28. The Importance of Quality Control with Lex Hahn

Andrea, Griff AND LEX!!! discuss the importance and function of the Quality Control Team here at Hahn Ready Mix. 

Also, Andrea whines about being a parent and Griffin is mediocre at bocce ball.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Hahn Ready Mix Podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, and producer Lex. Hey everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

How's it going today?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Really good. Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Happy Friday. Yeah, we're recording on Friday. It's kind of weird. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Weird holiday week.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yeah. Yeah. Holiday week. How was how was your labor day?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

My my labor day was a lot of mom work. My husband was out of town on a hiking trip, out of town and off grid. Like I couldn't even reach him by phone or text message. So I had to handle all of the parental responsibilities myself.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

So that sounds fun.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

It was fun. We went to Milwaukee to my niece's birthday party, and my kids were pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

My kids want to have a later bedtime than I do. So it's a struggle at bedtime.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Live just living to their own devices at this point, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

I'm going to bed at nine o'clock. I don't know what happens after that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah.

unknown 1:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

What about you? We went and spent the weekend with my in-laws back in uh my wife's hometown. They have a big Labor Day uh celebration in this little town, and they have the state of Illinois' largest bocce ball tournament, which is pretty cool. There's like 250 teams that enter. And um, so we play in that every year, and it's just like all over the town, like randomly. You just play in the roads and people's yards, you know, on gravel lots, any anywhere. You just play anywhere. And um, it's really fun. But we got to the round of 32, which was I think maybe our best show.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

32 out of 250, is that what you said?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yeah, yeah. So the round of 32. So we lost to some former champions. So I didn't feel too bad about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

But did you have a lot of bocce experience before you got married, or was this zero box?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah. It's you know, an Italian uh town, Italian family. So there's there's been a lot of that stuff over there.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

You're relatively new to it, so you still have room to I've been playing in that tournament for eight years. So not you're maxed out, you max out your potential this year by getting to 32.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I hope not. No, I'm gonna keep going.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

All right. How about you, Lex? What's new? We're going to make Lex talk today, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, it's now I'm got two jobs at once now, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

I bet you can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yes. Um, well, I got ready to move into my house. So I had a lot to do cleaning up, putting up some shelves.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Are you gonna edit out that um that you just started with? No that you give us such a hard time for?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

I'll stand strong.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Oh, okay. You moved. You moved this weekend. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Not really. Also a lot of it. Well, yeah. It's good to be in my new place.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

In town, closer to work, you can be here more.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

So many positives.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Thanks. All right. What announcements do we have today?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

I have one announcement that is important, and I'm gonna bring this up probably several times over the next few weeks because it is has potential to be disruptive to us. Digital Fleet has changed the process for getting start times. So, right now, when we send out a start time to drivers, they can see their start time right in that text message. Starting on October 1st, the drivers will have to click a link in the text message, put in their employee number, and then view their schedule.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

So this seems this seems like a strange sort of progress.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Making it harder for yeah, it seems like it's making it harder. There's a couple things. It's more reliable, it's more secure, right? So we don't know when those messages go out. We don't always know if they're received or whatever. With this way, with clicking on the link, we will know who who knows their start time and who doesn't know their start time. So and I think there's more steps of the process. Like eventually, I think they're gonna open it up where you could, if you had to call in sick or something, you could do that right through the link. Uh, we're not gonna we're not gonna get all of those steps at once, but this is kind of the first phase of a more interactive driver start time.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

So an inconvenience now for more functionality long term. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So we will be working with people. Anyone who doesn't have a smartphone or a phone that's connected to the internet will have to find an alternative way to do that. But for for most people who have an iPhone or an Android, Android phone, it will be easy enough to just click that link, put in your number, and get your start time.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

So please let us know if you have any questions about that. Like I said, I'll I'll bring it up as I know more details as we test it out. Um, we'll let everybody know what to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Great. Uh, I had one announcement yesterday was our, from a volume standpoint, our biggest day of the year so far, which is exciting. It's also a little unfortunate that yesterday's volume must have, you know, it's a low floor or a low ceiling this year. But it really couldn't have gone any smoother yesterday. I didn't hear about any customer complaints. I didn't hear about any gaps in service, no rejected loads. Uh, I think it was a great day. And so I just want to, I'm I'm proud of all of our efforts in that and just want to, you know, give appreciation to everybody because it was it was a big day, a lot of work, and and I think we nailed it. So that's great.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

