Plumbing Tales and Family Trails: Keeping It Flowing in Lafayette

Welcome to episode 11 of the Plumb Delusional Podcast, hosted by Daniel Mitchell from Mitchell's Plumbing in Lafayette, Georgia. In this episode, Daniel is joined by his daughter Alec Fay, affectionately dubbed the "little boss," and technician Lonnie Gilreath. They dive into the challenges of managing plumbing schedules, especially with team member Mean Jean out due to health issues. The conversation ranges from Alec's enthusiasm for plumbing, upcoming projects like custom homes, and the importance of teamwork among their skilled technicians and subcontractors. They also discuss community involvement, upcoming local events, and the fun dynamics of family and work. Tune in for a lighthearted yet informative take on the plumbing business and a glimpse into the vibrant Lafayette community.

Welcome to Plumb Delusional, the podcast where Daniel Mitchell, owner of Mitchell's Plumbing in Lafayette, Georgia, takes you on a journey through the pipes and problems of modern plumbing.

Each episode dives into the nitty-gritty of the plumbing world—addressing common issues, uncovering surprising myths, and sharing memorable stories from decades of experience in the trade.

https://www.mitchellsplumbingga.com/
Phone: (706) 523-3201
Address: 206 N Duke St, LaFayette, GA 30728

Transcript

All right welcome back this week to Plumb Delusional podcast with Mitchell's Plumbing at 206 North Duke Street down here in Lefet, Georgia. This week we're down here with Alec Fay Mitchell, the one that we've been talking about. This is the little boss. The number one, the head dog and then we got, we're back with Lonnie Gilreath. He's our party technician. We've been having a stressful week down this way. We've been having to redo our schedule. We've got one of our most important players out this week,



 Mean Jean. Y'all met him last week. He's out, he's had a little bit of health problems. That throws us all in a catastrophic spiral sometimes, but we're working through it. Alec, would you like to introduce yourself and tell a little bit about yourself?



 How old are you? Eight.



 Who's your father?



 Daniel. Daniel who? Mitchell. What's he look like?

 He's tall and bald and has beard.

 Oh, it kind of looks like me? Yeah, because you're my dad. I know, I know, I know. What's your favorite part about plumbing?



 Everything. Everything.



 How many times you, how many times you asked to be on a podcast?



 A hundred. A hundred. And so you finally got to do it, then.



 All right. I tell you what, it's been a, been a tough week long, ain't it? And we've had, we've had technicians in Woodstock, Georgia first working on some stuff. Then we've had



 several jobs this week. It's just, we've been trying to close out and this seems like sometimes this sometimes, some weeks we have, it just never ends. I mean, I was saying it'd been a long week



 school?



 You didn't get started until about Wednesday. You still ain't got them done. You're going to finish up on your way home tonight, ain't there? That's what, that's what you got to have is dedication. You just keep on keeping on, huh?



 Stop it.



 Yeah. How many you got out right now?

 Uh,



 well, I just took some more out, but I think I've seen on the paper, I'm looking about like 70.



 70.



 Got the one lot, the lot you got left to die is, uh, gonna look out mountain. We got several houses going on up our too.



 Uh, we got a couple of customs going on up there in the Highlands.



 Uh, there's a lot of building going on in the Highlands up there. We've got, uh,



 I know we got Paul and them. They're up, they're the ones doing a little bit of travel work for the circle case. We're doing the circle case and Yemen Spencer. And then we got James and Zach. They've been doing a lot of our dirt work. They've done some field lines and 70 tanks this week. Water lines they got done for us. They got a big 410 foot, uh,



 water line or safety system over there on 193 turned out good. Inspect the pass.



 Uh, got a call right before we got on podcast.



 The barn dominion we got going on over on Burnie Bush passed the flying colors for the first framing inspection and trade inspection. So we can go to the next phase on it. And then you got the bigger barn dominion on Jones road. We're fixing to start getting the dirt pad turned it in forward. And you got it marked out and got the lady happy with the orientation of her house. So we're ending on a pretty good note. Drowned died though. Every time we go to get something, we wore everything out. The drone battery was out on the drone. We was out of the string. The paint run out. I mean, we've exhausted all of our, all of us. No hammer. Well, I hammer. My hammers tend to get legs walk away.



 Kind of like my flashlight. Ain't that right? How does my flashlight go out of my pocket?

 Me.

 You, yes. You really like these new flashlights. I got, we got these, I've been carrying these old lights. They pretty good. They're they're rechargeable. I like them. I got the, the point on where I can show Lonnie what he needs to be doing. And I got the, and the light. So she'll, she'll get them and play with them because she likes the laser. So does the dog, but she's been out of school this week. She ain't had to go to school because she's had a little bit of under the weather.

 She's had a strip.



 That's why she's drinking her drink here. She's trying to keep her throat



 care of, but she's been out the office all week. So if you've come in out here at the office, you've got to see Alec hanging out with Keela and Heather out here. Heather and Keela, they take care of our office. Oh, I guess everybody recognized. You might recognize our backdrop here.



 We're down here at the office doing our podcast. We're going to be doing podcast on site more either down here at the office or in the wire house or maybe even on jobs.



