Wednesday is Surgery Day!

So at the vets office, Wednesday’s are surgery days; basically, one of the coolest days to shadow on.  On Wednesday’s, there are no appointments scheduled at the Barberton office and only Dr. Riggs is there doing surgery with some of the vet techs.

The first operation was on a bird that had been boarding at the vets office for a couple of days. The bird had a mass on his wing that had the possibility of being cancerous and was affecting his mobility thus needing removed. For the surgery, the bird had to be put under anesthesia, which is actually pretty cool to watch and then Dr. Riggs cut off the part of the wing that had the mass on it and then, stitched and bandaged the wing up. Next the bird had to be woken up and the tracheal tube had to be pulled. They also had to send the mass, which seemed to be a cyst, in for testing to see if it was cancer.

Then they had to prep for the second and last surgery of the day (they usually have more surgeries but Wednesday was a slow day), neutering a bunny.  Putting an animal to sleep is the same under anesthesia just with different kinds of tubes but for a bunny, to put the tracheal tube in for anesthesia, you have to use an endoscope. This bunny kept fighting the anesthesia and waking up while they were putting the tube in and coughing which was adorable. Then Dr. Riggs neutered the bunny and I won’t get into the gory details but it was very interesting to watch.

I am so excited that my last day at the vets office is a Wednesday because I get a second day of surgeries to watch!

Putting the Rafters Up

Putting the rafters up was a day that I was very exited for but also a bit worried.  They are extremely difficult to lift up and can be difficult to level when on the roof.  Fortunately, we found a system that allowed us to finish the rafters in a 3 hour span.  Zach and I cut out the birds mouth on the rafters and gave the rafters to Wyatt and Henry, who were on ladders.  They then proceeded to screw the rafters onto the shed.  Unfortunately we ran out of brackets about halfway through the brackets.  We were forced to go to Lowes and buy more.  This took a bit longer than it should have because we struggles to select brackets to use for the rafters.  After returning to Wyatts, we grinded out a few more rafters before we were greeted by Zach's mom with pizza.  This provided a much needed break, because lifting the rafters is difficult and can be both tiring and also frustrating.  After a quick lunch, we proceeded to finishing the rafters.  Afterwords, we decided to start putting plywood on the roof.  This was a great deal of fun but also petrifying.  Screwing them in was a bit scary, but also a lot of fun.  After a long days work, we are looking forward to finishing the roof up early next week!

The Screens

After finishing the rafters on Wednesday, I went into Thursday thinking that we would spend the day putting them up.  To my surprise, we postponed putting the rafters up until Friday and used Thursday to buy the trim and put up the screens.  While today was supposed to be a relaxing and easy day, it turned out to be the most frustrating day of project. After spending too much time at Lowes buying paint for the trim, an asparagus green, wood for the screens, and trim, we found ourselves at Wyatts with a couple hours to work.  Thinking that this would be more than enough, we were surprised at the difficulty of putting the screens in.  After struggling to find a level surface to cut the wood for the screens, we found that the garage would be the best location to do the measuring and screwing. While we were optimistic that this was the solution to the issue of levelness, we still struggled to create screens with the dimensions that were needed.  We got the first screen in comfortably, but spent over an hour trying to get a second and third screen in.  This task was supposed to be simple and somehow it took up all afternoon.  We weren't even able to finish the screens before we had to go to our after school commitments.  Fortunately, Wyatt was able to find time Thursday night to work on the screens himself.  This is a great example of things being more difficult than they appear to be.  With limited working experience in building, simple tasks such as these can turn out to take a great deal of time for our group.   The precision that is required for construction has given me a much greater appreciation for people in the industry. 

