Blog 2 – Conner Kazema
July 3, 2018 10:29 am Leave your thoughts
It has almost been two weeks since I last wrote in this blog and what a two weeks it has been! I cannot believe how quickly time is going by this summer. Weyerhaeuser has given me a large variety of jobs with a differentiating level of difficulty that have all been greatly satisfying to complete. I’ll detail some of those jobs here, along with some attached photos. I will also talk about my free time outside of Weyerhaeuser, in and around Hudson Bay. Spoiler: lots of nature and cute animals involved! Hope that’s enough to pique some interest, so let’s get started!
At Weyerhaeuser we have what is called a “down day” once every two weeks. This is a day that highlights the safety and maintenance standards that we hold at our mill. All processes are turned off for the day and any board making comes to a complete halt. During this down time we can go in, clean out and maintain any operating machinery that would otherwise be impossible to service while the mill is running.
So this last down day, I was put on a team with the duty of cleaning out the “blenders.” I need to try to explain my role here without giving away too much information about what this procedure is actually composed of, so I’m going to be intentionally extremely vague about everything I say in the next sentence. The blenders have a bunch of wood chips and other… stuff that is stuck to the walls because of… reasons and I had to scrape that stuff off because of other… reasons. Sorry, have to keep some things secret. Anyways, I learned to operate powered chisels and got an arm workout using a sledgehammer. It was the kind of job that helps you sleep well at night.
I also worked on the RBS (Radiant Barrier Sheathing) line this week, helping with a plethora of different tasks there and continually learning. (“continually learning” sort of feels like my Weyerhaeuser summer student motto at this point, there’s so much to learn!) Now, if you don’t know or understand what Radiant Barrier Sheathing is or does, that’s okay, because neither did I. I actually didn’t know this was a thing at all. I feel like the Weyerhaeuser website can probably explain it better than I can, so I’ll quote them here:
“Weyerhaeuser Radiant Barrier Sheathing (RBS) comes pre-fabricated with a reflective foil layer that blocks more than 97%* of the sun’s radiant energy, minimizing heat transfer through the roof and insulation to interior living spaces. As an added plus, Weyerhaeuser RBS can even help keep non-air-conditioned, uninsulated rooms like garages, workshops and porches cooler, increasing a home’s usable space.” (https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/woodproducts/osb-panels/osb/radiant-barrier-sheathing/)
Pretty cool right? I thought so anyways. Apparently we ship a large portion of these bundles off to California, which makes sense considering the weather. I thought that was fascinating. I partly worked the stencil booth and the stapler, which were both right next to the strapper, which I also watched to make sure it ran smoothly. (I feel like I should elaborate on some of those terms, but maybe I’ll do that in blog #3, and you can read about it there. I have to give the reader some incentive to come check out the next blog ;).) On top of that I would switch out with the other RBS line workers and sometimes haul and stack the bundles with the forklift to be taken away by shipping.
Finally, I’ll talk about my time in the finishing end. This is where a large portion of the learning has been happening for me this week, and continues to happen everyday. There is so many different facets to the finishing end that it takes a long time to learn and perfect it all. The finishing end is basically where the boards go to be painted, strapped, stapled, so on and so on. It’s largely quality control, and with quality control comes a lot of different things you need to learn to check for and operate correctly. Which therefore, coming full circle, means a lot of learning.
I did a shift exchange with a fellow summer student working here, as he needed Saturday off. He does 12 hour day/night shifts primarily in the finishing end, while I am a 10 hour day shift worker who sort of floats around and helps out with whatever needs done. So needless to say this 12 hour shift in the finishing end on Saturday will be a change of pace full of different opportunities for learning. On top of that, it will also be my first ever night shift, which I am excited about. That’s something to check off of a bucket list I’d say.
With that I’ll move on to my life outside of work. I’ve done quite a bit of kayaking, fishing and even kayak fishing already this summer, which I’ll have photos and a very short video attached here for you all to look at. The picture and video on the river is the Red Deer River which runs right beside Hudson Bay. The run I take actually goes right by the lumber yard of Weyerhaeuser and I can see all the machines working in the yard. I did this kayak trip with my sister this weekend. It only takes about an hour, and I’m planning to do a full video of it to send in when my GoPro arrives.
The picture on the lake is at Good Spirit. It’s just outside of Yorkton and the lake is beautiful. I’ve spent a lot of time at that lake as that’s where my grandparents used to live, so it’s almost like a second home to me. I kayaked way out to the middle one morning and dropped a fishing line in while reading a book and listening to music. I caught nothing but a relaxing time.
So you may have noticed the pictures and video of the baby deer? Well I was on my walk home from church on Sunday morning with my Grandma when the two fawns and their mother came running down on the opposite side of the street from us. It’s not an uncommon sight here, but it’s still always adorable. The one fawn actually came into our front lawn, which is the photo with the steps. That’s also not uncommon, we had a baby bear come into our front lawn last year too, which I’ll also attach a photo of here.
Anyways, I’ll sign out here, hope everyone enjoyed my adventures and I can’t wait to bring new ones in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more!