Days end, years end

Its the 31st of December and I guess this year only has a few more hours to go.

We have decided to work this new year weekend. The Foreman says most of his guys are from BC anyway and they won't have much to do so they want to work it. makes no difference to me I hadn't planned on doing much myself.

Crazy, my online friend is in the hospital at Edmonton having her first baby, I wish the best for her and I am glad her mother told me. I was worried I would not be able to send anything on the stat holiday, but this worked out well. I sent her an Edible Arrangements bouquet that is made up of a whole lot of fun shaped fruit made to look like flowers all stuffed into a little pink elephant glass piggybank keepsake. I got something similar (not the elephant though) when I was ill this summer, sadly mine was huge and I couldn't eat it fast enough...but the thought was nice.

I have some plans for a major purchase in the next month or so and I am hoping to get a good deal. Feel the time is right to get a new ATV. I am stuck between what I really want and what I actually need. The Can-Am 800 Renegade is what I want, but the price is obnoxious at $13,000...its big and fast, but for my line of work its overkill. The Yamaha Grizzly 700 seems more reasonable to me and I might be able to buy a past model year that is still brand new for less money. I used to be a diehard Honda fan because they are bulletproof and last forever but I am tired of the stiff buckboard style ride.

The worst part of December,

it's Christmas day and I'm trying to relax. Its been ok so far, just quiet time with my family. I think I may have spent too much.

On Thursday, while travelling through Grande Prairie on my way back to Ft St John, I stopped at Fountain Tire and broke down and bought a full set of winter tires. Like them a lot. Feels like I have the 4x4 locked in when I don't. Never had proper winter tires before, but I have been worried about all the driving I have to do and figured it was time to do things right.

My Christmas shopping was easy, maybe I punked out, but it was mostly all gift cards this year. I feel bad about that, but it was all I could do; people in my way walking the aisles, drivers who for whatever reason can't comprehend what a 4 way stop means, ignorance in the parking lots....it all just gets on my nerves and I want to be alone.

Saw a few old friends again so that was nice, I wish I felt more sociable, but its not me right now. Just want to get back to work and I will...on the 27th.

The beat goes on

...and on and on. I told my boss the other day that I would work until the 24th and come back as soon as he wanted. He said I should make sure to get some quality time off. I really don't care that much about the holidays anymore, getting so jaded with everything in general...

Its been a hard few months...  In my mind I've given up on a few things some would say are essential but day by day I accept more and more that it's just the way it has to be. Its been a 20 year run to get to this point...what is the prize? Still looking.

I'm at Edson Alberta for work again, Ask me if I am stressed...nope.

...the thought that has been going through my head:
"Ready to go? Yeah, ...I'm ready" :-{

I've been called worse...

"YOU F*CKER!" Was what my friend Jay said to me this afternoon. "Hehe!" Was all I said back,

I have been working down by Lethbridge for the last week. It was another one of those ambiguous job starts, not really knowing when the location had to be done by, but knowing from past experience that it is always prudent to err on the side of "Get the damn thing built A.S.A.P.!"

So hard to find a contractor in the extreme south of Alberta that even knows how to build a lease anymore. The industry had for the most part gone to minimal disturbance drilling. A whole lot of accumulated knowledge has been lost. I wonder if the industry realizes this? I called a handfull of contractors I found online or in the yellow pages, the answer was always the same: "Nope, can't help you, haven't built one in 15 years and only have a few old-timers on the payroll that even know how anymore".   I have to admit I was hoping for a bit more interest, but can I really blame them? With the stroke of a pen government regulators and industry decided minimal disturbance was best. The unintended outcome was many companies left the field and pursued other earthmoving activity or went out of business entirely.

Well what do you know? An oil company decides to drill with oil based mud down here and we are left with the only option of actually protecting the soils and surrounding land, by building a real honest to god lease. And that brings me back to Jay.

I met Jay when he worked for me up north around Rocky Mtn House a good 10-12 years back. Sometime ago he left that part of the country and took a real cowboy job on the Birdseye Ranch which abutts Waterton National Park. I found him again about 3 years ago when we drilled a few wells on the ranch. He knows what he is doing and the ranch had some equipment so he built the sites for me. Anyway on this latest job near Lethbridge I got Jay back yet again.

