How To Clear Snow in Kentucky

[Kellemora]

Oh, you can study on your own, and take the test for a license, but then costs up in the thousands of dollars.
I know in St. Louis you can take the test in multiple stages to earn endorsements for each level, and then take the final test.
However, if you work your way up in a union shop starting at the bottom and working your way up to journeyman, then the licensing tests were only like 300 to 500 bucks. Plus, you were more likely to pass on the first try also. Simply because you worked for about 5 years doing everything as you moved up the levels. Hard to forget hands on learning!
But you time with the union ends after you pass journeyman and get your license, unless you join the union as a full member.

[yogi]

My guess is that you are paying union dues while you are studying to become a journeyman. I was a meat cutter in a local grocery for ten weeks one summer just to earn some extra cash before going back to school. Because I worked more than eight weeks I had to join the union. The store would not hire me unless I agreed to ten weeks; wonder how THAT happened. It cost me $300 to be in the union and I was being paid $80 a week at the time. On top of that there were monthly dues. They gave me a retirement card after I left, and I still have it somewhere along with my expired amateur license. So, in my case joining a union for 5 years to become a journeyman would have been quite expensive. Perhaps more than taking a course to learn how to do it.

[Kellemora]

So long ago, I don't really remember, but I don't think I paid anything at all to join the union as a newby.
However, in order to start work as a Cub for Laughlin Plumbing, I had to get a trainee card from the union hall.
It may have been 10 to 20 bucks, and it could be the company paid for it too.
Now later, when I started as a Cub for Steffen Electric, I had to pay for a background check to a county office, 13 bucks if I recall, and when I got that paperwork I took it to the union halls to get my approved to work card from them. Now that card clearly said on it, non-member authorization to work for and named Steffen Electric.
In both cases when I completed my Cub level and moved to Apprentice, I got new cards from both unions, and both showed I completed Cub. But each card did it differently, I don't remember what was on the plumbers union card, but the electricians card showed Cub+.
Once I completed the plumbing Apprentice, then my card showed the Union Logo and Name, my name and address, the date I completed Cub, and the date I completed Apprentice.
The electricians card was just like my Cub+ card but now just said Appr+, and still said non-member authorization.
I do remember having to pay a fee to get my electricians card, but it wasn't much, maybe 50 bucks.
If there were any union dues from either company I worked for, they must have paid them for me.
It was only after I finished my Journeyman level and got my license that I would have to become a full-member, but that is when I quit working for both companies. Union rules wouldn't let me join another union other than their own. And at the time, I was more interested in becoming an electrician, so had to leave working for Laughlin Plumbing as they were a union shop.
The same thing happened with Steffen after I passed my tests and got my licenses, if I was not a member of the union, I could no longer work for them either.
No biggie, I had better things in mind to do, hi hi.

Oh, the other day when I was talking about the Sand and Gravel companies I was driving for, after I sent the message I remembered it was Phillip's Sand and Gravel, the one I couldn't remember, the other was Seimers Sand and Gravel.
I only drove for those guys part time, when they needed a load to go out and nobody else was available.
I was working downtown at the time, so both of them were nice and close, maybe ten minutes to get there, and I could take off work easily enough back then for a couple of hours if need be.

[yogi]

I can say I was a member of the meat cutters union one summer, but that's it for my personal experience with those organizations. All the union talk I heard at Motorola was not flattering and much of what I read in the news didn't put them in a shinning light either. If the training in a trade was free, or nearly so, then I could see that as a benefit of being associated with a trade union. But your stories suggest that training was separate from actual membership.

We have one gravel company at the edge of town here in O'Fallon. I'd not know that if it weren't for the neighbors complaining about the noise. Apparently they set off explosions from time to time in order to pulverize the rocks in the quarry. Some neighbors complain about it upsetting their dogs and then write about it in the neighborhood newsletter. I might have heard an explosion or two and not known what it was. The company is located on the same edge of town that I am but further east. They recently completed a subdivision down the street from me and I probably seen some of the gravel trucks from the town quarry. Probably, but I'm not sure.

