life on the pipeline

Started early(4:30 am) and got home 2 hours earlier then planned,off to B.C. in the morning,14 days straight so far,probably another 30 days before I get a day off but my cat is happy I will be home each night.He's just going nuts right now and it looks like he gained a few pounds.

I feel bad,I missed out on his teen years.
Went through one of the wickedest lightning storms today by Fort Mcloed and took some good video,the strikes were awesome as was the rain that everyone but me parked for,I wasnt sticking around for the hailstorm that was to follow. :roll:

Well this is a sweet job,in the first half hour I was given the opportunity to put my truck on or have a brand new chevy4x4,as a retention bonus he put 135 gallons of fuel in my truck and I get free fuel all year weather I drive his or not,then I was put in charge of the project and allowed to hire a few friends that I knew had experience with hanging off the side of a mountain on a cat.I get to set up the shifts and I stay dayshift no matter what.No ones allowed in my work area except for the general foreman who is a good friend of mine.He also requested for this guy to hire me so that's a good thing,he's allways liked my work and trained me on some equipment before going staff.

The cat were running is a brand new d10t which is the second biggest Cat makes,i'm up the flathead valley in BC with a nice view of the mountain ranges towards Alberta.
My elevation is allmost 2000 meters above sea level so I can see the ranges for miles.
I was told to make sure all coffee and lunch breaks are taken and heres a paper to read.

I allmost had to pinch myself.

I'll take the cam tommorrow as there is a bear cruising around,lots of grizzlies in the flathead valley.

sounds great, Ziggy. Congrats!

I have a nice view of the mountains,I've never worked in town or in a city since I started working in 1978.

Nice machine,steer with one finger and shift with your thumb.
Should cut down on the carpal tunnell syndrome.
I included a pic of the truck for comaprison with the cat.

The flathead valley is bautifull,the gargantuan caverns are on the mountain range to the east of me.Montana is straight south on the old gravel flathead road to great falls. The little town of Corbin with its dozen inhabitatants still exists along with a telus old style pay phone.
Basically were building a 100 foot wide 8% haul road to the bottom of the mountain,about a mile but on a 1 to 1 slope which is very steep.lots of cross pushing,some blasting in a few days(cast blast),for AR,that cat will allmost back up a 2 to 1 slope,only a d11 will climb a steeper slope,I was and am impressed.

Found a few unexploded boosters and blasters caps today,a guy came by and we chatted,he asked when I found it and i told him yesterday,he said his blasters had better things to do in the morning then check out what he thought was not a misfire.
I told him i wouldnt even reported it if I had a knife so I could cut the shock tube which is the wire that go's to every blast hole and has high explosive in it which sets off the charge.If theres dust present then the hole never went off,we use the same explosive's the terrorists use,diesel and fertilizer.
I then told him I was just a plebe and keep me out of your politics and drama with your boss. :lol:

I only answer to one fellow and he's the gen foreman,anyone else is just a tourist.