 If you've got a project coming up and you're scheduled with us and you want to do a podcast with us, just hey, holler at us and say, Hey, we want to do a podcast on our bill. We'll come out. We'll set up. We've got one of the best media teams I think is in the area right now, build something media. They'll set up out there. They'll do our podcast. We can talk to you, the homeowner, talk about what you're excited about about the home, what kind of amenities you're going to put in the home, what we can do, and get some good footage of your house. And we'll do that. But we've got several things that we're working on this year.



 2025 has got a good start on it. We've planned on doing a lot more media stuff this year as far as out and about.



 We've added a couple of new technicians. We actually got a technician that we're fixing the call and talked to him about coming in for a second interview. We're trying to add another truck or two.



 Sometimes it gets overwhelming for me and Keila.



 We have to manage all this stuff. She manages the office and I manage the crews. Sometimes it's a little hard for her and me, but I appreciate everything she does down here. I know I appreciate Lonnie. He's been taking care of a lot.



 He gets to float a lot right now.



 He's been doing everything today from plumbing to laying out houses to show for me around where I can use my telephone. Lonnie, did you learn anything while he was out laying the house out? What did you think about all that?

 I like it. I noticed Daniel, he's good at it. You don't have to use the GPS coordinates. You can do it with a...



 I was shooting it with a...



 Oh, Lord. If you had to ask me, I could have told you. A range finder. I was just using that measurement.

 The measurement is dead on and every time. It looks good. I think it looks better than that professional coming out there.



 Well, I was a professional.

 I mean, somebody was a GPS coordinate and everything like that. I know that. Lonnie doesn't say that.

 Lonnie doesn't say he's better than the professional. He doesn't call me a non-professional. I said you're better than a professional. No. I tell you what, I don't know if I could have hit that dead square again. I mean, that's hard to do, you personal measure.



 I'm not going to take a... I'm not going to sit here and say I got that perfect on purpose. I was just laying out where we wanted to pay. It wound up being good. I was glad that a couple of people there to witness that.



 I guess we're going to have to work this weekend. I had to call and let everybody know the poor fast-sawed story that was going to have to work. We got several jobs that we didn't get finished up, so we've got to take care of this weekend.



 So that's going to wind up



 half and a half and I don't want to work weekends.



 You like working weekends, Alec? Yes. You do? Why are you out working weekends?

 I speak because I get to actually work with the guys.

 Oh, it's because you get to work with the guys.

 When I'm not a guy, I have to go to school.

 School? You're good at school.



 You got good grades?



 I made it to small group.



 If you don't know what small group is, that is the group you're in before you get into the group called Kaleidoscope.

 Kaleidoscope is just kind of...



 I've actually never been so I don't know.



 This challenges you more, Don?

 It's more challenging.



 It's more advanced. Advanced, yeah, challenge. It gives you more of a challenge. I think that's what we are, advanced plumbing company because we're always having a challenge, it seems like.



 I mean, it's always something. I mean, we're always dealing with customers that got issues and we've got issues that's got issues and then issues that this usually got issues sometimes. It feels like we just wind up having to figure some of this stuff out. That's on the service side. The new plumbing stuff, it ain't too bad. We got a crew up on Park City Road today roughing in one. That's where me and Lonnie started out this morning. About eight o'clock, I picked up a truckload of material and getting



 the Picardo crew ready. Jasmine and Ezekiel's crew, they do a lot of roughing for us and we're appreciative of them. That's one thing I do got to say, you know, everybody has their position down here. We're not one person to take all the credit. A business, a good striving business has many talks, many things from the office answering their phones to everybody that turns a ranch or glues a fit as part of it. I mean, that's on the general contracting side. That's on the plumbing side just because your names on the permit don't mean you're the one that done it all. You know, I have great talented technicians and sub crews that help us out. I've got some of the best cabinet people that I think is in the area right now. Bracket cabinets. I really, I need to get him on here. That's going to be my next, I think I need to get Justin or Matthew on here. I was thinking of Justin.



 He just walked in the door there. You can't see him, but as I had him on my mind, you know, he's a fine looking man there. Ball headed beard and he just pops out your mouth. Just rolls off your tongue. But now we'll get Matthew in here. He does some great cabinet stuff and then there's Juan.



 Carlos, he does our tile setting. I mean, if you've ever seen a master at his game, it's Juan. He does good work. Yeah, he really does. Juan and his brother Juan.



 I mean, actually it's Juan and Ho-on, but they just told me to call him one, one, one, one, one, one, two, but they are really good. They are really good tradesmen. They really do a good job for us. And then we've got our framers, David and his crew. They do great work. Really glad to have them on the team. And then we've got his guys do the sheetrock and the insulation. They do a great job. Then we got our painters, a manual. And then they do a good job. Really, really good quality work.



 And then we partner with



 Mills Heat and Air. They do our heat and air. They do great. Really give us a good quality job. Got great technicians. Really knowledgeable. Nathan, if you need him, you call him, he can answer about any question you got.



 He's been in the heat and air a lot about as long as I have plumbing. I know me and I remember back when he started, when I started building houses, he was working out of a pickup truck. I was just a young man and we've come a long way because I know he's got him a building and a whole five trucks now. And he's doing his thing and really,



 really got him a good crew. And then we got our electrician. We're using



 K&A right now to do our electrical work and stuff like that.



