Jacob Lake - Day One

The sheets that I brought from home were for a twin sized bed and didn't quite stretch enough to cover my queen sized bed. Instead I laid my blanket down and pulled out my sleeping bag. After snoozing through my alarm twice for an additional 10 minutes of sleep, I got up out of bed and did a few pushups with Tony Horton. After a shower I found my JL polo and headed out to the lobby to start my first day on the job.

Kelly was waiting for me in the office. He had just woken up a few moments before. Kelly was one of the managers and part of the Rich family. First we started by turning on all the lights. He said that he liked to start by illuminating his day. Then we started a fire in the two fire pits by making a pyramid of three logs and drenching it with lighter fluid. "It's just easier this way..." We moved our way to the center counter where the coffee maker was located. "They will kill you if you don't have coffee in the morning." We wiped down the counter and made sure everything was stocked (sugar, salt, pepper, etc). I spent most of the morning watching for aside, and maybe filling up a drink or two every once in awhile. Towards the end of the morning shift Kelly pulled out a menu and told me to sit down and study it over a plate of food. And to put a little heat under my butt he told me that I would be taking the next order…

There are a few different scheduling options. The opening shift has their 8 hours spread over the entire day, making it feel more like a 13 hour shift. The closing shift starts late morning and works through the late evening until close. I prefer the closing shift so that my free time is clumped together and not spread out over three different breaks.

Other options are ‘early straight,’ ‘late straight,’ and ‘mid rover.’ Straight means that you work a straight 8 hours. Sundays are usually the days for straights so that half the group can catch morning sacrament meeting in Kanab and come back for the others to catch an afternoon sacrament meeting.

Winter Schedule Hours 8-8

OPEN
Kitchen 7:30-11:30 2:00-5:30 7:45-8:15
Waitri 7:45-11:45 2:00-5:30 7:45-8:15
Rover 8:00-12:00 2:00-5:30 7:45-8:15

CLOSE
Kitchen 11:00-3:00 4:00-8:15 15 min dinner break
Waitri 11:00-3:00 4:00-8:15 15 min dinner break
Rover 11:00-3:00 4:00-8:15 15 min dinner break

Mid Rover 9:30-1:30 3:00-6:00 7:15-8:15


During my break I decided that I ought to take a walk around the grounds of the lodge. There were several buildings that I still hadn’t been to or seen. I laced up my new boots and strapped on my gaiters. I walked around the front to the side where I found snow mobile tracks leading for the woods. I followed them a bit to the Forest Service station closed for the winter, then down a small hill and back behind where the volleyball/racquetball court was buried by three feet of snow. My mind turned to friction fires and how I could probably use the practice. I found a few worthy looking pieces of wood and carried them back to a bench outside the Forrest Service station. I had a bow, a few straight-ish dowels, and a small log that I thought might work as a fire board. I split it by using my knife as a wedge and a log as a hammer. After flattening both sides I made a small hole and notch like I’d remembered seeing so many years ago in Scouts. I still needed some kind of cap to hold the dowel with as I bowed… I found a piece of the log that might do the job and carved out a small hole. After bowing for several minutes and shooting my dowel into the snow a number of times, I concluded that my equipment wasn’t the best, and probably wasn’t too dry either. I fiddled around a bit more and then headed back to the lodge to wrap up my break.

My first couple of kitchen tickets were all over the place. I didn’t know the menu yet so I was describing things rather than abbreviating them. Then once I had gotten all the details down that time permitted I went to the kitchen with a menu and transcribed. Mike thought my full sentences were funny, and showed me a few abbreviations to make it quicker and more legible. Over the course of the afternoon I made two large mistakes. First of all, I didn’t know how to add in a tip to a Credit Card charge. So… someone who had added a five dollar tip didn’t get charged for it. My second mistake – Someone paid for a couple coffees with a five dollar bill and said to keep the change. I was excited because that meant tips! I put the bill in the tip jar without thinking to pay the cash register first, then put the remaining change in the tip jar.

Being here at Jacob Lake reminds me a bit of tourists in Guatemala. At Tikal you would meet people from all over the world. Here at the Lodge, I’d say more foreigners have been passing through than locals. It makes sense though; a local wouldn’t want to drive 45 minutes into the middle of nowhere just to eat one of our amazing meals.

Jacob Lake has been run by the Rich family for several generations. They own large portions of land out here and move their cattle back and forth over it. John, the oldest Rich son and now majority owner of JL, comes through every couple months to move cattle. He had finished his work and needed to gas up his rig before taking off. In order to charge gas to the company, you had to activate it from within the station. He asked that I come with him so that I could learn how to run the service station. As we were about to leave John realized he didn’t have the keys. He shouted over to the office to have them hand ‘Michael’ the keys. No one moved. They looked at each other rather confused. John asked again for “someone to hand Mike here the keys.” “Um… John? Who’s Michael?” John looked over at me and responded by putting his hand on my shoulder and saying, “Michael.” Pause… “or whatever the hell his name is… this young man here.” Everyone in the office busted up laughing, John wasn’t known to swear. I got the keys and we went outside to gas his truck. Almost instantly my name had changed to Michael. I guess if John wanted to call me Michael, then everyone else would as well. Michael evolved into my screw up name. When I made a mistake, we called it pulling a Michael.

At the end of each day we clean the place and prepare it for next morning. When everything is done the tip jar is spilled onto the counter and divided between the workers. Today we pulled in nine dollars each. Not bad for a winter day. I found a small stuff sack to put my tips in and hid it with my socks. I started a tip tally on a small half sheet of paper recording the days I worked and how much in tips I made. Maybe I’ll save all my tip money and do something fun with it at the end. We’ll see.

I hit the RecRoom for a bit to do some blogging and hit the sack.