Time off

I am currently home for a few weeks of vacation and so far I am enjoying lots of sleep, family and friends. I think when you are on the go the way I have been for six months the 7 part of a 14/7 shift means less and less to you. So a little bit of a more prolonged stay is a very good thing.

This week we, as a family, have both a wedding and a funeral. My 'Auntie Claudia' died Friday night after a very long battle with COPD, cancer and age. She was 72. The amazing thing about her though is that the doctors said she was on her deathbed 10 years ago and she just kept on ticking! She was a pretty amazing woman. So one day this week I will be doing the 4 1/2 hour drive each way to attend the funeral. I will be driving down with my buddy Keith who I otherwise wouldn't have seen this trip so apparently there are positives to everything. The funeral is for my niece Kat who is marrying Matt. They are both nice kids but I barely know them. Despite being at numerous family events together they have always been in the other room both physically and metaphorically. So despite feeling pretty ambivalent towards the union I am looking forward to seeing a lot of family that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yesterday I played a game of golf with my Dad, my brother Andy and my childhood friend Richard. Andy is in town for the wedding. Richard lives in town but works in Alberta like me so our scheduled time home often doesn't match up. Neither Ritch nor Andy have played golf in over 5 years so we split into two teams and played best ball. It was a good choice and we all had a crest time.

Tonight my wife and I are probably staying in for 'us' time. I am looking forward to that as she is my favorite person even after all these years. I still think she is beautiful and fun to be with. It is hard for me to believe that we started dating over 30 years ago! But the kids are grown up. Jak has moved out and is in a good job in Kingston. Hail still lives with us but not for long. Andsoon we get to start moving towards our dotage with an empty nest but with full hearts.

All good! :)

Last bus ride to the bin...

We are doing the creep down one of the Wapasu roads making our way slowly to site. It's quiet on the bus mostly because there are so few people. But the same sun is visible through the clouds that has smiled down at us all these months. The same trees continue to struggle for their survival at the side of the road. The same lazy creeks are working their way towards the ocean. We were here and soon we will be gone. I left my mark here though on several levels. With the exception of the last few weeks that have been a little difficult I like to think I brought some happiness and friendship with me. Although I never wrote my name on anything I did add some happy faces when I wrote the torque ratings next to bolts that I helped to tighten. And I wrote this blog of course that documented a lot of what life has been like up here. All good I think. The last thing I want to comment on is a little statement that people make up here which seals the experience and friendships. It is how you can tell whether a person liked you or not. When saying goodbye you say "nice working with you". If the person says it back you know they are a friend. If not, if instead they say anything else, you know that you failed to win that person's respect. It is worth listening for. It is worth knowing who will be glad when they see you next and who will not. I believe in hanging out with the people I like and who like me. I won't slag the others of course but as always will remain positive and friendly. But I also have no desire to waste time with people who's gift to the world is negative energy. So I file these responses in the memory bank and carry on. To you the reader I say thank you for visiting with me through this site for the duration of this particular job. I do hope you stick around for future blog entries both from home (infrequent) and from CNRL where I am heading next. In the meantime it's been nice working with you! :)

The best laid plans of mice and men...

I got my marching orders today. The job is mostly finished and all but a handful are leaving. I fly out tomorrow night. I was given two options the first being a layoff and the second a transfer. I went for door number three... I am taking a few weeks off on LOA and then I am flying back to work at CNRL. They still don't have flights but hopefully will by then. I am ok with this as I am glad that they wanted me back and the superintendent Brad will be there by the time I arrive so all good. He is a good guy to work for so I look at this as a bonus. I am also looking forward to the time off. I need some quality time with my wife before the summer ends and she heads back to the classroom. We have some projects at the house to look after and maybe we can get away camping together. Although I have a week off every two weeks the time is so short and I spend most of it sleeping. Besides, I want to do some writing as I have a short story cooking around in my brain that I would like to shake out of there and onto paper. It has been a good job all told. I got my feet wet in the business. I survived both -40 degree weather as well as +40 degree weather. I only missed 1.5 days of work in that time. I was promoted from pre-apprentice to 1st year apprentice. There were some bumps along the way but I will survive them. In fact I will be a better Ironworker because of them. Along the way I paid my bills and made some friends while at the same time gaining membership in the union hall. All good. Despite being really happy to be leaving I will miss some things too. I will miss meeting the gang in brass alley in the morning. I will miss the joking around On the bus with my scaffolder friends. I will miss the Wednesday Prime Rib dinners. And I will miss the opportunities I missed and likewise the friendships which didn't work out. But as I said, all in all it was a good run and I am determined to do better in the next run. So for the next few weeks my writings will be irregular at best. But once my vacation is done and I am happily ensconced in my new job things will return to normal and I will let you know what life at CNRL is like. Ciaou for now! :)

