Diary of a Young Farmer: Jill of all trades, master of none...especially when it comes to plumbing gas
Zoë Bradbury left her urban job in Portland to start farming on the south coast of Oregon. She's blogging here about her experiences. Below is her second entry in Diary of a Young Farmer.
JILL OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE...
So here’s the reality: farming is one of those things where you do a little bit of everything. Carpentry, botany, soil science, Microsoft Excel, plumbing, accounting, people management, marketing, grunt labor, welding, mechanics, etc. A lot of farmers get really good at all of them — after enough years. I haven’t had enough years yet, so my skill set break down looks something like this at the moment:
Good (enough) at it:
• carpentry
• botany
• marketing
• grunt labor
• Microsoft Excel
• plumbing
Needs improvement:
• accounting
• soil science
No clue:
• welding
• plumbing gas
• mechanics
The thing is, hiring someone to do the things you have no clue about costs money — usually a lot of it — so I tend to take what I know from the “good enough” category, apply it to the things in the “no clue” category, and cross my fingers. A lot of times it works, and I learn enough to move from the “no clue" category to “needs improvement.” It’s a good, self-reliant, empowered kind of feeling.
But this week the experiential learning model backfired when I went to plumb a gas line from my propane tank to my hot water heater in the greenhouse.
Given that “plumbing gas” falls into the “no clue” category, I suppose it’s reasonable to assume that the combination of explosive hazard and installer ignorance would be a good reason to bite the bullet and hire this job out, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of paying $500 for someone else to run 10 feet of gas line.
So I did it myself.
I did not blow up the greenhouse, but almost. I shed some tears, bloodied my knuckles, got pipe dope all over my Levi’s, spat out a month’s worth of frustrated curses in two days, and in the end had to hire a professional to do triage anyway — after I blew out the gas control valve on the water heater for lack of a pressure regulator in the line (whoops). Who knew?
The thing is, swearing my way through those few days of frustration means that I know more about hot water heaters, gas valves, propane tanks, brass fittings and pipe dope than I ever would have if I’d paid someone to do it at the get-go. Wretched a process as it was, gas plumbing has moved out of the “no clue” category. Which is not to say I’d do it again.
I suppose there’s another nugget of learning as well — sometimes it’s just smarter to pay the guy and save yourself the grief.
- Zoë Bradbury
Comments
I definitely agree, Zoe. One tactic to apply is to get a professional to come over and give you a DETAILED quote for any job that you think you can do yourself. Follow them around, ask a lot of questions and carefully analyze the quote including materials and the proposal. If it still looks too daunting and the price is something you can handle, hire it out. If not, you've already learned a lot and have a better chance of tackling it yourself.
Posted by: Nat West | March 26, 2008 9:59 PM
Good for you, young farmer, that takes guts. For future projects, why not offer to barter with tradespeople? Far better than the previous commenter's suggestion to "take" from the plumber without offering anything in return...
Posted by: Flora | March 27, 2008 3:43 PM
When outfitting our sailboat to go cruising, we opted to hire only when we were completely clueless and it was an area that we could really screw things up badly. However... we worked with the person doing the work, asked questions, took notes and generally made complete nuisances of ourselves. It's even better if you can find someone who is willing to mostly supervise you; even with good books, there's nothing quite so useful as having someone giving you the benefit of their years of experience while you're doing the hands-on part. It does cost money, but it can save you much time and frustration.
Posted by: Karryn Dean | March 29, 2008 12:29 PM