In my own defense we started construction on Saturday and I didn't know for sure until Monday that the rig wasn't coming till Thursday...the only problem was I told Jay when we started that it was coming on Wednesday. You know I hate deadlines, but for once it was nice to make someone else think the heat was on, and they work so quick, but I get called a fucker! Oh well, I can take it, and now Jay has the whole day  to himself tomorrow to make everything look pretty with no pesky rig move happening around him. Its good to be the boss sometimes...

 ROFLMAO!

It scares me...kill it with fire.

Darn... woke up this morning at 2:42am and been up ever since. I had a dream, don't normally remember them and this one is fading already. What to mention on a blog that is read by others, not much, but suffice to say it had to do with a girl 2 years in the past...when does it end?

Hey the title of this post was just a funny line I heard on the radio this morning (say it with a southern accent), by no means should it be morphed into having anything to do with the statement above.

I have been working out of Whitecourt Alberta lately. Its unchallenging work ..."take this dirt, haul it over there". Kinda boring and its been too cold to walk around comfortably, but I know I should have anyway. Watched a news report on diabetes and the ever increasing waistline of North Americans...turns out the best way to keep the pounds off is to eat raw vegetables, apparently they take work to digest and keeps you feeling full longer. I can attest to that, been losing a lot of weight the last the last couple of months, the rabbit food works.

Got a little bad news on the job front. Plastic liner trouble in Edson, some failures delayed a frac and the new one we finished a week ago may not be holding water. These friggin liners will be the death of me yet! We are probably going to a different supplier and installer for the next ones or change the approach entirely.

Got some advice from crazy the other day, I love it, she keeps me sane sometimes, she seemed to get really upset when I told her I changed some ``personal`` paperwork...I know, I know is all I could reply, but its the way I feel...I wonder if the dream was brought on by that exchange.

Got the GoPro cam, here is the first video:

Goodbye Jimmy

Jimmy Musil
July 2, 1970 – October 28, 2010

Last month I lost a friend. I met Jim when I was an equipment operator in BC during the mid 90's. My fondest memories of him are from the job where these pictures were taken. We were working "behind" Pink Mountain at Mile 143 of the Alaska Highway, not many can say that.


 It was such an adventure, the term "bowler" will forever have a new definition known only to me and him, one of those private jokes that cement friendships and make them last a lifetime... come what may.

Rest now Jim,
the mountains will always be there,
and the marks we made,
will show them you were here.

Thanks to rancholosmalulos for showing me how to properly embed the videos from youtube...this is probably the coolest thing about the rigs (in my opinion) rig move day is always exciting.

Back to some sort of normal

Some may have noticed that I took a break from all this online stuff, most probably did not. Afterall this is just my thing to vent and I like it that way...although everyone is welcome to read.

Been busy and actually had the best month I have ever had in this business, but you know it still seems like a fine line that I have to tread and that gets tedious. I'm just finishing a liner install job in Edson Alberta. I absolutely hate the can't do's of this world...I am going to keep the contractor anonymous, but have to say that rarely have I been in the presence of a company mentality that can figure out so many ways in which to do so little. This friggin liner has been a nightmare from hell and guess who gets the brunt of it when nothing gets done and money is still being spent?

Took a good hard fall the other morning coming out of the motel at 5:00am. I swear it looked like damp parking lot...it wasn't. Out the feet went and BAM!! Right on my back, computer case landed 10ft away and skittered across the pavement. I tucked my head in so that didn't crack, but my elbow and shoulder blades took a real shit-kickin...just started to notice my left thumb is sore and have no idea how that happened. Here is my shameless plug of the day: That laptop that went across the pavement? Well it was snug as a bug inside a Pelican protective briefcase, I highly recommend that if you have a laptop that you get one. Another one of the best purchases I ever made.

Speaking of new purchases, I have become entralled with a new camera and I am thinking very seriously of ordering it online as soon as I finish this blog entry. It is a High-Def, wearable and fully water proof cam called the Go-Pro Hero. From what I have heard and seen on youtube it is truly amazing, the possibilities for me are seemingly endless. I am getting tired of my low def, un-high tech cam that cost so much just a year and a half ago. For less money I can get the Go-Pro, have 1080p, 170 degree field of view and mount it anywhere. That is awesome to me.

Wasting time

Can't say the job has been going great...some of those feelings from last year of just packing it up and doing what I like have come back. Its very nice to have that option. I guess we will see what happens, but I have that old conflict where I see the work ahead and the money to be had and I bite my tongue once again. It will be busy and I am ready for it as far as my health goes, scars are doing good and all that.....just checked my email and have another 5 sites to spot so the total to build this fall/winter sits at 8 and believe me that is a busy build program with more to come...lots of companies promise big programs but they always seem to fall short.

