How many times have we witnessed major projects get announced and started with little thought about the planning or the order in which they must happen? Unfortunately, there are big announcements of expensive projects with inadequate planning, and too many of those projects get funding before adequate planning ahead of time.
How many times have we watched beautiful new expensive barns built in the wrong place or with little thought about orientation, elevation, ventilation, future expansion or spring flooding? Too often a building gets built without thought about expansion, which most farms will do if they continue for more than a couple generations. Often, it’s a well established farmer that didn’t have to borrow any money to build if it didn’t cost too much. Sometimes it was built a few feet too narrow because the well established farmer didn’t want to borrow any money to build, or built in a low spot to save money on excavation. Those were the barns that were built in summer, in a low spot when the cows were smaller and didn’t need as large a stall as today’s bigger animals do.
If it was built in a low spot in the summer to save on landscaping, the next year’s spring thaw would leave that beautiful new barn with a foot of water runoff, and within five years time new genetics would cause the animals to be too long for the stalls in that narrow barn. Often, a few days spent with a visit from an older barn engineer that has watched many little, expensive mistakes, can be a very good investment. Sometimes it is more efficient to buy another lot with the right slope and elevation for a couple hundred thousand dollars to build on, because that lot with the correct slope will save twice that much in excavation costs if the slope is right to start with.
Any good employee, engineer, or builder will gladly offer you a list of buildings that were designed by them or projects worked on, and a dozen places to visit to view their work. A close look at the CV of the future employee, engineer, or builder can be a great start, but I have been on a selection committee for a new employee when the person we hired didn’t match the CV that was supposed to be that person. I was always reluctant to do a “background check” on future employees, but sometimes it would have been a good idea. Great employees give you “good vibes” from the first day, but some need a much longer probation period. Be wary of anyone who doesn’t want a probation period.
I have a very close friend who was the fifth project manager of a very large new office building that was hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget when he was hired. He persuaded the owners to make a few major changes (like installing an elevator in a six-story building) that should have been made a million dollars earlier. That change erased the over-budget late charges and made the new owners very happy. Yes, he finished the project.
Many years ago the entire council of a nearby town went on a weeklong hunting trip to an up-north lake. Before they left, the mayor hired a very smart man to watch the town water tower to see that it didn’t run over when it was full. Someone had to climb the tower to see when it was almost full and turn off the pump that pumped the water into it. After a couple trips up that high water tower, the man decided that a cheap water gauge at the bottom of the ladder would save him climbing the tower to check the water level. A few dollars later, the water pressure gauge was installed at the ground level and one only had to check the pressure on the gage to tell how much water was in the tower. After the mayor and council had returned home, the man was in the town pub and said, “You’d think that a man as smart as the mayor could get a gauge on that tower to save some old guy from climbing that tower just to check the water level.”
A few years before that, the town doctor sent that man to an insane asylum for evaluation so the doctor could administer correct treatment. At the asylum, the patients were sent to the exercise yard every day for their health. Half the men were given a wheelbarrow to move rocks from one side of the yard to the other side. The other half were also given a wheelbarrow to wheel the rocks back. The man made a couple trips and then turned the wheelbarrow over so no rocks were put in it. The guard asked him, “why?” and he said, “why would I wheel rocks over there when some other poor guy has to wheel them back?” The next day the man was released to go home, with a note for the doctor: “This chap is NOT crazy!” The best animal psychologist in the world was once sent home from school because teachers thought that she was unable to learn. Too often, soft skills are not taught in school or college.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
