Earlier in summer this year, I had gone with my ward on a canning assignment and decided that once school had started that I would put in 3-9 hours of volunteer work at the cannery once each month. Thus far I haven’t made it to five hours. But I am proud to say that I have been at least once a month.
The only shift I can do currently is the 11-2 and I can only go on a Monday or a Wednesday as I am with mom on Tuesday and Thursday and Friday is normally Jenna’s short day and gets out of school just after one.
I had actually gone to the cannery last week, but the machine had broken down or something. When I arrived it appeared they already had thirty volunteers waiting to fulfill assignment.
In the past I have noticed too many people can present just as many problems as not enough. I opted to return home – which actually turned out to be a blessing on my end. I’d forgotten about fall break, and Jenna walked in the house at 1:30. I would have felt bad if she had returned to an empty house with no clue about where I might be.
In summer, when I was with my ward, I noticed three that had been assigned to fastening lids on jars. Oh, I was so relieved not to have put on that job. Ironically, that has been the position I have been given every time I’ve gone (with two exceptions) and it’s really not as bad as I had made it out to be – except for today.
I was having so much trouble getting the lid to fasten. But it actually wasn’t just me – we all had problems with them. At first it just seemed to be Eve and I who were struggling. There didn’t seem to be as much struggle for Jean and Kris – who were grabbing lids from another box.
I decided that it was the lids. They must have been nicked or flawed or something. Steve – who is an actual employee and not just a volunteer – picked up a couple of lids to redo a couple of jars that had been missed (and I take full responsibility)
Ideally there are supposed to be three people for the jar lids. The first is to fasten jars number 3 and 6, the second 2 and 5 and the last one should be able to do 1 and 4. But sometimes we have four. And Jean would usually do two jars along with Eve and Kris leaving me with very little to do (Jean would sometimes let a jar slide on purpose so that I would be able to have the opportunity) until Penny came in and took Jean’s place (Jean had been there since 9:30) and appeared to be having more trouble twisting the lids than I was.
Sometimes the lid would escape from her. A few had become flying saucers. At least a couple soared over my knee before crash landing into the floor. Some remained on the conveyor belt and took a ride along with the jars that were full of applesauce.
There was one time I was doing Salsa with a team of Polynesian background. I don’t know if they were holding a contest among themselves or if they each thought it was their duty to personally make the day’s quota. Pekelo would do bottles 2, 4, 5 and 6. And Kalani would do bottles 1 and 3. I was lucky if I was able to do one in 18 jars – seriously.
Today we did applesauce and the last time I volunteered, it was honey. Now that was cool watching the forklifts bring in the one and a half tons of honey and then see it get sucked out from a tube and enter the machine. Fascinating.
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