I was disappointed when I started smoking after the hospital stay, but I got on a Champix perscription and it seems to be really kicking in, the need isn't there anymore, but the habit and needing my hands be busy remains. I don't find it enjoyable anymore, I try not to think of it in numbers but I am down a lot and would say its around half a pack or less a day. Some of the stress from work in last month really kicked my ass and I will need to work on that...smoking is not the answer. One good thing is that I won't be turning to food, the diabetes prevents that...no sugar and constantly watching the labels has me eating much better. It is hard, never realized how much crap I used to eat because it was easy and convenient.

Its nice to not worry about money so much, I knew this would be the outcome, but I still miss her every now and then, wonder how things have turned out for her...but it was a messed up situation and I was to blame because I enabled it for so long. It will be 2 years in December. Maybe another year and my future is wide open...

Not for those with a weak stomach....

Well its not that bad...its officially been a month since they cut me. I took my own dressing off at home because it came off almost by itself in the shower. This time I actually looked and have to say I got a little dizzy and almost puked. It was a shock to say the least, I felt really let down, up to now I was relying on what I heard from the nurses said and it always seemed more and more positive everyday. I guess they see this stuff a lot more than I do. .I just didn't realize how big the site was and how much they took from me. Its not a deformity or anything drastic like that, and the nurses assure me that it will even out and flatten down eventually and be almost scar free. I am talking about the wound on the inside of my leg, I just realized that imaginations could run wild if I didn't clarify that.

I have been driving to Grande Prairie every 2 days and I know I have mentioned something similar before but I have to say it again: There are so many friggin retards in BC and they all seem to drive in front of me. Or beside me, cutting me off in the passing lanes when I am already going 10kmph over....Mini-vans seem to be the worst and I have no idea why. I had one stupid bitch pull slowly past me right when the lane ended then look at me like I'm the idiot. I'll tell you I have never used the middle finger more in my life. WTF!? I'm not going to get mad if someone can at least do the speed limit when conditions are good, but I watch them text, talk animately with  passengers, wander in and out of their lane and drive for miles with a tail of traffic 500m long that can't pass because...well just because BC and its drivers and its road system suck. JUST GET OFF THE F***IN ROAD ALREADY! Ohhh and one more thing....the road construction at Tomslake. What a brainwave, they put in wider pullouts for exiting traffic, but those pull outs are now 250m of solid yellow where no passing is allowed. Multiply that by 4 pullouts and thats another kilometer of road where no passing is allowed. With all the traffic its now getting so dangerous with long lines of nose to tail traffic that in my personal opinion there will be even more deaths because of impatient drivers passing when they get fed up.

an odd thing happened.....

On the way to work on Monday afternoon I was just about to Valleyview going east when... BANG! My drivers side window on the pickup blew in and covered me in glass. Surprised is a word I didn't use. I stopped on the side of the highway and tried to figure things out. I was so close to Valleyview that I thought just for the heck of it I would make out a police report. I thought maybe someone was shooting at cars with a pellet gun, but I wasn't sure. I talked with my friend Dave the other day and he said in their company alone its happened 3 times. When the glass is dirty and mud hardens on the window sometimes it gets scored when the window goes up and down, all it takes is the pressure differential when a semi goes by to make it shatter. Makes sense to me, but I could have sworn that the semi had not gone by me when it broke....

So I went to work on Tuesday to survey those wells, it was good to get back. I went back to Grande Prairie on Wednesday to get the wound vac dressing changed then  drove all the way back to Edson to complete the surveying....and then, you probably guessed....Drove back to GP on friday to get the wornd vac changed again.

Funny thing about the Wound Vac. On Friday I decided to do it sans the drugs, big mistake. It seems the nurses decided that one place was healed a bit too much and had created a fold. They then decided it would be a great idea to burn it down with silver nitrate under the dressing....Sensitive area on the body and I could feel that ...and feel it ...and feel it some more like the dial on a stove being turned up, its a friggin day later and I can still feel it. Next time the drugs are going down BEFORE the change.