 Speaking of the devil, there was one of the Mills Heat and Air guys just walked in the door there now. Yeah, we need to get them on the podcast too.



 Yeah, he's come to get a set of plans for Jacqueline Gibson over at 318, the old hollow.



 I think that's him right there, Keeler.



 See, I tell people, I get a lot of, I tell people I'm going to do stuff and then I get four phone calls behind after I've told people I'm going to do it. And then they come in and I look like I wasn't paying attention and they're here to get stuff. And behind the scenes of this podcast, they're trying to get him a set of plans that I'm supposed to have. Me and Lonnie had them plans the other day. Did we put them back in my truck?



 Are they back behind the seat of my truck? I think they're back behind the seat of my truck,



 Heather. Lonnie's saying we don't think we got them out of the truck. I thought I brought them in, put them under there.



 But we're just going to have to, we're just going to turn these cameras around and take a picture of all this. I mean, there's more going on down there that's interesting than that on this camera over here.

 Yeah, I'm mostly focusing on what's going on behind the scenes.

 It's hard to do a podcast, but I like going on. But that's the good thing about a podcast, you can be raw and real. That's how it is. I mean, that's, if you really want to get the hang of it, coming into Mitchell's Plumbing, it's always something going on. I mean, there's somebody coming in the door. There's somebody,



 me forgetting to tell somebody to grab it. Heather's probably out there right now trying to figure out how to get behind the seat of the truck.

 I tell them

 that they're big prints, you know, they're full size.



 I'm just telling you, they're not tiny.

 I think that's, I think that's my cottage.



 I don't know.

 I can't do nothing without it, Lonnie.



 You can't slide out, Lonnie. Just hang on.

 Thank you.



 Yeah, but I get so much going on sometimes. I forget to leave this kind of stuff I need to leave and then they have to pick up my slack. That's the big thing about it around here sometimes. But I see where was I, I was talking about the trades. I think we got through on my thing. I even think we got down to the, we got to the heating iron and the heating iron got come in. I keep talking about we're gonna have a whole house full.



 But all the electrician we're using K and A, he does pretty good.



 Yeah, pretty good.



 I'm talking about you, you know, you only do pretty good. And then we use Rodney near BRT Borla for some of our dirt work. And then we've got block work. I mean, not block dirt work, but block work. And we've got fields construction for our footers and dirt work and stuff like that.



 And everything.



 So they're down there.



 But we, we've got so many prints and stuff, it's hard to go through them sometimes. And but yeah, back to it when our Marnaminiums were partnered was Summertown Metals to do the outside and stuff like that. And they do the shell and we go into the interiors, which has worked out pretty good. And it's just there's a lot goes into a successful company.



 Yeah. Yeah.



 Yeah. But I think the growth is the growth is there. I'm just saying it takes a lot of good. You've got to surround yourself with good, good technicians and good trades. You can't do it all yourself. I mean, I think that's what it is. You've got to have a network.



 Network is good. I love, I love doing networks. I've been trying to go to more of the, the BNI stuff, but I'm so busy. I don't get to be a bird get to it. I went to one really enjoyed it. Had really good program, really good presentation that day. And everything. Well, Alec, what do you think about, what do you think about everything goes on around here on a day to day basis? Is it overwhelming? Is it, is it something that's fun to you?



 Crazy. Crazy. There's a lot of things.



 One person's doing something and the other person's doing something and it all gets into one big mess and you don't know what's going on.

 Yeah. That's then I get, then I get the mouth and everybody don't know. That's the part I like, don't like is having to be the boss sometime.



 Yeah. I'm on. I'm letting you be the boss. Heavy.



 Sound good.

 You know,



 sound good.



 So I'd see that everybody from now on, if you got a problem, this is my complaint department right here.



 Don't like her. Don't like her. Don't like her. Don't like her. Don't like her. You have to get her help based on.



 Well, Lonnie,



 I seen they started they jacks up there in town. We got a lot of stuff around with that now, aren't we?

 Just forget. Mostly is that.

 Oh yeah. I heard they was a zaxby's coming. It's not heard. It's been confirmed.



 Yeah, exactly.



 We stopped by and tried to talk to them, but they, they, they have a crew that they come all around, but we did tell them we extended it. We extended our invitation. If they needed anything while they was in town or any part, they could get at us and everything. But a lot of times when these companies like Jack or zaxby's or Domino's or any of them new places that come, they'll, they'll bring a plumber with them. But that don't mean, you know, just because another plumber's doing a job, don't mean you got to be his enemy.



 That's one thing I try not to do. And that's why I went up there and extended that, let them know that I was local. If they had anything going on or if they needed anything from my shop or anything, give me a holler, but we ain't heard much back from them. So we're proud to see LeFate growing. We've, we've invested a lot of our time and energy into the community here in LeFate, you know, with the honeybee, it's coming up.



 (Inaudible Bil Beep)

 May, February, May- I

 just thought it was gonna start for the M.

 May- May-



 Mow-member, it's all, aren't for the M, you know.

 Mow-member? There's Mow-member.

 There's Mow-member.



 What's the M, Moolah?



 Moon?



