Lucas D'Angelo

Jeremy Perkins  0:00  

This is Jeremy and Eric here with Bucket Talk powered by BRUNT. On this episode, our final episode of the season we have Lucas D'Angelo of ManMadeInMA. But before we get into it, Eric?

Eric Girouard  0:12  

all right all right, so super pumped to talk to our homie Lucas today on my side of the world in the world. You know, I'm super excited to get into the holiday season, we just kicked off a big campaign the 12 days of brunch, where we're giving away something unique every single day ranging from boots, the special edition hats all the way up to YETI Coolers. And yeah, so should be pretty wild ride through the holiday and then get a little team holiday party to close it out before we kind of disappear for the end of the year. But what about you, Jeremy, what are you excited

Jeremy Perkins  0:40  

about is actually surreal for the both of us. I mean, it's technically our third season, our first season powered by bronze, so you know, happy to be taken under the wing of bronze and kind of get a little more horsepower behind bucket talk as a whole. So I'm definitely pumped and very thankful for our listeners a new and old and yeah, looking forward to the holiday season. Got some new guests that we're gonna line up for season two, so I'm definitely, definitely pumped for the new year. So yeah,

Eric Girouard  1:10  

yeah, we're gonna take the next few weeks off and come together with the team strategize and maybe come back with some bigger stuff next year and keep making this bigger and better. And shoot us a note. By the way, anyone who's super interested in hearing their background backstory, we're always open to new ideas and new people to talk to you. So keep us posted. Let's do it. This is bucket talk, weekly podcast where people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity to trade and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  1:56  

All right, today we're here with Lucas D'Angelo. Lucas goes by the Instagram handle man made an MA and he is a jack of all trades. Lucas, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Lucas D'Angelo  2:06  

Yeah, jack of all trades is a good way to put it. It's like the old saying jack of all trades, master of none. But the full saying jack of all trades and a Master of None is better than a master of one. Right? Right. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I do a lot of woodworking, carpentry, metal fabrication. I am a licensed contractor in Massachusetts. So I kind of do a little bit of everything and between what I do for a day job, and what I do outside of that for, you know, my own business and side work. It's pretty all encompassing. My mom's side of the family. My grandfather, my two uncles are all three of them are hobbyists, woodworkers, carpenters. So from a really early age, you know, I had them show me how to do stuff and put tools in my hand and build and do little projects. One of the first little projects I'd done with them was to make pens, you know, so I remember one trip, my two uncles came down and brought with them a lathe and a little drill press, which was a gift for me and said, Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna make pens. So you know, from a really early age, I had my hands in the woodworking world. And so that was really where I started was making stuff out of wood, you know, turning pins and small little projects, you know, picture frames or, or cutting boards, little stuff like that. When I was in high school, I really started getting into I want to learn how to work on my car, or how to wrench on stuff I really was interested in mechanically and stuff. So I started messing around with with my car and doing stuff to it and trying to make it cool. I think that's a pretty common thread with a lot of people. I'm sure, we're sure you kind of had the same thing. You know, I had this old 2002 It's the most soccer mom car there's 2002 Subaru Outback, and it was the, you know, the green with the goal to tone right? Picture that and that was my car's a five speed. The fact that was a five speed made me think I could probably make this a little cooler, you know, so I ended up doing the whole whole build on it. You know, I did custom set coil overs and redid the whole suspension and the exhaust and put short shift kits in it. And so it kind of just went from there. And you know, part of that was I got to learn a little bit of metal fabrication to work on this. So, you know, I learned how to weld and I really found that while woodworking was cool, you know, metalworking I really loved it because it almost felt like you were taking something so innocuous and turning it into something totally different, you know? And so it just really I mean it went from there. You know, after high school, I did go to college. I actually went to college for initially for video production and I worked briefly for about a year at a property maintenance company in the construction division. And it was interesting because I was working with a couple of really skilled guys that had been doing carpentry for a long time. So I picked up some stuff, but it really wasn't for me because it turned into ultimately more of a maintenance thing, like go fix a pole on this wall, go do that. And that wasn't really what I wanted to do. And I'd started working in high school, before college, I'd started working at my local Ace Hardware store, I was a stock boy. And that's important, because that kind of has snowballed into where I am today. So ultimately, in college, I switched my major over from the video production to business, because it just seemed like a good, a good kind of safe bet. I also ended up minoring in technical education. And the only reason I ended up with that minor is because I wanted to be able to use the shop spaces at the school, the only way you can use the shop space if you're taking the classes. So, you know, I ended up just taking the wood metal fab classes, so I could use the shop space. And I took enough of those courses that I ended up with a minor in it. So I guess my super backup is I guess I can teach tech ed, I started working with Ace Hardware. And over the years, I you know, I basically worked my way up from you know, an afternoon stock boy to stock person to