Anonymous rambling

Been getting out more and more...it feels good. I feel like I am shaking that feeling that I think we all get when we are not ourselves, for whatever reason. For me of course it was the sickness of last month. I keep thinking back to the first night in recovery and the poor guy next to me that was looking at 6 months in there and I only had to do half the month (and a bit of annoying out-patient work)...that kid was broken up and it was a bad scene.

On to other topics: I have to laugh, online life is a hoot sometimes...1+1 doesn't always make 2...the paintbrush  only hides so much. Positivity is good only if its true and you can back it up. This will only make sense to me and a really good youtube friend, but hey a laugh is a laugh and I'll take all I can get. Thanks for everything Janet.

Had a good talk with an old friend. Ken ain't computer savy and will never read this, but all the same it was good and he really seems to get the best out me. I was surprised that he wasn't surprised. It seems the oilfield really is such a small world, I will always be glad for the friends I have there...might be time to realize I don't live in a bubble and all the friends I need are already there.

Been thinking a lot about futures, me in particular, house design to be specific...Underground, south facing, ranch bungalow from the front view, mini-donkeys eating grass off the roof from the back view. That of course brings me to work and making it all happen. Wouldn't that be cool? 

Made the call, to the surveyors, and it seems I will be back at things on Tuesday after Labour Day. Three more wellsites to plot and that will eat up a good portion of my winter, woohoo! I like//love to be busy, now more than ever. I think I am way past drag-assing and complaining about work for a long while to come.

I feel like I am on a mission, the goal is very clear and socializing will take a distant backseat to everything else I do. LOL! I'll be like a robot...in addition to making the money and lots of it, I am going to be very selfish, if that can be a good word in this context. My goals and dreams come first, I don't need to explain myself to anyone...its very liberating. For too long I have been willing to give up what I want for others and their wacked out thoughts/personalities.

I have such a big advantage over others...I remember a talk some teacher I had said once: "You need to do (this and that), because the world is so competitive now" How untrue, take 10 classmates, 3 will be born losers and never rise above gas jockey and welfare, another 2 won't make it past 30 because the road was icy, 2 more will loose their minds and be chemically dependent  for the rest of their lives because a Dr told them they have problems instead of looking after themselves. That leaves just 3 people to compete for success. Well I know the other 2 and they have pursuits and careers so foreign to me it doesn't matter anymore. Hey I'm a realist, the oil biz and guys like me probably only have another 25 years, but I'll make mine in the meantime

Good day

Well its a good day. Happy to be out and about and very thankfull for my health which seems to be taking a turn for the better...I like being optomistic its so much better than dwelling on things that can only drag me down, things that I can't control.
We only live one life...Better to live for the good parts, I can't be bothered to sink into depression about very much (except the hospital stay, that sucked)...and for that I am glad.
So I am still doing the out-patient thing, need to get the wound vac changed every 2 days, just need to commute down to Grande Prairie for it...the home care nurses were very understanding and have done so much to accomodate me. For a service that I knew very little about it has been a godsend.
Feeling pretty upbeat, parts of my life have been topsy-turvey lately, but thats all done and my life seems to be going in a direction that I like. Can't wait to get back to work and make it all happen.

Saw some of my best friends on the trip up...funny how an illness makes time that I thought I didn't have.

ohh...and the lesson for the day is: Pride...always mean what you say and stick to it, I live by it...some would have had questions or begged...I don't, when its done its done.

so far so good so what?

Still in the Royal Alex...but there is a chance I will be discharged before the weekend or on the Monday after. They want to send me out with a $40,000 wound vac and seem unsure about my reliability. They seem to think that I am indigent and homeless because I live in my RV close to wherever the work is in the summer, even had me chat with a social worker... All the while I am thinking "WHAT THE FUCK!?" How do you tell someone " Hey...in a good year I can make more than any Dr. at your Hospital" but I don't do that because that would be uncouth. Sometimes I feel like screaming, these people, Dr's and nurses all, still have absolutely no clue who is paying the bills in this province. Like it or not its us in the oil industry that make the money and keep the economy going... I had a conversation with a male nurse this afternoon, good enough guy but had no clue about the problems in this province...a news story on TV about whether or not Alberta should have a PST prompted the response "Well they should get all the royalties they can and THEN bring in a PST" I didn't respond, but I was flabbergasted....he has no idea how much money left this province for good the last time they tried that, and then to make Alberta even more uncompetitive by bringing in a PST? Wow!

On a completely unrelated note: One good thing to come from the Hospital stay is that this is my 14th day free from smoking. So yah for me.

