By Darren Lum

We learn a lot through other peoples’ stories.

They can inspire. They can give us reason for hope. They can be an example of what is possible.

As a man in his forties with a 20-plus year career in journalism, I have told many thousands of stories.

Now it’s time I share my own through the series Sawdust Stories that depicts my efforts to work in the trades industry. 

I’m more comfortable with a camera and a note pad than a hammer and a tape measure. It’s part of the mind shift I’ve had to make in the first weeks of being an apprentice for the Haliburton Crew, a Haliburton County-based construction company.

Before, I worked towards weekly deadlines, interviewing, writing stories and taking photos.

Now I’m doing anything and everything that needs to be performed wherever I’m needed such as help to complete a custom built home on a lake in Highlands East, whether it’s painting, sanding, or sorting through material and organizing them into discard or use collections.

Although I valued being able to share the many residents’ stories in the pages of the Haliburton County Echo and the Minden Times, which was about building the community, there is a similar feeling of seeing my efforts realized towards setting a place that a family can call a home.

When you’re at a construction site you can’t hide from the elements.

Dressing (or bringing extra clothing) for every kind of weather is part of the deal. It takes me back to my dogsledding guide days from the two previous winters. (The physicality of being a guide was a benefit for my transition to the endurance and stamina required at a job site.)

There is humidity, the strong sun, rain showers and bugs. Lots of bugs. Many blackfly bites are part of it and the accompanying swollen spots. Taking everything as it comes is part of the experience, which includes the attributes of a work site in cottage country where breathtaking views at the lake are likely.

Unless you’re in education and healthcare, getting full-time work is difficult here in the Highlands, but the trades industry is growing and in need of workers. Over the next ten years with many skilled trades workers set to retire, there will be a higher demand to replace these workers and I’d like to be part of the cadre of up and comers needed to fill this expected void.

Discomfort gives birth to growth and stagnation is where the soul dies, yearning for change. 

It would have been easy to stay with a career that was good to me, but growth comes from discomfort and nothing changes when you don’t, so here I am, learning everything I can, everyday. 

Seeing the long-term potential of a career in trades is what brings me to this new ambition, and is something I will share in a series of stories I plan to write that will depicting my experience as an apprentice over the next three years.