I did some, you know, warehouse management, shipping and receiving and went up to Assistant Store Manager, store manager. And then ultimately what I do right now is essentially director of facilities. And that's a pretty multifaceted job, the company I worked for, we have four retail hardware stores, and a total of five properties, four of the main commercial, one of them being residential. And so with that that's a lot to take care of. They're all older buildings being in Massachusetts, you know, so there's always stuff to fix to repair. So at this point, what I do is I take care of all the buildings, make sure everything maintenance wise is done either by myself or subs, any projects, any upgrades that need to be done from something as simple as replacing a light fixture to you know, a complete gut remodel of a building roofing any sort of infrastructure to it, I deal with that I take care of the all of our equipment, so forklifts, all that kind of material handling stuff, I do a little bit of the IT stuff as well setting up new computer systems and servers and doing all the actual running the wiring and networking, surveillance loss prevention. A lot I do I do quite a bit of that. And in addition, I do all the small engine repairs too, because we do that we offer that service at one of our locations. So that's kind of how I start my day, every morning.

Jeremy Perkins  7:45  

It's pretty interesting, because when we first met, you know, at the end of my conversation, I was like, this guy wears a lot of hats. Yeah, we operate in the same circle. So you know, we have crossed paths before and we know the same people and everything is amazing how many hats you have to wear at a smaller company, which yours is growing, but still Mom and Pop nonetheless, it's definitely. And it's nice because like you do cross those lines into getting out of your comfort zone and, and doing things that you wouldn't normally do. And it's pretty cool because you know, you get a taste everything and you know, you're down to smell removal to excavation to everything. I mean, yeah, I got to do is watch your Instagram. And that's crazy because you absolutely love it. And it is actually your hobby as well to some degree and go a little bit into that. Yeah,

Lucas D'Angelo  8:34  

so I always had a little bit of a shop going on for myself at home. Even back when I lived with my mom, I basically had most of the basement taken over with my shop space. And when I bought a house and moved into my own place, one of the key things was alright, is there a good shop space and so I've got you know, the whole basement of my house is my shop and that's been growing over the years and expanding as my you know, skill sets and needs have expanded. So it definitely started out primarily as a hobby, you know, I love doing this and tinker in here and there and it's definitely grown into equal hobby and side business in terms of what I do and the quote unquote products that I make. So you know, I don't do the traditional kind of make cutting boards or make the kind of stuff that I think is a very common thing to see out of a hobbyist or side business woodworking or metal fabrication, but I do a lot more kind of unique job to job stuff. So someone might say, you know, hey, I need I need this fabricated you know, here's some drawings or I need this repaired, I don't know how to do it or I need this. That's my bread and butter. That's the stuff I really enjoy doing because it's a lot more of a creative problem solving situation where there's not a clear cut. This is how you do this x y you know it's it's There's not a set way to do it, figure out the best way to do it and execute. So I really enjoy that aspect of it. And, you know, I've tried to set my shop space up, so that I can do just about every facet of the fabrication and repair process in house instead of having to sub anything out. And that's really what has also enabled me to grow my own hobby side of it is, you know, having the means to create anything that I can think of or, or dream of doing, you know, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to set myself up that way. But that's what it started into. And one of my passions is really grown into being the restoration and repair of vintage machinery and vintage tools, equipment.

Jeremy Perkins  10:43  

Yeah, I wanted to get into that, because it's like, is that a side business or just a side hobby?