 (Laughs)

 You like that, didn't you? Actually, tell us a joke, Alex. Alex our jokester down here, and she likes to tell jokes. Tell the one about the sushi.

 (Laughs)

 Okay, what did the sushi say to the beef? Wasabi. Wasabi? Yeah, you get it? Wasabi. Wasabi?



 I tried wasabi, do not try it, at least you've never tried it.

 One of our long time goals down here has been



 just to have an atmosphere of welcoming. I guess that's one of the things that I want you to feel welcome when you come down to Mitchell's Park. That was the biggest reason of doing these projects. That's what we're trying to do is get out and let everybody kind of understand what we're doing, you know, what we're doing. I mean, behind the scenes kind of stuff is that, I think it's great. I mean, we don't need to lose that small town, you know, company vibe. That's what I don't want to lose. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. I'll say that all the time is I like the growth, but I don't want to grow so big that we'll lose that small town company vibe, you know.



 No, so big, we don't have, I mean, every one of the trucks are in need.

 Right, right, that's it, I mean. But you know, I like the fact that we've got, you know, we've got what we need. We've got two excavators and two skid steers now, and they cover a pretty good bit of ground and stuff like that, you know.



 If you need me, you can still get ahold of me.



 If you want to see us, you can come in down here and hang out with us.



 We work with a lot of different organizations.



 I mean, I love to get community involvement. I mean, you know, we're pretty involved in our community.



 And we're involved with the right-and-ear run. We're involved with the Honey Bee. I know we bring up the Honey Bee, because that's one of our biggest events around here in La Pea.

 I like the Honey Bee because I go to help the guys with the bullets and stuff.

 But last year didn't go so well. If you ain't been to the Honey Bee, you ought to get your family to come. It's free. I mean, everything's free to enjoy except for the vendor. You know, if you're going to buy food, you're going to have to have some money for food, stuff like that. But all the music's free.



 All the children's plays where they have the blow-ups, all that's free. And all the restrooms is free. We've talked about putting quarter slots on our bullets just to make a little money, but I don't think it's going to work out.



 I mean, I seen that on a gift from TikTok the other day. Guy had to have a quarter to get in the toilet.



 I don't even care if you have a quarter.

 But what if you don't have a quarter? That's what I'm saying. You're in trouble. And you need to use the restroom at the Honey Bee.

 You're either fixing to lose your socks or your underwear. Well.

 That's why you need to place your goat.

 Yeah, that's why. That's why you gotta have a pot on the spot.

 Well, you can wear diapers.



 Ah, you wore diapers all the time. But back to the Honey Bee, it's one of the big events around here. Then they have the night before the Honey Bee. That's one thing I think a lot of people forget. The night before the Honey Bee, they have the big barbecue cook-off. We have a actually Kansas City barbecue cook-off that's sanctioned by the KCBB, I think, is what it is. And they actually come and do a cook-off.



 And there's a lot of good high-dollar travel smokers and stuff up there. It's just neat to see. And then they have a steak cook-off. And that night before, they usually have a kickoff concert down at the old high school football field. I was trying to think of the name of it. It was donated by Johnny Cash.



 Or was it George Johnny? It was Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash donated it.



 Johnny Cash?



 I don't know. I can't remember that.



 Who donated it?



 He performed there to help make the money, didn't he?



 The story goes, he was coming through here



 and he got pulled over for drinking and driving.



 And one of the old sheriffs put him in, let him sober up and let him go and didn't give him a whole lot of hassle. Ralph Jones was supposedly supposed to be the sheriff.



 And then when he was so thankful, when they got ready to build the Jack King Stadium,



 they had a dedication concert or they was raising money for the Jack King Stadium. And he come down here and performed.



 I mean, I wasn't here. It was way before my time, but I've always heard that. I guess you can look it up and I'm sure somebody would newspaper plays, so you can probably look it up in the archives of the Walker County Messenger or something.



 But anyway, Jack King Stadium's where they have all that stuff before the Honey Bay. And then, you know, down around Christmas time, they have the reindeer run. And a new one this year, we got it on the front door out there, they're gonna have some kind of leprechaun or 5K.



 Yeah, we've got the Freedom Festival. I forget about it. It's got big. I mean, we have some of the best fireworks for a small town. They are, I mean,



 they spend a lot of money on it. Then cause,



 you know, you can see the fireworks for miles from it. And then they have the reindeer run and they have the Christmas. They have a little thing in Joestock Park with little houses. You can come see the light show. I mean, it's a nice, quaint little town. It's actually Walker County's seat,



 head seat, the seat of the county where the courthouse and everything is. And it's growing up pretty good. I mean, I'm glad to see it growing, but we don't want to grow our boundaries and stuff like that. But I think they're doing a good job. Our council, I feel like they do a pretty good job, which there's probably people that disagree with me. I mean, I say all the time, why does people even want to be on the, elected official or anything like that? Cause all they do is bring the problems and gripe at you all the time.



 But I mean, come down, check us out with it. You looking for a house to buy? We got, there's several houses in the city limits. It's, yeah, there's a nice one on Probesco street with pepper corn, chyron, clay, trim, black windows, built by one of the most elite plumbing and general contractors in the area.



 It was plumbing and pots, LLC.