Buttercream Pro

        Today when I walked into the kitchen the board was completely full of tasks that all had to be done today.  If I said I was overwhelmed it would be an understatement.  I started off with a completely new task today: cream cheese frosting.  The cream cheese frosting is the second most important frosting made at Luna.  It is used mostly for red velvet and carrot cupcakes.  The buttercream frosting is used for the majority of cupcakes and cakes.  Cream cheese frosting only has 4 ingredients, obviously there is cream cheese but also butter, vanilla and powdered sugar.  The only difficult part is sifting the powdered sugar.  I sifted a total of 12 pounds of powdered sugar and made a pretty big mess to say the least.  Once I finished this the rest of the recipe was very easy.  Basically all of the ingredients mixed in the mixer for a while.  Usually at the end of making the frosting it has to be sifted again.  Thankfully I was told that I didn't have to sift again.
        Once I finished this I was told by Lindsay (one of the cake makers) that she needed a lot of buttercream for this weekend.  So I started on my first batch and ended up getting a total of three done today.  Because I know the recipe by heart, I've pretty much got it down and can time out each batch pretty well.  Meaning that once I put in my last round of butter in the batch in the mixing bowl I can put my next batch on the double boiler so that it sits and is ready once I'm done with the batch in the mixing bowl.  The cafe was insanely busy today.  The funny thing was that it was very slow and then all of a sudden so many people walked in.  So it took a while to get lunch.  I ordered a barbeque pulled pork and coleslaw panini with a side of quinoa (in the picture below).  It was very yummy and I highly recommend it.

The Walls and the Roof

These last few days have been much more productive than we ever could have imagined. We decided to work Monday since we thought we were behind schedule, so on Monday and Tuesday Eric and I stained the 12 boards which we are using for the wall. While this does not seem too difficult, it proved to be much harder, dirtier, and longer than anticipated. We spent hours in the humid and hot garage making sure every spot was stained, and in the process got some stain on our clothing and skin (some of which still hasn't come off completely on my feet no matter how hard I try to scrub it off). While Eric and I were doing this staining, Wyatt and Zach were cleaning up around the shed, cutting off some extra wood pieces, and created an overhang on the shed. The rest of Tuesday and beginning of today consisted of placing the 12 sheets of siding up on the shed, which is much harder than it sounds because we had to cut out the windows and doors in the exact spots. After finally getting them all up, we then started to make the roof. The day ended in us finishing all 12 rafters for the roof, and tomorrow we will begin to put them up. The picture below shows the shed with the siding on the back of the shed, and shows the overhangs which we created. The black panels on the ground is the siding.

Frosting Cookies

        I started off the day by finishing my last job from yesterday.  Now that Hannah (the intern who helped me with almost all of my baking tasks) is gone, I'm kind of on my own. So once I got there I checked the "board". The "board" is the dry erase board on the door of the cooler in the kitchen that has a list of things to do for the day.  So I finished my last task from yesterday, scooping the peanut butter cookie dough.  I did a total of 4 trays of peanut butter cookie dough and it took me a lot longer than I thought. Once I finished that I started to make buttercream because the board said that we needed 4 batches.  I only had the time to make one batch today, so tomorrow I will hopefully finish the rest.  It takes me a while to do the buttercream because before I even start mixing ingredients I have to scale out all of the ingredients on the scale.  Thankfully the eggs had already been separated so I didn't have to waste 2 hours separating eggs.  There were also a lot of people working in the kitchen today so it was difficult to find a place to scale out my ingredients.  Once I finished scaling out for 2 batches I mixed the sugar and the egg whites and whisked them until they were smooth.  Unfortunately there is only one big mixer and one big bowl and whisk at Luna.  This was in use when I finished whisking so I had to wait a while until the mixer was done.
        While I waited for the mixed I made colored frosting for cookies.  The frosting for the cookies is made with white frosting that is already made and food coloring.  I'm not sure who makes the white frosting but it is always magically around.  I made yellow, blue, purple and green frosting for cookies in the shapes of one piece bathing suits and bikinis.  Then I had to multitask and make buttercream at the same time as frosting my cookies.  This was not easy in any way and I actually screwed up the buttercream a little.  When the egg whites and the sugar mixed over the boiling water you have to watch it every once in a while to make sure that the sugar is mixed in.  I was so busy frosting my cookies that I totally forgot to check the buttercream so when I poured it into the mixer I noticed some sugar at the bottom of the bowl.  It wasn't that much so I figured it was okay.  Then I took my lunch break and after that I started decorating the bikini shaped cookies.  While I was doing this and Kasey was working on another task in the back Mr. Harris came to visit us.  It was nice to see a friendly face and talk about our project.  After we talked for a while about how our project is going I finished decorating the cookies and didn't even realize that it was way past 3 o'clock; but I feel bad leaving a task unfinished because the other employees have so much to do.  Below is a picture of the bikini cookies I decorated today.

