Lucky

Yesterday I drove to my first camp to pick up some packages for my birthday! I think that we have all learned two things: 1. Never send valuables to another country - you never know how corrupt the border agent is, 2. Always get a tracking number and use premium carriers when sending abroad. Most all of the packages and mail is accounted for now. My wife and friends in Bakersfield got their packages back, and I got packages from My parents, Adam and Erin, and Grandma Santa Fe! Thank you so much!

This whole thing has made me realize how lucky that I am to have such thoughtful people in my life! It seems like every close friend is either thoughtful or married to someone who is - like me. (Don't worry that makes you thoughtful too, or I like to think so.) Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I got so many gifts, goodies, treats, and wall posts that it made up for being away from home - I am blessed. Special thanks to Erin and Mom (and Adam and Dad =) you obviously know the way to my heart... =)

Things are starting to pickup around here. This camp has two of our trucks and two competitors trucks and we are chasing 10 rigs! With all the trucks working you normally have off 1 day in between jobs, however with our competitors contract coming up in March 1, that means that we could be the only company here doing the work with two trucks!!! Which pretty much means work, work, work, sleep, eat, work, work, shower and repeat... Well see I guess. Prison Break may have to be put on hold.

I think that I have made up my mind, with the help of a few friends, that 2.5 months is too long to vacation! I am leaning to start in Iraq May 1st. Along the same lines, it is comforting seeing how fast my company got all of its people out of both Egypt and Libya in recent days. In both instances, all employees that wanted to leave could leave 2-3 days before things got out of control... I'm sure the same would go for me...

I realized that I may not have mentioned why I would like to only vacation outside of the US. Apparently, if you stay out of the US for 330 days a year, than you don't have to pay taxes on the first $97k that you make. So that's saving a TON!!! It doesn't matter if Chelsea lives there, as long as I stay out... We are going to try this and see if it works...

Once again thanks for being such great friends and family!

No good at blogging

It has been more than a week since my last post and I have to admit that I am no good at blogging. All of you probably know that I am crap with details and sticking with things, maybe this is my outlet to become better at that.

Not much has happened since my last post. Both myself and my crew has survived another crew change without my boss making us take our days off; the jobs have started to pick up; and as mid-march approaches everyone is getting more anxious to be done - I know I am!

One interesting thing that is happening right now is that my boss in Iraq has asked if I would be willing to delay coming until June 1st. This would give Chelsea and I a month longer vacation, but I would have to take a leave of absence, so I would not be getting paid during that month... He told me that I could still come in May, but there wont be much to do as the projects are delayed until June or July. Im not sure what to do, 2.5 months of vacation sounds ridiculously cool. But I could see us coming back with nothing saved from this whole Canada escapade. Also, one of my close friends got screwed out of going to Iraq because his boss dragged his feet signing his transfer papers and now the manager in Iraq says they have over hired. Its funny, when you are such a small fish (like myself and my friend) in such a big company you spend alot of time and planning just trying to avoid getting screwed. I feel like that companies should spend more time trying to find mutual benefit for the company AND the employee instead of using employees like tools to accomplish their bidding. Enough rambling.

The food has gotten considerably better here! I think we just went through a spurt of having a bad chef my first week. Since I have been at this camp we have had steak, prime rib, prawns, baby back ribs, and lots of good pasta!!! I have attached some pictures of the kitchen. Its really small with only 8 tables inside. They have many luxuries at the expense of space. The deep freezer is PACKED full of ice cream, notice all of the soda containers, many juice machines, and the coldest milk you could ever imagine! I think I am going to fail to get into better shape than when I started the projects... Maybe in Iraq???

I have been looking at alot of places for vacation and need some help. The few stipulations that I am putting is it must be 1. out of the country, 2. off-grid - so preferably no cell coverage, internet, or maybe even limited power, 3. must be warm! =) I think that we would go for about 2-3 weeks. I was thinking of just a bungalow or straw building in a desolate beach somewhere... I have looked at Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bora Bora. If anyone has any advice, I would be more than grateful!

Its off to work now, I am writing this off the satillite. Speaking of which the satillite is really confused and pointing straight at our truck! I guess the signal is bouncing off the truck onto the dish... Eary how much stuff if bouncing around that you cant see...

54 days in the bush

The serving line on the left, and 4 tables

4 more tables

Ice cold milk with cereal below!

Juice, Juice, Juice - All from Concentrate =(

Ice Cream! =)

Lots and Lots of Soda

Sandwiches for jobs

Soup and cookies

Salad bar

Where to begin?

It has been a very busy week filled with ups and downs. On one hand, the camp that I was transferred to was "to little - to late" and I could not save the contract. On the other hand, my efforts were acknowledged and I am well liked by the customer, they relayed this to my bosses. Also, my birthday was yesterday, the operators and engineers took me out to a local restaurant and we had a great time. I have been moved to a new project working for a major and the camp is very nice. The rooms are big, and there is a shared bathroom between two. The only downside is that the food is just ok - it makes you say meh.