 Yeah, they'll be, we got a couple more lots coming up. And we, we just been, we, like I said, we've been trying to be a good,



 Stuart and be part of the community,



 which we, we, we employ eight, eight employees right now. And full-time technicians. And then we've got two full-time office help. Then we've got, we, we, all of our subs. So we, we're, we're committed to helping the, the economy around the area grow and get our things, you know, things done around here like that.

 Okay.

 One.

 We, let's do horn things for clearing.

 Yeah, that's right. We do, we use horns land clearing to clean our lots up. I'm glad you brought that up. He's going to do some work for us this weekend. He's going to clean up some trees out here and everything. Look at there, there's one of our pride and joys just come through the door. Oh, James Titsworth, he's runs our ground crew.



 And there comes Zach Mitchell. Y'all ain't never got to meet him. He wants to stay outside the podcast. He, but look at him looking all cool. With him sunglasses on coming in. They do our, huh?



 Okay.



 Justin's getting us some footage live and unscripted footage here while we're doing this podcast.

 Behind the scenes.

 They take care of our ground and excavation stuff.



 They do a real good job. That's another key thing is having good guys. I mean, James, James is a younger, y'all met him on here. He's younger. We actually,



 yeah, he's the youngest one we got, but I was going to say he actually got,



 Spencer's younger than you. Oh, I bet. But we turned him loose on his first solo septic system



 last week. He put it in, he got inspected, passed a hundred percent. And I, it was one of the most grueling inspections I've seen him put on a septic system.



 And I think, I think it was because the inspector knew it was his first one. He wanted to see how good it was. Looked good. It done good. You helped him finish it up. It turned out good. He, they, we've talked about septic systems before, but we've done a field level system and it was 360 feet of field level 904.



 And you can't have a variance of more than three inches from start to finish on a field level system. So from in 400 and 360 feet or 400 feet, you can't, you can't have a, you can't have no more fall than three.



 James had 1.5 inches difference. What's it?



 That's good. That's good.

 Yeah, that, that, you don't, you don't get much better than that. Which now he's got, he's got some state of our equipment. I mean, I do give him, I do give him good tools to work with, but he's got to implement them. He's a, he's got that new



 tribe level Milwaukee that they come out with. It sets itself up. It'll shoot grade four or five different ways, but I don't even know if I can run it by myself. I'm fine. I don't know more about it than I do.

 (Mumbles)



 I see it. I mean, I mean, to a point, I mean, we, we just added one, we just added a new state of the art camera, that new camera, that, that thing's really kicking butt. I mean, it's been, it took me a while to get enough capital to get it in here. And, but it's, it's, it's, it's really helped us. It's, it's got some of the best camera quality. I mean, y'all see his podcast. They look good. We can look at your inside of your pipe with about the same quality.



 Oh, not, I mean, no, laying all jokes aside. As far as quality, that thing's got a good camera on it. That's so clear. Yeah. I mean, but most people, they don't get excited about seeing the inside of a pipe and being able to tell what color the tooth is, but we do.



 I mean, we want to, you know, we can look through there and see who eat what and when they want, when they eat it, by the color of the fecal.



 That's what that's for. James and Channing, y'all met, they can taste it and tell you what color hair the person that was it used the bathroom was.



 And that, yeah, that's, I heard that. Talking shit.



 That's a whole new podcast.



 That's a whole new podcast.



 But,



 now we try to stay, we try to cut up. I mean, that's the thing about it. You'll go crazy if you don't, you don't cut up and try to have a good attitude about this stuff.



 Right. I mean, if you plumber's sad, he's not going to do his good work.

 You plumber's sad?

 That's one, that's what I love about working with Ezekiel and Jasmine and Junior and Diego. I love that. And all the other, they're happy to be there. They're happy to never change. No, no, I mean, I'm sure they have bad days. I mean, Ezekiel doesn't say what's feeling good. I mean, everybody has bad days and good days. Yeah, even me. Yeah, even you.



 Yeah, they're always happy. I mean, they're always happy. And I know every day's not going to be, I mean, Mondays, we all kind of dragging around Monday mornings, but, you know. I mean, here, I'm, I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure I robbed, I rob-budded Paul a while ago, messing with him about the 20 minutes he's, I asked him where he'd been for an hour and he'd only been gone for 20 minutes.



 That's my job, though. I got, I mean,



 yeah, probably a good idea to take you, man. He'd appreciate it.



 You can show him how it works. Think you know something.

 (Indistinct)

 Get off.



 James put a mantle block in for a gentleman down there. We're doing in some of them.



 Pretty good size addition in the mantle block. It's like a switch block. It's like a switch breaker box for water. You turn it on and off and it's got one central location and you ain't got to worry about having stops. We still put stops at the end of it, which is redundant, but I still like that. We still do it, but it gives you a central location to turn everything off.



 Alec, are you getting tired, babes? No. Getting in or down to the lake, I get tired. You tired, Lonnie? I'm tired.

 Yeah. I didn't know what you were supposed to do. I'm so tired. We still got a little bit.

 We got to work tomorrow. That's, that's, that's, that's, I might go out.

 That's why we can't be tired yet. I might go out with you.

 You gonna go away with me tomorrow? Yeah.



 We gonna go to Red Bank and pick up that debris from that custom shower.