It's nice to be able to kind of stretch our legs like that and and be successful doing it.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

So yeah, I wish we could do it every day.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

At least once a week.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

All right. Well, let's get started then on our topic. And the reason why Lex is going to get to talk so much today is because we are going to dive deep into the quality control department, what the what they do, what it's like, the upsides and the downsides.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So and this is Lex's real job. And we always say producer Lex. That's just his like side gig. His real job is quality control manager here. So let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

All right. Well, let's start, start easy and just kind of tell us about what a day in the life of a quality control tech is like. What do what do they actually do here?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So every morning we start out at multiple or someone will start out at a plant and we'll run moistures so that we know the moisture content in the rock so that when we start batching, we can get proper slumps for our drivers and such.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Aaron Powell What's that like? What do you have to do to get moistures?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So we'll grab a sample either off the stockpile or something that is ran through the plant so we know what is actually up in the plant. So that we'll and then we'll bring them back over to a lab or whatever station we have, and then we'll run those moistures with the Chapman's flask or with a pick jar to get those moisture content readings. I won't go too far into depth about that.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

I can see Griffin chomping at the bit to add more details to what you've said here.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

No, I it's it like Les said, is really important for getting accurate slumps. So we have to, when we batch concrete, we have to subtract the moisture that's in the aggregates out of our free moisture. So if a mixed design has 32 gallons of water in it, we have to figure out how much water is in the rock and sand. We overweigh that rock and sand to accommodate, to make sure we have the right amount of rock and sand, and then subtract that weight from our free water. So if that number is not correct, then our yields are wrong, our water cement ratios aren't accurate. So it's a really critical thing that we have to do every morning. And the rock is the one that we don't have any other way to check. And most of our plants, we have moisture probes for the sand. But typically we calibrate those and make sure that they are accurate every morning. So, you know, those things tend to be a little wonky as far as holding calibration. So it's important to check them often.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to see every morning, you know, to know that we're getting started, right? We see the pre-trip pre-trip inspections coming in from the trucks, we see people clocking in, and then we see the moistures coming in and like we really know that we're off to a good start.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah. And moistures, you know, we we run them typically first part of the day or first thing. But sometimes there's it's necessary for us to run them again because, you know, if we have new wet material being hauled in that we're using, like if we have a really big pave and we're going through our whole stockpile, then we need to rerun those moistures because that'll change. Or if it's a, you know, if maybe there's a sprinkling of water overnight and then it's a really hot, dry day, you know, those moistures can change throughout the day in the stockpile. So we we might have to uh retest and make adjustments to make sure we're accurate.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

It's definitely one of those variables that we fight all day long every day.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah. At least every other Ritamix producer is in the same boat, right? We're all we're all fighting that fight constantly.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah. All right. What else? What if the what do they do after they get the moistures in?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Usually we would test one of the first loads that's coming out of the plant just to get a representation of what we're going to be batching for that day, just to give feedback to the batch man so that we can help ourselves give the customers what they need or what they want. Um so we'll do air and slump tests and then get temperatures on the loads, and then just kind of relay back that feedback.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, and that's important too, because the the air content is based on so many variables, right? The water content, the temperature of the concrete, what kind of admixtures are in the mix design, the the amount, of course, to find aggregate in the mix design. And and so it's not a science, it's more of an art. So it's very much a guess and check kind of business with air content, unfortunately. So that is why it's so important for us to to check that every day early on, um, because that air is critical for freeze thought protection and concrete in this area, if if it's going to be outside. So yeah, that's an important one. And then slumps, you know, those that's always a battle trying to we want to give the customers what we want or what they want. And so checking that slump and giving feedback to the batchers, like you said, that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

We've talked about that many times before and encouraging the drivers to get in touch with the batcher and give them any feedback. But quality control is kind of that extra step there to try and get feedback to the batcher. Obviously, they can't be checking every single load, but the more loads they check, they're and they're also a great resource for drivers out there. If you see somebody and you're not sure, uh have them put a second set of eyes on it, and that's really the best way to educate yourself as a driver. Okay, so we talked about moistures, we talked about um checking air and slump. You also said temperature. What's that mean? What do we do with what do we do with temps? I mean, why do we care about temps?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Concrete temps can have a lot of effects on the concrete. I mean, a lot of our jobs to have a maximum temp spec that we have to follow, and that's more in the winter where we see that, and then sometimes in the winter, or sorry, in the summer when we see that, but also in the winter, we need to make sure that we have hot enough concrete so it actually sets. If it gets too cold, then it'll never set. If it's too hot, it'll set too too quickly. And that's where we see the introduction introduction of tartars or recover when it's warm, and then calcium or non-calcium accelerants when it's cold. And that is very temperature dependent on when we want to use those.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

