Jack McDermott

While working we also have a home farm Which I was main worker on outside of working hours where I tended to livestock in all aspects such as diagnosing sick animals and treating them , birthing them in calving /lambing seasons. I also operatored the machinery such as driving the tractors to feed animals , mow meadows, rake , bale and any other operators that needed doing , on farm we also had a tracked excavator which I drove to stock pipe dung heaps clean out dry bedded sheds and maintain land. This also forced me to become a custom to working longer hours.

This job was a combination of the development of a town including new concrete foot baths and the pipe laying of electricity ducting and deep storm water piping and preparation of ground for retarring and replacing pavements. Thid involved the operation of a 14 ton rubber duck ( wheeled excavator) for deep excavations on the road and a 16 ton tracked excavator loading out waste from the job in the yard

I also worked re draining and reclaiming Boglands on a separate job site using a 13ton tracked excavator for part of this employment.

Here we worked on a busy town development Where we had to remove old pavements dig out for new services for electricity and water we lay all the pipes ourselves then prepped all the ground for new pavement and tarring here I mainly operated tracked excavators between 3 and 12 ton and drove a tractor disposing of the pavement and earth we dug up from the job site. We also relayed the new pavement ourselves Which was mainly brick paving and concrete paths. We also tended to traffic management on the roads while works were in place.

Here I worked in a busy tractor sales garage where there was constant machines being bought in need of repair where I quickly became capable of carrying out repairs on my own such as clutch changes in tractors and other basic repairs , repairs to diggers and other plant such as changing pumps final drives track motors etc and servicing machines. I also gained experience in engines here changing head gaskets water pumps etc

I prepared steel for welding , cutting it out preparing the surfaces and assembling machines and structures after welding such as grabs digger arms sheds. I also gained experience in welding and became experienced in mig and stick welding as I already had some practice welding in our own garage at home.