 Yeah, that's, that's Lon's working on warming in Red Bank for us, getting us ready to go back with a custom shower. We, y'all know we do a lot of custom bathrooms



 and everything. So we got that going on. And



 about four o'clock here in Lafayette, I'm getting round and down. Some of the guys are filling out to catch their last couple of jobs. See you, Zach. We'll get you on here next time.



 (Laughs)



 He acts so cool with his cool stuff.

 He does. That's what we need. We need to, we need to get a plan to get Zach on the face, on the podcast.



 What's that? Oh, your mom. That's right. We talked about it on the last podcast.

 That sort of work.

 That you're wearing your Amish hat and the Amish plumber. That's a work. Wait.



 Well, that's why Lonnie does, y'all know that's, that's why Lonnie is such a good portable restroom technician. Is he's got a lot of Amish blood in him.

 What's Amish?



 And he likes, he don't like real work in plumbing. He really likes the portable restroom more.

 What's Amish?



 Now, I don't know. You ain't got a Walmish in you, do you? You ain't really Amish, are you?

 I don't know what man. It's just a card to be honest with you.

 Oh, is Amish? So they can, they can be businessmen. Yeah, I do know I have a little bit of

 status in me. That's the one thing I do know.



 You mean that? Probably.



 You mean me? You mean me?

 Well, I tell you what I like is, is that I took a DNA test back when I was 21 and me one time. I'd heard it all my life. I was part Indian, part Indian. And I took that DNA test. And I found out that I didn't have no Indian in me.



 Not a bit. I'm not American Indian.



 Not.



 I'm 100%.



 You're a Slovian. You're a Slovian? I slandered. I'm a Viking.



 And then I found out I'm not even kind to my sister.



 Wait, what? She's an American Indian. I'm not.



 Plot twist.



 No, I feel like Edie said, there's no way I'm not Indian.

 Plot twist.

 I'm taking another one. I'm like, well Heather, if mine come back, yours are gonna come back same way.



 Well.



 But I don't know if she's ever touched one yet or not. I wanna take one. I wanna take one. The thing's still out on that. But if you've seen me, you see my sister,



 we've got a lot of the same features.

 (Laughing)

 No, y'all don't. She has hair, you're bald. Well, except her. And she has, she doesn't have a beard.

 Well, she don't have, you're right. We don't wanna unlock different features.

 You don't have a lot of, she doesn't have a lot of puppy scratches on her.

 But now, what do I look like if I take the Snapchat filter and look like a lady?



 Who I look like?



 Yourself, if you were a woman.

 Oh, you're pulling the punch, Eric. You're pulling the punch.



 But,



 oh, Lonnie, what we got coming up next week? Do you remember? Stuff. What we got? Stuff. We got, oh, we got the rough end on 607 Park Street for Rodney and Jeremy Sintail. We got to get that rough end started. We got sheetrock going in on Burnin' Bush.



 Well, sheetrock's, we're doing the painting, and I think Matthew's bringing the cabinets

 next week.



 Hopefully start weather prohibiting Monday up there on that. On Jones Road.

 Man, you need to get, man, you, and I need to get you and James and them up there on the dirt work on Probasco. We need to start working on that.



 And we got, oh, oh, I about forgot.



 We got to get the inspection done on



 old Hollis Trail over in Cajun.



 We got to get that rolling around.



 So, we've got several things going on. I'm sure there's a million things that I forgot that Gila and Heather's gonna remind me about. What's up?

 Well, that's ending.



 Yeah, we ain't talking about you much, have we?



 Not a bit. They are working on a job for Blackwell Innovations.



 That's another contractor we worked with. He's a real good tradesman.



 He does real good building stuff. I mean, I don't know if you've seen any of his work, but he does real good cabinetry stuff, like not cabinets as much as I did, but like bookshelves, stuff like that. High End Trim does a good job.



 Where did you meet him at?



 Yeah, yeah, up there behind the house. Yep. Yeah, he really does good work as far as that kind of stuff. I'm glad we got him. Yeah, he does. I'm glad we got a relationship with him. He does real good.



 He's, I think he's gonna do well. I think he's, I think he moved down here and he's trying to get his business build up, but he's doing pretty good. So, I think he's on the right, the right.



 But I will tell you a funny story.



 Before we was headed, before we come down here, I had to go lay a pad out for the dirt guys. And then I was supposed to go pick up some debris up in Chattanooga Red Bank area. And I'm hauling up through there office calls. Tells me about a client that's given, that's got a little bit of a issue. So I got on the phone with him and Lonnie's sitting over there laughing at me cause I'm getting aggravated and everything.



 I get up there about halfway to Chattanooga and I look over at Lonnie and I said,



 we're supposed to meet that lady to lay that pad out at one o'clock. It's 1230, we're almost Chattanooga.



 We had to turn around and go all the way back down there.



 One job Lonnie had and that's to keep me straight. That's all he has to do, is keep me straight. He can't do it.

 Well, if you could keep me out of school and so. You think you can keep me straight? Yeah, I can keep me straight. I keep you and mom straight up the house.

 They,



 really?



 What do you have to do at the house to keep us straight?

 Sometimes I keep it from the phone a lot.

 I forget my phone?



 He needs to do that.

