We are Knife River!

Our last few days at Knife River were bitter sweet. One of those sad to see it go moments, but excited for what lies ahead. We felt very loved by our co-workers and feel very blessed to have met all of them. 

The last days were spent buttoning up our duties in the office and touring the asphalt plant. Pictures of course were a must! 

Above are the views of the office, shop and the yard from the top of the asphalt plant silo. My only complaint about climbing to the top was the smell of hot asphalt. I was informed later that, that is the smell of money! Below, to the left is the looking down the stairs on the silo. It was a good butt work out let me tell you! To the right is a loaded Knife River truck, getting ready to pick up his ticket for the load of mix he has on. 

The gentlemen standing between Alan and I is Jason. Jason is a Superintendent in the Williston Office. He was Alan's boss for two years when he drove distributor truck and been a great friend and mentor to both Alan and I.  

This was Alan's third year and my second year working with Knife River. The employees there have started to feel much like family. On our last day we gathered everyone we could together and took a group picture. Everyone is really excited for us, and wanted to wish us all the best in China. 

left to right: Alan, Heidi, Eddie, Anna, Kortney, Jason, Chris, Susan, Ty, Sarah, Brad, Barbara, Russ, Dick, and Andy 

In addition to the group picture we wanted to capture Weight Master Chris hard at work scaling his trucks for the day.

* side post- a week before we left for China, Chris was gone on vacation with his family. While he was gone, I helped run the scale. The girl that took my job at the front and I decided that we should play a prank on Chris. We just happen to have tons of old news papers lying around and couldn't think of anything better to do with them....then..... 

Maybe Chris will think twice before taking off for a week in the middle of the season.... :) 

* Back to current post. Below is a picture of my boss Sarah and I. She became a great friend and co-worker. I really enjoyed working with her, and will miss her next year when she moves down to our head office. 

We wanted to take a picture of the three returning front office workers. This is the best one that turned out. 

Heidi (front desk), Chris (weigh master), Sarah (office manager)

Then we added Kortney, who is the new front desk girl. I feel very confident in her and know she will do a great job at taking over the roll as the face of Knife River- Williston.

Above is the best photo we could get Chris to take, below are the first couple of attempts. PS. I will post these to facebook and be tagging his wife, mom and grandma. 

Now on to Alan's co-workers. This summer Alan was learning to estimate and bid jobs as an intern for Knife River. He was blessed with some great hands-on experience and had the opportunity to work with two very talented individuals on a daily basis. 

Stacey, Alan and Greg

Williston is growing at such a rapid pace that when Alan left they brought up another estimator from our Bismarck office. 

Stacey, Alan, Greg and Joe

Above is the estimating crew from Western North Dakota, minus the lead Estimator Michael. 

We end this post with the men from the office. We have Jim who works for the Idaho division of Knife River, Ty- Contract Administrator, Stacey- Project Manager/Estimator, Greg- Project Manager/Estimator, Jason- Superintendent, Alan- Project Manager/Estimator- Intern, Joe- Project Manager/Estimator. 

Now we're on to the next adventure of China.  Stay tuned for pictures and stories!