in my, it's in my trophy. I got to put it back in my trophy cabinet.

Speaker 1: 19:59

So when that happened and you have, like this, this near death experience, and you're, you're a young man, are you thinking, whoa, like that was cool, I have a lot of adrenaline. Or are you thinking, oh my gosh, like what am I doing, I don't want to die? Like what are your thoughts when?

Speaker 2: 20:19

that happens. When it initially happened, it actually didn't hit me because it ended up it was on a Thursday. So we were going home that day and it never really hit me until we were partway home and then I looked over at Jeremy and said I could have died, and he goes no. And about five minutes later he looks over and he goes yeah, you could have, yeah, you know. But so, yeah, it kind of hit me there. I mean it didn't scare me off the trade.

Speaker 3: 20:46

But what?

Speaker 2: 20:47

it did do is it gave me a healthy respect that I really didn't have for electricity at that point. So I mean I tangled with 600 volts one other time and I stuck my elbow into it. So I hit my elbow into 600 volts. The fortunate part there is it just hit two terminals. It's a bit of a long story how it all happened, but it just hit two terminals and I wasn't grounded. But so that's when I had my own company.

Speaker 2: 21:16

So we were doing a service call. I had my apprentice with me and we figured out what the problem was and we started heading home about halfway home. So it was about half hour or so to home. I said you know what I'm not? I'm not feeling that well, I think maybe I should go get checked out. And so I dropped him off at home and I called my wife and I told her what happened. I said I'm going to the hospital and she goes Paul's driving you right? I said no, I dropped him off at home. What are you doing driving? So I got to the hospital and I don't know if emergency rooms are the same there as here.

Speaker 2: 21:53

But it's just, there's a hundred people sitting there. So I walk up and she says like what can I do for you? I said well, I took a shock and I'm not feeling that good. She goes well, how big. I said 600 volts and her eyes got 600 volts. She goes sit there, don't move, tell me. Yes, ma'am, and I had two burn marks on my elbow from it still at that point. And so she said if you feel any different at all, tell us. And about three minutes later she comes back out and says come on in. So I get up to walk in and there's some guy sitting there. He says I've been sitting here five hours. How did you get in so fast? I turned around, look at him, did one of these. So they ended up putting me on a heart monitor for a couple hours to make sure everything's all right, but I mean everything was okay.

Speaker 2: 22:39

There's no lasting effect, other than I got some discoloration on my skin because a lot of the capillary vessels right under the skin actually burst with it, so it almost looks like I got bruising through here, and that was 20 years ago.

Speaker 1: 22:54

It's like an electricity tattoo. Yeah, exactly, very unique, not recommended to get one but Very dangerous, but looks really cool.

Speaker 2: 23:05

But yeah, I mean, it's been a good 40 years. I've done a lot. I've traveled the world. I've been to Vietnam, I've been to South America. I've been to the Caribbean for work. I've run a lot of big jobs. I ran my own company for eight years and that was a blast. I enjoyed it. But 2007 hit and we had work on the books and 2007 it all got canceled.

Speaker 2: 23:32

So suddenly I'm sitting there, I have no work at all, nothing, and nothing looks like it's coming up. So at that point I ended up shutting down. The business Still lost money, but never really went bankrupt. At that point I just shut it down and I ended up getting a job with a local auto manufacturer here in the area and I worked maintenance there for about six years, which you know was good for the time.

Speaker 2: 24:00

But, I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. It was a three-shift rotation midnights, afternoons, days on a one-week rotation and about six years into it I got talking with a local contractor here and, oddly enough, he apprenticed under me quite a few years before.

Speaker 1: 24:18

Wow yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:20

And he goes you're not looking for a job, are you? I said as a matter of fact. So he hired me out of there and worked with him for a few years and the company I'm with now, nuvea Systems, I started doing their automation in 1994. Wow, and so that's when I worked for a contractor and then they followed me into my own business and then when I shut my business down, I couldn't do their work anymore and when I came back with this guy I went back to them and they got me back in there doing their programming and panel design. And after about two and a half years they said why don't you just come work for us full time?

Speaker 1: 24:59

Like, hank, stop messing around, just come back. Like you keep leaving us and coming back Like just we need you, hank.

Speaker 2: 25:07

So that was eight and a half years ago and it's been a great move. Like it's a good company it's. You know, I do a fair bit of travel. I do most of their commissioning. So you know, like these are the guys that I went to vietnam with, these are the guys that I basically have been coast to coast in the us, coast to coast in canada with them and, uh, you know, I enjoy what I do, it's fun, I get to program. I don't have to climb ladders, I don't have to pull wires, I don't have to fish conduits and blow mccs gosh right do.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Do you ever feel like you miss owning your own business, or do you prefer working for somebody else?

Speaker 2: 25:45

There's occasions I do, but I don't miss that stress. You know it's pretty nice to get done your day and go home. Now I get calls. I get after hours calls fairly regular. You know I get online with customers and help them out. But I mean the flip side of that is the guy I work for is really good he's, he's very generous with you know, if I'm going out of town I take a day off ahead of time. You know, just spend with the girls and you know same when I come back home.

Speaker 2: 26:15

So you know he, so he's really good that way, so I enjoy that part of it.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Yeah, no, it's definitely a different kind of stress, like owning your own business versus like working for somebody else. And I get asked all the time like, oh, do you think you wanna like own your own business, do that full time, or do you think you wanna like do that on the side and work for somebody else? And I don't know. I'll say I think owning your own business is incredibly stressful and if somebody is doing it and they're not stressed out, please share the tips with us, because I'm definitely curious how you can own your own business without being stressed all the time.

Speaker 1: 26:50

But yeah exactly, you touched on it, the girls, aka the junior board of directors, In our last few minutes here. Can you kind of tell us who are the junior board of directors and like what's what are they got going on?