So when we take temperature, we're putting an actual thermometer in the concrete, or how exactly are we doing that?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

We have mercury therm, and they're probably not mercury anymore, but little thermometers will stick in there. We'll leave it in for a couple minutes, minute, and we'll pull it, and then we'll check the temperature of the concrete.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

All right. What's next? After we've checked temp, slump air, we've done moistures. What else are we doing in the quality control department?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Every week we'll grab a gradation from our biggest running plants and then anywhere that we have state work out of as well. So that will be our next step is to grab that gradation from our stockpiles or usually from the belt, so that we can bring it back to the lab and start those gradation, the gradation process.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

You say gradation, like we all know exactly what that means. Can can one of you tell us more specifically what you're doing when you're doing a gradation?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah. So gradation is a particle distribution of like a measurement of the particle distribution of a sample of rock or sand. So we want to know what percentage of our rock pile, for example, has you know one inch size and what percentage is uh uh a three-quarter inch size, what percentage is a half inch size. And so um, the quality control team will take samples. It's very important there's uh specific steps to take a representative sample, and then you have to split that sample down to appropriate size to test. And then it's kind of cool. We put the sample in a uh a series of sieves. We put it on the top. Um, so they're just uh incrementally smaller openings, and then we put it in a shaker, and the shaker just shakes the heck out of this aggregate for how long do they put it in there for like seven minutes or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, I think it depends on the aggregate, yeah, whether it's sand or chips or it's so loud.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

They they shake it and it it allows all of the different, you know, the finer material to move through the sieves. And then you stop the shaker, you take it apart, and you weigh how much of each material was retained on each sieve, and then you kind of can can graphically or or you know statistically look at that. And the DOT has regulations or requirements for the different aggregates that they have to be within certain ranges of what that distribution, you know, in each sieve. And um it's important for us in the mix design process because we don't want all of a single size aggregate in the rock or in the concrete mix. So we don't want everything to be three-eighths inch size. We want some bigger material, some medium-sized material, some smaller material, some really fine stuff in our sand. We want a good distribution of all of that. So we test for that to make sure that the aggregates coming in are what we expect, and that helps us um develop mixed designs more efficiently.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

That does sound like something you would think is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I do think it's really cool. Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Some someone has to. Okay. What else are they doing in the lab over there?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Uh we'll run some other tests. We'll start with SPGs. So that's a specific gravity. So we'll use that specific gravity number that's given to a certain material. Basically, it's its weight in a sense. So when we're making mixed designs, specific gravity is a very important tool for yields. If we don't have the proper specific gravity, we could owe, like we were talking earlier with the moistures. This could have the same issue where we're under-yielding or we're over yielding by a lot if we don't have the right specific gravity. So we have to run those at least monthly to see if we're consistent. If we're not, we're running those a couple times a month.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

So it's another thing that could vary, and we just have to test it to make sure that we're staying on track with it, right? Correct. All right. What else happens in the lab?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

They do a lot of strength testing. So we take samples on job sites and uh or or sometimes even customers bring us samples uh uh of cylinders, and uh we'll put it about that a little bit more about how you get samples. Yeah, so a lot of our quality control folks spend a lot of time on job sites. And when it makes sense, or or or even at the plant, we can take a it's a cylinder. So basically it looks like uh kind of looks like my Stanley water bottle right here, a little bit. Uh, and you fill it up with concrete um in in two or three lists, depending on the type of cylinder. And it makes this just perfect cylinder of concrete. We take it back to the lab and then we apply pressure and break it at a certain age. So we we stress the concrete to failure to determine how strong the concrete is. So a lot of times we think about concrete, you know, people order a 4,000 psi concrete or 5,000 psi concrete. That is all based on the performance of that mixed design in the lab or with third-party testing. What kind of strengths are we getting at 28 days is typically the time period that that the grades are associated with. So yeah, we do a lot of that testing ourselves to make sure that our concrete is meeting the strengths that that we say it will.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

And you know, we're exceeding as we expect it.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