Tension

There is good tension and bad tension I guess. In materials like concrete they use tension to help create things like those circular rising driveways that you find in parking garages. The bow in archery wouldn't work without tension. The surface of water is smooth and flat because of its tension which is called the meniscus I believe. But there is also bad tension and that tends to be of the human variety. Tension of the human variety can make life pretty difficult. We tend to see it when our routines are changed on us. Or when it is either extremely cold or extremely hot. We see it when people are getting worn down and don't get a lot of sleep. This kind of tension tends to reap less than desirable results. In fact sometimes the rests are downright awful. On our site there is currently a lot of tension. It is hot generally and very humid. As the job winds down and guys are sent their various directions those left are filled with uncertainty. When guys leave en mass as they have the people who used to hang out with them now have their routines changed drastically with the loss of their comrades. So our job site is experiencing serious tension which is flowing back and forth around the site like a summer grass fire burning here and now there. I think at times like these we have to recognize both the conditions and the symptoms in order to get through in one piece and still smiling. If you know people are going to be affected in this way when they react in a way completely out of character for them one needs to say to themself 'maybe this person is reacting like this because of the heat, stress, oncoming bronchitis caused by the air conditioning or whatever.' And then we need to let it go and to carry on. Hopefully that person will calm down at some point and, reflecting on the relationship you have had up until the blowout, know that they have over reacted by a large margin. If not so be it. Carry on with a happy heart and a smile on your face. We really do make the weather that we live in. I choose sunny days. :)

Time off?

I only started here at Kearl in the last week of January but I have to admit that I am getting a little burned out. With potential layoffs on the horizon I am thinking about taking an extra week or two off. I think I need it to re-set the old energy levels. I also think a little extra time with my wife would be good. So hopefully I get a layoff and hopefully it will be soon! The temporary nature of the construction business actually suits me well. I tend to get bored easily and most jobs here are 18 months or less. So about the time you are getting bored you get either laid-off or transferred. Both options work for me. I do believe that a change is as good as a rest (assuming the new job doesn't suck). That said, my wife has summers off so a little break now would mean more quality time with her. That would be nice! An interesting fact about our business is the way jobs are secured and the implication of this process. When you finish a job you call into the hall and get a number. This number represents your seniority for applying for jobs on the tape. You can also bid on jobs at a higher pay level on the grid and if no one else applies then you may get it. So as a 1st year apprentice I could apply for a 2nd year spot. If I get that job I would be dispatched as a 2nd year and would be paid 2nd year rate for the duration of that job. This does not mean that I would then actually be a 2nd year apprentice as that can only be changed by a combination of schooling and hours and is established into fact by the government bureau in charge of apprenticeships. Usually, even with the right amount of hours and the schooling in place they will still wait for the anniversary date of your registration with them to move you up unless of course you have been at that level for more than a year. There are several types of apprenticeships in our hall. They prefer that you start as a pre-apprentice which usually means starting with the two week introductary course which I took. This course introduces you to the occupation and let's you earn your first few tickets like your fall arrest and your automated lift tickets. It also means that you will for sure be put right onto a job should you pass it. You then start at $20/hr and stay there for 3-6 months. At the end of the allotted time (determined by hours worked) you go up to first year rate and level. When the pre-apprentice course is ending you go register with the apprenticeship board from the provincial government. Although you can get a welding apprenticeship through our hall they will only let you if you first have your journeyman ticket in ironworking. Ironworking has roughly 3 apprenticeships. They are for Rodmen (rebar guys) which is a 2 year apprenticeship, a Structural/ornamental Ironworker (3 years) and a generalist (4 years). In each case the courses at the end of the first year (6 weeks) are the same. The difference between the 3 and the 4 year apprenticeship is that the 3 year does not have the rebar component but for all other aspects it is the exact same course. What this means is that the generalist in second year takes the same course as the rebar guys where the structural guy moves right to what would be the 3rd year course for the generalist. Naturally a journeyman Rodman does not get paid the same as the journeyman generalist. It is a good and thorough program with each component of the official apprenticeship taught at NAIT. That is a technical college staffed by experienced Ironworkers. So far I have found the program to be excellent and am learning a lot. I am looking forward to doing my first year courses. The courses (assuming you pass) are paid for by the hall and because you need 1,500 hours in the field to take them you collect EI while you are doing them so you avoid the financial burden of University and other college programs. It works out to be a good career. Voice.

Decisions, decisions...

As this job winds down I am having trouble choosing my next stop. I had been planning on transferring with Waiward to CNRL as they have the 14/7 shift but it looks as is they won't be having flights across Canada. That is key for me as my wage minus the flight cost is less than I would take home on EI! So if I am not getting flights I need the best deal possible. That means no Kearl lake as the max one can get here is time and a half unless they extend your shift. There ARE lots of apprentice jobs but they are all in Edmonton which means finding a place and getting a car. Extra expences but extra opportunity. It would also be great to be closer to the hall and to the various therapists who might treat my bursitis, my hernia and/or my eyes (I need safety glasses and wouldn't mind looking into laser eye surgery which is covered). So for now I am ok working but very shortly I am going to have to make some tough decisions. Oh well! It's all part of the game! :)

Making work...

