(08-03-2014 09:50 PM)scotian Wrote:  Today at work I did about 20 minutes of actual work then sat around and watched movies and read books all day, looks like I'll be doing the same thing for 2-3 more days. It actually gets pretty boring sometimes, but I wouldn't trade it for running around like a mad man with no proper breaks all day, fuck that.

That was pretty much my day yesterday lol. And I was thinking man this almost feels like robbery. I did a little bit of maintenance, replaced some fittings, and spent the rest of the day chatting on my phone with my wife. But then two days before that, I was running around with a chicken with his head cut off trying to get equipment working properly, so it goes both ways ha ha.

(08-03-2014 09:06 PM)Laurifer Wrote:  

Quote:you get zero breaks and must find ways to sneak food and water into your stomach whenever possible

This resonated with me. I remember grabbing food in the dog house, running into the tool shed with it, and scarfing it down like a fucking rat while watching the door hoping no one would come in and see me.

Ha Ive written about this before but I was the mysterious muffin master.

Id take about ten muffins and chocolate bars every day from camp and then hide them all over the rig to eat through out the day. What started happening though was just like a squirrel Id forget where I hide my loot. Along come Dan the Driller to find a wrench in the top drawer and out pops a muffin. Next thing muffins are falling out of every thing haha.

I would lace my pockets with cookies, chocolate bars and even potatoes wrapped in napkins when no-one was looking at lunch too. Nothing worse than being hungry in -30.

Do they hire people with no actual trades skills to do some manual labor ?

Damn, I'm just waiting for one of you guys to say "I ate the new worm" or "This one time, I brought some roasted chicken and placed it under my jacket".

Fun reading "at the job" stories!

(08-03-2014 07:48 PM)scotian Wrote:  Last week I thought I had a few days off so I drove down to Edmonton, I was an hour away when my boss called me and told me I had to work the next day, fuck! I still went to Etown and had a few beers with some RVF boys but then I had to drive all the way back to Fort McMurray, a ten hour round trip!

lol just barely missed another meetup. At least I got to have some nice wings with Tresdus. Have fun in the Mac till Sept.

(08-03-2014 08:39 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Its definitely tough going. No day dreaming or zoning out - youll lose a limb in seconds.

That was a big problem for me. During the dull spots of labouring I could safely have my mind on another planet and still do my job. On the rig it is a fight for survival, where you need high concentration and precise/strong movements. It reminded me of driving down HWY 63 during an icy blizzard. One guy slipped and almost got crushed under the elevators three times on the same day while tripping. He was lucky our driller was skilled at controlling them.

I just browsing around Kijiji, I set my location to Edmonton ONLY, and searched the keyword "Oilfield Labourer", and lots of jobs came up paying $24/hr MINIMUM with atleast 60-70 hours a week. Ranging from Pipefitting, camp building, welder helpers, carpentry and all that good stuff which you can then advance into the trade. I'm personally really thinking of getting on a pipefitting or a field tech gig IF (a) I get hired on and really love the company or (b) I dont get to wait for the drilling season to pick up (during which I should be in my trade for atleast 2 months to make a decision to either stay, or jum on the rigs). 6 Days to go till I hit Etown ! Faackiinng excited and going crazy out of my goddam mind !

Curious with the days off and a ton of guys on here have you ever done any trips down south etc together?

I'm on 14/14 shift now and it's unbelievable for travel

(08-04-2014 11:35 AM)hedonist Wrote:  Curious with the days off and a ton of guys on here have you ever done any trips down south etc together?

I'm on 14/14 shift now and it's unbelievable for travel

If I could get something like that this winter that would be amazing. I could bust my ass up here for two weeks, buy a plane ticket and eff off to Arizona or Mexico for two weeks. I wish the rigs were two on/two off in the winter.

I think I'll look into some site labourer gigs that Ferro was talking about.

Great post Ferro for telling it how it is!
I'm also one who wouldn't want to work on a rig for all the dough in the world. I'm too damn lazy. lol
Also had days where I was sitting all day in the truck or chatting girls online with only maybe 1-2 hours of actual work. But also had days where I was running like a headless chicken non stop. This was mainly in the first few days where I was a total newly with 2 left hands and didn't know how to even plug something. lol Getting easier by the day, even fought it's been dead for the past 2 weeks or so but expecting things to pick up again.

Guys,
Time for another meet up sometime this week! Let's do this!

Driving is still 100x worse than working on a rig.

Drove 20km to WEM this morning and a women nearly merged into me on my bike and another truck swerved into the other lane almost hitting a bus.

(08-04-2014 12:10 PM)Laurifer Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 11:35 AM)hedonist Wrote:  Curious with the days off and a ton of guys on here have you ever done any trips down south etc together?