The biggest shed ever

Over the last week our group has been able to accomplish more then I ever though we would. After taking nearly a week and a half to do the floor in just two days we were able to get all four walls up which was shocking to not only me but to the whole group. Once we finished the basic structure of the walls we began staining the panels for the walls. In addition to this we also focused on making an overhang for a small porch in the front of the shed. This was also very surprising to me because when coming into this project I didn't expect that we would be making something so complicated I thought it would be a very basic she's and now here we are building a porch for it. Additionally now when I walk into the used I find myself extremely impressed as to how we'll built the shed looks and also as to how big it is. I could always imaging what a 12x12 shed would look like but until we actually built it I never knew how large it actually would be. Another positive thing that has gone on over the past week is visits. Not only have most of the parents visited but also our mentor Mark. First off the parents have all been shocked to see that we are actually working hard as well as being suprised by how big it is. Throughout the entire process we have been sending photos to a Marks daily and he has been quick to give us suggestions when needed but for him to finally be able to come see it was great because photos really don't do justice to this shed. He was extremely impressed with the work we had done and also was able to give us a few ideas for the roof and other things moving forward.  Now we are tasked with making the roof which may be the most difficult part left and while I'm a little nervous about it I think we have proved that we can confidently build a great shed. This last week will be stressful because we still have a lot that needs to be done but if we keep on pace of how we have been working recently we should be able to get everything done.

Sheeting Cookies

        Today was my first day at Luna without any other interns.  The "intern" who I had been working with the most, Hannah, went back to her home town last Friday.  I put intern in quotes because she gets paid and wants to do something related to baking for a profession, and she is almost out of college.  So we are very different, therefore, she had the ability to help me for the past 8 days.  However now that she is gone I was kind of one my own.  I was told by another employee that I had to sheet cookies for an order and for the front of the store.  I didn't think that it would take me very long but it took me almost the entire day.  I sheeted a total of 22 cookies and it was very tiring and repetitive.  

         At Luna sheeting cookies simply means using the sheeting machine to flatten out the sugar cookie dough and then using cookie cutters to create different shapes.  The sheeting machine is a tricky contraption and takes a while to get used to.  However, once you get a feel for the machine it makes sheeting the cookies so much easier.  The trick to doing it successfully is flour.  You can never use too much flour when sheeting cookies.  Kasey and I did a bunch of different shapes: graduation caps for graduation, bathingsuits for summertime, suns, and hearts and rings for an order that I assumed was for a wedding.  Once we finally finished with sheeting the cookies it was almost time for us to go so we were given two small tasks.  Kasey decorated cookies while I scooped chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie dough.  Overall, the majority of our day was spent sheeting cookies.  

Tuesday-Friday

Last week was so busy.  We went from a non-level soil surface, to a four-walled shape.  tuesday was crucial work.  Tuesday was the day we solidified our foundation by hanging 2x10x16 across the posts horizontally, and then created joints using 2x8s going the opposite was across the 2x10s.  We did this so we could have 16in centers and so our whole shed wouldn't fall after a week.  This was hard work, especially because I was the only one who knew exactly what to do, so explaining it to the rest of the crew led to some confusion and dissolve, but alas we figured it out and pressed on.  After a long day tuesday, wednesday was a nice break.  We started off by driving out to the Hard Rock Rockcino, where we looked at some blueprints and took a nice riding tour of the grounds.  There was a little wrinkle in the plan, because when we tried to go inside, they denied us access due to our lack of 21 years of age.  So we hopped in a golf cart/gator type of thing.  We rode around talking about structure and what we were going to do about our roof.  After an informative 25 minute ride, we headed back to the work cite to finish up the floor, but a distracted unit struggled to complete the entire floor, and we ended up finishing it thursday.  After finishing the floor thursday morning, we were greeted by a surprise lunch visit from mrs. senkfor.  Donotos pepperoni pizza filled our bellies, and headed off to lowes to buy lumber for the walls.  Friday morning we began work on the walls, with a little help from my dad, we finished two walls in the morning, enjoyed a fantastic Chick-fil-a lunch from Mrs. Goodman, and then put up a third wall before quitting time.  On saturday my dad and I constructed and put up the fourth wall.  It was a long week, but fruitful and rewarding.