We are at a bit of a funny juncture here at the work site. Almost all of the work has been completed but they haven't completed the 'checklist' yet so there isn't a lot of work to do until that is finished. Until then we have to keep ourselves looking busy which is a seldom talked about skill that every Ironworker needs to develop. The checklist is something that is done by the client. Their representatives go around the site and make a list of changes or repairs which need to be completed before they will sign off on the project. Until that happens we can't start the de-mod and they can't transfer all of us to new locations or to the lay-off line. So that leaves a number of guys working hard at looking busy. Personally I find it harder to hide than to work. With that in mind I went to the tool crib and worked just outside its back door grinding the mushroom ends of used drift pins back into their original tapered shape. When a lot of iron is attached together there are only 2-4 bolts holding them together so when they want to line up the holes they simply use either their bullpin or the pointy end of their spud wrench. But when they attach big iron or bridges or need to join two or more important pieces together in a solid splice they often use a square grid with 100 bolts or more. In this case they take the double tapered drift pins and pound them in to key holes until the rest of the grid holes are lined up. When this is complete they put nut and bolt together for each hole that is still visible and then they start banging out the drift pins and replacing them with bolts. This continues until the grid has been filled in with bolts and the drift pins are all removed. I am guessing they are calls drift pins because they keep the metal from drifting apart but at this point I can't confirm this. Another apprentice with a little more experience than me said it was probably because you have to drift them so hard with the sledge hammer in order to get them in or out but I doubt that the term was used that was when drift pins first originated. We shall see. Regardless of the origins of the name drift pins work only when nailed by a big hammer. As a result of this abuse on one or both of the tapered ends the metal tends to mushroom on the ends which then represents an eye-injury hazard. Like metal wedges the way you deal with this is to use a grinder and grind it back into shape. This is made safer by using a pipe holder to keep the pin steady and then you use your 5 inch grinder to remove the mushroom end by pushing the grinder away from you through the 'mushroom'. Not the most fun but it needs to be done! Yesterday I grabbed every deformed drift pin that I could find. I went outside of the tool crib and took my time doing the best job that I possibly could removing mushroom ends. It made the time go more quickly and made me feel that Inwas being more useful. I finished around quarter to 5 and had everything cleaned up by 10 to 5. So I went in to the toolcrib where a couple of guys had spent the whole day bored as sin and I walked up to the stool beside them and sat down. At that exact second one of the senior Foreman types walked in and commented on how little work we could have got done if I had time to be sitting down! The other two fellows just laughed! Isn't that just the way it goes? Life can be a funny and fickle teacher! Have a great day! I know I will. :)

Busing to work...

So I am back which always seems to take a day to absorb. First there is checking into a new room and getting unpacked. Then there is getting used to the fact that it is a pillow I am snuggling with and not my beautiful wife. The first night's sleep is never the best, probably for the reason I just mentioned. When you wake up the first morning and open your door you usually have to think about which way to turn. Ditto for when you go through the door from your wing to the main hall. There are lots of little things the mind absorbs on day 1 which are usually routine by day 2. Another big change is figuring out who has returned, who has not and why. This time around all my scaffolder buddies seem to be gone from the front shift. This was most noticeable for me when I hit the brass alley this morning and the only familiar face was Mike Acorn's. All those friends from Ironworking, welding and scaffolding that I used to meet up with are all gone. Some quit, some got fired but most were either laid off or transferred. Waiward has lots of work at the moment so a lot would have stayed with them and taken the transfer. Our bus was so much quieter without the scaffolders. Usually Tom and Yvonne, Hoss, Glen, Pat and Emma would have been up here at the front of the bus with me. Today none of them are here. The job is winding down and this is how it goes. I know that. But it certainly changes the dynamic of the workgroup. I heard that today 5 more of the group are going for pee tests and then will be transferred. I wonder how many Formen will be getting transferred? At the moment there may be more of them then there are workers! This is all life in construction. It has both good sides and bad. It just takes a little getting used to. A little getting used to each time we return.

Musings from the home front...

I have been home for several days now so only a couple to go before I leave again for Kearl Island. It has been a good few days where I have slept in every day and I can tell you I needed it! The rest of the time I have worked hard and played harder. I dream about the day when I can take a few months off uninterrupted! But that isn't even on the horizon at this point. So I enjoy the time here that I can and head back glad to have a job. I built 14 feet of fence today. There used to be a garage there it the new neighbors tore it down so when I got home there was nothing but a big gap in the fence where my dog could take off through. She wouldn't of course because she is a total coward but just the same I wanted it filled in so I spent today working on that project. Now that it is done I am pretty thrilled with the results. The whole yard looks better and the dog is safe. All good! The other day we were barbequing beer can chicken and so we had my nephew James over. He is either 19 or early 20s (I can't keep track) and like my daughter Hailey he is a musician. So pretty soon the guitar came out and he and Hail started singing together which sounded great! I was so impressed that I taped them singing a song and uploaded it to YouTube. I have my doubts that either will ever make a living as a musician but I wanted to save the family moment for posterity! That has now been done you can look it up by typing 'Hailiah & James Impromptu Jam - I'll Follow You Into the Dark'. One day I am sure they will watch it and say 'OMG! Was my hair ever bad!' At least that's what I say when I see old pictures of myself. I have to go! Have a great day!