Lucas D'Angelo  10:49  

Well, it started as a side hobby, because when I was outfitting my shop, I was looking around, and I'm like, you know, I can't really afford brand new machines right now, you know, like a brand new bandsaw brand new that some of that stuff can be really expensive as anyone might know. And, you know, a lot of it, too, is made overseas, but there's really nice quality stuff you can buy nowadays, like really high end really nicely made stuff. But a lot of the, you know, average price stuff might not be so great and right. So I started looking at old stuff, old machines, you know, from the 60s or older, and a lot of it was mechanically a really good shape, really sound but needed a few things fixed here and there. So I started buying the older stuff, because a lot of it's much cheaper, and you know, a lot of people don't really see the value in it. So I started buying the older stuff, and then fixing what needed to get fixed or, you know, replacing parts or repairing it for my own shop for my own use. And then I started to find that there's a whole community of this and that there's a whole call for these, you know, old machines that are put back together that are, you know, rebuilt or restored. And a lot of people want that because they're in some cases are better machines, if not more unique, as well. And so I started to kind of go through older machines and clean them up and either rebuild them or do a full restoration and sell them. And that kind of turned into a good little side hustle, you know, because there's always a market for that stuff. And there's so much of it out there, especially where we are here in New England, there's so much out there, just so so.

Jeremy Perkins  12:27  

So that's, it's cool that you mention that because, you know, I've actually been to a few shops recently, you know, we all know that the baby boomer generation is slowly retiring and a lot of those guys and gals have kept stuff from when they first started and, you know, their retirement nest egg is to really, you know, sell everything that they have in their shop. And so it's interesting because now you're gonna see a surplus of stuff that is just nice vintage stuff. I mean, I looked at a machine shop the other day and the guy had lathes and everything. And you're right, I mean, a lot of that stuff is better made better quality. And you know, and you're actually fabricating some replacement parts, aren't you?

Lucas D'Angelo  13:10  

Right? Yeah. So when I first started doing this, I was trying to get things that were mostly complete because I didn't really have the means or honestly even the skills to make replacement parts for it. And as time has gone on, I've gotten to a point where I'm comfortable with making or fabricating just about any parts form so I'll take on stuff that's in really bad shape and rebuild and this is not you know limited to you know, electric power tools machine tools necessarily all do stuff like vices as well I mean I love vices like get a crazy for I got this big old Rock Island Bice 577 So it's six inch jobs about 149 pounds, good size good size vise I got that last year and it needed it needed some love I mean it you know functioned and opened and closed but it was it was in rough shape and you know so that was fun for me because it was missing some parts and it gave me the ability to not only get it all cleaned up and back into service but also make parts for it you know, so I had to make a few of the handles for so that was some lathe work. And then I ended up making new you know, the main handle and that big we call it like the meatball, you know the big ball and on it there you know I did a couple of processes to that that little between a couple of the machine tools boarded out and put in some bronze bushings and made so it functions I would say right now it's better than it was when it was brand new. And you know, while that vise is almost 100 years old, it's gonna be you know in service for at least the next 100 years. You know beyond when I'm gone it's going to be going

Jeremy Perkins  14:48  

I know that different classifications of things especially in the automotive world like if you have a fully unrestored car that is you know a barn fine it is, you know price probably the highest and then you have full restoration, and then you have modified. So when it comes to like vintage tools, how does that work? Does it carry the same value or are there you know, you want to find that untouched one,