Beginning to take shape

Thursday and Friday of this week were very productive. On Thursday, we finished the floor which we had been working on for the first week of building which was a very relieving accomplishment. After over 600 screws being drilled into the 32 boards, the floor was finally finished. Thankfully, all our calculations turned out to be correct and the floor was almost completely level, and were the correct dimensions that we wanted. After we finished, we went on our second Lowe's adventure. After searching for and moving over 50 pieces of wood from Lowe's to Wyatt's house, we called it a day. On Friday, we began building the shed itself. Going into it, we had no idea how long the walls would take, so we figured we would be happy if we completed one wall. However, we finished the first one in under two hours, so decided to do a second, and then even a third. After a couple of mistakes screwing the walls in, we finally got the correct dimensions we hoped for, everything was square and level, and everything was exactly how we planned. It was a very productive week, and we are all excited for the upcoming days of project. A picture of the three walls and floor is below.

First Two Days at the Vet

Thursday marked my first day at the Barberton Veterinary Clinic.  When I got there, my sponsor wasn’t there and no one knew I was coming. Thankfully a really nice doctor, Dr. Terihay, and her vet tech, Michelle, had me just shadow them until closing. On Thursday, we saw a lot of routine dog checks and then I helped close the office down with Michelle. When I first arrived, I was allowed to watch the very end of a surgery in which a cat was being de-clawed and spayed. Apparently because I am not 18, I am not allowed to touch the animals (a rule I have already broken numerous times) even though I got a form from the school.

On Friday, I was at the hospital for a full day from 9 to 6. I started the day by meeting with my sponsor.  Afterwards I helped set up the rooms to start of the day. For the most part I watched and helped with patient evaluations and played with the animals when they were not being evaluated. At one point during the day I watched a surgery like procedure on a coatimundi. Unfortunately, the coatimundi had a paw issue that involved cutting off the infected tissue of the back paws (tissue that grew in and was not necessary); I will never forget that smell. It was really cool but really sad because it looked so painful and was because the owner was not closely watching the delicate paws of the coatimundi. On Friday, I also watched laser therapy on a poor dog that lost motor ability in his hind legs. It was very interesting but so sad because the dog was upset and in pain and afterwards I cuddled with him until his owners were ready to go.

All in all, my first two days at the vet hospital were quite eventful and fun. I am very excited for the next couple of days of project at the clinic because it will be so interesting.

Here’s a coatimundi. Unfortunately you cannot see the long tail or fortunately smell their natural odor but they’re pretty adorable.

The Walls

After successfully creating the foundation, I was very relieved but also very impressed at the progress of the project.  I was a little worried that due to the lack of experience in our group, we would really struggle when it came to the construction.  Thanks to meeting with different people and Wyatt's previous experience, along with the supervision of his dad, I was very impressed with what we had done.  The walls were a lot of fun to build and once they were up, it finally began to look like a shed.  Putting windows in the shed, it made making some of the walls more complex to create.  Wyatt's father was extremely generous and oversaw the creation of the first wall to make sure that we knew how to do it for the remaining three.  While it took a while, we were able to successfully create 3 of the 4 walls on Friday.  While we initially planned on completing 2 walls a day, we worked extremely hard and grinded out 3 walls.  It has been nice to see the efficiency of our group steadily increase throughout the building process.  We are all getting better using tools (Even through I still struggle screwing in screws), and we are working at a more efficient rate.  Finally after constructing the 3 walls, it is finally starting to look and feel like a shed.  I was amazed at the size of a 12 by 12 shed.  It is a lot more specious than I initially expected and will provide a great deal of space to hang out and store things for the Beck Family

.