Royal Alex

Blogging from my hospital bed, with another couple of weeks on the horizon. So that infection that I told you about earlier and was getting treated in Edson turned out to be a lot worse...I was sent to Edmonton and operated on that night. Turns out the abscess on my leg was a close relative of flesh eating disease....the Dr told me right off the that that there is a chance a testicle or 2 has died and may need to be removed...flash forward, that never happened, Thank God, but I did go through 2 more operations the next 2 nights for deep cleaning and debriding. As of right now am getting the wound dressings and packing replaced twice a day, in room. I am on morphine 2 to 3 times a day depending on the pain level. It looks like I will be here for a long while yet...very strange, I feel so alone. Thats good right?

ummm....

Well a short update is in order:

Came down with a massive infection, have an IV in my hand and have to go into Edson hospital every 8 hours to get an antibiotic drip...I don't know if its helping much. the pain is intense, the only good thing so far is I could do the junkie thing if I had to...I thought I was afraid of needles, don't feel a thing...or the nurse is just that awesome.

So the bad thing about this is that I can't leave Edson, even though the job is mostly done, until I get this under control. So in addition to the whole scaring the shit out of me, its costing me over a $1000 a day in lost wages...I hope it gets better soon, I don't like this at all.

BC really sucks,

So I get to travel around a lot, hey 19,500 KMs in a little over 2 months is nothing to sneeze at. Anyway lately, due to the move last year, I seem to be in and out of BC and the difference between it and its more responsible neighbour Alberta is mind-boggling. Sometimes I get mad enough to write a letter to the editor, in this case the Alaska Highway News based out of Ft St John BC. Here it is, they printed it last week, I'm not looking for an award, I just get mad enough to write letters:

Dear Editor,

On a recent trip back to the province I was once again appalled at the state of the road system in Northern BC.
I see so many signs proclaiming the Government line that they are helping northern communities through infrastructure spending. That’s fine and good but not nearly enough compared to the amount of money taken out through resource revenue and taxation that disappears into southern bureaucracy coffers.
I would like to ask who in the applicable Ministry believes that none to one road slopes are adequate and safe. When the grass can’t be mowed by self propelled mechanical means they are unsafe. I see some mowing along the Alaska Highway has been done, I wonder if the Ministry has a special danger pay allotment for that type of work. Residents of Ft St John seem to think that the recent four-laning through town is a good yet all I see are 6ft ditches that will total any vehicle unfortunate enough to enter them. They are a mess and embarrassing to look at. Since when is the Ft St John plateau considered a flood area requiring such major and intensive drainage measures? I recall some shoulder widening that took place a few years back. The method of construction was to dump gravel over the shoulder then check the crown slope with a “special” 16 ft 2x4. Totally unacceptable and recent construction activities involving tendered southern contractors (using Ministry plans I will admit) are hardly any better
It shouldn’t take 3 hours to go from the Alberta border to Ft St John, yet that is what it sometimes takes. The Highway is overcrowded and well past its carrying capacity. Compounded by regulations that require some semi loads to be piloted here and not in Alberta it seems like the Government would rather create jobs through onerous regulation rather than safe infrastructure. It must be daunting for a professional truck driver to come into BC and have to deal with frustrated drivers, unsafe passing and abominations such as the South Taylor Hill and the scale at Mile 54. The Taylor hill has been a menace for more years than I have been alive and at the Mile 54 scale, drivers’ need to pull back onto a major artery with little traffic control and inadequate site lines on a hill. Northern residents deserve more. There should be a divided four lane highway from the border to Mile 55 and it should have been done 20 years ago
Yes the Government is really looking after northern residents, makes me wonder who is responsible I would like to thank them.

Rain out

Well I got the weekend off and a few days besides. Hectic very hectic, just never know what this job will throw at me. Got the Edson job done and am now finding out that it may not be drilled at all...doesn't matter to me, but its a shame just the same, really want to see the oil company do well or there is no future work.

Moved on up to Grande Cache and just about completed two abandonments before we got rained out. I love Grande Cache, pretty little mountain town, one of the few in Alberta. They have this annual event called the Canadian Death Race, some sort of ultra-marathon through the wilderness....I want to get the front license plate with the skull for my truck, because I can do that because I don't have a front provincial plate in Alberta unlike communist BC.