Lucas D'Angelo  15:11  

it's a little bit of both, it's a little bit of both, for sure. So, you know, for example, I just, I did a drill press for a customer a couple of months ago that I would definitely describe, or to put it in my car terms as a resto mod. Where this is a drill press that I found in a backyard of a building in Long Island that was half buried, it had been outside for gosh, knows how long and then the whole thing was solid rest, you know, nothing moved, it's solid rest, but it was a turn of the century buffalo from early 1900s. And it was a little bit of a benchtop one, but so before I even touched it, I had it sold to somebody, they wanted to restore it, but they wanted it restored in a unique way they wanted, you know, a particular paint job and particular look to it. So, mechanically, that was a full restoration in terms of you know, tear it all apart, get it all dialed in. And you know, he said the motor I got a motor for it, you know, I can deal with that, but in terms of getting mechanically working and all that, but to make it a perfect restoration that would have been, you know, brought back to factory paint factory colors, all of that. And to some people, that's what they want. But what I've found is so many people want something that's you know, unique for them or fits their style. So for this one, he wanted it painted, you might know this Mohito green it was a Jeep color from like the like three or four years ago sort of that metallic green that's what color he wanted it cuz he's got a couple other things that colors so you know, did that colorway and you know, gold accents. And so that's like sort of resto mod, but that's exactly what he wanted. And to him that's got all the value in the world and he can turn around sell it, because it's unique, but it's mechanically perfect, right? Whereas that UniDrill that I'd done that really crazy Delta Rockwell drill with the tilting head and all that stuff. That one was a full restoration like to a tee back to factory and that one's for me that'll never sell, it took me years to find it. But that one being restored back to factory condition in factory color and factory everything that is its highest worth its highest value. You know,

Jeremy Perkins  17:21  

I saw Dre got you a bird that is that for the Rockwell.

Lucas D'Angelo  17:26  

So that's for my Rockwell bandsaw it couldn't go on the drill because they actually had provisions for it as well. Yeah, that was it. She's the best that was such a such an unbelievable present seriously.

Jeremy Perkins  17:39  

Well, I actually I went down a black hole too, because like, I understand what that was, but like I can't understand the significance.

Lucas D'Angelo  17:48  

I still don't understand the significance. I just know the significance, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  17:52  

so So for like the next 30 minutes, I went down this black hole on lights for for all prices and stuff like crazy, right? Oh my god, what am I doing? It's crazy. It's cool, because your stuff spans from being functional to being cost effective, right? You can go to swap meet. When I used to do this, you go to swap meet, you need a vise, you pick up a vise for 15 bucks. And then you sanded down, and you're paying it and all of a sudden, something nice, well, somebody comes over your house and goes how much for the vise and you're like, I don't know, 50 bucks. And then all of a sudden you kind of got the ball rolling, you didn't really do anything. All you did was like oil it up, get it run and whatever. Then the next part is is like really outfitting you know, your shop with, you know, cheaper goods and all that stuff. And then there's also the art aspect of it. Like there are some pretty nice pieces that people just have, and don't really use, you know. And they put them in a shop or you know, a diner or what have you so it's kind of crazy.

Lucas D'Angelo  18:55  

Yeah, no, it's there's, there's definitely different tiers of that, right. And I would even dare say that the unit drill is borderline, you know, functional piece I've wanted for a long time works phenomenally well, but also at that borderline of heart too, because it's just such a cool looking machine. And it's nice to be able to look at it right now and see it as it was when it came out of the factory, you know, in the early 60s. And it's like that again. Now it's it's, there's some days that I don't even want to use it. I just want to look at it. Or you know, another great example is is a Shopsmith. I have a Shopsmith from 1947. And that was actually before Shopsmith was Shopsmith. It was made by Magna and it was called the 10 Er And for anyone that's unfamiliar, it's like the original five in one tool kind of looks like a lave. But you can flip the whole assembly vertically and now it's a drill press. I wouldn't be a tablesaw disk sander, did a whole bunch of those operations. And it's a pretty cool looking machine. I'd restored this one a few years ago, and that's 100% an art piece to me that's That's something I'll ever use, because I have all the machines, you know, one two times over as dedicated machines. So I don't need it to function as the tool but you know, it's got this beautiful clear grain vertical grain fur base, you know, the stand basically bench and it's on it's painted it, you know, it's got the candy apple red accents and the sort of hammer of gunmetal gray. It's just it's a beautiful tool. And it's something that I'll always look at, but never want to use. Because to me, that's more of an art piece, you know?

Jeremy Perkins  20:30  

Yeah. Yeah. So where do you see all of this going from facilities with the company you started with? And then the stuff you've got going on? In your? Do you see, like an end game here? I mean, and even with dry, I mean, you just brought in your beautiful girlfriend into this whole space, and you guys are collaborating? Like amazingly. So like, what? What is all this gonna end up looking like? Or what do you want it to end up looking like?

