Chile – sand screener

Back in February, our equipment team was working to prep our old sand screener to ship it to our affiliate farm, Cranberries Austral Chile (CAC).

Ernie, who was the lead on the project, put in a lot of time making the necessary repairs for easy maintenance when it gets down to Chile. “We want to make sure it’s in great shape for those guys,” he said at the time. “…Basically, we’re going over it and making sure everything is right and that it’s running well.” He also mentioned that actually getting it into the shipping container was going to be a project in itself, and he was absolutely right!

Coco Mercado says, “We did a lot of prep work. All the bigger stuff wouldn’t fit inside the container, so we had to disassemble all the big pieces and make absolutely sure all fluids were drained in order to pass through Customs.” Supervisor Carlos Baez says it took the entire day to disassemble everything, but it is about ready to go! “It’s going to be a tight fit, I can tell you right now,” he says. “But I took a lot of pictures as we were taking everything apart, so once it arrives they should be able to put it back together pretty easily.”

Facilities and Equipment Manager Louis Cantafio is pleased the project is just about wrapped up. “The biggest challenge was getting the conveyor off, but the worst is over,” he says. “Once it gets down there, CAC has the bigger challenge in putting it back together!” CAC, however, has been fantastically helpful about project details. “I thought I would need to research shipping companies, but they have people they deal with all the time and took care of all the transport logistics; it was great.” He’s pleased that this project is wrapping up so the team can turn their attention to some other big projects: in addition to sending some other equipment down to Chile with the screener, the team is working on several maintenance and building projects right here at home. “We’re doing a lot of work on the pump houses making sure they stay in compliance, we got the new Hydremas, we had some involvement in the camp reno, and then we’re pouring bases for new pump houses and rebuilding engines for the bog renovation project. We have a lot going on!”

“But ultimately, CAC is going to be able to increase their efficiency in processing sand, and that’s a job well done for us,” Louis says. “My team always does whatever it takes to hit our targets.”

Winter update – Equipment

Our team continues to work on our winter targets for sanding and bog renovation, which in turn keeps our equipment team hustling! Says team member Ernie Waszkiewicz: “The weather can take a toll on the trucks; there’s a lot of hard starting. But that’s something we expect, so we can just keep clicking away on that as well as the rest of the routine.” In the meantime, team member Coco Mercado, who is acting as equipment supervisor while Carlos Baez is on vacation, is keeping track of service calls and making sure he and Ernie respond as quickly as possible.

The biggest ongoing project our equipment team is working on is prepping our old sand screener so we can send it down to CAC in Chile. Ernie, who is the lead on the project, has been putting in a lot of time making the necessary repairs for easy maintenance when it gets down to Chile. “We want to make sure it’s in great shape for those guys,” he says. “We’re putting on new fittings, new hose, new valves…a different style that operates with toggle switches. Basically, we’re going over it and making sure everything is right and that it’s running well. We’re cleaning it up a little and retrofitting some return lines to make things as easy as possible for the guys down there.” Getting it to Chile is going to be a project in itself: “We’re going to have to disassemble it some so we can fit it in one of those overseas boxes! It’s going to be a challenge; I think we’re going to have to get it over to the platform at the packing house and load it from there.”

Prep for reno and fall planting is coming along as well. Lots of 4-inch underdrain has been delivered and is waiting for the next phase:

And welder Fred Henschel is working on the planting cages for the new wagon. “With the old cages, we needed someone to physically hook the chain to the top; this new design should work so that the person running the machine can just hook it up themselves with the equipment,” he explains. “Then we save time and labor; no one has to sit on the trailer and wait and they can be out there on the planter.”

The cages will be ready to go well before planting. The screener project is to be done by mid-month, and our team will keep doing whatever it takes to make sure it’s ready!

Team Profiles: Kevin Schuster and Coco Mercado

A little over a year ago, we had the grand opening of our new shop, and it’s been going strong ever since!

As we mentioned last week, our Facilities and Equipment Team has been very busy preparing for harvest. Manager Louis Cantafio says that while he’s been ordering more parts in order to be as prepared for harvest as possible, the equipment team is already looking ahead and starting to focus on other machinery. “We’re finishing up work on the planters and the the sand screener, because that all gets going after harvest. And now that we’re starting to get moved into the new equipment sheds, we’re getting everything organized. If something is not in use, then we’ll put it where it belongs.”

Louis has also been training two new employees who started with us this summer: Miguel “Coco” Mercado and Kevin Schuster. Coco is a recent graduate of the Burlington County Institute of Technology (Medford campus), has been with us full-time since June, and is very excited for this year’s harvest. “I worked weekends on Blondie’s crew for the past few years, and also helped fill in on the picking crew sometimes,” he says. “But I’ve never seen it from this side!” He says he’s been learning a lot, especially from supervisor Carlos Baez and fellow team member Ernie Waszkiewicz. “I majored in auto mechanics at BCIT, and I learned a lot about cars and pickups there. But there are so many different things here, new things out in the field that I never knew about. I’ve known how to drive a dump truck for a long time, but I’d never worked on one! I’ve done a lot of new brakes, the oil changes, all the maintenance. It’s really cool.” He has also been working hard on pump house maintenance, prepping the harvesters, and this week, working on finding a leak in one of the tractors. Louis has been pleased by his work. “We have a lot of specialization here, and he’s really been picking up on both how and why we do things the way we do.”

Our other new team member is welder Kevin Schuster. Kevin started with us at the beginning of July and has done whatever it takes to help our team get the harvesting equipment ready. As Louis said last week, the equipment team has been doing a lot of work on the dump trucks: both major and minor repairs as well as preventative maintenance such as reinforcing the welding on tailgates and dump bodies. “During the season we’re always running hard, and those trucks are in use all year.”

Kevin, who trained at the Mercer County Technical School district and did a welding apprenticeship, has been working hard learning every aspect of our equipment program. He’s been out working on repairs to the suction lines, working on improvements to the harvesting machines, and working on all the trucks. “I’m not just working on the underbody of the trucks, though,” Kevin says. “Ernie and I spent some time this summer designing new latches for the tailgates, and I think it’s really going to make things a lot easier for everybody.”

“I really enjoy seeing a new project come together,” Kevin says. “Once you see it work, it’s a real feeling of accomplishment.” At Pine Island Cranberry, we’re glad to provide opportunity to team members like Coco and Kevin who are genuinely willing to do whatever it takes to help make us better.