[Kellemora]

In order for a union company to hire a worker, that worker has to first go to a union hall and sign up, not as a member, but for approval to work for the company as a trainee or cub, or apprentice, etc.
One of the benefits of not being a full-union member is that you cannot be bumped by someone with seniority.
I saw this a lot in both the plumbing and electrical field.
When one of the BIG contractors laid off a bunch of union workers, they would look to the smaller companies to see which of their members had less seniority and then go take that job away from them.
There is also a group of lower seniority workers who they call 'on the bench.'
These are full union members who are not working at a job for the moment, or they were bumped by someone with more seniority.
So they wait until a job opens up somewhere, and they get called to fill the position based on their seniority level.
Some contractors, such as home builders, often hire workers on a daily per house basis, so they really never know who is going to be working for them on what day. Plays total havoc with their payroll department too!
It was not uncommon for a home builder to have over 250 people appear on their total payroll records by years end, when they only actually have about 15 workers on any given day.
To help alleviate some of that burden, a small contractor may contract with a union hall for workers and pay the union hall direct, and let them worry about the end of year W2s that must be sent out. But not many union halls will do this.
Works sorta like a Temp Service in a way.
I've used workers from various Temp Services several years ago, and I just paid the temp service.
When I was cleaning out houses, I used to hire a van load of Salvation Army workers, through the Salvation Army, so I only cut one check to them, and didn't have to worry about W2s. They always got the job done for me too, but it was not as cheap as one would think. The Salvation Army expected an equivalent donation of what the actual cost was. So if they said 600 bucks, you had better be paying them 1200 bucks instead, or they may not have any workers the next time you need them, hi hi.

The way charges are set in a quarry, shouldn't be all that noisy, because 90% of the explosion sound goes up in the air vertically.
They bore deep holes in the face of the rock area they want to break free, push the dynamite down to the bottom of those holes. And then the get set off one right after the other in quick succession. You may feel the ground vibrate and hear some of the explosion, but not much, and then hear all the rock falling to the bottom.
I know from blowing out tree stumps on our farm how loud a 60/40 or 40/60 stick of dynamite really is.
We normally used 40/60 about 2 feet down in the ground, and it was really loud. But not as loud as when it is far down in rock, like when they were building the Interstate highway system. One thing we did see a lot of when they were building the Interstate was huge smoke rings up in the air from the dust inside the bore holes. A couple of times it looked like a long chain of smoke rings as the charges went off one after another. A couple of times they made it rain, because apparently they hit water pockets down in the rock, and the bore hole blew water up into the air, hi hi.

As an aside: I was at the Shotlocker for a wedding reception the night the Bussen/Antire quarries dynamite shed blew up.
They were a few miles away, but the concussion was so great, it blew in the windows, knocked a couple of musicians off the stage, and the drop-ceiling came tumbling down, but most of it was just bowed down. Not a whole lot of panels fell down, and those panels were heavy 5/8 inch thick firewall since it was a commercial building. A few people did get hurt. And yes it made our ears ring that far away. A few houses around the quarry were heavily damaged also, but no one was killed.

[yogi]

The people complaining about explosions at the quarry are unknown to me other than their appearance in the newsletter. For all I know they live across the road from the explosions. It's at least three miles from my house and most of the time it's quiet around here. I have heard "explosions" which could have come from the quarry, but they could also be somebody close by target practicing with their magnum. My ears can't tell the difference. LOL The only time it gets noisy enough to upset our dog is on the 4th of July when the earth trembles. She doesn't seem to be too concerned about the noise, but when the floor vibrates she does run for cover.

I'm not sure trade unions operate the same way as factory workers. The factory work force seems to be a stable lot that simply uses the union as a negotiator for working conditions. In the trades with the workload varying every day the unions could be very helpful providing qualified help as the needs arise. I'm not too sure how to react to the concept of seniority. My daughter, the school teacher, is tenured now. They can't fire her, which means she can goof off a whole lot and there isn't anything the school can do about it. Having that tenure, or seniority, is comforting for the worker, but it seems too easy to take advantage of the system when you have special rank.

