Venter

Do you like to 4X4?

Last Sunday I went 4X4 with my brother in law with his old land cruiser, which he got from the states because He flipped his old one beyond repair.

Signs You know what you are doing when you 4X4

1. The vehicle you are taking has tools in the back, just in case something goes really wrong in backcountry somewhere.
2. You have a Winch.
3. The vehicle runs on diesel.
4. You have someone who knows the vehicle well, preferably a mechanic or hobbyist.
5. Full tank of GAS
6. Patience :d.

The trip

We went up to Stave Lake at night because all the runs we found at MR were closed. The first experience of 4X4 was vertical incline of near 90* angle, just enough so it wouldn’t flip over. Then we were going through trees where only those vehicles can go. During this time I had to hold a spotlight to see where were going, it was fun! Then we went through a steep dip where we scrape up dirt, what a riot! We also got to pull an older s10 out of the ditch cause the driver was DUI in the bush with his girlfriend. End of the night we headed back and took it easy the rest of the way home listening to the low pitch sound of the engine, it sounded beautiful and beefy!

Anybody else gone 4×4ing?

Cheers and Good Riding.

Technorati Tags: 4X4, Stave Lake

What it feels like to work at a mill!

I had the song what it feels like to be a girl going through my head, the Paul Oakenfold and Madonna. So, I appropriately call this post what it feels like to work in a mill.

The Story behind how I got the job.

I had previous experience cleaning mill equipment on Saturday’s last year at the same mill but it moved to Maple Ridge from Burnaby-New West border. So i was looking for work but didn’t have much time to look long so I decided either construction for a month or mill work. I went down to the Mill office and asked for work. A guy named Dave came around and asked me what I was doing beforehand, so i told him studying accounting . Then told me he will call me for my schedule for the next week within a day or two. The next day however, I was chillin with one of my buds from Coquitlam, he drove me back to his house and we were going to chill. But I got a call @ 3:30 in the afternoon requesting that I make it by 5pm, so i said wait to see if can do it and I will give you a call back . So, i talked to my buddy and he said sure, we’ll hang out more in the summer. He was nice enough to drive me there as well and I made it in the Dave’s office by 5pm!

Start of the Job

I got given some gloves that looked like red rubber lining gloves. Then I was introduced to an Irishmen who showed me the quick ropes of being a “Puller”. Basically the technique of how to pull lumber off the chain. By the end of the night I attacked the mother load and began to gain speed. However, when I biked home my muscles in my forehand and bicep region were being seriously stretched and felt the pull.

Waiting for the Weekend!

By the way I started on Wednesday and work monday to friday! I missed a party on friday night by one of our good friends, work obligations. I think for everyone who works just to earn money and not fulfillment in there job has one goal in mind and that is to make it the weekend! That is basically my goal! Just kidding! The weekend arrived and I wanted to chill and relax. On Sunday I watched the Fifa U 20 Final cause it was on CBC and wanted to watch it, Argentina and Czech. Republic. I was actually look for Forumla One and found it after soccer, so i watched the end. I was dissapointed thought because Hamilton, my fav. driver didnt perform so well. .

Back to Work…

One of the crew members I started with had been changed to day shift, he was one of the harder working ones, so that was a bummer. So it was me, the Irishmen and a guy who is slow but tries to be helpful but really ends up screwing things up. I know you are probably thinking how can you screw placing wood down? Thats what I thought, until I saw it!

After a few days my glove began to tear open, avoiding it I went to grab a piece of wood and a huge sliver went into my thumb, I quickly ripped out the piece and it began bleeding alot. I got a band-aid and new set of gloves and got back to work. So besides all the scrapes on my arms and bruising on my legs, it isn’t so bad. I just wonder how someone can do this for 12-20 years pulling lumber? It is not something you would volunteer your time to do. Or is there someone who will?

Best Part of the Job

Two things : Firstly, it’s as you guessed it, PAYDAY, which was thursday and expected to make more but cutoff was only three days into. Secondly is the continuous workout. However, now that I have been doing it for sometime I am not sore anymore and need a new workout to stretch my muslces more cause I am numb and brainless to what I am doing. However, yesterday was Friday night, week end, and we wanted to take it easy but forklift driver kept bringing in the loads of 2X6 24ft.

Funny Story

So last night, this guy was starring at me as the load was going by, so I said to him, “are going to just watch all night or are you going to work?”, he said nothing and began to work, doh! The people with out brains and common sense these days is ridiculous. It feels so good when you are done.

Finally

Thanks God I’m not going to be lifting lumber the rest of my life cause I have so many scratches and sores from mosquitoes. Another thing that made me and the Irishmen frustrated was that they didn’t tell us we were switching shifts to days, 6:30am-3pm. I don’t look forward on waking up, o well, who does?

Thanks for reading this post, hopefully it was informative!

Cheers All

Dave

Technorati Tags: Job, Irishmen, “Puller”, lumber, crew, PAYDAY

Laptop back and some links…

Right now I am using my sisters and brother in law 256mb machine! All I got to say is that it works My dad called me today and said that Staples has replaced my motherboard, initailly it was the CPU component that had burnt out, but when Staples ordered new CPU it didnt worka dn they resoreted to replacing motherboard!

 It has been a great hassle not having my lappy to work and I hate relying on others, especially when they are weird about borrowing there stuff to check your mail :S !So now I am excitied to say that I will get the Lappy back in Victoria tommorow! However, I am in Vancouver for the summer, but I can go collect it one weekend cause I NEED it! So hopefully the hassle is over, yeh right!

I am on Pownce and my username is DaveyCrocket if you ever wanted to add me! I thought it would be funny to post I like ice-cream as my things to do! Anyways for those who haven’t heard anything about pownce, it was Kevin Rose and Leah Culver project, plus more, sorry not mention the rest but those are the face people of that most people know. I first heard about Leah when she got her Macbook Pro to get alll the sponsors on it! Kevin of course…> DIGG.

The reason why I bring this up is because I added this girl on there to do with Victoria, as where I am living, trying to meet other designers and dev’s in my hood! Anyways I was checking out here profile and found her site, it was alot of green talk and worth checking out! Victoria Everman.

Thats all folks, tune next time to hear some Mill Stories or ranting and raving

Cheers Dave

Upgrades…

Finally, its 2:30 am and have my blog up and running with the new wordpress 2.2 version! I had something break on me today, so I forced to make some changes and some upgrades. I had to also upgrade my db for soem reason so I did and it worked WOHOO!

 However theme is still the same. Should I change this theme what do you guys think? More post to come… now that everything is in good working order! Thanks to Bill the advice he provided me with. Cheers and have good day to all!