Forklift Of Steel

Until today I've never known what it feels like to have 2,800 lbs of hanging bundled steel gently swing towards me and what it feels like to stop its progress. It is a powerfully heavy load to stop with your hands...in fact, you don't really stop it with your hands but with your entire weight centered into your hands. Whole body stiff. This is only when it's gently swinging in your direction. If it is barreling in your direction at a whipping speed- you are maimed, possibly for life. You have to have respect for that amount of metal.

My friend Lisa B.'s husband Lawrence is a welder. Today I started doing some temporary work for him to help him with a big job. I won't be getting to weld anything, but see all that steel tubing? Lawrence is going to train me to cut it to measurements for a hand rail job. I might get to grind the ends smooth and learn to clean up the metal afterwords too.

Today I learned to drive that forklift! It takes some practice to make it go in a straight line because it turns so easily and sharply it's hard to get the steering straight. I know it's kind of dorky but I love driving the fork lift. After I practiced for a while I got to use my new skills to help unload a total of 3,000 pounds of metal tubing from Lawrence's trailer to the supply rack. This endeavor took about an hour and a half of very careful work.

I have to admit that I love this kind of work. I am sadly out of shape to be doing anything like it but there is something very satisfying about working on projects that are going to be so useful. It isn't glamorous, but at the end of the job Lawrence will have put handrails down four flights of stairs to help keep people safe. I will be able to say I helped.

When Lisa asked me if I'd be interested in doing a little work for them she said she thought of me because the skills involved weren't very different from the skills needed to draft patterns. The tools, of course, are very different. The worst you can do to yourself drafting and sewing is to cut yourself with scissors or sew through your fingers, the worst you can do in a welding shop is kill yourself. However, she is absolutely right. While Lawrence was showing me the plans for the job on a blueprint it was very much like a pattern. There is a lot to learn, even though my part in this is very small. It makes sense, piecing together parts of a building.

I don't know what it is about drafting patterns that makes me feel so much in my element but putting things together always clears my head of everything else and sparks my brain like few other activities. This is why it was such a revelation to learn to use a skill saw a few years ago and plan and put together raised garden beds. I love tools. I love making things.

I know what it is: being capable of building things, especially when you are able to plan them out yourself to your own specs opens a world of possibilities up. It feels like nothing is impossible if I can cut wood, bend metal, nail boards, shape fabric, transform raw food into canned goods to eat later, all of these things make me feel more empowered in a world where there is so little I have control over. It ultimately means that given access to the right tools and materials, I can make my environment suit me and my family specifically. How many times have I wanted a built in book shelf to fit "just so" in a difficult space and wished I had the knowledge and skills to do it?

The thing is, the more you learn these new skills the less afraid you are to learn even more. So every step brings you exponentially further into the self reliant fold. If you can make things for yourself, what can't you do?