Happy to say I finally found a job that lets me sleep in my very own bed every single night after 2 years of absence from the ranch. Working for a contractor/builder of higher end homes in Western Mass. out in the Berkshires, who has quite a collection of iron for a small outfit. Just 4 of us altogether, including the owner who isn't against getting out of his Audi and onto a bulldozer to help out. My first week was last week, working on my second. It's been a dream come true for me to say the least. Leave my house at 5-5:15 a.m., work 8.5 hrs. (that will change eventually,) and home again by 5:15-5:30 p.m. I actually mowed the grass after work one day!!! That felt different. Usually I was gone 3 weeks and ended up almost having to bale it by then, cause the better half's not tough enough to pull the cord on the mower...it was all on me. I've been loading fill onto a '97 Western Star 10 wheeler with a nice Deere 370 from one of our freshly engineered subdivisions, and hauling it to a home site to bring the grade up, and pushing over with a nice old TD 15 Dresser. 3 excavators: a 370 Deere, a 792 LC, and a Hitachi 160 w/hydro thumb. 4 dozers: D3G Hystat, TD15, D8H, and an IH TD 20. TLB: 420C Cat. Skidsteer: 270 Cat with a lot of attachments to play with. Trucks: '97 Star wheeler, '97 KW W900B with a brand new Fontaine Specialized 55 ton lowbed.(Very familiar with that piece...) The trucks are all my responsibility, as the other guys don't have CDL's, or any seat time. That's kind of nice actually, it keeps the equipment from getting hammered prematurely. Out in the woods, me and the lunchpail and a gallon of spring water. The boss never even stops in to check up on me periodically. Life is finally back to normal. With the exception of the (65 miles each way) trip, but it's still better than the alternative... Enjoy the pics.
glad you found a good job, looks like some nice equipment. please post more pics!
what ever happened to that job in conn
Sounds like some of the jobs I do. just get in the equipment and do your thing, nobody to worry or bother you. The boss knows the jobs in good hands and stays away. Congrats!!
nice got any pics of the other iron?
Nice going Tom.I was just thinking about you yesterday,thanks for checking in with us. It sounds like the job was made for you. I have always had to travel doing this type of work,it is just part of the job.I generally get a gas card as part of the terms of employment,it is a write off for the employer and comes in handy when you need to buy odds and ends for the machinery on the jobsite to repair small breakdowns,hoses etc.I always carried a nice assortment of tools in my personal truck to expedite any repairs to keep the machines running and it is job security to have the tools and the knowledge to carry that end of the operation without any dependence on the rest of the organization.Good luck to you.Ron G
Great to hear Lowboy:drinkup
Crikey Squizzy, you scared me with that new avatar there...made me jump a bit. Good to hear from you in any event. RonG: I'm the same way, I have enough tools with me to be in good shape or in trouble, one of the two. This contractor's small, so I'm a jack-of-all if you know what I mean. I spent last Saturday fixing a bunch of things left behind by the last bunch of winners that had their fingers in everything. It'll take a few more Saturdays, but I'll get everything in order eventually. I agree 100% on having the extra upper hand to hold your own with other things than just being an "operator". That was the problem with the former job in Ct...that's all I was. It was a robot-mentailty, cookie cutter job, and the worst thing was the communication gap between me and the laborers. I don't feel I should have to press "1" for English, myself. Thanks for the thoughts Ron...I'll be around. jimmyjack: What happened to the job in Ct. Let's see...leave my perfectly good house with a wife and kids at 3 a.m. Monday, drive 156 miles to work. Work as a robot with no use of your own mind, opinion or skills for 9 hours. Get accustomed to calling your coworkers Amigo, but can't get them to do a darn thing you ask them to, because they're trained to do one thing one way.Go 24 miles to your inlaws house, and stay in your 7 year old nieces' part time room there that's all pink, with Barbie and Snow White posters above your bed with the pink canopy. Let's not forget the Easy Bake Oven in the corner either. See if that doesn't affect your manhood just doing that; I did it for 2 months, and was starting to lose my grip on my male coolness almost to where I was thinking of actually using the Easy Bake Oven one night. That's when you know you'd better be doing something pretty quick. I got home that Friday night and was surfing for jobs around my area, and fell into this deal. Perfect situation, other than the ride, but I switched cars with my wife and cut my gas cost in 1/2 this week. I miss my F-150, but her Plymouth Lazer (as stupid as I feel driving it,) gets 33.25 mpg, just checked it tonight. That's pretty much it in a nutshell, jimmyjack... Everybody else; Thanks for the encouragement. I'll take more pics as time progresses. It's all good.
