bloom where you are planted-part 2 

        well the title really isn't mine but a saying i remember seeing real well. in fact every day for awhile and then on more or less frequent times as it was on a sign in a yard along rt. 30. on the west side of canton , there was a cabin and it was owned by don sterling . the sign was in his yard and i believe honestly he intended to do that in his lifetime. leaving behind a legacy of public donation and and successful businesses , all of which  he was responsible for.

        from the time i was a young child all i could remember was beaver excavating was doing this and that and don sterling wanted this done.dad was a loader operator for beaver for 28 years when he retired . dad and don had quite a history of working together . don's business was in its infancy and equipment was not as it should have been , dad was required to haul his own equipment to the site. today shiny lowboys crisscross the state shuffling equipment around. 

      dad was involved in a lot of projects over the years as beaver was responsible for doing earthwork on a variety of construction jobs over the years. from the faircrest plant of timkens to the pro footbal hall of fame, to interstate highways to slide repair at wintersville on rt.7 dad was on most projects. coming home one night from  cleveland , and the next morning would find him in the furnaces at republic cleaning up a mess. 

      beaver excavating was everywhere around me my whole life and still is as i look out my window. i see areas where dad would borrow a loader or a dozer and he would use it here on the farm. quite a few projects around here are due to beaver or don sterling allowing us to use heavy equipment to make our farming easier . briars and brambles hangin over the driveway as i remember the first time coming home to our home s we know it now. dad cleared and  changed the grade around the old house here on the property removing trees when necessary and finally getting a swale cut in around the house. as kids we would ride on the side of the loader as he would operate the machine. dad was great at what he did and it was evidenced by dad being the one to be called on by beaver excavating  to get the job done. 

       as you can see my whole life revolved around beaver when i was young. i remember meeting don one time in a Quonset building beaver had  beside their office on southway street in canton. us boys when visiting their shop would get busy grabbing a broom and doing what we could to help the grownups. don came in as we were sweeping and mentioned about how hard we were sweeping warning us not to sweep the concrete to hard or all we will end up with is dirt. that was the only time i ever met him . he was an iconic figure in our life as we would follow his and beavers doings around our area . 

     i had always wanted to work for beaver and it seemed it would never happen but a construction firm i was working with was forced to go union to do work with a union company and it required everyone \in our crew to go union. i received my card to work union as a journey man operator. at first i just ran dozer and then learned the excavator. and eventually through a multitude of jobs became proficient at operating any type of equipment. then one day i was called to work for beaver.
     this lasted for a period of 3 years. again i was like dad being shipped across the state , never knowing what job site i would be at in the morning. most of the good old boys were gone by the time i worked for braver and a new crowd had taken over. i was able to work for a couple of dads old bosses and was glad to have met them and worked for them. i also actually spent time working with one of don sterling's sons greg who has now passed away. and found him a great person to know and lots of fun. it was nice to work for them finally as it was a culmination of a dream i had held since i was a young kid. but politics in construction being what it is , and me having no desire to end up falling asleep at the wheel as i relentlessly cross the state to make some one else more rich, i decided to leave the construction business as it too was taking a toll on my health. beaver wasn't the company anymore that my dad had worked for . it had lost its charm to me, and i felt i needed to take my life in a different direction so i went back to farming.
    there is something that can be said for stepping out your door and going to work. in fact when i look out my door now i am looking at a cabin that don had built in his later years after he to retired from the business at beaver to bloom as puts it. he constructed heritage village outside of magnolia and then dedicated it to a church , of which i was able to purchase one of the cabins slated for removal. don has passed away , but a portion of his legacy will still touch us with the erection of the cabin later this summer. it isn't much , just a small 14x14 cabin but i intend to place it close to our pond where i hope it will remain for quite a few more years. it is now sitting on this wagon to be re erected.

     now the ironic part to this cabin is that don was had salvaged a lot  of old barns and lumber from numerous work sites and one of the work sites he was at was next door on the city farm which had a massive old barn and huge house of which both were tore down by beaver and i assume moved to magnolia at the time as it was about the time that don had started to build his cabins there and he was known to use beams from old barns to build them with. this cabin i have was actually built with old barn beams and could easily have been part of the old barn next door. it is nice to know that although it was a tragedy to see another of ohio's old bank barns fall to disrepair , that thanks to don , a little bit of the old barn will grace the opposite bank of the valley in which it stood. and maybe it can finally bloom where it is planted.
     finally beaver excavating was again in the news with the accidental deaths of two of the workers who were killed when a crane toppled. my heart goes out to the families and only serves as a reminder that construction safety has improved over the years , but it is still a very dangerous business to be in. i am glad i no longer have the desire to be involved in it. but like all jobs someone has to do it. and bless those that do and lose their lives as these 2 men did.

         
      again finally i have this pic from 1963 where dad had borrowed a machine from beaver and we all took a photo shot from the lowboy beaver owned . sherry my sister , brenda my cousin , darryl my cousin and i fill the first row. back row is faw, my older brother, jeanie my sister , jim my brother , and jr or denzil jr. . dont ask me why we were all screaming. guess it was for ice cream. in 63 i would have been 8 in this photograph.