Amazon Adventures Continue

It's always an adventure, right?

Al went in Sunday morning at 6AM, and I reported at 5PM for my first 10 hour night. From the time I went to bed Saturday night, we only saw each other for about 1 1/2 hours while sleeping until Tuesday morning! The good news is, even though we can't bring our phones to work, he does have an email account and while he is in the clinic, I can send off a message. And yes, he is working in the clinic itself now. The paperwork was expedited through headquarters, and he is back working in the clinic and not in safety. Tonight, Wednesday, he starts his first night shift. He is working Wed., Thu., Fri., and Mon. nights. I work Fri., Sat., Sun., and Mon. nights. So we have Tuesdays off together, and work the same nights Fri. and Mon. We have a nice young man in the campground, Aiden, who is earning money by walking dogs for us workampers, and he is doing "test-walking" under our supervision last night and the next couple of nights. So the pups will still get their evening duty walk and milk and cookies on the two nights we work together.

I had my first 10 hour shift on Sunday. I was ready for it. I was "hardened", I felt pretty confident in that I remembered the skills I've learned for receiving, I was fairly well rested, and ready to go. You do sense that there is a "but" coming, don't you? When our shift arrived, and reported to our "start-up meeting", we found the receiving conveyors shut down and empty of activity. Seems there was no "receiving" to be done tonight. After what appeared to be alot of discussion on the part of our supervisors, our group was sent to a different department to work that night..we were going to do ICQA. Inventory Count Quality Assurance, I believe, is what the letters stand for. We were given hand scanners, a push cart, a footstool, and sent out into the warehouse (remember, 3 football fields long by 3 football fields wide) to find merchandise bins, and verify that the count of items in that bin was correct. Over and over and over  again. Scan a bin, remove its contents, count it all, verify the count, replace the contents in the bin, start over. The scanner tells you what bin to go to next, what "pick mod" its in(in other words, what section of the warehouse), which shelf its on (from kneeling on the floor, concrete by the way, to standing on the stepstool reaching over your head), and which floor to go to ( 4 floors). Over and over and over. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Once I figured out a "system", I was going along pretty decently, but by the end of the night my knees were killing me from kneeling on the concrete, and my jeans were filthy from crawling around the floor.  I crawled into bed at 4AM, and fell sound asleep! Al was up an hour later, and gone by 6AM. The dogs, however, had some ideas about when the wanted to go out, and had me up at 8:30, even though I really could have slept some more. I did try taking a nap, but never really got to sleep good, and was back on the floor at 5PM Monday night. dearly hoping that there was receiving to be done! Alas, it was not to be, and our group did another round of wonderful ICQA work. This time, though, I went down to the clinic and got a pair of kneepads to use. It did help a lot in the beginning, but even so, by the end of the night I was still wincing as I knelt down to those bins on the floor.

Tuesday we were both off! It was a nice day, so we did some errands, grocery shopping and filling the propane tanks. Caught up on some of our TV shows we like. Made some grilled chicken taco pizzas for dinner which was excellent! Al took a couple of pictures of the sunset that I will leave you with, and we will continue the adventure. Wish me luck that I get back on receiving when I go back Friday night :-)!

Time for Sight-seeing

Yesterday, we both had the day off together! Yay! In looking around to see what there is interesting to do, we decided to visit Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, about a 45 minute drive from here. It was a nice day, and we headed off around 11AM after doing some morning chores.

The Historical Park is actually in two different areas. The birthplace is at Sinking Spring Farm, which Lincoln's parents had bought in 1808, paying $200.00 for 300 acres of stony land on Nolin Creek. On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a cabin on this property.

In 1894 a NY businessman purchased the Lincoln farmland, and had a cabin presumed to be the Lincoln cabin moved to a site near Sinking Spring. It was soon dismantled and reassembled for a traveling exhibition. In 1905 Robert Collier, publisher of Collier's Weekly, purchased the farmland. Together with Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryant, Samuel Gompers, and others, he formed the Lincoln Farm Association in 1906 to preserve Lincoln's birthplace and establish a memorial to the nation's 16th president.

That same year, the group purchased the cabin and raised over $350,000 from 100,000 citizens to build a memorial to house the cabin. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1909. In 1911 President William Howard Taft dedicated the marble and granite memorial designed by John Russell Pope. The memorial and Sinking Spring Farm were established as a national park in 1916 and designated Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Historic Site in 1959.

This is the memorial building housing the cabin. It is all climate controlled to preserve the building. There are 59 steps leading to the memorial, symbolizing the 59 years of Lincoln's life. 

The cabin that was once thought to be the Lincoln cabin, but upon being researched by carbon dating, it was determined it could not be the actual cabin itself. It has still been placed in the memorial as old an typical of the area and time, and the National Park Service considers it a symbolic cabin.

