Our neighbor Paul could sleep through earthquakes (I told that story) and make coffee in a hard hat (I told that one too).  He could also be a “dog whisperer.”  Well, maybe not exactly a whisperer.

At one point Paul was injured on the job and wasn’t able to work for awhile.  He and his family were about to lose their mobile home.  Another of his friends paid off the mobile home and he moved it and his family out onto our property until he could get a settlement from Labor and Industries.

Before his injury, when deer season had opened one year, he went hunting in an area where he had formerly lived.  While he was gone I noticed plenty of deer in our area.  During that same period we had a bad storm that blew down many high voltage lines.  Paul’s company called his crew out without him.  The crew was paid double-time for the entire weekend as they worked to get power back up.

When Paul returned I asked him if he had gotten a deer.  He said that he had not even seen a single deer where he had been.

I used to razz him about how expensive his wild meat was.

Before we met Paul and his family they had lived in the mountain country around Flathead Lake.  One winter day he was sitting in a bar, visiting with another patron.  Paul told this fellow that he wasn’t afraid of dogs.  The fellow patron, a neighbor of Paul’s, said he had a dog that wouldn’t let Paul get to the house.

They made a bet.  Paul told him; “I’ll come over this afternoon and don’t call the dog off.”

Paul went home and got a coat made from a bear skin, and rode over to the neighbors on his horse.  He got off of the horse to open the gate about 300 yards from the house.  Immediately he heard the dog running his way from the house and barking.  Paul calmly closed the gate and turned to face the oncoming dog, which by now was pretty close.

Paul hunkered the coat over his head, dropped on all fours and began crawling toward the dog, raising his arms menacingly.  The dog skidded to a stop giving out a yip, and headed back to the house as fast as he could go.

The dog never came out from under the porch the whole time Paul visited with his neighbor.  He never told me how much the bet was, but he sure did win.

It was in the 1960s and I was working on a government job in Montana.  There were many separate trades working on the same job at the same time.  All of us had our own tool box to carry the tools we needed for the job.

The Carpenters had their saws, levels, squares – all of different sizes and configurations – and hammers of all sorts.  The Plumbers would have drills, threaders, vices, pipe wrenches, welding apparatus, etc.  The Electricians would have drills, hammers, screwdrivers, levels, etc.  And of course the sizes and shapes of the tools determined the size of your tool box.  The tool boxes sometimes became quite large.

One day a few of the men took all the tools out of one of the guys’ tool box and screwed it to the floor, then put all the tools back in.  When the apprentice, a strapping young man, came to get the tool box, he ripped the handle off.

On this job we had to carry our tools up a short ladder, through a trapdoor, and into a small room.  One day we were all – Carpenters, Plumbers, Sheet metal Workers, and I – taking lunch in this small room with our tool boxes when the Johnson Controls man showed up.

The Johnson Controls man took care of the temperature and air controls.  For his controls work he needed a small tubing bender, a tubing cutter/reamer, a couple of screwdrivers and a few small wrenches.

We were all sitting around with all our large work equipment and large tool boxes, when the Johnson Controls guy came in carrying a small tool box about 8 inches cubed.  We all burst out laughing at the sight of that little tool box.

He looked at us and said; “I have always heard it said, the smarter the man the smaller the tool box.”

Now days, everyone has battery operated power tools which eliminate a need for so many tools; but I don’t think we will ever catch up to the Johnson Controls man.

One shop I was working for received a contract to wire 5 new homes being constructed by one builder.  There was one floor plan for all five homes.  To get a variety they would turn the plans around in all directions.  The homes were situated all in one row.  I was called to do the wiring on these homes.

After completing one house, the plans were no longer needed because the floor plan didn’t change.  Because of this I was able to wire all 5 homes quite rapidly.  The last house wasn’t sheet-rocked when I brought in the plans to our office and said they were all roughed in.

The foreman looked at the plans and asked if I had wired the door bells.  I asked; “Are they on the plans?”

They weren’t.

I hadn’t done them.

The foreman made a call and then told me that the customer did want door bells.  I rushed back to the site and started putting in door bells.  The last of the five was easy since it wasn’t sheet-rocked yet.  The first house had already been painted.  I had been feeling pretty proud of myself for getting those 5 houses wired so quickly, but it took me another week to get all the door bells in.

What a mistake!  If I had just had enough sense to make a phone inquiry at the first house I’m sure I would have set some kind of record.

Years later door bell manufacturers came up with door bells that needed no wiring.  The chimes were plugged into an outlet and the door bell button used a battery to send a radio signal to the chimes.

I have noticed that very few manufactured homes have door bells wired in.  Some enterprising person could make a living installing wireless door bells in manufactured homes.

Normally when I installed a door bell system, I would run a wire from the front door to the basement; from the back door to the basement; and from the chimes to the basement.  I would set the door bell transformer in the basement and then wire it all together.  On one occasion I was in the basement doing the door bell connections.  I would touch the low voltage wires together and ring the chimes to locate which was the front and which was the back control.

The home owner came over to see how I did that.  He said; “Don’t tape them up.  Some day I’m going to pull a trick on my wife.”

Oh boy!  I would hate to be in his shoes when his wife discovered what he was doing.