Anyway on rainout day last Friday I got an email to go view a site at Valleyview that needs 500m of muskeg pad road built before the 15th of July. I have to say one of THE best purchases I made this year was a $700 progran for my GPS. Its called Patch Map from Skybase Mapping. It lets me enter any LSD and will drive me right to that site, came in very handy this time. When I think of the old days (Like last year) and using my map book or calling the survey company for Lats and Longs, this is just so much easier.

Like I said its been hectic, I also had a job up at Smoky Lake again, moved a rig in on the 12km road that we built last year. What a nightmare....the road hasn't been used or maintained all year and then all this heavy traffic really f@cked things up....I am dreading getting the final report in order because we had to spend some money and all the rain really didn't help things.

Talking (chatting) with a good online friend tonight was nice, she reads the blog and I always look forward to chatting with her...so good advice Crazy, I will be sure to try and do it.

New Canadians

Just when I get discouraged about my lot in life, (not really much to complain about) I run into a situation that shows just how good some of us have it.

I was driving across Alberta to another job last night when I started to pick up radio chatter on Lad 4, for those that don't know the CB is virtually unused in Canada and most industrial endeavours use a VHF radio with assigned company channels. The Lad channels 1-4 are common frequencies that everyone has. Well these two brand new immigrant truck drivers were talking (I could tell by what sounded like an Eastern European and maybe an Asian accent) about their lives so far in Canada, What was amazing to me was they were speaking in newly acquired english and I don't even know one language :-)

These guys were working out of Edmonton, in high priced rented and probably illegal rooms with no close family. Through broken sentences and somewhat broken understanding they were passing on advice to each other about what they had learned so far. One guy wanted to bring his girlfriend from overseas but something went wrong and she had broken off the relationship. The other talked about his roomates and what it took to get along. I had to laugh when they started to discuss how to pick up Canadian girls from the bar or the poolhall.

if there is a new way...I'll be first in line

Finished the latest job, well almost anyway. Need to go back on Monday and put a plastic liner in the big water pit built beside the location in the picture.

So here I am, sitting in my trailer in Edson, in the rain, wondering which way to turn next. I have jobs to do but the weather has stalled them.

Got some alone time. Normally alone time is good, hell I am usually my own best company, but this is starting to suck. I have been thinking a lot lately about work and life and really wondering if the path laid out is the one I want to take. On one hand I get to be fairly independent and travel all over the Canadian oilpatch, and the money is very good....but I really have to ask if its worth it anymore. The guy that brought me into this current position, did it so he could take a job closer to home. I think he made the smarter decision. The money....money... is it worth having failed relationships and relatives that treat you like long lost friends? I don't know, it hasn't been all that good to me.

The oilpatch is like this: Live away from home for weeks or even a whole season, live camp to camp or motel to travel trailer, basically itinerant labour in your own country. If you have a family, make damn sure they are behind you or it will only end badly, a bitter experience that makes for difficult new beginnings. Time to shit or get off the pot so to speak. I can bitch and complain, and do it as good as anyone, but it's not helping. The question that goes through my mind again and again is: Do I want a family of my own and not be around to be a part of it?

I have an opportunity to work much closer to those I want to be around, but the lure of the current job is hard to break, I have been doing this aspect of my working life for 12 years now and I am more confident in it and my ability to do it well than I have ever been. I am good at it, I like it. But its making me dead inside. I have a hard time trying to care about anybody. Maybe the bitterness of my first go-around has not left me yet, probably only time and a few hard decisions will make it go away.

So far so good...so what?

Its been awhile and I have some èsplainin to do for not posting a single blog in the month of May. My bad...just got busy and it seemed like all the same sort of work as before.

Anyway I built a location up north, close to home for me and it was very cool. I got to hire some old friends. I also picked up the new pickup. And I pulled the travel trailer 793kms south to start another project near Edson Alberta.

It rained so much when we finally moved the drilling rig that if I could I would kiss my own ass for a little fotuitious foresight...I hummed and hawed over trucking in a scraper and finally did just that. Those wonderfull rubber tires made all the difference between a nicely packed lease and one that could have turned into a gigantic muddy mess when the monsoon came.

The new pick up is nice even for me. Its got the new 6.2l ford gas motor and that seems allright, would you believe I have already put 8000km on in a little over 2 weeks? It has heated and air conditioned seats, rear diff lock, a rearview camera and just about power everything else. Very nice...but I did test drive the new ford diesel and OMG!!! that thing has to seen to be believed...power like you know what, but just a bit more than I was prepared to spend.