When my job at Motorola was eliminated, I was not. The reason why I was not terminated had to do with my many years of service and the company policy to give us old timers special treatment. Usually guys like me would move out of the old job and into a menial position at the corporate tower. However, since so many of us were being eliminated that could not be done. Besides, they were planning to move out of the tower. So, I had no job but still was being paid by the company. The assumption was that I would be looking for another job and they were just giving me the time and space to do it. A few times I was offered a severance package with the warning that it might not be available next time around. Well I tried to find another job inside the company for more than a year. I worked in various departments until they too were shut down. It was starting to look like a game of "last one standing" and I didn't want to be the only person in that building when they vacated. LOL My point is that my seniority counted for something even though Motorola was not a union shop.

[Kellemora]

I used to buy semi-commercial fireworks for the fourth, for my first several years down south here.
We had four dogs at the time. One would go hide under the bed, another would sit inside looking out the window, and two would be outside with us, oohing and aahing as they watched them go up and do their display. The beagle would bounce up and down when I ignited the long wicks, and after he heard the boom that sent it skyward, he would turn around and look up in the air and wait for the boom up there that sparked the display. Then he would turn and start bouncing up and down as I loaded another shell in the mortar tube, I think he enjoyed the show more than the people who came did, hi hi.

My first wife's mother's sister worked for Pacco, a company who packaged automotive parts, which was naturally a union company due to the industry. She had double tenure, so got all the sit-down cushy jobs. Those others who reached tenure also got an easier job, even if it was more boring than than other line work. The sad thing was, most of those who did reach tenure found it hard to keep up with the flow of the line, so along a few areas of the line, they had two people doing what one used to do. So it was no wonder they began automating certain parts of the end process of packaging, and this was long before computers ever came along. Basically what this did was cut out several jobs for those who were not tenured, and moved those who were tenured back down to the line, and they were actually happier, but sure worked slow, almost reminded me of longshoremen, hi hi.

Both Siemers and Phillips who I drove the bottom hopper and big tilt dump trucks for were non-union companies. For this reason, at the entrance of their plants, there were always a couple of unions out there picketing. I guess the union workers take turns standing in the picket lines, because they were there for five years before I hauled a few loads for them, and probably for about five years after as well. The odd thing was, most of the quarry workers were union, as well as the in-quarry heavy equipment operators. But they did not use union delivery drivers. I don't know the reason, but thought it was odd.
Mainly because, if a company does have a union, and non-union workers are doing another job, the union workers will stop working. Had this problem when I was building houses, because one union was on strike, another union would not cross their picket lines. But the union quarry workers came to work despite the fact out near the gates were the truckers unions having a picket line going on.
As an aside, even though North American Van Lines has all union drivers, when it came to them hauling a load for the U.S. government, us non-union drivers were called in to haul a load. The unions didn't seem to mind for some reason. Could be because they didn't want to haul those loads. I really don't know the reason why. I enjoyed the few trips I made for them though.
But driving OTR as non-union means a little guy like myself got beat up quite often if I stopped at a truck stop. It helped if they didn't know I was non-union, but they still picked on me because I was a little guy, I've only weighed like 145 pounds for most of my life, and am back down to that again right now.

I'm glad Motorola took such good care of you guys, MRTC was like that until near the very end when they began making all kinds of changes.

[yogi]

Nearly up to the end of my time with Motorola they were running the place like a family business. Things changed over time, however. I was hired in basically due to a letter I had from a fellow ham radio operator who worked for Motorola. I didn't know the guy who sent the letter and he probably got my name out of the callbook. If I were hired on his recommendations, then he would get a $50 bonus. That policy had a name, in fact, and was called Tell A Pal. I didn't find out about this referral program until after I was hired in, and I didn't meet the actual person who referred me until several years later. My mom was hired into the company the same way. I got the $50 and she became part of the Motorola family. This Tell A Pal program lasted for several years after my employment began, but then it was outlawed, literally. They deemed it discriminatory and Motorola had to cease and desist the practice. So much for family values.

The family who founded Motorola managed the company all the time I worked there except for the last few years. Three generations of CEO's ran the place and each generation had to drift further and further away from the "family" concept. By the time the new kid in the CEO office was in charge, he had other interests and managed the cell phone business right into the ground; so far into the ground that it ended up in China in fact. LOL They did maintain some of the family policies, such as profit sharing and special treatment for people with 30+ years of service. In many ways Motorola was ahead of the curve and a lot of business magazines wrote about our success. Unfortunately, nobody, ever, in all the time I worked there, could deal with a purely commercial product. Be it televisions, CB radios, or cell phones, Motorola was leading the pack until the competition got rough. Then they sold it all to off shore companies. Today, as I understand it, they are back to what they were doing when they first hired me some 50 years ago. They are making emergency communication equipment in a small factory in a suburb of Chicago. That's all that is left to the original company. What you see as far as Motorola cell phones go is owned by Lenovo using the familiar name. Also, as far as I know, they are STILL not unionized.