I'm on 14/14 shift now and it's unbelievable for travel

If I could get something like that this winter that would be amazing. I could bust my ass up here for two weeks, buy a plane ticket and eff off to Arizona or Mexico for two weeks. I wish the rigs were two on/two off in the winter.

I think I'll look into some site labourer gigs that Ferro was talking about.

I'm probably going to take a 2/2 or similar gig after next winter, I could do it now as my company has a couple of gigs with that rotation but I wanna do one last winter off. If you want to go to Mexico or Arizona its so easy, United flies direct from Edmonton to Phoenix, I flew to Guadalajera via Phoenix last year and it cost about $700, return, all in. Check out Sun Wing, they have direct flights to Mexico and Jamaica all year and lots of different destinations down south in the winter, pretty cheap too, less than $1000 for a week, hotel flight and everything. Try to get on with a company that pays for flights and organizing flights to the USA or farther shouldn't be a problem, companies fly guys back to the east coast all of the time and a return ticket to Nfld or NS right now is $1000-12000, they'd save money by flying you to Mexico!

Pretty interesting video of a day in the life of a Directional Driller.

I'm jealous of you Canadian guys.

In Texas the starting wages are 14 an hour in labor to 22 as a floorhand.

(08-04-2014 06:46 PM)donnie514 Wrote:  Pretty interesting video of a day in the life of a Directional Driller.

Thats such an accurate representation of the lifestyle I am headed towards.

If you are wondering whats its like in an upper position on the rig that is it.

It scares me a little Ill be honest, I have to watch certain things a lot to keep myself in check. Its a lifestyle of excess both positive and negative. Thanks for posting.

I wanna be that guy

I wish they showed him doing his job. Is he a "Movie-Watching Dude" (MWD)?

(08-04-2014 08:38 PM)RexImperator Wrote:  I wish they showed him doing his job. Is he a "Movie-Watching Dude" (MWD)?

Na hes the guy I work with all day. One step above MWD. I get the information and he uses that to do the maths. In fact Im out drinking with the DD I work with right now. I showed him the video. He agrees with how accurate it is. He just told me he has 1.5 million cash in the bank. Hes like 50. Cool guy.

Dang. Well I'm good with math... I need to get my ass out there.

(08-04-2014 06:25 PM)scotian Wrote:  Check out Sun Wing, they have direct flights to Mexico and Jamaica all year and lots of different destinations down south in the winter, pretty cheap too, less than $1000 for a week, hotel flight and everything.

Just had a look. Those are awesome prices for those all inclusive packages. Seems to be the best route to take since travel, food, and housing is all taken care of in the price so you won't have to stress over it.

(08-04-2014 06:25 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 12:10 PM)Laurifer Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 11:35 AM)hedonist Wrote:  Curious with the days off and a ton of guys on here have you ever done any trips down south etc together?

I'm on 14/14 shift now and it's unbelievable for travel

If I could get something like that this winter that would be amazing. I could bust my ass up here for two weeks, buy a plane ticket and eff off to Arizona or Mexico for two weeks. I wish the rigs were two on/two off in the winter.

I think I'll look into some site labourer gigs that Ferro was talking about.

I'm probably going to take a 2/2 or similar gig after next winter, I could do it now as my company has a couple of gigs with that rotation but I wanna do one last winter off. If you want to go to Mexico or Arizona its so easy, United flies direct from Edmonton to Phoenix, I flew to Guadalajera via Phoenix last year and it cost about $700, return, all in. Check out Sun Wing, they have direct flights to Mexico and Jamaica all year and lots of different destinations down south in the winter, pretty cheap too, less than $1000 for a week, hotel flight and everything. Try to get on with a company that pays for flights and organizing flights to the USA or farther shouldn't be a problem, companies fly guys back to the east coast all of the time and a return ticket to Nfld or NS right now is $1000-12000, they'd save money by flying you to Mexico!

You settling down or what?

(08-04-2014 09:48 PM)Tresdus Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 06:25 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 12:10 PM)Laurifer Wrote:  

(08-04-2014 11:35 AM)hedonist Wrote:  Curious with the days off and a ton of guys on here have you ever done any trips down south etc together?

I'm on 14/14 shift now and it's unbelievable for travel

If I could get something like that this winter that would be amazing. I could bust my ass up here for two weeks, buy a plane ticket and eff off to Arizona or Mexico for two weeks. I wish the rigs were two on/two off in the winter.

I think I'll look into some site labourer gigs that Ferro was talking about.

