New Job

Today I started my new job at...

Blueberries

This has been a crazy year for Rader. Just as the raspberry harvest is peaking, blueberries are starting to come in. Rader did their first full day harvesting blueberries today and several outside growers are starting up too.

We received our first ever tractor load of blueberries. An outside grower with this small tractor pulled off the Badger with a pallet of blueberry flats on forks behind it. It was quite funny. I had Kirk take the picture with his phone.

Hot day

Today was another hot day. I don't know what the high was but it was somewhere in the eighties. It's always a few degrees warmer on the back dock at Rader because of the black top. Today I put my bike computer (which has a thermometer) on the black top to see how hot it was. Around 2PM it got up to 114 degrees F.

What I've been up to...

If any of you have been wondering why I haven't posted or haven't been seen around it's because of work. Rader Farm's raspberry harvest is in full swing now and I'm putting in one hundred hours a week. We're just getting busy as we come up on peak season. With the long hours what I miss the most is the good fellowship with family and friends. A big shindig will have to be planned when harvest is over.

I don't have much planned besides chickens coming the beginning of August. I will also be helping another friend process their chickens. I'll post on that later.

Bye for now.

Rader

Its that time of year again and I'm returning to my usual summer job at Rader for the 8th year. I have my normal position as back dock superviser where I oversee the incoming fresh fruit, it's storage in the coolers, and baby sitting forklift drivers.

I'm starting three weeks before the season starts to prep the dock for harvest. Flats and lugs will be trucked in, washed and stacked; pallets sorted, repaired or hauled away, and stacked, cardboard hauled to other storage, and other general maintenance of the dock, coolers, trucks and forklifts.

Last year I bought a street bike and road it everyday to work putting on about 1200 miles. I saved a ton on gas and got some good exercise. Today I pulled my bike out of storage, pumped up the tires, and got all my gear ready to go. I look forward to my first ride of the year tomorrow morning.

Finished Project

I just shipped a package to...

Scott Brown

Dragon Chess Set

We just received several new sets at work. I'm working on photographing them. Here's the new dragon set.

Lane's last day

Lane and I Christmas '08 after one of our biggest shipping days: over 150 UPS + USPS

Friday was my co-worker Lane's last day. I'm going to miss his humor and the great entertainment he provided. He could make work interesting. Now the only other person in the warehouse beside me is Mr. Bjorn who comes in really early so I only see him till 11:45AM and then I'll be alone the rest of the day. At least I'll be able to use the big speakers to play messages on and not have to wear earphones anymore.

With Lane being gone I'm completely taking over shipping. Besides shipping, I do the photography for the website, Amazon sales, and help Raph with marketing or other projects. Occasionally I give Mr. Bjorn a hand in receiving and warehousing.

Evan

My boss's son.

Inventory

I just finished doing inventory on our chess books. You'd never believe how many books there are on chess! Pictured is about 1/3 of our stock.

ChessHouse Crew Dinner

Clockwise: Sharon Reimers, Raphael Neff, Jo Neff, Even Neff, Eric Bjorn, me, and Krista Bjorn. Krista Bjorn cooked a great Indian dinner.

Nikon D40, Photography

As many of you know, I really enjoy photography. Sarah was interested in it before me and had bought a Nikon D80. We teased her about her big "flash-bang" camera arguing it was so big and impractical compared to our small point and shoots which we thought took just as good photos. I've since changed my ideas. Sorry Sarah for all the teasing and thanks for being a good sport!

I bought my Nikon D40 last spring. It takes great photos and I've been very happy with it. The two lenses I like to use most are the...

...Nikkor 55-200mm VR 

and the Nikkor 18-55mm VR.
 

I do a lot of studio photography for work but I most enjoy taking outdoor photos.

Remodeling Dave's Sport Shop

Three years ago this time we started remodeling the old Fairway Drug store and moving Dave's Sport Shop in. This was before I got into photography so I didn't have a camera or take any pictures. I found a few photos recently which were taken by Dave's family. I'm in the white t-shirt.

UPS pick up

Largest UPS pick up to date: 178 packages. Lane is sprawled over the packages.

Large China shipment at ChessHouse

It took Lane and I a hour and a half to unload the container of chess products from China.

This is what I do...