[Kellemora]

Interesting, we had a plan similar to that when I worked at Sverdrup & Parcel, except they called it Foot in the Door bonus.
It could also backfire on you, if you sent too many who were not up to snuff so couldn't be hired.
I made that mistake by sending some info to old classmates that took drafting who I knew were currently working in other menial fields, like flipping burgers, etc. Although they took drafting in school, they didn't have the skills necessary, and I got five X's on my Foot in the Door bonus, meaning I would not get the bonus if they did hire someone, because I wasted their time, hi hi.

Now MRTC was entirely different, they only hired through a certain employment agency and no one else.
I wanted to work there, so had to jump through hoops to find out which agency.
And then that agency sent me on other interviews first, and although they offered me the job, I turned them down, which irked a few of them, which got back to the employment agency. But apparently it helped more than hindered, because when they finally sent me to MRTC for my interview, they interviewer told me is was a shoe in, because one of the big bosses heard I turned down some higher paying jobs in order to get a job here. MRTC was like my dream job until they changed how they did things.

It is ironic now that I live in Tennessee that I've never went back to the Ham Radio Factory named TenTech. Back in the mid-1980's I made a few trips down here to the TenTech factory for tours and to buy their equipment. You don't see it in pictures of my ham shack, but as I replaced some of my Heathkit items, they were replaced with TenTech first. Every time I turned around someone offered to buy my new TenTech rig, usually for more than I paid for it, which ironically is how I could afford to buy the Kenwood and Yaesu gear I had later on when the photo was taken. So all you saw in it was Heathkit and Kenwood, mainly.

TenTech made great Amateur Radio equipment, and it was expensive being mostly hand made. Heck, any type of service on a TenTech done by them, started at 300 bucks, and that was for a simple repair, hi hi.
By contrast, Kenwood repairs started around 130 bucks for something simple, and often included the parts, except tubes of course. However, many repair shops were around town who would work on Kenwood's, sometimes as low as 85 to 100 bucks plus parts. I actually had a couple of repairs on one of mine, be cause I bought it through them, where they didn't charge me anything, not even for the parts, and it was no longer under warranty either.

[yogi]

Businesses can be run in a fair an equitable manner. The really great companies of yesterday, however, ran like a family. Favoritism was implied in just about every aspect of the business, and the business prospered as a consequence. The City of Chicago was run the same way under the Mayor Daley regime. It was dubbed "The City That Works" but everybody who lived there knew how that happened. It wasn't exactly by being fair and equitable to all the city's citizens. It's kind of hard to argue against success but that is exactly what happened to the businesses which ran like a family. Things got harder when they had to be fair to everyone and follow all the new rules. Playing by the rules wasn't the least expensive way to go either. But, as you have pointed out many times, any increase in the costs of doing business get passed on to the consumers.

I can't say that I recall anything about TenTech. I'm thinking hard to remember anything about them, but am drawing a blank. I knew Heathkit very well, Collins, and even Kenwood rings a bell; Yaesu not so much. My first rig was homebrew CW only and the second one was probably of WWII vintage. I recall exactly how the transmitter looked but I don't see a name in my mental image. I'm fairly certain it was a Johnson Viking Ranger, but don't hold me to that. The receiver I used during that period was an old SWL general purpose machine that had bandspread and a BFO oscillator. I'd never be able to hear my fellow ham-sters without those two things. I ended up with a Swan transceiver that was build specifically for amateur radio. It served me well to the very end. All I recall about it now is that it cost $399 which I had to borrow.

[Kellemora]

One of my neighbor friends back home had all Swan gear, he loved them.

TenTech gear was expensive, mainly because it was all made here in the U.S.A., right here in Tennessee.

