DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... "Mentoring"

Some of you may remember me speaking of "mentoring" a youth, through a church program. I wasn't really excited about it, but did it.


Had a great 4 years. Got to watch this kid grow, in all ways. 2-3 get togethers a month. I was in NO way a 'parent' to him. I didn't 'mentor' much. We just hung out, got to know each other. I encouraged him in his trade school education.

We were "done" last May, yet we still get together, text, call, etc.

Friday evening he called me, wondering what I was doing. I said 'nothing, other than going up to the house to let the dog out, shower, then get some food."

Him: "Um, my dad is gone, and I just shot a deer. Can you help me gut it? (for those that don't like that language "field dress".)

Sure. I went to his house and told him I was there to offer advice. HE was going to get his hands dirty, not me.

He started, and it took about 3 minutes before we we both had bloody hands. Good, fun time. "Dude, right now, you need to cut the diaphragm" Okay. What's that? That's the part holding the heart and lungs away from the intestines, and stomach and stuff. Here - (reaching in) this stuff. Be careful, don't cut the intestines or stomach.

Now, reach way up its throat and cut the esophagus. It'll feel like a garden hose. He did. No, further up. Here, like this.

Anyway, we got done. His mom and dad both texted me later "thanks for helping. We didn't even know he was going out."

Relationships that WILL stand the test of time.

Just take the knife and cut through the ribs, heading towards its neck. "What?" Like this, as I sliced them wide open.

Best way, on this deer, to get the poop chute out is splitting it's pelvis. Then you can just pull it out. Look, the rib cage doesn't matter, as this isn't a mountable deer.

Good lesson to learn. Field dressing a deer was something I learned around 13 or 14. Only ever did it once. My family is filled with hunters. I was just never much of a hunter. I preferred fishing. Field dressing a fish is a skill too.

My buddy that I build art with, he and I had/have an intern program in our shop. We have recent grads from a local high school arts program come out and learn. The summer after they graduate they come to us. We do it this way as to have 18 year olds in the shop. Not minors. There’s too much risk for injury. We don’t need parents suing. We ask 40 hours from them. We can’t offer much in exchange but a letter of recommendation to a college, the skills they learn, and an opportunity to build large scale art that they can say they’ve had a part in. Our last interns can go to a local park and see the things they helped create.
They typically come to us having never used power tools and such. It’s a ‘from the ground up’ process getting them to become ‘useful’ for us to actually have around the shop, but it’s totally worth it. Watching someone go from intimidated by power tools to confident and capable is pretty cool… and helpful. Building large scale steel art is hard work. There’s a lot of dirty, loud, dangerous, monotonous tasks that have to be done to come out with something beautiful at the end. One of the first, and often their most frequent tasks is grinding/finishing welds clean. It’s brutal work. I’m grateful when interns can do it for me. For them it teaches them there’s a process to everything… often times the process isn’t ‘fun’. While it’s not fun, it can be really rewarding.

We had a great couple year run with the intern program. Then COVID hit. We’re hoping to land a couple this summer. We’ve met a couple of the kids that have shown interest. They seem green, but eager. We’ll take it.

I don’t have kids. This has been a really enjoyable thing for me. It’s my chance to pass on some of the skills I’ve gained over the years. For this, I’m more grateful for them than they are for us… Especially after a hard day grinding. Of this I’m sure.

Ah, cuss. Too late for me to delete this.