A Potpourri...

I fly today. Not home unfortunately as the runway in Ottawa is being paved and I guess they only have 1 there!?! So instead I will be flown to Edmonton to stay in a cheesy motel until my flight tomorrow afternoon. Apparently I will get to Ottawa at midnight but thankfully it is only about an hour's drive from there to my house in Cobourg! I hope you can sense the sarcasm in that. Suffice it to say that I am non-plussed! Yesterday's weather was completely weird for me as Inam not from this province. Throuout most of the day the weather was calm but as hot as a fox in a forest fire. After last break we were outside when we saw the black sky approaching from the west. When it was only a few miles away you could easily see the lightening against the dark backdrop. I was working with Alvin and we had stopped to look at it when we saw the wall of dust approaching. It was moving fast and we barely made the bolt shack when it hit. Wham! All of a sudden the visibility dropped in much the same way it does during a heavy snow storm. On top of that a wind tore through with such ferocity that it blew over wooden barriers and threatened to pull the bolt shack down. That was all it took to send Alvin and I running for the surge bins! From there we could feel the temperature drop and could see the clouds starting to swirl in a funnel so everyone hagan worrying that a tornado was on its way. Shortly after that we were all called back to our trailers to wait out the storm which soon added severe rain to its repertoire of evils. I can tell you without exaggeration that we watched out every window for signs of a tornado as the trailer wouldn't survive one meaning we would have to bolt back to the bat cave between the surge bins in order to hide from it. Eventually it calmed a bit and our buses arrived allowing us to get safely back to camp. We had survived! Again! I heard this morning that Kiewit has just brought 50 iron workers up from Chicago to work on their site. I am glad they have some work as I understand there isn't a lot south of the border. That said they should be working through our hall as we have jurisdiction here but someone said that they aren't and that the International is fucking us over on this one. All I know is that if we don't stand together it will spell the end for unionism. I didn't sleep well last night and I am cranky! Not a good way to start my day. My battery always gets run down at the end of the shift. I hate packing up and unpacking. I hate hotels and instead would stay in a tent in the parking lot if I could have my wife with me. Waaaaaahhhh! Enough bitching. It is what it is! Have a good day. :)

Wet Tee Shirts

I was wet right through my clothing only a few minutes after work started. I'm not talking about a little moisture but the wring-out-your-tee shirt wet. It was supposed to be 32 degrees with humidity making it feel like 37 degrees but according to Robert the QC guy's thermometer it was 41 degrees in the sun and it felt hotter. I was concerned that I was melting! My first task of the day was to sweep out the trailers and to remove the trash. The trailers have air conditioning but it wasn't doing a lot of good. Perspiration fell in a constant drip from the front of my Hard Hat leaving little dirt circles where I had just swept up. Kind of counter productive really. But my soaking wet clothing was keeping me cool so I wasn't complaining. Another weird phenomenon of the heat and the sweat it causes has to do with going to the bathroom. I had more than 20 glasses of water yesterday. That's a lot of water going in. But when I tried to have a leak so I could check my urine colour for signs of dehydration I couldn't make anything come out! I guess it had all drip, drip, dripped out of the front of my Hard Hat! Nobody moved quickly yesterday but everyone looked as if they had. Almost every person had soaking wet clothing with tie-dye like salt stains running in weird patterns all over them. What a day! Today is supposed to be more of the same except that it is hotter and more humid. On the positive side the forecast calls for thunder showers this afternoon which is nature's way of breaking this kind of heat spell. All the same I am looking forward to leaving tomorrow night and getting back home where the lake and the beach are just a few blocks south of us and the cold water beach is a kilometer away over by my parent's house. The air conditioner that I bought on the last turn around will be a welcome sight as well. :) On the negative side some problems have arisen as we have moved closer to closing out this job. Several of the lunch trailers from both our location and down at the crusher have been sent back to the rental company so we are stacked pretty tightly into the last remaining 2 trailers. That in and of itself is not a problem. What is a problem is that 3 people at least have had money disappear from their wallets in the lunchrooms since the trailers were moved. I never bring a wallet to work but I still find this pretty disgusting. That said there is that old expression: 'You can trust an Ironworker with your life but not with your wallet or your wife.' Still, brothers stealing from brothers sucks and only serves to kill the strong sense of community that normally exists in our ranks. I think our shop steward Jordy will be saying something about it today especially because he is one of the guys missing cash. Have a great day, folks! :)

Hailiah, a scaffolder dies and the Heat is a bitch!!