If you've never run a business, you would be surprised at all the rules, licenses, inspections, taxes, and other things that have to be handled. Reports to be filed, etc. It can literally drive one bonkers.
One of the reasons I'm an LLC instead of an S-Corp had to do with how we must keep the books.
I can be audited as either, but with an LLC it is basically only the bottom line that matters, as long as you got there legally.
One of the big differences between the two is:
When you order a shipment of consumables for making your product.
As an S-Corp, you have to show The bottles, separate from the caps, and inbound freight all in separate areas of the chart of accounts. Although they all get added together again to determine your total cost for the packaging.
As an LLC, you can show bottles, caps, and inbound freight as the cost of and filed on the chart under packaging-bottles.
You of course have packaging-cartons and packaging-cases for the two sizes of boxes for that product.
The bottom line is the same for both methods, one is just easier and don't need everything separated by the exact expense it is.

Everything associated with a business, from the licenses, inspections, permits, taxes, and other fees, are all included in the cost of goods sold, which is then marked up by the amount common to that industry and product at the manufacturing level.
Other businesses work the same way, they include all their expenses to determine their cost of goods sold, then add the markup common in their industry. At the retail level, markup is usually product cost, plus inbound freight,, at 100% markup. Many retailers do not add their overhead in the same way most other companies do, because doubling their price usually covers it quite well. But some retailers do keep close tabs on all their expenses and incorporate it into their markup schedule.

[yogi]

It's true that I never ran a business of my own, but I have talked to several people such as yourself. When I failed to get through college learning how to be a psychologist, my second thought was business administration. I think I would have been great managing things at the executive level, but terrible in the trenches. I can deal with all the detail or with the business, but I don't see myself doing both. One of my friends went into accounting and was very successful at it, but he didn't actually run the business. He did start his own after he retired though.

I only have some vague memories reading about the difference between LLC and S-Corp. One thing I recall is that the laws changed to encourage LLC type businesses and might have even prohibited new S-Corps. The major difference, however, had to do with profits distribution. Apparently an S-Corp kept the profits within the corporation but an LLC would distribute them directly to the parties with vested interests. You probably can correct me on that because it was very long ago when I read it and wasn't all that interested at the time.

[Kellemora]

In an S-Corp, all disbursements to shareholders is taxed on the shareholder.
In an LLC, all net income becomes part of the owner or member and is taxed on their personal income taxes.
But an S-Corp still has to file business tax forms, whereas an LLC has no business tax forms, but ledger records may be required if audited.
Both entities are for the self-employed, with or without employees.
LLC is just a different type of business structure that makes it easier for the owner to keep track of things, but he/she is personally responsible for the taxes on their own tax forms, instead of business tax forms.
All I really know is going as an LLC was the best method for me and my many little businesses I've had over the years since.

[yogi]

LLC = Limited Liability Company which I suspect is the reason it came into being. It's more like a partnership than a corporation which is a separate legal entity as far as taxes and liabilities go. A self-employed person would not want to get involved with the intricacies of running a fully fledged corporation, but as you say it's a personal judgment call. It depends on how you want to make your mark in the world.

[Kellemora]

If you don't have or want stocks, or be on the stock exchange, no reason to be a Corporation.
An LLC is not limited to the number of members it can have, or it can be a single member, unless you set it up as a partnership.
You have a choice of having officers, or members. It is better to just be organized as members.
The protection is for your personal assets, which of course I no longer have any.
But as an LLC, someone can sue the LLC, and not be able to get to your personal assets.
Unless you do something dumb, like co-mingling of funds, which breaks the veil.

I didn't bother doing this, since MO didn't have series LLCs.
But almost all the investors I knew with properties, they placed each property under its own LLC.
Then a parent LLC owned all of the other LLCs. Which is one way to do it in a state without a series LLC.

Ut Oh, computer acting up again. Just ran the enter key until the board filled up.

Sending before I lose it!

[yogi]

I doubt that I'll get involved with any LLC unless I happen to win the lottery. Asset protection would be a key reason for doing it, and a holding company is just my kind of business - do nothing but own other stuff.

Hopefully you can find the cause of your sticky keys. I've run across settings for touch sensitivity and frequency of repetition, but I don't think you have the same kind of keyboard that I'm using. It's probably some soda you spilled on the keys. But now that I think of it, is sugar free soda sticky?