 Who's the most forgetful me or mama?



 Mom. Mom,



 really?



 I figured she was more organized than I was.

 Well, I've been told her about school.



 Still, she can't remember.



 And she does say, you keep me straight.

 I did send her, I sent her a meme the other day and it said,



 I wish I knew what it was like to be my husband.



 You run out of toothpaste and it magically reappeared.



 I mean, that's the thing I got to say about you, mama. She takes care of a lot of stuff we don't give her credit for.



 Even here.



 I mean, if it wasn't for her, nobody'd get paid.



 Thanks, girl.

 Yeah, girl.



 Well, let's, her and Hannah both do that. We've got a good, I won't touch on that too. We've got a great office crew. If y'all call down and talk to our office, you'll get some of the most polite,



 they try to know as much as they can about a job. They really do. I really am proud of my office crew.



 And when I say mine, I mean ours. I mean, really, I try not to say this is just mine down here because it's not, it's a group effort.

 Yeah. Yeah. What happens when meme customers call?

 Meme customers?



 Well, you're gonna have meme customers, unfortunately.

 What about that one guy that called for this?



 Well, you deal with it and you keep it under your hat because it's like doctors have patient, patient. Dr. Cribblets, plumbers have patient plumber privilege. You just don't, you don't talk about the bad ones. You just move on with them.

 Oh, this is pretty good though.

 You still gotta forget about them.



 You gotta be the good plumbers, take a lot of shit.



 That's just how it is.



 You know, it is, it's how it, that's what plumbers do.



 You know,



 at the end of the day, it's just like, yes.



 Electricians, general contractors,



 dirt work guys, bankers,



 lawyers, CEOs have got to have somebody look up to be their hero and it's plumbers.



 (Laughing)

 That's the way to go.



 Plumbers, everybody's hero.

 Finally, I got that diamond out of that chair.

 Well, why'd you get the diamond out of there?



 You're starting to get kinda antsy. You're starting to get kinda antsy. That what? About the podcast, you know.



 And there's a diamond, a diamond in a chair.

 Man, there's holes in it. Boy, how many

 new jobs did you get this week on bullets? How many of you told us you had to take out new this week?



 I see the smoke coming out. Six or seven? I had to tell them. 67? No, six or seven. Oh, six or seven.

 I thought you said 67. They sound like that, but no. 76?



 Six or seven.



 Well, that's not, that's pretty good. New job started.



 Hopefully, hopefully that'll work out. I know, school events, yeah, I know we had a couple of school events going on. I see, this is March, so spring's coming, so it's starting to get warmer, days are getting longer. We're gonna start having, we're gonna start coming into our spring event season. You're gonna start having a lot of event bullets.



 Thankfully, we've got a lot of event bullets. Take it up there, and some are spreading, and stuff like that.

 Some of our events, like-- Fix up there in the summer.

 Fix up in the spring and the summer and the fall. I mean, I don't know that there's any, it's got to where portable restrooms is



 kind of constant. You know, stuff like that.



 I hear another crew coming in in the back back there. Like I said, there's always someone going and coming. Well, now you get, sound like they're running to the side of the wall.

 Yeah, it did, it went.



 Boom.



 And now you gotta have a portable restroom for inspection.

 Yeah, that's, I know Jack and Jeff and Brandon and them over at Walker County, they're requiring a portable restroom to be on their first inspection.

 Like this morning I took that one to this county. Yeah. You're telling us the same thing over there. They're getting restrictions everywhere. I mean, they need to.

 Well, come on. I mean,



 if you go over to a job site, I mean, it's common courtesy to have somewhere to be if you use a bathroom. I mean, and you don't want nobody. I mean, if you live in a subdivision or you're building a house, you ain't wanting somebody to poop in your yard. When your dog to run out there and you know, dogs love to roll it. Well, they love to roll it and they love their stuff. Sometimes they don't taste it, I guess.

 Taste what? Oh.

 A little bit of feces. Here we are, back to talking shit.



 Poop.



 You don't cuss, I'm sorry. I hear it a lot. We're rated PG-13 on here.

 No, we're rated R.

 No, we're rated PG-13. PG-13.

 That's a shock we're rated R.

 No, we're not. We don't even allow a cussing at the shop.



 You sure about that?

 I'm 100% sure about that. You. I didn't say we all followed the road, but I said we don't allow it.

 I don't say a lot of us don't follow the road. Like you.

 I don't say a lot.

 I just don't get off that side.

 (Imitates Engine Revving)



 Goodness gracious.



 Did anything.



 But who was you talking to about that over there this week?

 About a homeowner or a-- It was a homeowner getting ready to start a house and ground up. Yeah, I didn't know if he was talking to the

 inspector over there or not.



 It seems like they're getting tighter on their inspections in Walther.



 Well, contusions always have pretty good inspections. I know Walther's starting to get their stuff together. Seal of Fett, they've always had inspections, but they've actually got a new guy down there. He's a little bit more strict, I feel like.