Lucas D'Angelo  20:56  

You know, I honestly, I don't go into this every day with a clear cut goal of this is where I want it to go. I think you know, what's going on right now. And, you know, between donut facilities at work, we've kind of started to look at it in terms of, you know, we've got a couple of apartments, renovations going on and stuff. And we're looking at that, like, maybe this is something to think about, you know, an extracurricular way outside of the retail store operations is, you know, is there an opportunity for doing these kind of turnovers or flips? You know, aside from our own properties, is that something that we can look at, you know, as time goes on between the boss and I, and yeah, maybe because that's, that's not a bad idea, so many opportunities for it, as you all know, and then in terms of the other side of it, dry, no, we're just having a blast. So, you know, furthering ourselves in terms of skills and our abilities to create, and continuing to grow relationships with, you know, our peers and with companies, I was telling you a little bit, we've, you know, we've got some really good stuff going for 2022, in terms of partnerships with some companies and doing some events. And we're really looking forward to that and stuff that's just come organically from us, doing what we do, and you know, doing what we love, and sharing that on social media, you know, you never really know how much can come from it, but so much can and we just want to share what we know and share our experiences and in educating to me education, and, you know, sharing knowledge is important. Above all else, I'm not going to say to you, my goal is to, you know, educate, and I don't really care about any of the byproducts like, of course, partnerships, and working with brands is great. And that's phenomenal to further our own personal, you know, agendas. But that's not priority one, I think priority one is certainly to continue to grow our own skills and share those with with others, I love to be able to share what I know and help people grow and educate. And so I mean, I think that's what is important. And I'd love to be able to continue to do that, and perhaps even have more of a platform to do that as time goes on.

Jeremy Perkins  23:07  

All right, that sounds amazing. And that kind of leads into my next question is what would you tell a younger person that wants to get into really working with their hands getting into more of the trades, and you know, maker space, or hobbyist space, you know, kind of pushing the limits on carpentry or welding or whatever, and they don't know where to start? What would you tell young person where they can find the resources or work through that aspect of it?

Lucas D'Angelo  23:33  

Yeah, I mean, so currently, as we're entering 2022, now, the landscape of that has changed so much, and so much more has become available and accessible. So I'd say you know, right now, either find a local maker space that you can join or tour and even if you're not going there to make or to create anything immediately going there to network, almost, you know, and make some connections and just watch, I mean, the most important thing, in my opinion is just knowing how and being able to watch and ask questions and absorb that information. So you know, maker spaces are really good resources for multifaceted learning, you know, you're not gonna just learn carpentry, you're not just gonna learn welding, you're gonna learn a whole lot of things there. And most people have classes. But even outside of that, now, with the advent of how widespread the knowledge base is on social media platforms, like Instagram, just going on Instagram and just looking around and you know, the amount of people that you're going to be able to find that are not only, you know, right down the street of what you're looking for, in terms of skill sets, and, you know, learning content, but the people that are also geographically close to you, there's so many people that are literally in your neighborhood, that you might not even realize that we are going to be great resources. You know, I remember when I was first starting this, you know, Instagram wasn't really think, right? So, those resources weren't there for me, and for me, it was a lot of Honestly, just trial and error, you know, this is what I want to do, I'm going to try this, I'm not afraid to take something apart and try and figure out how it works, put it back together. So there's some of you set up for that. I mean, having the confidence to just dive in with your own two hands. Is, is amazing. That's something that I can't emphasize enough, he's just trying it. But nowadays, you know, I'm still finding people, you know, out on social media that are amazing resources that are great to be able to ask questions to bounce ideas off of, and, I mean, that's what the community is, you know, I don't want to say I was known for, but that's a really powerful thing about it. There's people out there that are just willing to help and would love to be able to help and share their education. In if you're someone that's, you know, picking up a hammer for the first time or picking up, you know, a welding torch for the first time, and you don't know where to start. There's countless people out there that would love to, you know, take a half an hour and talk you through some basics or share some, you know, some literature resources that will help you get started. You're not alone, there's a million people out there that just want to help.