Well pulling the trailer down was an adventure, the F250 can pull it at 120kmph but the mileage is just disgusting, about 8 miles to the gallon....on the other hand when not pulling a boat anchor it is very respectable and has a cool little mpg real time gauge that is definitely having an impact on my bad driving habits....awesome tech they have these days. I did have 1 blow out on the trailer so that was fun...I wondered why I could not get past a 100kmph and why was there all that smoke behind me...

Well thats about it this time around...The Edson job should last another week and then its either a job in Smoky Lake or I will head west to Grande Cache and start a few cleanup projects...looks like a very busy summer ahead

Lotsa Fun

Well still working....just finished up close to 4 weeks of operating and a little bit of fill in foreman for Shell south of FSJ. Good job but my knees really took a kickin this time around and I got the weekend off to recuperate...well that and I came in early on Friday afternoon to get my own vehicle out of the shop, it had been down for 3 weeks after the motor (V10) calved and the whole right bank basically needed to be replaced. Well I came in on Friday and wouldn't you know that Fort Motors the local Ford dealer wants a certified cheque before they would release it to me. Bad enough that it will cost $8800, but then to say it will be done at 5:00pm on a Friday AFTER the banks are closed....real nice....so here I sit on a Sunday still without my truck. I am even related to some of the people that work there AND I was born and raised in this town....now I am not saying that deserves better treatment, but maybe someone could remind them down at the dealer that some of us will NEVER buy a vehicle from them if thats they way they like to treat people....for myself, never have and never will deal in this town if I can help it, say goodbye to another sale bound for Alberta. Because you know thats what I plan to do next, buy new....I only fix things once, already dealing on another.

Oh and news from the job: The Groundbirch hillbillies struck again...we got ripped off one night, just like we did last summer. Some thieves stole about 500gals of diesel, 3 two way radios and a sat radio out of the machines....I hate thieves so much...My suggestion was to have someone lay in wait one night with a rifle...shoot out their block and have them hitch hike out of the bush...that way the RCMP should, well might....ummm...well maybe it would be easier for them to catch them....no guarantees of course it is the RCMP after all. But Shell won't go for it, some rule about firearms on the worksite or some such bullshit.

Working , just plain working

So I am back working in BC, operating equipment. Went out to a job near Stewart Lake. Huge site (For me anyway), its 240m x 140m with at least a 15m fill on one end. Got 3 627 cat scrapers 2 D8s and 2 155 Komatsu's, I was running a 155, but now I am filling in for the foreman who went on vacation. The 155, what to tell? Well it was rough. Was stuck in a hard rock borrow pit and all I can say is that I felt really beat up at the end of the day. Leaving at 4:30am and walking back in the door around 8:00pm doesn't leave much time for socializing or rest.

I'm an idiot

Well it had to happen...all my talk of road rage and being a great driver (in my own mind) went out the window.

The first instance happened last week while driving with my brother, I was pulled up behind a car turning right at a stoplight, I was busy talking to him, saw the car move and folowed it....only thing was that I went straight through a red light....no crash, no accident, just lucky. The worst part of all is that I have Alberta plates and this was BC...My brother and I have an ongoing war over which province has the worst drivers. I just let Alberta down, won't happen again...or?

Ya it happened again just the other day, but in my defense it was a new stoplight for that intersection and I had only been traveling through it for a couple of months, my learning curve is rather shallow. Well I pulled up to this redlight,which I really didn't see, looked both ways and pulled onto the highway....ooops! that was a red right....lucky again!

The Oops Effect

Got the last of the Alberta work done, the drilling rig is up on the Edson well and the Pembina well is ready for its rig.

Pembina was fun...got a call from Calgary one day, shortly after what we all thought was the end of the Pembina construction. I remember a conversation after we had surveyed saying something like: `The survey had to be ammended to get it 100m from a dry dugout to avoid trouble with the EUB and licensing`...OK....3 weeks go by, I build the site and a week after that the surveyors arrive to restake....OOPS!! and hence the reason for the call. The site was built in the wrong spot and we have tresspassed....Its the very last thing anyone in my position wants to hear. Things weren`t all bad and in the end everything was fixed, but its one of those things that happens that make the stress meter go off the dial.