 So, they will probably be, I know the state requires,



 the state actually requiring the port of toilets on the side, but they're letting the codes enforcement enforce it out of the building code. But the bullets come in, because when we started doing, we had portable restrooms before they ended,



 and I'm not invented, but they, sorry, mandating the toilets being on side, stuff like that. Then we had to go to the state, take, we have to have license to do pumping. Everyone in our technicians is just trained to do pumping port of toilets. So, they come from the Department of Public Health. That's a public health rule for the port of toilets, but they let the codes enforcement enforce it. So, that's where that comes from. That's like safety tanks and stuff. I know before you can get temporary power, you've got to have a port of toilet on some of these jobs.



 And then when they come out and do the first inspection, if you ain't got one, they won't give you temporary power, and they won't give you the first initial job site inspection.



 So, but, you're all right with my life.



 But I did notice that I had to do a lot of work and Chattanooga that day, we started a job for an honest Charlie's clean shop.



 And they had a portable restroom trailer because they had started working on their bathrooms. That was the first, one of the first things they had to get. But I do, I would like to have a couple of trailers to add to our fleet. Those trailers are expensive, they're like, they started at $40,000.



 We're not, I mean, yeah, maybe we're not.



 Well, that's it. You have to rent, oh shoot, give me a camera.



 And you have to rent those,



 those trailers for a substantial more. I mean, we get $110 to set up, pump once a week and pick up a portable restroom.



 Well, that's in the local, that's in the service area for the first 10 miles. And then if I get out, there's another circle that goes to 120 and then there's another circle that goes to 125 and there's a one, you know, and then some of our vent toilets are different stuff like that. But, you know, as for a common, you know, average, it's somewhere between one,



 110, 150. So, but a trailer like that rents for like $1,100 a month. I mean, that's a lot of money from a portable restroom trailer. I mean, but it's got running water, it's got heat, it's got flushable toilet,



 you know, stuff like that. Sometimes you got showers.



 Well, they have some that replaces, you know, bathrooms, complete bathrooms in houses. And everything and...



 Have you seen a box, a portable box?

 Like the storage container?



 I have seen them, yeah. That's for,



 you're talking about for the storage.

 It's a bathroom, it looks like a little storage.

 Kind of gray color.

 Yeah.

 Yeah, those come from somewhere. I think those was, you know, somewhere I think those was, I think that was like for something for FEMA had, some, you know, just catastrophic. And they got out and they're selling them, but they've got to have a, they don't have water tools.



 They don't have self-contained water or sewage containment. So, I mean, you can set them up and you've got to put a tank on them and everything, but they're not as portable as they need to be. I have seen those.



 We, I mean, a lot of people, and well, I tell you, speaking of portables and stuff like that,



 we started that new campground over there. You know, that's another thing that's coming to Walker County. I forgot to touch on that. We got Walker County getting ready to have that. That's gonna have, I think they told us they had, I think the first phase was like 90 camp response.



 Something like that. And they're gonna try to have like 300 spots to be able to rent the campers. It's a real big farm over there. It's called Blue Moon Campground.



 We just got through doing the club house at the pool house and the bath houses.



 And we're gonna start the safety tank, the field line stuff. Next week, I actually ordered some of the material this week.



 They're gonna be, that's gonna be another thing. It's gonna draw people because Walker County's actually, you know, Walker Rocks is a big, one of the big things. We've got a lot of outdoor activities like caving and, you know, hiking. We've got Lookout Mountain here. We've got, you know, we've got Taylor's Ridge.



 We've got the Petty Johns Cave. You do a lot, you done some caving, don't you?



 They do the lot.



 I don't know what you're talking about, the lot. Well, Rock City, you got Rock City. That's in Walker County. I forget about that. And you got the hang gliders up there on top of, you know, up there where we done it.



 Up there where the hang glide off and there's several, I think Mr. Mike Hicks, he's got the containers up there and the little tiny houses that he does Airbnb's and...



 There's a lot of stuff to do in Walker County if you get to looking at it. You know, and there's a lot of stuff that people can do. And so I think that's why people like to live here. I mean, it's just a nice area and it's pretty, it's pretty quaint and stuff like that. And everybody knows everybody. I think we're losing one of our podcast stars here.



 She's getting awful, awful tired.



 I don't know, I ain't got a timer on this thing. So I don't know how long we've been going.



 Yeah, we started three.



 I don't know, maybe.



 But I tell you, we've been,



 I feel like I've been talking to my mouth went dry. So I guess we'll just get ready to start signing off.



 But do remember if you need plumbing done, if you need a house built, if you need, any kind of stuff like that, we're down here where Mitchell's plumbing.

 If you need porta-potties.

 They pour toilets.

 Like for events, birthday,



 weddings.



 Varmitsmas.



 I don't see the place where it's at. Varmitsmas?



 Varmitsmas.

 Pizza bar.



 Anything, we've got a four toilet. We've got a place for you to go.

 Yeah, so you don't have to poop in your yard.

 But we're Mitchell's plumbing at 206 North Duke Street in Lafayette. We're family owned, we're family oriented. We're customer oriented. Give us a call. If we don't know the answer, we'll figure out the answer.



 If you're in the area, stop by, see Keela and Heather. But we're Mitchell's plumbing and pots at 206 North Duke Street.



 I'm Daniel Mitchell. This is- Alec. This is Lonnie. And this is Plum Delusional Podcast number 11. And we'll see you next time. Have a good one. Bye.

 (Upbeat Music)