A meat and potatoes day (sans the meat)

I was out the door early this morning for an 8:15 field trip to Steps Plus, Inc., a local operation specializing in architectural precast concrete and cast stone. It was pretty neat to see our last few weeks of lessons take form in front of us. Our tour guide was an co-owner and son of the founder. We saw a number of processes, including the coloration of the cement through both sand type and additional additives and the bending of reinforcing bars. Despite the apparent simplicity of the operation and the rudimentary buildings that housed it, the presence of computers and the latest chemical information was quite apparent. Our tour guide explained that chemical advances have played an important role in improving their product, but that the replacement human workers by computers has been the most significant change. Since the electronic systems do a much better job of creating precise ingredient mixtures the overall strength of the concrete the company produces has doubled.

After tromping around the muddy floors past the big metal equipment I came back briefly to start up my new crock pot. When I returned after drawing class I found a very welcome dinner of potatoes and carrots in an onion broth awaiting me. I think I will get much use out of this device in the coming winter months.