We're we're we always have overdesign and so yeah, it's pretty typical for like our 4,000 PSI mix to break, you know, 5,000 to 5,500 or sometimes higher, right? So we're we're a lot normally a lot higher than the 4,000, and that gives us some insurance if you know extra water is added on site or the air content's a little bit higher than we expect, things like that, then we're still going to meet the strength um uh requirements.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

That part sounds like it might be fun. Is it fun?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

It is fun. It is cool. It's it's cool to like we have a really high strength mix and you're just waiting as the it's applying pressure the breaker machine and you're like, when is this gonna go? And then there's this loud bang. Sounds like a gunshot um and when it when it breaks. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

I like I like that one a little bit better. We should put the sound of the of the of the cylinder breaking in the I'm sure they have that in the uh Google sounds.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

All right, you talked about um the QC Tech spending a lot of time on job sites. Tell us about what their responsibilities are out there beyond just collecting samples.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

A lot of job sites we go out when we're going out to a job site, we're sending out someone to the job site for let's say adding an ad mixture, whether it's super or some other ad chemical that will help the concrete get slump, etc. So we'll send our texts out if we're having say we have to show up at the job site at a four-inch slump, like we were talking about slumps earlier, but they want an eight with the super, so we have to have someone on site who can add the super so we can go from that four to eight, but also make sure that our tolerance of air and everything else stays consistent at the same time. So they're kind of juggling multiple factors while they're out there with the admixtures, making sure they add it while also making sure the other stuff stays consistent, which can be uh a bit of a pain depending on the concrete temperatures, depending on just the day sometimes and the fines and the material can have so many effects on something like that. Um, some other things is just as easy as traffic control sometimes. Sometimes our customers just need some help. Us, our safety is a big is a different concern to them than it is to us. And I think it's important for us to have someone out there sometimes just to make sure our people are staying safe, not running into each other, not putting themselves in positions that they don't need to be. And a lot of times our people are out there to help that. And while they're doing that, slumping the trucks, making sure that the slumps stay consistent and it are what the customer wants while they're out there. So that's kind of a double job for them while they're out there.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, I think especially when you we talk about the really big pores. It's important for that consistency's stake to have somebody that their only job is to just what's happening truck to truck and give that feedback back to the batcher or communicate with, you know, it's a convenience to the customer if, you know, they're not trying to have to call in and get a hold of the right person to like, hey, I need to make a change or let's put this job on hold. They just tell our representative, our call to control person who's out on the job site, like, hey, put us on hold for half an hour, we got something we got to work on, or or whatever, right? So they're they're kind of a liaison for the contractor on the job site and they're keeping an eye on our consistency, our quality. You know, they're also watching out for is there anything happening on this job site that is not good? Like, you know, is are there guys spraying water on top of the concrete, you know, and and we should know that for when there's an issue later down the road, right? So they're they're they're protecting us as well. But they're there to make sure the job goes as smoothly as possible for the contractor and that we perform at our best.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Yeah, I think that's I think that's really important. And I think it's sort of special or something that makes us kind of best in class is that we do offer that.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah, you don't see that a lot with other producers necessarily in our area, but you know, they'll they'll maybe go out for a DOT job or something like that. But uh I think we spend a lot more time on job sites than than most.

unknown 20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Okay. Is there anything else we've talked about uh at the at the plant in the lab on the job sites?

SPEAKER_01 21:08

We didn't kind of talk about mini mixes in the lab. So we have a a mini, you know, um, I think it's a one cubic foot mixer. We can make one cubic foot batches. So when we're trying out new materials or new mix designs, a lot of times it starts in the lab and we'll say, let's, you know, uh, you know, hey, there's a new SCM we want to try. Let's make a mini mix with our existing SCM and this new SCM and apples to apples compare and see what the set difference is, the strength difference, you know, if we get different um slumps, things like that. And we can test all those things in the lab.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

If you're wondering what an SCM is, it's uh supplement for cement in the concrete.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah. So we can replace some of the the cement with uh you know a flash or a slag or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Okay. I haven't uh one thing I know comes. A QC is uh reports. You want to talk about those at all?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

What kind of reports?