When I got transferred to the 2nd camp to try and save our work from an angry customer I had a meeting with many people in charge. I guess that they have been yelling and screaming for 2 weeks and no one had listened until I got there, and the phrase hell hath no fury can apply to customers too as well as women. =) The work that I had done at the camp over the next 5 days was making a big difference. The geologist and superintendent were happy with our company again and they say things were making a "complete 180." When our salesman came to meet with them, they told him this and he gave me high praise. However, one day I was out on a job and had just finished when another engineer had called me and asked if I had heard the new??? He told me that we were to gather all of our things and get out of camp, our biggest competitor was was there to take the work. Come to find out, the customer had this up there sleeves for days and never told anyone. So we left and met at a big superstore in the big city close by, from there we regrouped and some people went back to Edmonton and others moved to another camp - I was one of the lucky people that got to move to the new camp.

We had to drive on a highway locally named "the highway of death" which 19 people so far this year have died on. In our field the most dangerous thing that we do is drive and when you through fatigue, road conditions, distractions, and other influences into the scenario its like a ticking time bomb. This road is very similar to a road back in California called highway 46. It is a two lane (one in each direction) highway that often has the shoulders filled with snow so there is no escaping a stupid driver. On top of that, this time of year when things continually get warm then cold makes the roads icy. Long story short, I never drive I know I would be incompetent and I have great operators so there is nothing to fear.

We arrived at our camp at 8 that night and I got my room. I familiar Scottish face was there, a guy that I had been to training school with. When I opened my door I was shocked! The rooms were HUGE and luxurious in comparison to the first two camps that I had been to. Also there was flat screen TVs and a big desk that I can put all my paperwork, personal and work computers, and more! Also there is a common bathroom that I have to share with a chic - there is of course a locking door in the bathroom. (See photos) Its nice because everything always smells good, but makes me really self conscious when I have to do my business. =)

So far I have been on two jobs at this camp. They come about every other day - and since I did one yesterday there shouldn't be another job until tomorrow - SCORE! The tools that they run up here are specialty tools and will be good to get more experience running them for the future. Also the files that you have to generate after the job are ridiculous! There is about an hour or two worth of work to do it after the job.

A recent jewel that we found in the city (even better than the casino!) close to our project is a gym! No ordinary gym at all. This gym has a water park with slides, three pools, a large workout area, 5 curling courts (yes they really do that up here I guess), a hockey rink, a 3 basketball courts, 4 racquetball courts, and a food court!!! It is like a small city. I have attached pictures but I dont feel like they do it justice, its HUGE! We went on Friday of last week and became members for a month. When the receptionist handed us the papers to fill out I looked through, it wanted to know if you were registering as a single, couple, married, etc. I turned to my buddy and asked, hey how much do you think we could save if we said we were a couple. Before we said another word he said, does my partner have to fill one of these out also? HAHA - so according to the gym I am a gay man - it saved us 5 bucks. LOL

Yesterday it snowed 14 inches in 4 hours! Thats crazy!

My birthday was really fun last night, we went to restaurant about 20 minutes away from our camp. They had a half rack of ribs for $3.50! So of course I got 2 racks for 14 bucks! I was a pure carnivore - no sides needed. They also had drinks so we found comfortable chairs and all played cards. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures last night, partly for plausible deniability

That's about all that has happened the last 10 days or so, I will try to be better about this now that things have calmed down.

Curling - yes they really play

Racquetball Court

Kids playroom

Hockey rink

A restaurant in the Gym!!!

Huge workout gym

A hockey rink

The snowstorm in a few hours

All the trailors are pretty much the same

My trailor

I clean for no one! Nice desk, eh?

Desk and Bathroom door

Flat screen TV's!!!

Sink in my room

'

Bathroom

From inside the bathroom

Notice the Snowstorm behind me

What just happened?

Have you ever had a day that is so crazy, so abnormal, so weird that at the end you ask yourself - What the heck happened today?? This happened to me today. I got a call at 8am flipping my world upside down. I had finally been getting used to the camp that we were at and making really good friends with the people there - then my boss called me and praised how well I made my camp run and how impressed they were with me. He told me that another camp was in really big trouble and two engineers quit and one got fired today - and they only had 4 engineers total!!! He wanted me to go to this new camp and get it running smoothly too - I would leave in 2 hours. To top that all off, when I arrived at the camp he asked me to have a meeting with the superintendent of drilling, and the head of the geologists.

As people were finding out that I was leaving the camp many people came and told me that it sucks that I'm leaving and the head of the geologists sent a really nice email to my bosses that said "I hope that this will not be a full time assignment and you will be returning here shortly. I understand there are difficulties with the other camp and the reason you are leaving is to assist them but feel this will certainly be at the expense of our logging operations here." So I guess those things are good.