Good morning folks! Today I want to start with a plug for my daughter who is a musician. She has entered a contest through access4artists.com and needs some votes so I am asking you to please view her song and then vote for her. Her name is Hailiah (yes it's spelled the same way forward as it is backwards) and the song she sings is called 'Scream' by Usher. So please go to that site, look up Hailiah, listen to the song, and vote for her please. You can actually vote once a day so feel free to vote every day. Some background for you on her is as follows: Hailiah is 18 years old and has been singing and playing piano since she was 7 or 8. She sang in Church first and then moved to a competitive choir called La Jeunesse. She was part of that choir for several years and competed in Barcelona, Spain with them when she was 13 or 14. At 16 she moved to Toronto to study at the Rosedale School for the performing arts. Did I mention that she lived on her own and in her own apartment during this time and worked part time to help cover her costs? During her first year there a man collapsed on the subway from a heart attack and Hailiah performed CPR on him saving his life. 3 months later she saved the life of her then boss (you can look this up in the Toronto Sun newspaper... Type in Hailey Knight and hero). Now Hailiah is trying to move into a performance career. This contest through the access4artists.com website could help with that so please take the time to watch the video (she is beautiful and has changed the song to make it her own so you will probably enjoy it). Thanks in advance! On another note, and this one is a sad one, a 47 year old scaffolder died in camp last night. He just didn't wake up. I haven't met him and he doesn't work for our site but it is sad none the less. I am 47 so this hits close to home. I have a secret fear of dying up here too. I would prefer to die in bed in my own home with my wife there. I would really prefer it happen sometime after my 85th birthday but we can't really plan these things now can we? Yesterday on site it was hot and humid like an oven. Today is supposed to be several degrees hotter and even more humid. I have been sweating so much that I haven't needed to pee making that dehydration test they posted in the urinal a little tough to try. It's not always like this up here but it does get this way in spurts. The good news is that the heat kills my hunger and as a result I have been losing weight like crazy. I consider this a good thing as I was 184lbs in November but was up to 231lbs a month and a half ago. I am probably down to 210-215 lbs at the moment so all good. My actual go is to drop down to 190 lbs. That would take a lot of stress of my body and make it easier to climb the iron especially with my painful tennis elbow! I have to go. Have a great day, vote for Hailiah, and for goodness sake stay on the right side of the grass! :)

80 degree swing

This week has been hot and sweltering. How hot? Hot enough that when I have taken off my shirt back in camp it has had salt stains all over it. I have been wet all over from about five minutes after work started until I get into the shower back in camp. When we have breaks and take off our fall arrest harnesses you can see where they were by the water trails left where the harness had been kind of like a shadow made of sweat. So suffice it to say that it has been bloody hot and bloody humid. This heat is a stark contrast to the extreme cold we had in the winter. Where it is 40+ now (the humidity brings it up from the basic 30ish temperature) it was -40 in the winter when windchill was factored in. That is some serious cold. When the temperature drops that low you can take a cup of boiling water and throw it into the air with none coming down to the ground. Instead it immediately turns to steam or fog. If you don't believe me there are videos that show this phenomenon posted on YouTube. When the weather is at the extreme ends of the thermostat safety and management run around making sure people don't over do it. We are repeatedly warned to drink lots of fluids and to spend time in the cool down shack. Oddly enough 4 months ago the same little but was known as the warm up shack! An 80 degree shift in weather does that. Here at Kearl they have an interesting test to judge how well hydrated you are. You are supposed to look at the colour of your pee and compare it to this chart they have. It ranges from clear to coffee coloured. If its clear you are good. The more yellow the more you need to drink some water. If its coffee coloured you should head for the hospital and quick! They hung the chart near the urinals in the bathroom and that had me wondering if you were supposed to pee on it for a good sample comparison? Probably not. It is a weird kind of test though. It is dusty today and majorly so. Hard to believe we had over 70mm of rain 2 days ago. Harder still to believe that yesterday, the day after the big deluge, that the ground had already dried and hardened to concrete quality. But this is Kearl and that's the weather. It is said that up here it is both the hottest and the coldest place in Canada. Based on today and what I have seen since January I would certainly agree with it in terms of the range of temperatures! Have a great day and stay hydrated, ok? :)

Yer Bugging' Me!