Jeremy Perkins  26:05  

Well, it's interesting, and we briefly touched on this last time we spoke is is that social media is now way bigger than just 123 channels is, you know, there's so many I mean, you guys operate in clubhouse, there's Clapper, there's YouTube, there's YouTube shorts, it's amazing. And each individual platform brings its own set of values and learning. So like, I actually spend some time on tick tock and tick tock is just like, when I need to pick me up it is just to 100% like laugh and have a good time. But you know, there's the professional side of things like if I'm looking for, you know, help in something I may turn to LinkedIn, or Instagram is actually very visual. But Facebook might be a place where you might find a community, it's interesting that like, it's sometimes hard to maintain all these platforms, but at the same time, like what you're looking for, can be presented in different ways throughout those platforms.

Lucas D'Angelo  27:05  

Right. And, you know, you're one of the first people to really have a good conversation with me about the you know, like you just said, Don't limit yourself to just one I mean, you know, not to say you should dive in headfirst and commit all this time to every single one. But each one has its own value, you know, I hadn't even really thought about in my head LinkedIn was, you know, a place to go look for a job or, you know, trying to network and find a job. And it wasn't until we had that conversation a while back about the actual value of it beyond that, you know, as a social network, that I really started to look at it differently. You've totally changed my perspective on that. And it's just not something I thought about it for but you're totally right. It's such a different kind of network. But it's so valuable.

Jeremy Perkins  27:45  

Yeah, I mean, LinkedIn is actually really tried hard to keep it 100% professional. And I know that there's a lot of things in the world, that that kind of cloud, whether it's in comments, or whatever kind of muddies the water when you're trying to look for an answer and LinkedIn, and the people on LinkedIn have actually done a really good job at protecting that group as a whole and saying, you know, this is where we come, you know, advice, or, you know, whatever empowerment, it doesn't matter. But it's definitely been a pretty pure platform on that regards. And same with Instagram. I mean, Instagrams been pretty good in that regard. And, you know, there's the other ones like tick tock, and whatever. That's just sheer sheer madness. But But yeah, I mean, everything has a place and I think it's good,

Lucas D'Angelo  28:33  

even clubhouse. While it's not as much of a social network as the other ones you've talked about, it's sort of a totally different thing. I kind of think about it almost like as a live podcast, where we'll say, if you and Eric wanted to, you know, do a podcast where it was just YouTube talking about BRUNT or about Bucket Talk, or whatever, right? You guys can get in there and start it, and anyone can come in and listen, but I think, you know, the cool interactive part is anyone can, quote unquote, come up on stage and actually interact with you live and ask questions. And that's what's cool, but what it's kind of turned into, on a day to day, at least for me, and, you know, some of my immediate community and friends is, there's always a conversation, there's always a room, as they call it a conversation or a room going on, where we're all chatting while we work, or while we're working in the shop, or whatever. And, you know, it's a great resource. Because, you know, people come in and out throughout the day and say, oh, you know, I'm working on this, and I kind of ran myself into a wall and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm not sure how to fix this issue or what there's always knowledge in there to say, Oh, hey, you know what, here's how you fix it. So try this. So it's, it's become almost like an instant gratification of, I need to I need some information or I need I need a solution. Now let me just let me see who's in clubhouse. Let me see if I can ask anybody and there's almost always someone in there that can answer so it's, it's kind of cool in that respect, where it's just turned into a lifeline almost. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Constant information. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy Perkins  29:57  

I mean, I haven't gone down that road. And actually the reason why Know About clubhouses through you so

Lucas D'Angelo  30:01  

yeah, so drain I bet

Jeremy Perkins  30:05  

you know what, then it's paid for itself. 10,000 times.

Lucas D'Angelo  30:09  

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, big fan for life support.

Jeremy Perkins  30:14  

So, I mean, it sounds like you actually don't have any time outside of what you do. But other than all of this that we've talked about, because I can't even put a name ever here. But what are some of the hobbies? What else do you like to do?

