Wow. It's finally here. The start of the rest of my career. I can finally get out there and get some work done. But am I truly happy to leave? This is most definitely a bitter-sweet time. Because I'm going to go work with a real crew, but the crew of 40 guys or so I've been working with everyday I will most likely never see again. We had our rodeo, our graduation, and that's it. I joked with a few of the guys, telling them "Don't worry, you'll see me again. I'll be your foreman someday!" But it doesn't disguise the fact that this is a really sad time.
But I need to focus on the future.
That's why I've been applying like a madman, staying up late and doing the same thing over and over and over again. Expecting that at some point I wont get a "Sorry, we've decided to pursue other candidates."
But it only takes one!
And I'm confident that I will very soon be working in the trade. I will keep posting off and on, letting everyone know how the job searching is going. And eventually, how my apprenticeship is. So keep your eyes peeled. And in the meantime, check out the slideshow I made for Edison.
And, here are a few rodeo pics that my wife took!
The Rodeo
You can see my sister in the reflection of my shades taking this photo.
Well, we're down to the last week. Coming up Monday we have finals, Friday we have the rodeo and graduation, then we get a road map and a boot in the rear. This past week, everyone was working on the last of their competencies, working the delivery of crew presentations, and taking tours of various Idaho Power facilities. We went to a substation, systems operations, the main office, and a generation facility (swan falls dam). Very impressive stuff. The substation was HUGE.
Here's a picture of half of the outside, and the control area...
The substation
The back part of the controls.
Oh and here's a picture for my friend, Bryan.
Here are some photos of the "dam tour."
One of the original turbines at the old dam
The control area for the new dam.
The other thing I mentioned was that we did a lot of crew presentations this week. I caught a part of one on video, because they said they were going to ignite hydrogen. The crew used electrolysis of water to fill a balloon with hydrogen. The way it works is, a DC current is applied across a container of salt water, the water is then broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. Pretty cool stuff! Here's the video!
Just a quick blog post to keep ya'll updated. A lot of academic stuff this weekend, since we have a 4 page research paper, 4 labs, and a crew presentation due on Monday. I was up until 4 last night getting the paper done, and plan on staying up late tonight to work on my part of the crew presentation. Coffee, how I love thee...
A lot of this week was spent tearing down, and rebuilding the 'climbing pit.' We use a hydraulic pole jack to loosen the pole from the ground, then lift it out with the winch. The hole is then redrilled and retamped. A new pole can then be set into the hole, after first framing the arms and insulators. Here's a picture of the view from behind the controls of the winch.
Tamping in the new pole
So there is this place in Boise called Big Jud's. If you're ever in Boise, go there. They make some of the best burgers I've ever had. Big too. You can buy the 1lb burger (seen below), or if you're feeling exceptionally famished... the DOUBLE 1 POUNDER! They have a challenge, if you can eat the whole 1lb burger, and a pound of fries you get to live forever in notoriety with your picture on the wall. I didn't quite make it.
Man vs. Food gave the 2lber a shot... check it out!
What a crazy few weeks it's been since my last update! Getting all kinds of stuff done, getting ready to graduate, trying to find a job, and having a lot of fun!
This past week ended on a sober note though, as week 12 was the last week to finish all the timed competencies. We witnessed many good men give it their all to finish, in order to graduate with the rest of the class. Most came through victorious, and some, through no lack of heart or will, fall just short of the finish line.
Inspiring is the one word I would use to describe these gentlemen who pushed passed difficulty to nearly accomplish what even they would have considered impossible at the start of our course. But the most inspiring of all was Wilkerson.
Wilkerson needed several competencies at the start of the day. He plowed through them all, except one: 6 up downs in 8 minutes. He had previously missed it by a few short seconds, so it didn't seem like it would be a problem.
First try, no luck.
Around 3:45 he had his second try, and people started cheering, spraying water on his back (it was a hot day), anything to help him out. It was a no go.
Wilkerson took a break, obviously feeling dejected. As he headed back over to the pole to give it one last shot, McCormack shouted, "Wilkie! You're going to get it done, I'm doing it with you!" Several others joined in, and most available poles were taken. Those who didn't climb, gave their verbal support. Nearly the entire school, Edison and Tesla were united to cheer Wilkie on.
Emotions were running passionately high, as Wilkerson started his climb. 1,2,3 up downs done.
4 down, then 5. The sole desire of nearly 90 people united in this one man now slowly lifting one foot after another lifting an exhausted body slowly up a rugged pole. Halfway up on the last up down the frenzy reached it's stirring peak.
Wilkerson was going to make it.
Finally down at the bottom of the pole, the last up down just a memory.
A hush fell on the crowd as Wilkerson, when told his results, slowly nodded his head. He didn't make it under time.
Embraces followed, and dry eyes were few and far between. We all gathered together, and Mr. Rogers made the announcement that they had never seen anything like the amount of support that they saw today for a fellow student, and camaraderie and heart means much more than the legality of the time in which things need to be done. With that in mind, he announced the extension of the timed competencies until the end of week 13. Great news for Wilkerson, and all of us who wanted so badly for him to succeed.
Such an inspiring story, and a lesson that transcends any educational experience.
With that, I'll post some other photos I've taken (and a video - significantly better quality than previous videos, since I uploaded it to youtube, and linked to the blog), enjoy!
We're getting down to the wire at Northwest Lineman College (so punny!). We have a total of 2 weeks to get all of our timed competencies down, in the midst of learning transformers, and fine tuning our resumes and cover letters. It's getting exciting, that's for sure! We're working on double-crossarms, installing armour-rod on the wire so we can attach it to an insulator, changing out the insulators on the angles. Learning is definitely taking place! Here's a photo of the double-crossarm changeout, and a few more...