I'm probably going to take a 2/2 or similar gig after next winter, I could do it now as my company has a couple of gigs with that rotation but I wanna do one last winter off. If you want to go to Mexico or Arizona its so easy, United flies direct from Edmonton to Phoenix, I flew to Guadalajera via Phoenix last year and it cost about $700, return, all in. Check out Sun Wing, they have direct flights to Mexico and Jamaica all year and lots of different destinations down south in the winter, pretty cheap too, less than $1000 for a week, hotel flight and everything. Try to get on with a company that pays for flights and organizing flights to the USA or farther shouldn't be a problem, companies fly guys back to the east coast all of the time and a return ticket to Nfld or NS right now is $1000-12000, they'd save money by flying you to Mexico!

You settling down or what?

Not really settling down but I'm getting tired of living out of suit cases and not having a place to call home, I've been living like this for about five years straight and am looking forward to moving into my condo in Edmonton, its a pretty nice place. I plan on getting a couple of more tickets in the next two years, I've been slacking on the career progress over the past three years as I've been traveling so much I haven't had time to focus on upping my skills. I've been in my trade for almost seven years now and really should be making more money, but I'm pretty comfortable where I am right now, we'll see what happens.

It amazes me still just how different the employment landscape is in Ontario versus Alberta. I went to visit my granddad and he worked in construction for 30 years in southern Ontario and even he finds it amazing how things have changed in a relatively short period of time. He moved to a small cottage town that used to be a part of a large region of employment in construction, manufacturing, and saw mills, but today it's a rundown place where time has stopped. All the mills are closed and the factories are the same. The only construction going on are the million dollar homes on the water.

I can't wait to move out there and start working in a hard job that pays a great wage. In Toronto all I can find are minimum wage jobs in stores and restaurants. I thought I had it bad when I was working at a tennis club but man, the reality of the situation smacks you down pretty hard sometimes. All of these service jobs with little to no chance of working up, earning just enough to make ends meet.

Looking forward to joining you guys come September.

I have done my H2S, CSTS, and first aid and have been applying for camp labourer jobs (on indeed and kijiji) for about a week now but still haven't got any responses as of yet. It seems like the competition for camp work is very high.

(08-04-2014 06:46 PM)donnie514 Wrote:  Pretty interesting video of a day in the life of a Directional Driller.
(video)

(08-04-2014 07:51 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Thats such an accurate representation of the lifestyle I am headed towards.

If you are wondering whats its like in an upper position on the rig that is it.

It scares me a little Ill be honest, I have to watch certain things a lot to keep myself in check. Its a lifestyle of excess both positive and negative. Thanks for posting.

Interesting that this video is a very accurate representation for the lifestyle a lot of guys out here live by. It's sort of, dare I say, the natural progression of a single man's lifestyle whose found a job that initially required few skills, and is rewarded tremendously. Let me elaborate:

The video starts off in a luxurious tone. Las Vegas; limo, champagne, gambling, partying, girls. All paid for by the highly lucrative drilling career the protagonist has chosen, found in the American oil sands of North Dakota. But closer to the end of the 10 min clip, a darker, sadder and more realistic tone presents itself. Used to be married to a German lady whom he met during his service in the military. However his wife felt that the oil patch lifestyle was too much of a strain on their family, leading to divorce, a.k.a. paying child support and alimony. He also mentions on his 20 days on/ 10 days off rotation, his work provides little to no human contact. And during this time, he mentions that due to the monotonous nature of his job, the divorce is a heavy burden on his mind during the 20 quiet days. You can spot this immediately when his demeanour changes upon the introduction of the topic of his divorce. He carries the same demeanour when talking about his career trajectory. He's unsure of where he'll be. So he copes by making frequent trips to Las Vegas, boozing and partying away the otherwise harsh realities of his life.

I find myself battling between the expensive, drunken and plain-ol'-fuckery escapades (i.e. going out and getting absolutely fucking wrecked on anything you can get your hands on) which provides great storytelling material, and the low-key, self-improvement type pursuits (i.e. learning a new skill, career-advancing courses, building a healthy, strong physique) which require good habit formation found through consistency of the intent to better yourself and resilience through the periods of lacking motivation. It seems obvious that the latter is the correct path to the most rewarding life possible. But man, who says a fun life is not rewarding too?? Reward becomes a subjective term. To me, a great reward is the gains I've made in the gym, while some other dude's reward is the number of drunk chicks he's fucked in a weekend.

But sometimes, I'm the other dude. Depends on how much I've worked and how much isolation I've endured. You really have to go through this lifestyle to understand what I mean.

This has been my experience so far.

A little off topic but vice just did a quick little bio piece documentary called the boys of fracking. Wasn't that informational just kinda followed a guy around for a few days talking to him about living and working in North Dakota and the pay. Will be curious if its just a one time thing or if they do a mini series.