Lucas D'Angelo  30:30  

Oh, boy, other hobbies? Yeah, I mean, honestly, cook. Like, I mean, I like to eat. So in order to eat, you gotta cook. Yeah, well, you know, it's like, it was that it was multiplied like crazy with Dre. I mean, she's even more Italian than I am. So, collectively, yeah, we'd love to cook. And we also really enjoy. I mean, granted, this kind of is in the same realm as you know, the rest of the stuff, but we really like to travel and, and go on trips, be it a road trip or fly somewhere. And, you know, I was gonna say, kind of ties in Because oftentimes, it turns into going somewhere to see some of our friends that happen to also be makers or going somewhere to pick up a piece of machinery or equipment, you know, but the the trip and the travel and the experiences along the way we really enjoy just driving to and from just business wise, we're really trying to enjoy ourselves on the way it's

Jeremy Perkins  31:21  

funny, because I actually live vicariously through you sometimes. Well, because I mean, I feel like I, I don't know, in a, in a different world. I mean, I'm happy with my path. Don't Don't get me.

Lucas D'Angelo  31:34  

Yeah, like, it's so cool watching watching your, the shift in the last year or so, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  31:41  

but but the grass is always greener. And when I do look over at your yard, it's funny seeing that, like, could I have done more in my youth when I was single, or when me and Jenny were, you know, first starting out in our relationship to kind of spread our wings and really get out there instead of doing I guess there was a time when it was just like, just being social. I guess, if you put a name to it, I got my experience to travel through the military, but it wasn't the continental United States, there's a lot of things that you do, whether it's, you know, going to makers camp or going to visit, you know, your friends in Long Island, or, you know, just traveling around the country that Americans have seen Chris, right. Exactly, exactly. So that's what I'm talking about is like, you've created this cool little network of essentially, you know, be Airbnbs to be honest. I guess if I had my shit together at an early age, I could have been a little bit more worldly and a little bit more wiser in my age now. No, I'm serious. I mean, the stuff that you're doing is crazy. I wish I was doing that. But now, now I'm just an old farmer.

Lucas D'Angelo  32:53  

You know what, though? First of all, first of all, never never limit yourself as as just one thing. Come on. That is true. All the other stuff that you're doing Yeah, pharma might be like a broad term. I actually like

Jeremy Perkins  33:09  

it's all encompassing, because it might as well just be Jack of all trades.

Lucas D'Angelo  33:14  

No, seriously. Yeah, Pharma is synonymous with that. 100% right. But I mean, you still do so many other things and you still have a you know, a place to utilize all your pre existing talents and skills. I mean, think about it. What happened when you broke the latch on the side by side? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah, like that's just having those skills they never go away regardless what you do they never go away and there's always gonna be a place for it. There's always gonna be need for it. Especially as a farmer

Jeremy Perkins  33:43  

I think the one thing that I need up here though, is a building that is non flammable that is a building that is on the horizon all my like I got a I got a 300 year old barn

Lucas D'Angelo  34:07  

big old steel building. At least get a shipping container or something. Right. Welding that's not a bad idea. Don't even think about that. Yeah, they're cheaper you just drop them anywhere. Instant welding shop. Yeah, I catch a woodstove

in your welder. Perfect. It's all you need. So of course your toolbox will take up the whole thing but

Jeremy Perkins  34:34  

that's another thing that bums me out because it's literally sitting in a storage unit right now because I'm so happy that I can't put it in the bar and I'm pretty sure it'll just like go through the

Lucas D'Angelo  34:43  

floor. The floor. Yeah. A little flex like that.

Jeremy Perkins  34:50  

It's a pain in the ass. Well, it's funny because there's a lot of my tools that are in the toolbox that I never thought I'd use outside of the automotive industry. So right like I had this thermal imager that it used for, you know, heated seats and all this stuff. And now I got these automatic waters that come. So each horse stall has a water in it that they can drink from. But in the wintertime, it's heated. So each one has a heating element, and he and a thermostat and all that stuff. So now I'm using it for that. And there's so much, so much crossover with my tools, and it's kind of a pain to be like, legitimately 30 minutes away, things are gonna get better in the spring, you know, we did manage to find somebody that a contractor that will work with us. So you know, and that's the thing with the trades is like, people don't realize the value of joining the trades, like I do electrical work, but I by no means an electrician, but I have to hardwire in a heater and I have to put it in because a panel and everything like that. It's just it's not me, and I need a electrician to come out. And the earliest one was like three or four weeks out, I was like, hey, like a blue collar understanding here like Yeah, right, right, right. But no, I mean, that's what it is, it's that long for things to happen. And they can charge whatever they want.

