10 year Service Award....

[Laura's Babies]

Do you ever ... How many ~
* Eggs & Pancakes you've cooked for breakfasts?
* Hamburgers you've cooked for lunches?
* Steaks you've grilled for dinners?
* How many MILES you've traveled on the River?
* How many Locks you've passed through?

* Eggs & Pancakes you've cooked for breakfasts? Couldn't count them all!
* Hamburgers you've cooked for lunches? Burgers 12 to 16 every Saturday night.........
* Steaks you've grilled for dinners? We LOVE steak day, that's every Saturday!
* How many MILES you've traveled on the River? Hummmm.... I've done the entire Mississippi, upper and lower (The upper only twice, the lower I couldn't count), The Ohio, Cumberland, Illinois, Chicago.... Can't remember the rest.
* How many Locks you've passed through?.. All on the upper Mississippi, some on the Ohio and some in various other places that I have forgotten about.

One thing I tried this last trip was a BIG breakfast for supper and that was the biggest hit with the guys that I have had in a long time. So many love breakfast foods but don't eat breakfast.. They ALL ate that night and the Captain and engineer showed up a hour early wanting to eat! The stove was just about clean when they all finished eating... I gotta do that again!

The golden spoon award? I LIKE that idea... (make note to self "Must tell the company that one!)

[Daisy and Delilah]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! The clock is beautiful!

I have to tell you that I think you have the most unique job I've ever heard of. It's so cool. I would love to hear more about it sometime. I bet alot of the new members would like to know what you do for a living. What kind of employer do you work for(if you can say it on here). No need to be specific I guess, Just the job description itself-not necessarily who you actually work for.

[Cinder & Smoke]

Laura's "Office" ...
The M/V John M. Donnelly / Ingram Barge Company



The JOHN M. DONNELLY, built 1980

Net Tonnage: 761 Tons (1119 GROSS)
Engines: GM 16-645-E7B | 9180 HP
Tow Size: 40 Barge Maximum Tow
Boat Height: 53 ft
Length/Width: 200 x 50 ft
Boat Draft: 9 ft

Laura's "Office" = the Galley (Kitchen) on board the John M. Donnelly >



Safe Trip! *** Don't *burn* the Biscuits!
_____________________________________________

Laura is the Chief Cook (and ONLY Cook) on bord the BIG Mississippi River
tow boat The John M. Donnelly. She goes aboard and lives on the boat for 28 straight days,
cooking 4 meals EVERY day for the Crew. Then comes home for 28 days "off",
drives back to the boat and hops aboard for another 28 day "sail" up and down
the Mississippi River - pushin barges.

NEET!

[Sevaede]

That is a pretty clock Laura!

You DESERVE that award!

[Daisy and Delilah]

Thanks Phred. That's so cool. I'll bet Laura doesn't mind going to work at all except for leaving the kitties. The boat is a home away from home.

What is the function of the crew on the boat?

[Laura's Babies]

The crew's function is to tie all the barges together or untie, depending on rather we are picking them up or dropping them off and making sure they are held together tight and check them for water... meaning see if any are leaking water into them and if they are they take a water pump out to pump out the water if it is a bad leak..

When not on tow, they keep up the boat inside and out. This year the boat will be completely stripped of all it's paint and repainted from top to bottom, front to back. Inside they clean, do repairs, paint, whatever needs doing.

The crew works 6 hour watches and are off 6 hours so except for at watch change, there is someone sleeping 24 hours a day. The green guys who claim they do not sleep doring the day, learn real fast that they CAN sleep during the day and there is nothing on TV important enough to make then miss sleeping.. Tow work is super hard physical work, especially in the summer heat so it takes a really special person to be able to handle the work. (Out of a class of 20 new hires going through deck school, they are lucky to have 5 guys ever make it to a boat and out of that 5, they are lucky to have 2 complete their first trip.)

It is a home away from home and the crew is like your family out there. You do get people you don't like but we all have family we don't really care for too so it is like family. Then you get some crew that you just LOVE. The crew is what makes or ruins your trip. One jerk can ruin the trip for the whole crew... luckly, my Captian likes a crew that gets along and don't like troublemakers so they don't stay long on our boat.

I love cooking for a crew that enjoys to eat and enjoys the way I cook. I am a down home, country cook... I hear that a lot out there. My love is baking and creating new things or improving on a already great recipe to change it up to something different. I am always on the look out for new recipes for something different to try and I get asked a lot for my recipes for things by some of the guys. (You should see my cookbook!) Last trip, while in the shipyard and things were more relaxed and they worked 12 hour watches, I taught our pilot to make yeast rolls. He LOVES my rolls better than anyone I have ever met so I asked him if he would like me to teach him how to make them and he did.. I let him do all the work, explained what to do, how to do it and when to do it and his rolls came out as good as mine do. He loves to cook on his off days and I can just see him impressing his wife when she comes in from work and finds homemade rolls that he made...

Ths worst part of the job IS leaving my babies! I miss them so bad it hurts!!! I had given up having any cats when I went to work out there but that changed... a house just isn't a home without them.... Before I got them, I would work as much as they would let me, coming home was lonesome and boring. Now that I have them, I get excited about coming home and can't wait to get back and I do not work extra anymore. They are always so happy to see me that homecoming is pure JOY!!! I spoil them rotten and buy them stuff everytime I come home.... I bet they have more toys than any fur baby on PT!

This is a picture of the boat taken in July of 2005 right after it had been painted.


This is a video of the boat I shot from the bank on crew change day last May, the crew that was on there was getting off and we were getting on. They butt the head of the tow into the bank of the river and hold the boat like that while they get off and we get on, using the skiff.

[Daisy and Delilah]

It takes a special person to do that job, Laura!! You're an amazing woman! Thanks for sharing your cool job with us

I was thinking of a PT cruise on the boat. Wouldn't we all love to take a trip and have some of your home cooking?