Double Crossarm Changeout
Armour Rod Changeout
Hurt Man Rescue
Sawing logs...
That's it for now. Hope everyone's enjoying the blog, and if there are any questions shoot me a comment. I'd more than happy to answer! Have a great week, and be safe!
So about the coolest thing we did this week was stand to on a ladder, suspended from an "h structure".
Let me take that back.
About the coolest thing I've ever done was to stand on a ladder, suspended from and "h structure." I know it looks crazy, and trust me, it is.
But it's perfectly safe.
NLC practices 100% attachment, which means at no point can I fall far enough to become seriously hurt. Which is good, and calms the nerves to a point, but still a little unsettling at first for sure.
Here's the photographic evidence.
Those glass insulators are pretty heavy, btw.
Also, a video! Notice the flip around...
Anyway, been having all kinds of fun learning the trade and quite frankly, learning a lot about myself. Until next time, be safe!
Quote(s) of the week,
"I wouldn't eat that sandwich!" - Turner, as I grabbed my lunch off the rack...
"I didn't pack a sandwich" - Me, as I sat down.
"Oh, man. I totally thought I was going to trick you!" - Turner
Yesterday I volunteered at the Andrew York Lineman Rodeo. I had a whole lot of fun, and had a chance to observe some of the best linemen in the northwest! I left SUPER early from my house, so about an hour and a half into my drive I snapped some pictures of the early morning sunrise, over transmission lines, and a small substation. Check 'em out!
When I got there, they had guys up a pole, with the flag then being passed up and installed. We recited the pledge, sang the national anthem, and said a prayer. A solid beginning to a sweet day!
Then the fun began! My job was "check-in, check-out" for the 230kV Corona ring changeout (De-energized).This is what it looked like...
Here are some pictures a few of the other events!
Hurt man rescue
So that's the lineman rodeo. I have just a few pictures from school this week...
Changing out a transmission insulator...
Don't forget your hard hat!
And one final picture - I took it coming home from school this week somewhere in Oregon...
First off, let me apologise. It's been a week + since I've updated. The good news is - instead of periodic updates, I will now update once a week, on the weekend.
This week we started climbing two types of transmission poles, stream-line and H structure. In climbing, we're starting to learn "hurt man rescue" and cross-arm change-out, also we started changing out insulators in distribution. So a lot going on as far as new stuff, also it's very exciting being up on the transmission poles!
As far as book stuff, we started Electrical theory this week (atomic structure - Valance electrons, magnetic induction, etc.), and continue to learn about "Working On Lines and Equipment." (working on de-energised equipment)
The other thing is, I brought the "good camera" in on Wednesday, and got some fantastic photos. Check them out!
Also, I Have Videos! Here's Kinzy and Clark crossing each other on the H structure.
Well, we're back to it after a long weekend. Yesterday was the first day of class for the week, we then had evaluations. It's nice to hear positive feedback for things that you do, and the evaluations were a chance to do just that! Also, this blog was specifically mentioned :-D.
One thing I've been working on a little bit is a t-shirt design. Before you see my design you should know that our "little" chant is one person shouting EDISON and then everyone shouting STRONG! And the full chant is, Who are we? EDISON What are we? STRONG! IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME! EDISON *grunt* So he's my template for a shirt... so far.
Edison Strong
What do you think?
So at some point this week, we're going to be working with cross arms, and handlines. Send up a cross arm, installing it, Send up a drill, making holes, etc... I'm really looking forward to that. Tomorrow we're working in underground completing our competency for primary elbows, but today we did what I consider the most essential training a entry level apprentice lineman can get.
We dug hand holes.
6' deep, 20" across, ready for poles!
The spade and the spoon....
The abyss...
McCormack and Meyers
Then the skills builder was a contest to see what crew could put on all their gear that fastest. We won! So we got another "skills builder" sticker! here's a video of a couple of the crews' turn.
Well, that's it for now. I'll do an update in about a week!
Guess who's hip? I'm hip, that's who. I'm updating my blog from a coffee shop That's right, blogs and coffee: the two things that define the trendy of our generation. Just kidding, trendy is one thing I DO NOT want to be, it's way too expensive.
Oooooohhh boy, learning is taking place! We've been building on the math we were working on last week, learning about distribution, and all kinds of stuff. Every week the instructors do a little demo of things we'll do in the trade, and probably at the school. Check out this video of Mr. Rogers, and Mr Sobolewski setting a pole.
Also, we've been learning to stretch out, even more. Here's a pic of me doing just that.
As a bonus picture, here's a "set of fours" I made up. This is what we've been working on calculations for.
Today we were cleaning up the campus a bit, here's a pic of us moving poles.
Well howdy there, blog followers! We haven't been doing too many things I haven't talked about already, except getting a little more complicated in the school work part of things (Calculating the tension on a rope, using blocks, and factoring in friction - actually very "fun" math, it's practical and not awfully complicated).
Also, the election for class president is heating up. In the first week, Mr. Groves told a story about how last year the guy that won bought everybody an Egg McMuffin, and so now anybody that wants to run pretty much has to buy food for everyone. Yesterday we got doughnuts, today we got muffins. I'm hoping by the end of the week we'll all get pizza and drinks.
We did do a some training on vault rescue, which was informative and fun (unfortunately, buster died before we could get him to safety - he was a dummy anyway).
Vault rescue
-- Quote of the week --
"The 10 most important 2 letter words in the English language are 'If it is to be, it is up to me.' This is something you should all apply to school here, and to your career." - Mr. Sobolewski (Instructor) on the effort needed to be successful in the trade.
