A common mistake at SVF was driving a forklift with the mast up through a shop door that was not all the way up. Bad news for the door. A part-time employee did just that. I said, "If you are going to work here, put your brain in gear!" Before the day was out, I did the same thing. Oops!

 

One day, Gerald Soetaert came in to buy 40 gallons of Avadex. He put the filler hose into his barrel. I set the meter and turned on the pump. When the meter stopped, Gerald checked the barrel. It was still empty. I had opened the wrong valve and had just pumped 40 gallons into the blender. I was sick. I ran to find Doug. Doug said, "Dad, calm down. It's no big deal. We can get it out.' We took off the inspection plate, put a hose in the blender, and pumped it out. That was not the first or last time Doug has had to calm me down. 

 

Back in the early '90s, Bob Black was the manager of the Legal plant. One day a driver left a big truck running in the yard without the brake on. Well, it started to roll across the yard and planted itself nose-first in the ditch. Bob gave him a stern warning to pay attention. A few days later, I learned an SVF pickup truck went through the Legal Motors showroom window. That's OK, Bob. It was icy.

 

In the mid-'80s, Frank Bond, Sherritt's sales manager for Saskatchewan, called and asked if I would hire his 19-year-old son for the spring season. So we did. He was a good young man but a little overconfident. He also struggled with taking responsibility for his actions. The first day, he ran the forks of the forklift through the bottom row of a pallet of bags, then asked the warehouse boys to clean it up. I said, "Oh, no. You unstack the pallet, empty the broken bags into the bulk bin, then restack the pallet. He did. A week or so later, he rolled an NH3 delivery truck over on its back. Transmission oil leaked out all over the inside of the cab. He really was embarrassed but said, "When the shop boys get it cleaned up, let me know." I said, "Oh, no. You get a pail of hot water and soap, and when it is cleaned up, you let me know." The rest of the season, he was excellent. I would like to think he learned a little about being responsible for his actions. At least his dad said he had a different attitude when he came home.

 

Over the years, we have spread or sprayed a few wrong fields. Considering we have done over a million acres, that's not bad. Customers know they have made a few mistakes, so they are pretty understanding. One frustrating mistake is when the fertilizer leg gets plugged, usually from overfilling a bin. This will break the belt. If the leg is 100 feet high, the belt is 200 feet long. The leg has to be cleaned out and the belt removed, repaired and put back in the leg: a costly multi-day job. 

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