The Edson location turned out very tight for the size of the rig and the fact we have a 5000m3 pit alongside, not the optimal conditions, but with a little tweaking and an early cleanup of the surface shale pit, they may have just enough room to operate the rest of the drilling program...fracing when the rig is gone will be another story...I have a sneaking feeling that I will be back soon to modify the site some more...attached is a video of the 2 sites

The waiting game

I finished up work on the Edson Alberta location. It was a good job, little challenging with the large water pit excavation that had to be incorporated onsite. and its going to be a tight fit to get the drilling rig moved on now....found out we are getting Patterson #53 and its a triple...jeez if I had known that....but oh well hindsight is always 20/20. I got the rig plan emailed and with the dimensions given it should fit, but only just. The contractor was good and I think we got all the room we could squeeze out of that hill.

The water pit was something else....Over 10 guys needed to drag and lay the liner (along with the excavator), and its the biggest one I have ever done. The idea is to make sure we have impermeability so the water stays in the pit. The water will be used for drilling activity, but its main function will be at completions time when they frac. An immense amount of water and sand will be pumped downhole all at once to open up the formation and let the gas out. Of course with the way my luck runs, it had to be the last hour of the day and someone gets hurt. One of the field tech hands from the liner company fell from his ladder when the pin supporting it pulled out of the ground. Turns out he suffered a strained ankle and didn't need medical attention, but it generated a lot of paperwork and me having to report and explain everything to many people I don't normally need to communicate with. Thank god he wasn't hurt bad, and I mean that for his sake, not because of the paperwork.

So anyway tomorrow I will be going back to that site to set the conductor with a rathole company and then shortly after that we will need to drill a water well and start filling the pit. In the meantime I have had a few days off but I didn't go back home because the drive is long and I would have had to almost turn around and come right back. Been staying at a local motel and making the calls to start another location in the coming days, hopefully I will have all the paperwork in hand by tomorrow and be able to start the day after.

Ravens

A short post this time.

I like to watch the ravens that frequent the jobsites...they are probably the smartest bird we have...I remember once when I was just a little catskinner I was operating a D7G In the winter, no cab, but if it was tarped in with the fan on suck and working hard it would boil you alive. Anyway...I was so thirsty and I only had 2 small drinking boxes of grape juice. They were also boiling so I thought it would be a good idea to bury them in a snowbank and come back for them later on. Around 3:00pm I returned and found a beak sized hole in each and all the juice sucked out. WTF! That dirty Sh&t hawk! The raven had come back and taken my badly needed juice....I ended up having to suck snow.

My Grader Life

An Internet friend (coalsmoke) asked me what I liked about running equipment and the grader in particular, I had to think about it a little bit, do what you love and love what you do sums it up for me. All you equipment operators out there know that there is sometimes a bit of ego and a lot of pride that comes along with the profession....and I am no exception, so here is an edited version of the note I sent back to him:

Well "S" the grader thing and me go back a long way....I have run the other stuff and am a fair hand at dozer and scraper although due to my size I will never be good at hoe, I just can't run the pedals and the joysticks safely at the same time without my legs being in the way. I was taught the grader by an uncle who was in my opinion one of the best. Its more than the clowns on highways do with them ( bunch of blade draggers ) For me its about straight tracks and perfection, I used to level locations just by feel and would get mad when someone brought out the transit or laser, don't know if i will get that good again......There is just so much the grader can do....If it doesn't roll or get stuck it should be able to do it....the fun is taking the machine to the absolute limit and getting a little scared....besides my tracks are usually the finished product and there is no better bragging rights than taking down a slope better than the dozer or even the hoe (And not leaving even a single tire track on a 100ft slope) At one time I was going to buy one. I am back in AB doing the supervision thing, hope to get some time in and bank some money for taxes, if it wasn't for that I really do think I would say F&ck the oil companies and just go back to working for a wage.....

Back in Alberia

Well for being in a recession, its been a busy month. Made a trip or two to Alberta, once to survey a new location and just yesterday I came back to start a a new location construction near Edson. The rest of the time,since the 4th of January, I have been in the seat of a grader for a great outfit out of Ft st John BC. Spent almost 3 weeks on a large Tailsman Energy road job at Farrel Creek, I have rarely seen a project on the scale of what they are doing. Good thing it was out in the boondocks or the NIMBY's would be out in force.

I know its been a while between posts, just a little busy.

Some of the Talisman job, this is 40,000m3 water pit that will be used for fracing....its just one of several.