I started fly fishing when I was a boy of 11 so I can comfortably say I have been paying close attention to bugs most of my life. All kinds of bugs. Stoneflies, caddis flies, may flies and terrestrials. So I know bugs. But the bugs up here at the infamous Kearl Island are a mystery to me! Let me give you an example. The other day I was given the task of taking a welder up to do some work at 120 feet up in the man-lift. It was at the top of the surge bin on a beautiful sunny morning. The air was still cool and drifted by slowly like a meandering river only slightly noticeable as it licked past my face. Heaven! Except my skin felt itchy and I couldn't figure out why. Then it felt more itchy and even a bit crawly! 'oh oh' I thought 'this is one of those flashbacks they promised me when I experimented with LSD in my later teens!'. No such luck! Although I couldn't see them (I mean I REALLY couldn't see them) it was a swarm of tiny flies that we're eating me in a million microscopic bites! Bruno the welder sharing my lift laughed at me. 'you gotta stop eating bananas Bud!' he said with a smile, 'the bugs love potassium'. 'You're kidding' I replied in disbelief 'that's why they're eating me?'. 'Exactly' he said. 'I stopped eating bananas and started eating beans each morning with breakfast. Beans have iron and the bugs don't like it.' Of course I resisted the urge to blame his bug free situation on the cloud of gas the beans also produced but he had a point. We were 3 feet apart and I was the main course in a bug buffet while he was not being bothered at all. Apart from the chemical aspect of our discussion it got me thinking about the various insect-wildlife in the patch. For instance they have these oil beetles that have long candy cane shaped antennae and which fly. You most often notice them when they crawl up your neck and bite you! And what a bite!! Kind of similar to being shot with a BB gun! In all my days I have never seen anything like them. Then there is some kind of stick bug that get up to three inches long. You generally notice them when a co worker throws one at you as a joke. As the are huge it usually gets a classic 'aaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeee!!!' reaction from the person on the receiving end. And true to human nature that person who just received the bug picks it up off the deck and goes looking for some other unsuspecting fool to toss it at themselves. Kind of a construction version of hot potato except using big bloody stick bugs! I think the bugs that surprised me the most are the horse flies. I have seen and hated horse flies all across Canada. I have been bitten by them and have smashed them into goo for as long as I can remember. But here at Kearl they are the biggest I have ever seen. When I saw my first one I thought it was a humming bird! I swatted one the other day and it got up and swatted me back! Fortunately they are also stupid and tend to fly in circles until they land rather slowly right in front of you. So now I carry a big piece of hardened steel with me. It is a strip I cut off of something and it weighs close to 3 lbs. I have found you CAN actually kill the buggers with it but only if you hit them repeatedly! If you don't, of course, they will take it from you and chase you around with it which really is no fun! I can't wait to get home next week. Back to fly fishing and bugs I understand! :)

Wyman

On every site you work on there are people who give off good energy and others that suck the energy out of the air like a black hole. My friend Wyman was one of the positive ones. Wyman was a quiet and happy little guy from Newfoundland who ran the forklift on our site. He was an Ironworker through our hall too and I think he had been on our site since the beginning. Last weekend Wyman and another guy from our crew smelled a bit like alcohol so they were refused entry to the plane up here and subsequently fired. For anyone planning on coming up here take note that at Kearl alcohol is a no no and you aren't even allowed on the plane if you are thought to have had any (they do have bars and allow alcohol in the Fort Mac camps). So even though it was a hot and humid day in Edmonton and even though their flight wasn't leaving until later the nice cool beer that they had together finished off their employment. Perhaps getting fired was a blessing for Wyman and perhaps it was a curse. You see he died yesterday morning of a heart attack back in his home at 58 years of age. I say blessing because his last week was spent with his family. I say curse because getting fired for something so completely assenine and demeaning probably caused the stress that killed him. Either way a good man is dead today. Wyman was a Newfy as I mentioned and was gentle and quiet. I remember in my first few days I was told to spot for him while he moved loads around the site. So I confided in him: "Wyman Buddy, I don't really know how to spot. Why don't I just pretend to spot and you just move the stuff where ever you want?" his response was typical Wyman. It was quiet and gentle and sincere: "That's exactly what I intended by! You just keep people out of my road and that'll be all the help I'll need." he had on that subtle Wyman smile and his eyes sparkled with some hidden mischief. We got along famously after that. I never saw the day when Wyman was in a bad mood or was surley. Each day I'd see him he'd give a smile and say "How are you today, by?". 'By' is a Newfy thing that means 'boy' which is a friendly thing like when a NovA Scotian says: 'buddy' or a Brit says 'mate'. Just a friendly term of endearment that lets you know that the speaker considers you a friend. And that is just what Wyman was to me and to so many others...a friend. I know everyone is going to die eventually. I know that there is no plan that we on earth are aware of which tells us in advance when our time will expire. And yet it always comes as such a shock when a person passes. Especially when they weren't that old and they were a really good person. When we heard on site yesterday the whole crew were more or less silent. When we passed each other we'd say: "Did you hear about Wyman?" and we shared the moment in sadness and silence. You see to us he was still one of our crew, one of our team and one of our little family. He is already sorely missed. Well Wyman old friend, rest in peace by! :'(

Ironic Changes...

