Hello from Indiana

Hi all, I'm Ryan. I'm 24 years old and have been in the dirt moving buisness for 6 years. Once i graduated mid term i got in the trade while my school mates were still pouring over stupid paperwork. I worked for a small mom and pop outfit for 7 months, got laid off and now I work at a landfill full time and have been there for 5 years. Spent quite a bit of time on a haultruck. I have now worked my way up to an excavator. Thats me in the avatar but thats not what I run every day. I run a Hitachi Zaxis 800. This is going to be my first steady year on a trackhoe. Ran my first one when I was 12 and got hooked. However I run a little bit of everything, there really isnt anything I cant run on the property. I still work for the small mom and pop outfit that gave me my start in this buisness part time. I enjoy this line of work and I wouldnt do another line of work. Along my 6 years ive done various labor work. My favorite is pipe crew work. Done a little bit of top man and pipe layer, locating utilities. At this landfill I've got the unique experience of doing slurrywall work. I was a crane operator dropping a clam down in excess of 90 to 100' to bedrock. Probly got a little over 1100hrs doing that. Which was really neat. With all that said, I am interested in furthering my experience with old school draglines. About 3 years ago a friend let me play on two draglines. One was a Bucyrus Erie 30B and the other was an 88B. I casted a couple times and dumped on the pile, thats about it. Very neat, its a dieing art. My other interests are welding and trains. I like to ride motorcycles. Glad to be a member here.