So I started packing all of my things in my two duffel bags and the driver came to pick me up. I had one final lunch with my good friends, shook their hands goodbye, and was on my way to this new camp 2 hours away. I talked with people the whole way two hour drive. My manager, the engineer that got fired, the engineer that quit, and another engineer that is from Canada and tried to get everyones perspective why this customer is so unhappy. I talked with people until the minute that we pulled into the camp, I didn't even realize how small and different this camp was...

I walked into the camp managers office and he was really nice. He put me right next to the guys from my company and showed me around. The cafeteria had 8 tables in it!!!! I went to my room, unlocked the door and just let it shut. I didn't even want to go in. I thought that my room at Firebag was small, this new room was even SMALLER!!! I can literally put my palms on both walls. Check out the picture!

I feel like I'm in a jail...

So I put my stuff in my room and ran off to talk to these two big wigs. The meeting went really good and it seems like we could repair our relationship with this company before the end of the projects. I got alot of information from them and they took me back to the camp.

There is one good thing to this small camp - THE FOOD IS AWESOME!!! Can you say prime rib & sauteed mushrooms, prawns, baked potatoes with all the fixin's with REAL bacon, a cheese bar with crackers 3 different types of break, all the caned soda you could ask for and a nice serving staff!!! Well I can and did eat all of it tonight!! =) On top of that I guess they always have some sort of food out for you to eat any time day or night. Which is way better than our other camp. I'm looking forward to what we have tomorrow night!

I met one of the engineers and an operator I will be working with up here. It seems like they are in really low morale. I told them that things are never as good, or as bad, as they seem at the time. I think that they are a little pepped up. Anyway, they helped me make the new crews that we would be using for each of the trucks.



The more and more I plan on how we should run things here the more complex and impossible they seem. No wonder the last crew had a really hard time. I feel like this will be a defining month in my career here, whether good or bad it will come to light. Lets hope for the best.

I went to bed last night thankful that I was not going to have to work for ~3 days, now Im at a camp were they have wells every 18 hours! CRAP!

The Two Dinner Glutton!

Its been almost a week since my last blog. Since then we have gotten hit with spurt work (5 jobs back-to-back) and been to the city many times. We found this great place called Moxie's and they have 35 cent wings. (I just realized there is no keyboard character for cents - weird!) Our first time discovering this 6 of us ate 120 wings! They have hot, terriaki, barbecue, honey garlic, and salt and pepper. The best part about the wings is the breading! Following the trips to Moxie's we always go to the casino and try our luck at the table games or poker. The first trip I couldn't have been luckier, I was playing roulette and all my numbers kept hitting. Can you say 36, 34, 32, 14, 16, 12. Well the table could and it was awesome! I ended up buying everyone a late night snack, which is just a way of glutton saying a second dinner. We went to a chain restaurant called the Keg and ate like kings. I had a T-bone and Lobster and it was epic! The second and most recent trip to the casino wasn't as lucky, but I was playing with the casino's money so it even made losing fun.

We have enjoyed a few days off (since 1/29!) and are getting ready to get hit hard in the next 24 hours with more spurt work. I guess it comes with the job. Speaking of days off, I will be on days-off pay for the next 28 days! This is the best kind since it pretty much just doubles the pay to make incentive not to leave since they only have enough engineers to barely cover the work. I think there is one extra.

One thing that I have found here is that Canadians REALLY love email and texting. Everyday I get ~30-40 emails and people try to text me all the time. Luckily, I don't get texts so I don't have to worry about that, however its annoying having to explain to everyone that I'm not ignoring or mad at anyone since I never respond.

Canadian pillows must not be made with the same gumption that American pillows are... If you remember my first or second blog the pillow that they have here a complete crap. They are as flat as a board and have tons of nots inside of them so I went to Walmart and bought a pillow for myself. Well, luckily I bought two because the first pillow that I got is going flat!!! Maybe I just have a heavy head but its crazy that it would make the pillows flat. I am now on my second pillow and hopefully it holds up until breakup.

I have been asking alot of the experienced guys here when we were going to stay until. Everyone responds the same way and says - until the breakup. Breakup is defined locally as when it is too warm to drive on the ice and vehicles start getting stuck. Remember that we are doing all of our jobs in marshlands where the water is really deep - so we have to have the ice roads to get to the jobs. When breakup actually occurs is pretty much an act-of-God and no one knows the exact date. From others past experiences it could be as early as March 3rd or as late as March 24th. I guess that we buy our tickets the day before we are to go home...

 I officially have another day to add as a favorite for food! Apparently on Sundays there is a ice cream bar with MANY "fixin's" like banana's, strawberry's, chocolate chips, etc... Since we couldn't find big enough bowls many of us had plates of ice cream - it got messy. =) Banana splits were inevitable.

I partially waited so long to post a new blog because I wanted to have pictures for everyone to see a little more of our life up here in the bush. Below there are pictures of my drive to a location, our king meal, and the cafeteria.

Going into the bush

Little tree's everywhere! 

Cafeteria after lunch - they kick everyone out.

Drinks at the Cafeteria

Salad Bar - its normally the safest bet.

Ice cream bar!

Tables

The Glutton King Meal!