It rained exceptionally hard yesterday and excepting our crew most people went home pretty early in the day. We stayed because we are installing some monorail under the surge bin and so for the most part we stayed dry. Of course putrid water that had landed in the surge and worked its way through the structure did pour into my face and mouth while I was fitting an overhead clip but that only happened a couple of dozen times so it's hardly worth mentioning. There was a pretty serious wind too which caused our red hazard tape to stretch thread thin and then break within ten or so minutes of being strung up but we were protected up on our scissor lift by a giant concrete column so we were pretty safe. Neat to see the rain flying by sideways though! On days like yesterday you really notice the lack of people most in the trailer at coffee. I say 'coffee' and not 'break' because that is the normal way to describe it even though almost no one drinks coffee at our site. There is no coffee pot and a lot of these guys refuse to drink instant. So our trailer had 5 or 6 people in it where there is usually 30+ and our table had the 3 from our work group but the other guy had gone. So it got me thinking about the makeup of our little crew/unit. Our crew, ironically, is very non-traditional. It has a Journeyman, a 2nd year apprentice and a 1st year apprentice. Making up the crew are a man in his 40s, a woman (also in her 40s) and a 20 year old big kid. Traditionally a crew like this would have the older man as the J-man, the kid as the first year and there likely wouldn't be a woman anywhere on the job site. Not here. Not this day in age. Instead our crew is made up of a J-man being Elise who is the woman and yes she is very French. The kid is the second year punk (apprentice) and I, the old goat of the group, am the 1st year punk. I find that a little ironic how that works out but I am pretty happy about it too. Elise is an excellent J-man and a good teacher. Jason (who goes by Picachoo) is a good and hardworking apprentice who is easy to get along with and I am there to learn so as long as that happens I am plenty happy with my role. Elise is a really good journeyman as I have said. Though there are women in Ironworking and some very good ones at that, a lot of them take courses and move over to safety the first chance they get. Not Elise. She is over 40 but doesn't look alike it. She is thin and in great shape mostly because she does power yoga apparently. Despite looking thin though she is solid, solid and strong. She apparently has been in ironworking for 15 years and started in Quebec. Now she is in the patch and is a true professional. She has jet-black hair that sticks out from the back of her helmet in a ponytail, really square shoulders, perfect posture, and a great French accent. And best of all for me she is great at training apprentices so I am learning lots! Pikachoo (whose real name is Jason) is a good person to work with. He has been working with Elise for quite a while so he has some excellent skills that he has picked up. That said, he picked up those skills because he works hard and stays focused. Some kids have it and some don't! He does. He is easy to work with, he jokes a lot, but is always working and getting things done. Like Mamachu (what we jokingly call Elise) he is fairly thin and is also over six feet tall. He will be a great J-man one day just like Mamma. So that is my crew and I am happy to be on it. We work hard and erect a lot of steel while still having fun. I am learning all day long and am getting better at my trade. And with that being the case a little rain wasn't going to wash the sun from our day. I am greatful to be working with Mammachu and Pikachu and I love my job!

That damn heavy belt!

As you know I finally brought my belt to work with me. I figured it was a good time to start because I wasn't connecting or bolting up so I wouldn't have to fill the Kuny bags with bolts making the belt around half of its maximum weight. So I was going for the gradual work up as I knew the full weight of the belt might be a little crippling at first. The ironworker's belt is his toolbox. There are several standard items that most Ironworkers have. The belt itself is a flat piece of leather a little thicker than the one holding up your pants. If you are smart you have a back support on there as well. This makes it look kind of like a weightlifting belt. In fact some guys simply wear a weight belt. Before adding tools you need the thing that hold the tools. The first things are the Kuny Bags for holding bolts. Most folks carry 2 and each has a bullpin holder on one side. On one side of your body you have a couple of clips or caribiners that hold your 12' adjustable wrench and either a 4lb or a 6lb hammer. Usually the hammer has a nut welded beside the handle on the bottom of the hammer head that the clip goes through. On the other side of your body is your frog and possibly another bullpin holder. The frog is a piece of leather folder double that looks kind of like a cartoon frog's head. Adding to this illusion is the fact that it has 2 holes in it for your spud wrenches. Ironworkers carry 2 spud wrenches in their frog that are sometimes the same size (when you are working on only one size bolt that gives you one for the bolt's head and one to tighten the nut. Sometimes they are different sizes for different size bolts and when this happens the adjustable wrench is used to hold the bolt. Spuds also come as adjustable but apart from price they aren't as solid as the ones that aren't adjustable. My buddy Brian Gamache was torquing a tough nut with one last winter and snapped it so there is a lot to be said for the one sized units! The spuds hang pointy end down through the frog's eyes and yes they do bounce off your leg all day. But you probably don't notice it as you also have your sleever bar (like a straight crowbar with one end wider and flat and one end pointed that is used for a lot of things but mainly prying)and your sleever being longer bounces off of your kneecap! My sleever is hanging from my bullpin holder but lots of guys used spare time to weld a little clip to their frog so that it is easier to reach. And then there is the bullpin. The draw pin and the punch. Bullpins are tapered 'nails' six or so inches long with a flat end and a pointy end. When you are trying to line up the holes between a column and a clip you hammer you bullpin through one hole and it lines up the others so that you can bolt them. You then whack the pointy end releasing it and move on to the next connection. The draw pin is kind of similar but is tapered at both ends. The punch is more like the bullpin but is little and is used to make a dent in the metal for running your mag drill through. My point here is that the belt is around 40lbs with the tools and around 70 lbs if your bags are filled with bolts! So yesterday I got all suited up with my new (used) belt. For the first hour I felt manly as hell! It was a hot and. Er humid day and in the second hour as the sweat soaked everything it started to hurt. By the third hour I was hurting enough that I was considering a career change to mattress testing. By the end of the day when I stripped down I discovered that the weight had embedded the band of my underwear permanently into my hips! I had to run down to the med center and have them surgically removed! I am back today. I will wear that belt again despite the heavy rain. But when I get home I am going to look into getting shoulder straps! Have a great day!