Lucas D'Angelo  36:11  

And that, you know, it's like, we talk about this all the time. And, you know, this is like one of the big things for you know, for bucket talking, Brent is trying to bring that awareness, but like, I'm so glad to see finally, finally, that it's kind of circling back. And there's so much more respect and so much more, you know, legitimacy put back into the trades, you know, as opposed to, you know, oh, well, if you want to succeed in life, you need to go to college, you have degree and all that stuff. And well, well, you know, for certain fields that's completely factual, like Dre, you know, she's got a master's degree in occupational therapy. And that's not something you could do unless you went to school, like no question about it, that's required school, but, you know, there's no need to, to downplay the success in the, you know, ability to lead a great life and have a great life just being in the trades, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  36:57  

and that was one of those things that I want to also harp on, too, is is like, I don't want the scales to be tipped the other way to where now, there's just too many laborers for the blue collar, there really has to be a bounce. So that was always the thesis of bucket talk was, we're not getting on here. And you know, saying don't go to college, like that's silly, come to the trades, and pick up a shovel. Now there needs to be that balance. And without that either side isn't going to be valued when the scale tips away from them, you know what I mean?

Lucas D'Angelo  37:29  

Right, exactly. Like I said, I mean, you know, for the kind of stuff that I do currently, and the kind of stuff that you do, you know, college isn't, isn't a necessity, it's a really great bonus. Certainly, I mean, you know, you and I both have gone through school and gotten our degrees. And that's which, congratulations, that's super psyched on you, by the way, a little later than many. But still, you did it. And that's, that's it. That's it. But you know, so like, but it's not mandatory. It's just it happens to be a benefit, right? But you know, for a given Hey, look at Eric Right? Go and doing what he did in being you know, that entrepreneur and all that business, you know, acumen that he's got is you can you can learn it without school, and you can learn it without education, but it'll certainly fast track it, you know, to get back. Yeah, for even like circling back and re like you said, you can't do any of that stuff. Without formal education, like Not a chance, you know, and we need those kinds of people in the world. Absolutely. It's absolutely going to help us if we, you know, need rehab, who's going to help us when we get older, go into nursing homes and stuff like,

Jeremy Perkins  38:35  

well, I thought you were talking about different I was like the trades does need rehab. So

Lucas D'Angelo  38:43  

educated people trades people younger than most, you know, I know I was killer bodies. Yeah, no,

Jeremy Perkins  38:53  

absolutely. So this is really the end of it. And honestly, we can go on forever. And we have this is the time for you to plug anything that you either have coming up or you want to share or just your Instagram handle or clubhouse, whatever, whatever you want to plug.

Lucas D'Angelo  39:13  

Yeah, I mean, so you can always follow along if I'm on Instagram at bay unmade in MA so man, that's the important thing, man with two N's ma Nn. And that's, that's the family name. That's the maternal side there that I was talking about earlier with, you know, people that got me going on all this. So man, maiden Ma, I am here in Massachusetts, same on YouTube. 2022 definitely going to be upping the YouTube game. I've got some good partnerships and some good projects coming up for the new year. And then we're also going to be returning to a couple of events in 2022 that we started this year. So it's a couple of events called make 48. And it's it's a really cool sort of design build company. A petition that brings in all sorts of people, makers or otherwise, that would like to try and design and build a project or product, and they do it all within a 48 hour time frame. And so we participated as the tool techs, you know, so as the Build Team basically. And so we'll be going back for a few events in 2022, which we're really looking forward to. So that's a lot of fun. It's a great organization, and definitely tries to bring the idea of making and working with your hands to the forefront and make it more accessible to the community. So really excited about that. And outside of that, we're just now trying to top this year this year has been amazing. So yeah, try to keep it going. You know,

Jeremy Perkins  40:41  

there you go. There you go. Well, I appreciate you having Yeah. No, I mean, honestly, thanks. It's, it's been a pleasure. I always find what you do fascinating, you know, definitely one of the best in the maker community. And thanks again, Lucas.

Lucas D'Angelo  41:02  

Thank you so much. Let me guys do the best