construction site signing

For the last three days I have been working with my father on a project for my church. We have been leveling the parking lot and covering it with gravel, so members won't be parking on a grassy hillside anymore. While running a backhoe and digging up dirt seems far from the field of an interpreter, I did find that a knowledge of classifiers and spacial awareness is quite usefull. There were many times over the last three days where signs were used to clarify an idea or convey directions. In an all hearing crew this may seem odd; however when surrounded by two front end loading tractors, a backhoe, and a dump truck, turning off the machines every time someone wants to say something is ineffecient. A quick 'you'...(classifier car) 'pull up this way and back over there' seems to work great. Having an entire conversation is out of the question. 'A' , each person is focused on their work and it might cause a distracting accident, and 'B', I was the only person on the site that actually knew sign language. I did find however that it gave me a feeling of satisfaction that I could use the visual language skills from my 'normal' job and transfer them to a completely different environment and still use them.