SPEAKER_02 22:09

DOT reports and submittals and that paperwork side of QC.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Paperwork side. So for any DOT job in Iowa, we have to do plant reports and plant books, which plant reports go into the plant book or opposite other. I can't remember off the top of my head right now. So if we're doing any DOT work that's over a certain amount of yardage, like 10 yards or something, we have to have a gradation for that week. We have to have the truck search signed. We've have to have everything on the truck are like the RPM mixing speed. We have to have how much water was added on site, what was the mix design, the maturity curve, and all uh all of our products that are in the mix design have to have a certification for that as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

And you have to find that through doing basically they want documentation of every single detail of every single thing that happened throughout that job.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, it's uh I would like to say it's a complete waste of time.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

But it's pretty in-depth. It's a waste of time because we know that we're doing the right things, but they don't know that we're doing the right things, so they want to see it documented.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

That I guess that's fair enough, but we don't have to do it in the state of Illinois.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

So yeah, they don't care what's happening over there.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

That's true. That's fair. But that's one of the things we do on a day-to-day and then submittals. Submittals. I don't know how much this really has to do with keep quality control, but uh we submit submittals to our projects as we are awarded them from our customers. And a lot of the things that go into submittals are picking the mixed designs that will follow the specs.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

That's the part that has quality control meetings.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So we have to go through uh and read the specifications that are given to us by the customer that the owner is looking for or the engineer is looking for, and we have to pick a mixed design. That's why we have an odd 2500 mixed designs that we use because the amount of times we have to make a new mix for a new project.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Okay. Well, I think we I think we've done a really good job of kind of going through a bunch of the different work that happens in the quality control department. And for people who don't know, um I think it's probably an eye-opener to think of of all the different things that they're managing over there. So is there anything you want to say to recap uh why we appreciate our quality control department?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I'll tackle that while Lex is trying to gain his train of thought back. Uh you know, I think it's all about fulfilling our promise to our customers. And that is that we're going to have a high quality, consistent product. And this team is critical for doing that. Right. Um, it it's it's necessary as well for, like Lex said, for DOT compliance and things like that. Um and it it certainly helps with reducing our rejected load. So there's cost savings and all that. But the the major thing is we want to be proud of the material we put out every day. And that requires checks and balances to make sure that we're doing everything right. And that's what the quality control department's there to do. They're to help us innovate. They're there to help us make sure that we're um, you know, we're on the sharp end of things as far as materials and and and being best in class with the the concrete we're we're putting out. And so that's why it's a a critical team.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Very good. I did think of a loaded question uh for both of you. For the people who don't work in quality control, so whether that's a you know, a batcher or a driver or or anyone else, what can we do to best support the efforts of the quality control team?

SPEAKER_01 26:07

I would say it's communication, right? It's kind of like if you see something, say something. If the concrete doesn't look good, tell the batch person, tell a quality control text, whatever. Um if you, you know, if you notice any kind of change to the way the concrete's behaving or hear things from customers, you know, that's that's all feedback we want to know because there could be root causes to that that we're not aware of and we can dig into and find. So yeah. So if if you're a driver, if you're a batch person, you know, anytime you notice something unusual or something that isn't the way it's supposed to be, just let's let's let us know and let's investigate.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

The the only thing I would add to that is to ask questions. I think, especially new drivers, you have so much to learn just as far as operating the truck and getting to the jobs. And then, you know, a few weeks or a few months into it, you start looking at a ticket and you're like, what do all of these numbers and abbreviations mean? Like quality control person is a great person to ask, you know, what does this mean? Yeah, they know everything. Why is this different than this? There's there's you can learn so much from just chatting with them.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Or Lex, he talks more in person than he does on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

If you catch him on the right day. Is anything else? Anything else you'd like to say before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Well, I just want to, you know, I think we should give a uh a thank you to the efforts of Colleen and Marshall and Steve and Jill and Donnie, you know, that that quality control team that they really do do a lot of varied and uh sometimes. I said Steve.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Okay. I just want to make sure.

unknown 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

I don't want to miss anyone. It definitely takes definitely takes all of the.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

I think we should thank Steve twice.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yeah. I I actually I do think that Steve had the most tests last month that were reported in.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

So nice work.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

I love to see that.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Well, they their job can be, you know, can be difficult. And and like I said, it's it's it's got a lot of facets to it that we've talked through. So we appreciate them and and all the hard work they do. Yes. You're so loquacious for a podcast. You it's good that you keep things brief.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

I think it's helpful to have a simple, basic explanation of things, and then also the very detailed explanation of things. We catch all of our listeners that way. All right. Thanks for listening to Loaded, the Han Ready Mix podcast. Please share this with your friends and listen again next week. We are also very open to any topic suggestions. So if you have any idea, send that to us through the feedback or let us know.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Thanks so much.