The Foundation/Racino

After constructing the foundation and cementing the posts, we began to build off of the foundation and form the deck like area.  We came up with the cool idea to build a deck and a shed off of the deck. Throughout these days, I realized how tedious construction can be, how bad I am at screwing in screws, and how much precision is required to form a successful project.  Making sure that the wood is leveled and that the distances between pieces of wood are equidistant are all essential to completely a successful project.  While I knew that math would be involved, I did not realize the precision that would be required.  On Wednesday we were supposed to go to the Rocksino.  After arriving at the Rocksino in Northfield, which is 30 minutes away, we were denied entrance to the building.  We were not 21 and our mentors associate assumed that we could be escorted to the restaurant despite being underage.  Because this was not permitted, we were not able to get a tour of the casino.  While this was a bit frustrating, we went to Gene's office outside the Rocksino and went through exactly how we were going to make the shed.  This was extremely helpful as we had the opportunity to pick the brain of the head of this construction company.  Afterwords, we got a tour of the exterior of the Rocksino from the superintendent of the project.  After spending 4 days building the shed, it was impossible for me to fathom how a structure that large and complex could be built.  I have developed a much great appreciation for the construction industry as a result of this project.

Buttercream is the Enemy

        Today was pretty much like the average day at Luna for the "interns" (Kasey, 2 girls from Orange High School and myself).  Going into today I knew that I needed to make 3 batches of buttercream frosting to finish off the total 7 that I've done this week.  However the big mixer was occupied when I first got there so I did a small job to waste the time.  I bagged frozen cheesy bread for an order.  Once I finished this I started the buttercream.  It basically took me the entire day to do all 3 batches.  I've memorized the recipe because I have made a total of 12 batches of buttercream since I've started.  I worked on the buttercream by myself because the rest of the interns were in the basement decorating cookies, sheeting cookies and separating eggs.  Although I wish I could have been decorating cookies, I was very glad that I didn't have to be separating eggs.
        It was relatively busy in the front today because it is Friday.  So I decided to eat an early "lunch" and had breakfast instead of lunch.  After this I got back to my buttercream frosting.  The other bakers/cooks in the kitchen today were very busy.  Bridget was baking today and that means that there was a lot to do.  There were cupcakes, pies, lemon bars, macarons and buttercream frosting being made today.  As well as vegetables being sauteed and cut up and fruits being cut.  You can always tell when it is busy based on the amount of dishes in the sink.  Today the dishes were piling up.  Once I finished up my last batch of buttercream I cleaned my station and got to leave about 10 minutes early, which was nice on a Friday.  There weren't any other tasks that I could have started and finished in time before I had to go.  The pictures below are of some of the cookies that Kasey and I have decorated this week and that she decorated today.

Left (stars for memorial day)

Right (bee's and bee hives for spring)

Up it Goes

During the past week our she'd has quickly began to grow. Last week we spent time doing internships in order to improve our knowledge in how to build and what the best process for building our own she'd would be. This week we changed our focus more onto getting the structure up. After putting in the posts and doing the concrete last week we were then able to get the large wood boards in as the base over the past couple of days. Yesterday we started on the floor and plan to have that finished by the end of the day thus allowing us to move forward and start working on the walls. While I have seen a ton of progress in he last few days and the she'd is going up quickly I am a little concerned that we may not finish in time. While I say this though it wouldn't be because we didn't work enough but just because we underestimated how much time it would take to build a shed. That said I'm still confident we are building a strong shed that we will all be very happy with in the end. As we continue to stay updated we our sponsor Mark he keeps giving us very helpful advice as well as making sure we stay on task. Overall we are going to continue to keep working hard in hope that we can finish the whole shed while doing it with the highest quality we can provide.

Building from the Ground up

These last two days of project have been very productive. On Tuesday, our group made the base for the floor (the first picture below). For this, we attached 6 pieces of wood to the 9 posts (2 pieces for every three posts) and then we placed 12 pieces of wood perpendicular to these 6 supporting beams. This process was much more difficult than we initially thought it would be, since it was quite tedious and time consuming to screw all the boards together, and also very difficult to level out and make sure they were all equidistant. Leveling was a challenge especially because some boards were curved more than others, so it proved to be a very difficult task to complete. After a very full day on Tuesday, we were all exhausted but came back today ready to go to our final internship and then work on the floor itself. After an interesting tour around the outside of the Rocsino (since we were not allowed in) and learned about many of the structural elements of the building, we went back to Wyatt's to start the flooring. Wyatt claimed it would take 20 minutes max to do the entire floor, but 3 hours later, we were only halfway done (second picture below). We had to call it a day since all the screw guns were beginning to run out of battery, and our backs ached so badly we had to take a break. The next few days we are going to finish the floor, and then hopefully start the walls!