Speaker 2: 27:09

So so we have. I say we have five or three plus two kids. So we have three adult kids that the youngest one is 29. He turns 30 in a month and then we have the girls who are nine and 10. The girls are our nieces, so, and we have custody of them.

Speaker 2: 27:24

So the junior board of directors came into being during COVID, when I was working out here in my porch, and so the girls would just come out and inspect what I was doing and so I started taking pictures and then jokingly referred to them as the junior board of directors have made an appearance, and so that kind of stuck. And then at that time was some of the, some of the podcasts and stuff that were going on, like Megan was interviewing some people on Mavens and manufacturing and the automation ladies were getting their start, and the girls would come in and watch them and just you know, they thought it was really cool that you know girls can do this, girls can weld, you know, and so then you know and I refer to megan's referred to it as well the time she had barbie the welder on- yeah, the girls were just fascinated by her and the stuff she did and we watched some youtube videos and so then they're like, well, we want to weld, we want to try welding.

Speaker 2: 28:21

So I have a welder at the garage, so we got it out, got some face masks for them and stuff and they tried welding. And they have that. My oldest son is a carpenter, so they've built things with him. You know he's helped them build things because they see what Dave's doing and they want to try some of what Dave's doing and we have a small farm so you know there's stuff here they get to try. They've, you know, they've done a little bit of programming stuff with me, not a lot this Christmas.

Speaker 2: 28:51

they got themselves a 3D printer.

Speaker 1: 28:53

Ooh, that's exciting.

Speaker 2: 28:56

So they're on Tinkercad designing stuff and then printing it out. So that's you know. And I said you know Tinkercad is good because it's a good introduction to CAD drawings and online drawings and stuff and they're really enjoying that. But yeah, that's the girls. They follow me around and they love what I'm doing. You know, they wanted me to say hi, actually.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Oh well, they're, they're away.

Speaker 2: 29:20

They said make sure you say hi from us.

Speaker 1: 29:22

So from the junior board of directors we're honored, we're all honored and everybody. If you, like I said, if you don't know who they are, then you got to connect, start doing all that stuff and working with him. And I just remember how much it impacted me, and where I am now I think is majorly because of that, because, like I got to, you know, get my hands dirty at a young age and I think like I just can't wait to watch them grow up and see everything they accomplished. Because of it, I think it's going to be really fun.

Speaker 2: 30:08

Yeah, yeah it is. It is fun to see them. And it's fun because, like they're, they're my oldest daughter. She, she sews for a living. So she works for a truck tarp company and she's actually a floor supervisor of the sewing shop now. So that's kind of her trade. And then my oldest son became a carpenter and he's lead carpenter for one of the main home builders in town here in Woodstock. So he enjoys that. And then our younger son, he's got his bachelor and master's degree and he actually just got a job in Ottawa. So he's going to serve as an associate pastor at a church.

Speaker 1: 30:48

Wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 2: 30:50

Because that's where he felt he needed to go. Yeah, so it's neat to see, and the whole backstory to all of that is we actually homeschooled the three oldest ones all the way through high school.

Speaker 2: 31:01

Yeah, all the way through to the end of high school. So we homeschooled them to grade eight. At grade eight we said so what do you want to do? Do you want to go to high school? Do you want to keep being homeschooled? And they all three chose to keep being homeschooled and we started that with the girls and then we kind of backed off of that this year. So they're going to school this year.

Speaker 1: 31:19

Oh, very exciting.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Yeah, yeah, they love it, so they're enjoying that.

Speaker 1: 31:23

That's awesome. Well, hank, it's. It's been super fun having you on today and hearing about your stories. I'm going to be extra cautious around all wires now so I don't get blown up, but luckily we don't have 600 volts here in America, so I should be okay. But thank you so much for sharing your stories and I guess if anybody wants to connect with you, I will put your LinkedIn in the description of this episode. But is there anything else that you want to leave the people with today before we sign off?

Speaker 2: 31:54

No, just just enjoy what you do. You know. Just enjoy what you do, find what you like doing and do it. Some people say find what you love doing and it's not a job anywhere. Well, that works some days.

Speaker 1: 32:09

Some days.

Speaker 2: 32:10

It's still a job For me. I travel, find something fun to do. Don't sit in the hotel room. I've gone to concerts, I've gone to sporting events. You know I find local pubs with live music and you know I just make sure I have a good time when I'm out of town as well, not just, you know, sit and be sad in a hotel room watching TV. So and encourage and get no attack.

Speaker 1: 32:34

That's what I do. I just door-t do it. I watch Netflix by myself. I feel like this is a message from God Be like, go out and do something when you travel. I'm like when I travel, I'm like I'm not leaving my hotel, Like I will like, stick my head on my door, grab my food and go back in.

Speaker 2: 32:50

You know I go to, I go to this plant in Iowa. So much now and this. This is kind of funny that I I got to know the owner of the mexican restaurant and so when I come into town I have to text him yeah, that he's sure that he's there when I come in. Well, now it's to the point where some of the locals gave me their number uh-huh and when you're in town, you have to text us so we can come and see you that is so fun I don't think I'll ever be social enough to do that, but at least I have something to aspire towards.

Speaker 2: 33:17

So yeah, and encourage the youth like, encourage them to find what they like.

Speaker 4: 33:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:26

You know, don't be forced into what somebody else thinks you need to do. But you know, look at trades, look at STEM. You know, look at university and engineering. If that's where you need to go, then do it, just follow your calling.

Speaker 1: 33:40

That's really good advice, guys. Well, thank you so much for listening to another episode. I hope you had fun. I feel like this 30 minutes flew by because the stories were so good, so I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. But, as always, I'm your host, jordan Yates. In the meantime, I'll be failing for you. See you next.