Meat.. Mmm Mmm Good!

So I'm sure this will be a sporadic and random blog at best, so if you're looking for something that will be a regular read, this might not be the place; but, if your looking for something that could be entertaining..well, maybe you'll find that.. some of the time anyway.

For those that don't know, I'm working at a beef plant in Hyrum just near Logan and it is.. less than the ideal job but! it pays well and.. well that's about the best part of it. When I started my search for jobs I was more than optimistic, thinking that I would be able to find a job fairly easy and quickly.. this wasn't exactly the case. After looking for almost a month, I only had done one side job, which took two hours and for which I was paid 25 dollars, which isn't too bad for two hours work, but for a month's pay it didn't quite make it.

I had been applying for most jobs that I would be able to be good at, then finally changed to applying for all jobs that were available..even the less desirable ones. That's when I saw a job opening for the beef plant. I went to apply.

On arriving at the factory, I was a little uneasy and started to pull out before having stopped to apply, but the thought of needing to provide for my beautiful wife made me turn back around and get out of the car. When exiting the car, one can't help but notice the pungent aroma of cows(which were being led up a ramp to their death, and then eventually to our bellies), mixed with the manure, mixed with something else that all combines to equal one of the most deplorable smells I've had the pleasure of smelling.

Well I got called that night and they asked me to come in the next day for an interview. So, the next day I BRAVED the smell and went in for an interview. After the first interview I knew that I would get the job (I got the great pit-in-the-stomach feeling as I realized that I was probably stuck). They called me back for a second interview, told me I had a job if I wanted it and if I could pass their drug test (I did, Yay!), and then I started that next Monday with my training.

Training was, how best to say this.. ah yes.. it was boring. Then after some training we heard that we were lucky enough to go on a tour of the plant.. yay.. I won't go into too much detail here but I found out where the worst smell of the place came from-- that would be the killing floor. Yes, and we were lucky enough to get to see the whole process that went into the providing of our meat. Killing, skinning and using every part of the cow, blood and bones included. The plant, world wide, slaughters about 90,000 cows a day which equals quite a bit of stinkage.

Now, if I seem slightly negative about this place.. it's because I am, but, at the same time, I'm very grateful that I don't have to do all that goes on there by myself to get the meat that I so enjoy. With that in mind, I could have gone my whole life without seeing the process and been totally content.

My job isn't too bad though. I control machines that grind the meat for ground beef. Its a fairly simple job and I now am finished with training which is good. After the meat is ground it is packaged and put into a machine that freezes the meat to be boxed up. The freezing process takes about 25-30 minutes for one to go through the whole machine. Now me describing this might seem kind of pointless and less than entertaining, which I agree about, but I do have this 25 minutes or so to just watch and make sure they don't get jammed on the conveyor belt.. well I don't do to well just sitting and watching the meat go frozen by on the conveyor. I got a little bored and on one of the first days I built a snowman out of fat.. yes.. f-a-t. The next day I decided to make a face, simple two eyes and a mouth, it passed the time and sounds a bit gross and probably is but once you're around something enough you just get used to it.

The face I made was destroyed shortly after by one of the workers as was the snowman, so the next day I made a face with its tongue sticking out to show how I felt about the abuse of my little fat people (as I now have affectionately come to know them as).

Now looking back, I wish I would've documented all of these little fat people that I made so you could see the progress I've made in my talent. I've always said that I didn't get any of my mom's artistic ability but if I continue as I am maybe I could make some headway in a new kind of art.. that's right.. the fat kind of art. Well I did take a picture of the latest face that I sculpted. You can tell me what you think of my favorite piece of all of them so far..