On My Own

         I was on my own today at Luna.  Kasey wasn't feeling well, so it was just me.  I knew what I had to do today coming into it, which was nice.  I was told that we needed a total of 7 batches of buttercream frosting on Monday.  So I made 2 batches on Tuesday and 2 more today.  There are only 5 ingredients to buttercream so it is relatively easy.  The most difficult and time consuming part of the recipe is separating egg whites from the yolks.  I had to separate over 100 eggs in order to have enough for the two batches I made today and the 3 that I have to make tomorrow.  It took me forever and it was actually kind of stressful, because I kept getting egg shells in the egg whites.
         After about an hour and a half of separating eggs I scaled out the ingredients for 2 batches of buttercream and I started my first batch.  While I let the egg whites and the sugar sit over a double boiler I got to decorate cookies!  I loved decorating the cookies because it's fun to combine baking and art.  I finished my first batch and then I got to take my lunch break.
        Once I got back from lunch I started on my second batch and decorated lady bug cookies while I waited.  After this I made the batter for rum cake.  The best part about this recipe was that I made it for a regular size, not times 6 or 8.  It was kind of like baking at home, because I used a smaller mixer and a regular sized bundt pan for the cake.  Once I was done with this my day was finished.  I was surprised that I technically did so few things today and it took up my entire day.  I think that if I didn't have to separate all those eggs I would have been able to accomplish a lot more tasks today.  

Last Day at POA

Today marks the last day of my time at Pediatrics of Akron. Tomorrow I will have an orientation day at the Barberton Veterinary Clinic and begin there (officially) on Friday. While I am sad to finish at POA, I am excited to move onto the vet office even with the annoying troubles they have been causing me.

Anyway, throughout my time at POA parents have completed 58 surveys. This is a lot more than any of us were expecting and we are very pleased with this number. While I had hoped for a slightly different experience, I am still pleased with what I have had. The final portion of my experience with POA will conclude with an optional questionnaire for the pediatricians that asks about communications between verbal and non-verbal patients (the focus of my project). In this, it will hopefully effectively evaluate any communication issues in the office to be fixed, which is what my sponsor had hoped for as the result of my time at POA.

I had to make a new survey for the pediatricians not just to annoy the doctors but because the vet’s office did not want to use the original survey and so I had to create a new evaluate manner for my project.

It has been fun at POA seeing how everything is run and seeing all the adorable kids running around the office and I am extremely thankful for the help the office has given me.

Busy Monday

I usually dread Monday's; however, today was great fun!  First off, waking up later and taking the short 10 minute drive over to Luna is amazing.  It makes for such a better day when I get enough sleep at night to be ready for what is to come.  Kasey joined me in the morning, which was great because we had to match macarons shells.  It wasn't the most fun job in the world but it had to be done.  Something I did not know about Luna before I started was that they tend to have a lot of catering orders.  Today there was an order for a lot of macarons, so we had to help out with matching the shells.  This meaning that once they are taken out of the oven you have to match the macaron ends together so that they are the same size.  Kasey and I did a total of 10 sheets of matching and it surprisingly took us about an hour and a half or more.  The time flies by while we are in the kitchen.  Once we finished the matching we scaled out recipes.  Because the recipes are for a lot more cookies, it takes us a lot longer to scale the recipe.  Also, there is no estimating when scaling these recipes.  Kasey and I both used scales to make sure that we had the EXACT amount the recipe said.  Once we finished scaling for two different cookie recipes Kasey had to go for a doctors appointment so I was on my own.  It was right around 12 o'clock, which is usually lunch time.  As "interns" we usually just write down our orders and give them to the people who cook and they do them last.  Today was a little weird.  It was insanely busy, especially for a Monday and I don't think anyone was expecting it.  I put in an order but never actually got my lunch.  They were so busy that it probably just got lost.  I didn't mind so I just got myself a bowl of soup.  Once I was finished with lunch I was taught how to sheet cookies.  Meaning that I used the machine that flattens the cookie dough and then I use cookie cutters to create different shapes for orders or for sale in the front.  Today I did a bunch of different insects as my shapes, such as butterflies, dragonflies, bees, lady bugs and bee hives.  It took me much longer than I expected, but I got 6 trays done!  The pictures are of Kasey and I matching macaron shells.