Climbing is a many-splendored thing

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, I better get some homework done, enjoy!

Mmmm... doughnuts...

     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.

 

Here are some more sweet pics!

Setting up a handline

Mr. Rogers showing us some tips

Mr. Mauro teaching

McDonald making up an underground J-box

Climbing and Hot Sticks and Hand Saws, Oh my!

Boy am I sore. My feet and legs are sore from climbing, my arms are sore from pulling and sawing, and my brain is sore from studying. But I couldn't feel better. Learning this this trade has been harder than I anticipated, but it feels good to be challenged.

Like I said, we climbed today, mostly working on technique and being comfortable on the pole. After we had some practice in we were able to play a little game. I could explain what we did, but I'll just show you a video...

 Whoever drops the ball has to stay on the pole, while everyone else gets to do an "up-down." Fun stuff!

My Shadow...

Looking down...

Looking up

After that, we did another "skills builder."  It involved 1 crew (4 guys), hand-sawing the end off a power pole, then running over and pulling an arm up 10 times. We won! My prize? A sticker. Hey, it means a lot to me, okay? Actually, the real prize is the muscles I'm going to have. Check out the stickers, I mean pictures. Plus a bonus video!

Hand sawing

Yesterday we did some underground in a simulated sub-development. Check me out using a hot stick.

Using a "shot gun" hot stick to pull a fuse out of a (dead) transformer

Some guys making up transformers. We get to try it out within the next few weeks.

So, we have 2 tests tomorrow - first off: Electrical Systems by Mr. Groves, and Lineman Fundamentals by Mr. Sobolewski (which, looking ahead, is actually going to difficult next week). And then something called a county fair rotation. We'll see what that means - hopefully county fair means corndogs or curly fries! (it doesn't)

Week 2!

Week 2, Day 1. Today we had our first real classes: Electrical Systems, and Linework Fundamentals. It seems like they paired the hard class with the easy class (the easy class being LF), perhaps so we can focus more mental energy on the hard one. (as opposed to two difficult classes at once). Ok, enough school work, on to the fun stuff.

We got to work hot sticks,

McCormack using the hot stick

We got to run the hydraulic trucks,

Me on a truck

And we got to roll up handlines!

Not the winner of the best handline contest, but I'm still proud of it

Finally, we had another crew against crew contest...

Cut a piece of #4 Aluminum (one handed), then 3 lifts in 3 minutes. Finally, cycle to the next guy. The winning crew did it in 5 minutes total (4 guys)...

So on Thursday, we had that "field trip" i was talking about. It was very informative and entertaining. To surmise, you can see things with thermal imaging you wouldn't be able to otherwise. Which makes that specific technology indispensable to the power industry (bad splices), the building industry (drafts), etc. A big thank you to Flir for providing lunch for all of us, as well as T-shirts and hats. 

Before we went on the field trip though, we were able to do some climbing -  

Check it out!

Here I am trying to go over a cross arm. Wrong side of the pole, unfortunately... lol

Kid Rock on top of the pole...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stretchin' Out...

Climbing, CPR, and Tools

Yesterday was tool day, so everyone who had to buy their tools from the school got them, in full or in part. I had to buy a "bucksqueeze" belt (saves you from falling down the whole pole if you slip),

The Bucksqueeze

channel-locks, and a few misc things.

Most guys had to buy the whole package. As one of the instructors said, "It's like Christmastime, except you have to pay for it."

Which was pretty accurate, guys were walking out of the tool fitting room with giant tool bags, and boxes stacked up to their noses. If you could see through the boxes, you would've seen a smile that was worth a million dollars. Or at least $2500.00 (estimated tool cost).

Piles Of Boots

Tool Bag Pile

  

Knot Practice, waiting for tools!

After tool fitting, were brought out to the yard and told to grab a pole. Grab we did, and it was a blast. Everyone seemed to climb very well, which was a little bit of a surprise for me. Sorry no pics, btw. I was pretty excited and didn't grab my camera.

Then we had a "skills builder" which means we had a contest. Also, a great time. We went in groups of four: one person pulling up and letting down a giant chunk of wood, tying a bowline, then relaying to the next guy. My group got second, which means, no sticker on my hard hat. Oh well, there's always next time.

Today we had CPR/First Aid training (all day). Not so fun, but very informative.

Tomorrow we're supposed to have a "field trip." All I'm going to say is that it's supposed to show how thermal imaging technology can help pinpoint potential trouble splices, ect... I'll post about that on Monday... 

-- Quote of the week --

"You'll lose at least 15 lbs out here, guaranteed. You go tell your mom she's wasting her money on that Jenny Craig stuff. Tell her to come out and climb some poles" - Gil (Instructor) on what to expect this term.

Week One, Day One.

So today was my first day of school. Holy cow, it's going to be tough. It's a lot of everything crammed into 15 weeks. Climbing, theory, driving trucks, CDL training, CPR training, flagging training, strength training, any kind of training that may be associated with line-work, it'll be covered.

I think it seems a little overwhelming now because we were told what to expect within three months time, and I'm used to planning my schedule weekly. I expect that as time moves on and I complete some assignments, things will seem less stressful. I just can't wait until we start climbing. 

Speaking of climbing check out this little number we have to climb up, across, down, and then do it again.

 

Oh, and also it's 100' tall.


Here are more pics...

Trucks :-D

Poles...

Lab...

                                                 A bunch of what I think are baby transformers...



And last, but certainly not least, I bought some tools today!

Enjoy the pics!...  I'll upload more, hopefully with people in the pictures next time...