Finding work at Kearl Lake

This is just a quick note aimed at providing a little info on how one might go about finding work up here if they aren't from Alberta. More specifically it is for our American neighbors. What inspired this was a combination of two things. The first was two American Ironworkers who commented on my blog in the comments section (thanks Spudwrench73 and John from Boston). The second reason is that I had more than 130 page views today so maybe those two guys told two friends who told two friends and so on. As I can't imagine my writing being that inspiring I figure that it might be unemployed folk looking for leads. So here are a couple. For Ironworkers (and certified welders)go to ironworkers720.com and on the dispatch page I believe that there is a phone number for interested Americans to try. I know on the same page there are a lot of good jobs listed but one must go through the process and that would be the number I mentioned. I was talking to a guy from the boilermakers union and he said that by midsummer they will have 1,300 positions that they won't be able to fill. I can't confirm this but if you type in 'Edmonton' and 'boilermaker' into google their website will tell you more. They also use certified welders by the way. The pipe fitters (and welders... seems everyone uses welders) are probably in the same boat so try 'Edmonton' and 'pipe fitter' and see what comes up. Same for the Sheet Metal Workers. The scaffolders are through the carpenter's union so not sure about them but try google. Ditto for electricians (who also use welder!). I am a union guy so there is no way that I will tell non-union people to call J.D. Driver. I refuse to encourage scab labour. Good luck all. Being unemployed sucks especially when you are a tradesman. I hope this helps some of you. Please feel free to repost this. I hope to see you in Alberta some day. :)

Ironworking belt

I started ironwork at the end of January and today marks the first time that I will have worn my Ironworking belt! The main reason for this is that I have been working with and for the welders so the belt was unnecessary. But now I am working in an ironworking capacity so I took it from my room and have it with me on the bus. The belt is an important symbol in ironworking much the same as a carpenter's belt or a doctor's scrubs. Our belt holds all of our tools and has pouches for various. It's and bolts. It has a piece of leather with a couple of holes in it. They call this a 'frog' and that is used to hold our spud wrenches. Spud wrenches have a wrench end and a pointed end. One end is used for lining up holes in columns and the other for turning nuts to tighten them. Ditto for the 'bull pin' which has a bullpin holder. There is a clip for our 12" adjustable wrench and two Kuny sacks for bolts. Usually there is a clip for a 6 lb hammer and another for one's 'sleever bar' which is used to lever things into position. Some have a back support (mine does) and some have shoulder straps (mine does not). Most veteran Ironworkers say you should wear your belt always. Even when working with the welders. I understand their point about this. But this was my first job and I was put on a welding crew so I followed the "when in Rome..." principle and didn't wear it. Maybe that is why they assumed I was a welding apprentice, lol! Today that all changes and the belt goes on. Have a great day! :)

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

I have been away for a little while from my beloved blog. Lots of reasons for that and mostly good ones. For instance the last time that I posted was June 19th and it was raining. Actually it had been for several days and I ended up both sick and tired. So I went home and spent the next two days at camp in bed. Then I flew home and spent another two days in bed. Finally I was able to knock the bug out for good. I went out golfing with my Dad and sweated profusely to the point that I must have sweated all remains of that cold out into my golf shirt! I did really enjoy my time at home. I felt more connected with my wife but that may have had to do with us facing a common foe that being our daughter. Don't get me wrong, we both love our daughter but sometimes sweet little Hailey takes advantage waaaay too much! So we had an unending stream of young people through the house 24 hours a day. Every time I put gas in my truck it disappeared from the driveway and never returned Until all the gas was gone. My wife had a very important interview out of town so Hailey took the truck, drained it of gas at the side of the highway, and then called to tell us about it twenty or so minutes after we were supposed to leave for the interview! Thoughtless stuff! At the end of the turnaround when I usually head back to camp I instead flew to Edmonton. I had been able to fulfill all the requirements for membership to my union so I went to the Hall for the orientation. It was great because several of my best friends from Kearl were going through with me. So Brew was there and Matti. Achie and Big Mitch were there. Dally was there as were Christine and Curt who I know from our pre-apprentice course from waaaay back in January! It was fun to see everyone again. Afterwards a few of the guys and myself went out for some food and beers. It's funny how you can sit with people every day up here in camp and never drain a tankard of ale together but it happens. So it was fun to get out and do that in a nice place like Edmonton! I spent Saturday and Sunday with relatives. My niece and nephew live in Edmonton and split a house. She has the upstairs with her man Justin and her son while Jason my nephew has the basement where he has his bedroom and his man-cave. The middle floor works out to be common area. It was a nice visit for sure! :) Yesterday we flew back to camp. I am in main and on the main floor so pretty good. I have my routine pretty much in place so that I can get my bags and unpack in minutes flat. The rooms are basically all the same with the only difference being which side of the room the bed is on and whether you turn right or left to get to the dining hall. Otherwise it's all pretty much the same. We are pulling up to work now so I have to go. Have a great day! :)