[Kellemora]

A couple of years ago, I told the old fellow who takes care of Debi's aunts yard to form an LLC.
What brought it up is he claims all the money he makes doing side jobs as hobby income, which does not allow for deductions.
He uses his mowers, weed eaters, hedge trimmers, wheelbarrow, gas, oil, and tools, etc.
He listened to me tell him why, then a few days later he called an attorney who got him all set up as an LLC.
Back home in Missouri, it's a one time charge, but down here in Tennessee you have to pay the fee annually.
Even so, it allows him to claim all of his expenses, and depreciate his equipment. So much so, what he earns he now gets to keep, because he is retired for one, and can make a certain amount before you pay taxes on earnings. He was over that amount before he formed the LLC because he claimed all of his earnings with no deductions.

I drink Diet Rite Pure Zero, and it is not sticky when you leave a spill. Most of the time it don't even leave a stain.

All is still working great with the computer!

[yogi]

Money earned from hobbies is regular income and thus not entitled to business deductions. You can claim certain expenses which reduces income but they can't exceed total income nor be carried forward. When I was an astrologer it was claimed as hobby income and all the books and astrology related stuff was deducted from the income. Most years I had zero income but was able to acquire a lot of books. LOL I also looked into claiming the basement space as a business office, and I might have gotten away with that to lower my taxes if they didn't audit me. The requirement for claiming home space as a business is that it must be exclusively used for the business and nothing else. I couldn't meet that particular requirement so I just said it was all a hobby and added it to my regular income when appropriate.

I believe individuals have to pay taxes on all income. Those at the low end do not have a tax liability simply due to the standard deductions. If you're on social security benefits a certain amount of income is allowed before they start deducting from the payout. I'm thinking you know all about that particular rule.

[Kellemora]

You really don't want to claim a part of your house for business, because it comes back to bite you when you go to sell your house.
What happens is, it reduces the basis of your home, so you end up paying income taxes on that difference, usually at a much higher rate too. So you end up losing in the long run!

Way back when I was doing Handyman work, before I did it through my later formed company for the purpose, I had to have the customer buy the materials, because I could not deduct the cost of materials under hobby income classification.
I still went and bought them, and they paid me for them separately, and they got the receipt, so I made no profit on materials.
When I was making things like ornaments I sold to Venture Department Stores, I had to show the materials separate on their invoice, which then somehow made it deductible. But I had an attorney show me how to do that to make it legal.
If I recall, it showed it as a purchase on their behalf as Out of Pocket, Reimbursed. Something like that.
But after I formed an S-Corp, then I could deduct a lot of things, including metered electric to my shop on a separate meter.
Since I was renting the house, I had them lease me the garage on a separate lease so it too was deductible. The heated garage was only used for business purposes. Plus rather than me paying the utility bills myself, they also billed me for the utilities on two separate bills, one for the house, one for the garage. This way I had all the necessary receipts to use them as a deduction.
Later on I became an LLC which made most of the bookwork and required meetings go away. Not at first because I was a partnership, but later became a sole owner LLC.

It used to be one could make up to 600 dollars per month. I think Trump upped it to like 45,000 per year. Have no idea what it is now until I get around to doing my taxes, hi hi.

[yogi]

My daughter ran a day care business out of her house. One huge room was indeed dedicated to the business and they did claim it as such for tax purposes. I don't know what they did when they sold the house but I do know what you say about cost basis is true. Somehow depreciation figures into the formula on the business part but not on the residential part. I was only vaguely aware of what was going on but they ran that business for several years "for tax purposes." Go figure.

The hobby expenses could only be counted against income if they were used to expand the hobby. Thus the books I bought did exactly that but the utilities to keep the room lit and heated didn't count. I was doing my own taxes at the time and I didn't want to mess with anything complicated so I took the most simple way out. Down here in Missouri I pay to have my taxes done. This year the federal forms changed to 1040-SR. It's a senior citizen form and I have no idea what is different about it. I should look, but haven't had the time. I do know that I ended up paying nearly $1000 less in federal income tax. Missouri has been getting the same amount each year.

Since I don't have a job my SSA benefits have not changed. Well, they did increase due to COLA but that ends up as a net loss because Medicare costs also increased.