So...... I had to fire my capper tonight

I finally got around to bottling up my Pumpkin Ale tonight. Whenever I bottle beer I always have an extra set of little hands that end up touching each bottle and cap.

So tonight it was easier to give A Bird a job than have her touching and grabbing at the hot bottles or spilling them trying to "help". So tonight I "hired" her on as my capper.

I would fill the bottles and hand them to her and she would place a cap on each one. This worked out great until she quickly mastered putting the caps on and was capping faster than I was filling. So once she had all of her bottles capped, she decided that I was in need of some advice and supervision.

She would stand next to me and tell me when to fill the bottle, how fast to fill the bottle and how full to fill it so she could cap it. Man, she is already her mother's daughter. Just kidding L Bird, but seriously sometimes she is identical to you.

Anyway, this is the way it went for a few rounds of bottles, then something happened. At first I didn't notice it, but then it hit me about 3 bottles in. A Bird had gotten quiet and wasn't giving me any advice, so I peek over at her and I notice that before she put the cap on each bottle she was sticking her tiny little finger in the bottle and then sucking the beer off her finger. That's right, SHE WAS DRINKING ON THE JOB!! Can you believe the nerve of this kid? I give her a job and then she goes and takes advantage of my generosity by drinking up all my goods. The nerve!

But seriously I caught her and explained to her that beer is a big person drink like soda and that she can't drink it until she's 21. I know I am probably disillusioned about the 21 thing but hey i can hope. I asked her how many times she had done that and after some grilling she fessed up to 3 times, so she got 3 tiny tiny tiny tastes. So we had another long talk and I thanked her for her help but told her that if she did that again she would no longer be able to help me bottle my "beerd". The consequence of not helping me was too devastating to her so she swore off the sauce and went back to work.

So I guess I really didn't fire her, I just wrote her up and gave her a verbal warning. But the important thing is she learned her lesson and she is just too cute to fire.