Typical of Kentucky's karst topography and hydrologic systems, the spring is a significant natural resource. Its water drains through the subsurface and empties into a branch of the Nolin River a short distance from the park. Sinking Spring is a part of a network of springs and subsurface streams in and near the park. Because the spring's cave supports a variety of fragile cave biota, it is particularly sensitive to pollutants and encroachment. The National Park Service monitors those threats, which effect the cave and its environment. (NPS website)

The Sinking Spring was the most likely deciding factor of the placement for the cabin on the property. It was the primary source of daily water for the family, and most likely the source of Lincoln's first taste of water. The appearance has changed dramatically since the Lincoln era, but the rock formations on the back wall of the spring have been altered only by nature.

In the summer this is a small museum open with memorabilia, and you can also rent one of 4 small cabins to stay in overnight.

There are two walking trails here, the Boundary Oak Trail and Big Sink Trail. We did them both, and the dogs had a great time!

A newer addition to the park, Lincoln Boyhood Home at Knob Creek, is 10 miles north of the birthplace location. Due to a disputed land title, quite common at the time in the frontier, Lincoln's father was forced to give up the Sinking Spring farm. He leased 30 acres of farmland at Knob Creek, and moved his family and belongings ten miles to the new property. The family eventually lost the lease to this, and being disgruntled with the slave trade in Kentucky, Thomas Lincoln moved his family to Indiana, leaving Kentucky behind forever.

The Howard family, interested in memorializing Lincoln, purchased the property in 1931. A cabin was moved onto the property that is representative of the one Lincoln lived in as a child, and an adjacent building was constructed to supply refreshments and gas to travelers. The Boyhood Home became a successful tourist site and began to began to be recognized for its significance in Lincoln's life. It was listed on the national Register of Historic Places in 1988. Congress authorized the acquisition of the site in 1998, and the National Park Service officially assumed management on November 6, 2001. 

The Boyhood Home

The valley that the Lincoln family farmed in at the Boyhood Home

Close-up showing the construction of the cabin

It was a very interesting day, and I learned quite a few things about Lincoln that I didn't know. It makes me want to learn more! We also took this opportunity to purchase our National Parks Passport book, and start collecting the stamps and cancellations of the sites we visit. There are currently over 400 National Park Service historical sites, monuments, parks and memorials to visit. It will keep us quite busy for many years finding our way to all these places :-)!

Back to work tonight! See you soon.

Life at Amazon Continues

Training is continuing on. I am getting my work routine down...not the schedule, but at least what I am supposed to be doing :-). All you folks back on the East End should get a good chuckle, knowing the kind of work I left behind and what I am doing now!

As I said, my job is in the "inbound receiving" area. As the trucks delivering stuff unload. their packages are placed on conveyors coming into the warehouse. There are several lines of these conveyors, and the receiving area has rows of computer terminals lining the conveyor. My station is one of these terminals. As the packages come down the conveyor, you grab one, slide it onto your workstation, open it, unload the contents, scan it into the computer, counting the quantity and checking the UPC codes to make sure the items are all the same, then load it into your juicecart. Over and over and over again! We work 10 hour shifts, with a 30 minute meal break, and two 15 minute break. I have two more nights of the "hardening" 5 hour shifts, and Sunday is my first ten hour shift. And 7 weeks to go! Then the taillights hit Kentucky as we flee to Florida!

Al is having some issue with his position, although not of his making. The paperwork needed for the workampers in AmCare didn't get done properly, so until it makes it way through headquarters he is currently working safety. He is hoping to get back to his training soon, but in the meantime is still working full day shifts at his pay grade, so its not too bad. He still works with the same people, and in doing safety audits is getting to meet a lot of the workamper force here.

The State Park is now empty except for us Amazon workers and a couple of walk-ins, mostly fisherman from the looks of it. The camp store has closed for the season, but the park manager and rangers are still here at the office, as well as the camphosts. They are very nice, Barbara and Jim, and deliver our mail each day, if we have any. Jim also walks around with the honey wagon folks, making sure we all get pumped out each week. They are now also offering propane delivery to your site, which is really helpful.

I now have two co-workers staying here in the park, Nona and Laura, that work the same shift as me, so we can car-pool in together on the nights I don't work with Al, if he makes it to nights at all. So far he is remaining on days. I am also meeting other workers here as we go about doing our thing, and we all like staying here at the park rather than being crammed in at one of the other RV "resorts"...more like RV parking lots to me! We have a great big area to walk the dogs, and birds all over the place, and wildlife. I saw a gorgeous red fox at dusk a couple of days ago, beautiful red coat and the fluffy white tip on its tail. And each night when Al takes the dogs for their evening duty walk, they see a skunk...or "polecat" as they're called here. Lots of white-tailed deer along the road going out of the park, you really have to be careful driving at night. I haven't seen them yet, but Al saw a flock of bluebirds as well.

Today we both have off! I don't know what we'll do, but we'll see if we can find something interesting to get into. And maybe take a picture or two again! See you soon.