Good to hear from you again Lowboy..was beginning to think you dropped of the planet again. Glad things are working out for you. Hummm..one member comes to mind with this senerio...nah.. I'll let it drop...this time...
Yeah I REALLY had to get out of that scene, before I started dressing like a grader operator....(woops...):stirthepot:shf opcorn
ointlaugh
Yup...that should do it alright. Now I"ll just wait for it. Easy bake oven huh?
I even heard he stayed up late one night baking cookies for for his favorite fourm friends:laugh:laugh:laugh you didn't get a cookie?
Whatever you do Grader4...DON'T try the Easy Bake Oven hobby. Besides, the cookies are WAY too small for an average man anyways. You'd have to spend too much time making multiple batches...(not that I would know or anything... )
Yummmm...looks good!! My poor old mum used to make cookies that looked like that. She called them "sore eyes"...which I'm liable to get from the mods if I keep highjacking these threads :ban
You kill me... ointlaugh How could they ever accuse you of being a highjacker...you're the world's shortest sentence writer, you never say enough to get in trouble like most of us. PS: That picture of the EB Oven...that hit close to home, I'm having flashbacks...:spaz
Hey Lowboy, what town are you working in? anywhere Rt.2? thats some beautiful country out through there, great pics, love that star wheeler, more pics please!!
Drove in and out of NY several times recently. Nice to see spring arrive, but my wife says you can't see the forest for the trees. Fuel prices pretty high too, except down in the Seneca Nation, looks like they sell a ton of tax-free tobacco products judging from the looks of the store near the casino. Never been in southern NY before, pretty area if sparsely populated. Saw several interesting old machines from the road, but too busy getting down the road to take pictures. Maybe next time.
Basically working in the Pioneer Valley area of western Mass. nedly. Along the I-91 corridor, between Northampton, Mass. and the Vt. border nowadays. Yes, rt. 2 is just down the road from where we'll be spending the next month on this current job in Northfield, Mass. Only 4-5 miles from rt. 2 in Greenfield. More pics are on their way!:drinkup These are a couple of me getting ready to move Handlogger's (another HEF member,) nice Cat 420D hoe from my place in Vt., to his place 77 miles south of here in western Mass. It's a really nice, newer style TLB with only 445 hours, and a 4-in-1 front bucket with fold over forks. He's a lucky man to have such a nice piece. I stored it here for him till he was ready for it, and hated to see it go, it was a nice looking lawn ornament for a few months. Just FYI: The ridge over top of the cab of the Western Star is the backside of Mt. Snow ski area, the ridge over top of the boom of the hoe where it pivots is the backside of Haystack Mtn. ski area. The equipment is in my side yard at my place.:scool
I agree surfer-joe...that southern tier of New York is as pretty a place as anywhere you'd find in the country. Endless farmland, mountain views, etc. People take NY for granted I think. It's not all about Manhattan, Wall St., or Brooklyn,(although those places have their purposes,) when NY comes to mind. I've found in my observation of the petroleum dealers prices vs. the reservation prices, they were only a nickel lower than the competition. Guess they jump on the bandwagon when they can too, like the rest.:drinkup
Thanks for the pics Lowboy, I am pretty familiar with that area as my Sister lives near there in Mass, it's a very nice area down there as well. When I lived in Florida everyone I talked to thought I was from the city when I said I was from NY, then when I told them I was from a tiny town closer to Canada than NYC they got a perplexed look on like they never thought there was any NY north of Albany!!
You're welcome, nedley. I hear you on the "look" from people on the NY thing. Same with me being from Ct., people right off the bat think all of Ct. is Fairfield county, I-95 corridor, bedroom community to NYC and Long Island. May be true in some instances, but where I come from I was as isolated from civilization as you could get out in the woods, yet it was close to civilization when you needed anything.Farmland all around me, neighbors with cars upside down on the front lawn stealing parts... That's why to this day I have to be in the country, or I won't make it. Guess it's kind of a redneck thing. You said you liked the Star I have pictured? Boy, so do I. Maybe because I owned a beautiful 1986 4964 tractor, it's bringing back memories every time I drive it...or it could be that now after I shut this truck off for the day, I'm headed HOME nowadays.Funny how I just came out of a 2008 triaxle Peterbilt tractor and a 4 axle lowbed, and like this old '97 dump truck even better, huh? That's 'cause it doesn't have a sleeper I guess...:drinkup
You sure sound happy boss! I'm happy for ya, if ya aint happy with what you are doing it can make for a miserable life!
Like the old saying goes, "If you're enjoying what you're doing for a living, you won't work another day in your life"...:thumbsup:iagree