I got somethin' to do with my hands

Well between me and a few blac frac employees we finally talked my boss into letting me work for blac frac while my job is slow so I'm finally getting some hours and they are training me to run a winch truck I got to lay down and set a few uprights today if you have never seen that done it is pretty cool.  It had been raining all day and we were moving a tank from one location to another and I look out across the plains and this is what I see.

Are you kidding me it wasn't even that bad out mind you I had trouble getting the camera on my phone going and by the time I did they were both disappearing but I was just shocked at what I was seeing.

On another note the other day we were working in the yard on some of Blac Frac's trucks and I had some visitors that I thought I'd share they were way too adorable not to take a picture they were both little pups don't worry the owner only lives a couple yards from the edge of the pad so they we're just saying hi...makes me miss my puppies at home.

Light at the end of the tunnel???

Ok so I know I went on a little rant earlier, I still mean every word I said but tonight I got a little bit of a reality check courtesy of God and Mother Nature.  A little storm built up the the west of us and before long it started raining well the rain lasted about 49 seconds and it was gone just enough soak my boots sitting on our two pallets nailed together with a sheet of plywood on top (out here we call that the porch for short)  Well I stepped outside as the sun was fixin' to set and off to the east this is what I saw.

Thank you God and Mother Nature for ending my day a little better than it began.

stuck in North Dakota and nowhere to go.

Ok so I've been up here in North Dakota now for 9 days and to my surprise we STILL haven't had a job.  I'm not real sure what I'm even doing up here.  We were so not ready to come up here we aren't on any vendors list "you have to be on this list with every company or you can't go to work for them"  we didn't even have a means of putting water in our trucks to go do a job if we had one.  I really gotta wonder what is going on down on the western slope.  Our sales guy left, the other guy that was working with me went home and left me with no way to get around pick-up wise...Oh sure they would love it if I took our 60,000 lb. hydro-vac to the gas station for something to drink.  I'm just really getting down on being up here.  We we're told that if we didn't come up here we wouldn't be guaranteed 40 hours a week.  And we were also told that we would be so busy up here that we would be begging to come home for a break.  Well hearing this I decided to lead a charge for North Dakota we brought the truck in, did about a months worth of work to it in two weeks. gathered all the info about the location we were going to live in.  I went out bought all the food I would need to survive up to three weeks (give or take) got this computer I'm typing on so I could keep in touch with my wife and take up some of the spare time I "might" have.  I have kept in touch with some of the other guys in Colorado and to my shock they are busy working!  DID I MISS SOMETHING???  I came up here because there is more work and somehow I find myself wishing I'd stayed home.  EPIC FAIL!!!  I couldn't describe how I feel about my job right now better than saying being up here is like playing Russian Roulette with myself pulling the trigger once a day.  The gun is a six shooter and I'm at the end of day five.  Everybody is saying don't worry it will get better I tell them "no shit it can't get worse".  All I can do is sit in this trailer and browse the internet cook clean and watch all my movies again cause I ran out of movies to watch.  Well the owner comes up here on Tuesday so I guess some things our gonna get handled before he leaves.  Hope it all works out I really did come up here to work and make some money how frustrating is it to see thousands and thousands of people go to work everyday knowing that your not.  Oh well I will keep my chin up as high as I can and see what each new day brings.  Until next time,  "stay thirsty my friends"

In North Dakota

well I'm in North Dakota now and wow what a mess it is.  We are staying in watford city.  This place is crazy busy with traffic and buildings going up.  I have a couple pictures I'll share.


some awesome sunset pics

 Trailer row

Ok here is my picture of the day.  I love trucks.  Everybody I know calls me a truck whore.  In no way do I consider this a bad thing.  I got my cdl when I turned 21 most companies won't hire someone any younger than that for insurance reasons.  I love driving trucks, I love going different places, meeting new people, hearing the turbo spool up shifting through the gears.  Trucks are what make this country.  It really saddens me to see the pride people used to have for trucking being sucked out of the industry by larger companies hiring people who have never drove anything larger than a volkswagon and after two days of "intense" training hand them the keys to an ugly "looks like every other truck in the yard" and sending them down the road.  These are what we call "steering wheel holders"  oh yeah you know who you are.  They give the rest of us a very bad name and a reputation to match.  For those of you that have diesel running through your veins I salute you.  And without you this country would be nothing.  Long live the "real american truck driver"

P.S.   Is that a bad ass Pete or what?!!?

So I guess I'm gonna try this "picture a day" my wife and one of her friends is trying I can't always promise a picture a day but I will do my best not to let down my fellow "bloggies"?!?  Um...this is tough   I need a picture to post...I'll be back...I don't have a picture.

trip to North Dakota pushed back

Well we got the truck all put together and ready to go and decided to take it out for a few jobs well while it was out it started making a "banging" noise in the driveline so I took another truck out and brought the other truck back to the shop listened to the problem and between the few mechanics there decided the problem was in the transfer case.  Mind you this is the same transfer case I just pulled and had one of the other Mechanics "fix".  Well we got it out and split it and found out some of the bearings were going out when we pulled the case it was about boiling hot.  We found all the bearings to rebuild it but one and they estimated delivery on that one at 4 to 5 weeks.  Nice.  So we have tons of people looking for one bearing so we can get it back together and down the road.  So for now I'm staying home.  Yeah!!!