A Plant Tour, A Dinner, And A Cervid

Yesterday morning the bride and I took a ride over to Morbark, Inc., the company where I last worked as Director of Manufacturing and Judy worked in the Operations Department.  My old friend, and mentor, Jim Shoemaker, was appointed as President of the company a few days ago and we wanted to congratulate him.  We spent almost an hour with him catching up on our past, our families, and our futures.

Shoe first hired me as Plant Manager for Jervis B. Webb company in Harbor Springs, Michigan.  He left the company in 2003 during a restructuring effort while I replaced the Vice President and General Manager of the Marietta, Georgia plant.  Sales never improved and a year later the Webb company decided to close several plants, Marietta being one of them.  Shoe was instrumental, once again, in my obtaining the position at Morbark. 

Judy and I spent about three hours walking about and visiting old acquaintances; it was great to see everyone once again.  We weren’t in the building for a half hour when the rumor was circulated that I was being rehired as the V.P. of Operations (Shoe’s position before becoming the President).  We got a laugh out of that, but, to be honest with you, if the job had been offered we would have had to seriously considered it (at least for a half an hour). 

Here is a picture of Morbark, Inc..  You can read more about the company and view their products by clicking here.

And here is a picture of some of the Forest Harvesting Equipment they build.

We returned home for an early dinner with Ray and Pat.  Pat fried up some walleye, prepared a nice macaroni salad, and mixed up a great coleslaw.  She, also, baked some banana bread and a sour dough bread along with a nice blueberry pie.  What a great meal – thanks Pat.  We enjoy spending time with them and look forward to them joining us at Rainbow Plantation this coming winter.

A cervid is a ruminant mammal with antlers and hooves of the family Cervidae; that is, deer, reindeer, moose or elks, muntjacs, and/or roe deer.  Alrighty then, here’s our day six cervid watch report. 

Last night, as we were sitting and talking on the patio, our friend the eight point buck, walked right behind our rig.  He looked at us and then he made his way toward the salt lick that Ray has put out next to a tree which is not forty feet from where we sat.  We snapped a couple dozen pictures of him so here’s the collection we have to share with you.  Run your cursor over each of the pictures for the play by play report.  Note that Ray had just plowed up a portion of the yard yesterday morning in preparation for planting some grass.

           

He took his time at the salt lick and was there for about five minutes.  Our whispering or the click, click, click of the camera didn’t seem to phase him in the least.  I guess he figures that this is the best way to get shot; quite a photogenic character, to say the least.  I said to Judy that had we had some diced up apples he probably would have come up and eaten out of our hands.  Not that we would have tried that; after all, he is a wild animal and those antlers look rather intimidating.

We’re still pulling for that group picture, but the deer don’t seem to be traveling together any more.  Maybe they had a family feud or something.

Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - - - -