So sorry for the late blog guys,
The last couple of days we've been doing some work with the Cat/dozer because of the location of the pole.....it's down a steep hill, thru a creek, behind a guard rail.......you know, the perfect place for a pole right;) Well, usually a pole like this would be sent straight to the contractors but seeing as the power company that I work for isn't about to give away there work ~ we tackled the job......after many many break downs! For starters, we got the cat stuck yesterday, had to get a high hoe down this hill to even try and move her and just when we got the cat to start moving.......pop, broke a hydraulic line and was down and out until the next day. So two hours late last night but still in good spirits, brings us to the present day and well it's another late one!
We started off having to travel around to get some fluid for the cat, then headed to Bismark to tackel this darn pole in the middle of the woods down a fricken hill! When we get there and get everything back in place.....we blow the darn motor on the auger! Out of luck right, wait till tomorrow and order one is probably what your thinking but nope ~ We ended up taking the Auger motor off of the line truck and swapping it with the bad one to finish this pole. We had to cut a few switches in the other day so we could cut the power while transfering the phases. Ameren has a no gloving 12 kv off the pole policy. Now we can hot stick the phases but that's a lot of work and it's a practice that's becoming less and less used these days. I climbed the 60 foot pole, and un-tied the two phases and dropped the neutral down off the arm and cut a few feet off the old pole so we could just push the old rotten pole over with the boom. Im sorry that I could take any photos, I'll try and bring the camera tomorrow cause we're still using the cat to get to one more right of way pole back in the woods down an old hunting path.
Well, I still have a letter that I have to write for the military this weekend so I should get to it. But again, sorry for the short and late blog. One thing is for sure, lineman don't work the standard 8 to 5 job everyday. Your released when the job is done, not almost complete!
Have a great rest of the night, and I'll hopefully write more tomorrow k.
all the best,
dan
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
WCLR Rodeo finished, International Linemans Rodeo next on my list!!
Hey Everyone,
So this weekend went better than I had expected. Jen and I drove down to Hillsboro on Friday and before I left for The Rodeo, I went and did a little mushroom hunting. I found about 5 pounds of morels, or yellows as we always called them when I was going up. I brought them down with me and gave them to some of the veteran rodeo guys from 702.
Okay, so I didn't sleep worth a shit on Friday night ~ probably b/c I kept thinking about how much it's going to hurt when I fall in front of everyone.....and trying to climb any pole going on 40 some hours without any sleep makes for a crappy situation. But Jen and I left Hillsboro around 4:45am and got to Duquion Illinois about 6:40am and I tried to sleep a little in the parking lot but I swear, linemen are some of the loudest son's of bitches alive!!! So, I just got up from the back seat and Jen and I went inside and I'm pretty sure the poles grew alittle over night;) But after the flag ceremony, all the apprentices went towards there divisions and waited....then waited.....and waited some more. It took a long time for things to start running smoothly but when they picked up, they really picked up. My first event was the H-Structure Cross over, I was actually the first person to do that event in the whole rodeo. A little nervous, but I flew up the right side of the h-structure in less than 30 seconds, only my problem was that I've never used two safety's before and I had to put one around the pole and then one around the static wire when I headed to the other side. There was three things that I should have done to get a quicker time, number one ~ not listened to the fat judge who told me that you couldn't cross your safety, number two ~ climbed up the back side of the pole, and number three ~ brought my own separate safety to use cause the one they had was a piece of crap!!! But still I finished in 2:20 I think which was okay as an apprentice.....especially the first person to do the event!
My second event was the speed climb, I was using my new gaffs and I really like them but I'm going to have to learn to descend smoother and faster in them. It will come with some time and practice, which I plan on doing both a lot more of! In the speed climb you have to descend down the pole with an egg in your mouth and the goal is to not crack or break the egg and have the best time. I had 41 seconds, but the dam egg cracked. I wasn't really happy anyways, 41 seconds just won't cut it! I will try my hardest to cut that in two for my next rodeo.
Um, the next event I did was the mystery event ~ we just had to climb up and change out three dead service connectors ~ aka one bolts. I actually dropped one on the way up.....another dam penalty.... I think I finished that one in 3 minutes but wasn't really sure seeing as I was a little disappointed in myself.
And I saved my favorite for last, The hurtman! I think the winning time was 57 seconds and mine wasn't my best but I did it safely in 1:54 seconds. I had an extra 20 seconds put on my time because my gear wasn't working very well with me. I need to practice putting all my new gear on, and on, and on again until it only takes me 14-17 seconds to put my gear on, and not 47 seconds..... Im not happy with the way I preformed and going to this rodeo has only made me want to do another rodeo and score better. I think I still probably finished in the top 20 but I'm not pleased with my performance. I have a video of my hurtman, and I think I'll post it, even tho I'm a little embarrassed to show it. Maybe this will motivate me more knowing that someone might be watching it.
As for today, my crew was short handed and we framed up a 60 foot pole that we will be using the cat for tomorrow. It's down the side of the highway, behind some guard-rails. I can pretty much put my hand thru this old girl. It's pretty scary thinking about all the old poles out there. We're changing them little by little and making hardly no head way on this job. I can say that we'll be busy for EVER... We also went and took a look at another pole that's in need of changing back in the middle of the woods. A walk beside machine would work okay on this job, but since we have the cat, we might as well use her all we can.
WEll, I think that's about it for today ~ we stayed a little late tonight till 6 so I'm beat. I'll try and remember my camera tomorrow.
L8ter,
dan
So this weekend went better than I had expected. Jen and I drove down to Hillsboro on Friday and before I left for The Rodeo, I went and did a little mushroom hunting. I found about 5 pounds of morels, or yellows as we always called them when I was going up. I brought them down with me and gave them to some of the veteran rodeo guys from 702.
Okay, so I didn't sleep worth a shit on Friday night ~ probably b/c I kept thinking about how much it's going to hurt when I fall in front of everyone.....and trying to climb any pole going on 40 some hours without any sleep makes for a crappy situation. But Jen and I left Hillsboro around 4:45am and got to Duquion Illinois about 6:40am and I tried to sleep a little in the parking lot but I swear, linemen are some of the loudest son's of bitches alive!!! So, I just got up from the back seat and Jen and I went inside and I'm pretty sure the poles grew alittle over night;) But after the flag ceremony, all the apprentices went towards there divisions and waited....then waited.....and waited some more. It took a long time for things to start running smoothly but when they picked up, they really picked up. My first event was the H-Structure Cross over, I was actually the first person to do that event in the whole rodeo. A little nervous, but I flew up the right side of the h-structure in less than 30 seconds, only my problem was that I've never used two safety's before and I had to put one around the pole and then one around the static wire when I headed to the other side. There was three things that I should have done to get a quicker time, number one ~ not listened to the fat judge who told me that you couldn't cross your safety, number two ~ climbed up the back side of the pole, and number three ~ brought my own separate safety to use cause the one they had was a piece of crap!!! But still I finished in 2:20 I think which was okay as an apprentice.....especially the first person to do the event!
My second event was the speed climb, I was using my new gaffs and I really like them but I'm going to have to learn to descend smoother and faster in them. It will come with some time and practice, which I plan on doing both a lot more of! In the speed climb you have to descend down the pole with an egg in your mouth and the goal is to not crack or break the egg and have the best time. I had 41 seconds, but the dam egg cracked. I wasn't really happy anyways, 41 seconds just won't cut it! I will try my hardest to cut that in two for my next rodeo.
Um, the next event I did was the mystery event ~ we just had to climb up and change out three dead service connectors ~ aka one bolts. I actually dropped one on the way up.....another dam penalty.... I think I finished that one in 3 minutes but wasn't really sure seeing as I was a little disappointed in myself.
And I saved my favorite for last, The hurtman! I think the winning time was 57 seconds and mine wasn't my best but I did it safely in 1:54 seconds. I had an extra 20 seconds put on my time because my gear wasn't working very well with me. I need to practice putting all my new gear on, and on, and on again until it only takes me 14-17 seconds to put my gear on, and not 47 seconds..... Im not happy with the way I preformed and going to this rodeo has only made me want to do another rodeo and score better. I think I still probably finished in the top 20 but I'm not pleased with my performance. I have a video of my hurtman, and I think I'll post it, even tho I'm a little embarrassed to show it. Maybe this will motivate me more knowing that someone might be watching it.
As for today, my crew was short handed and we framed up a 60 foot pole that we will be using the cat for tomorrow. It's down the side of the highway, behind some guard-rails. I can pretty much put my hand thru this old girl. It's pretty scary thinking about all the old poles out there. We're changing them little by little and making hardly no head way on this job. I can say that we'll be busy for EVER... We also went and took a look at another pole that's in need of changing back in the middle of the woods. A walk beside machine would work okay on this job, but since we have the cat, we might as well use her all we can.
WEll, I think that's about it for today ~ we stayed a little late tonight till 6 so I'm beat. I'll try and remember my camera tomorrow.
L8ter,
dan
Thursday, April 22, 2010
late night early morning....
What's up guys,
So today was another great day in the life of an apprentice. We had some safety meetings until 10am in paxton illinois ~ so usually we don't get as much as we'd like to get accomplished on days that we have meetings but that wasn't the case today! We have eight more single phase poles out east of Bismark Illinois, about 8 miles from Indiana. I actually took some really good photos today, I wanted to try and show you guys what it's like to clip in/tie in copper conductors/wire. The poles have 6a copper weld as the wire size and they are old ratty poles from the late 30's. I took a few photos of some of the arms and I wanted to show you what a pole looks like after lighting strikes, can do some serious damage. I cant say how these poles have been this way, but it's time they are getting changed out!
Okay, so we arrived at the show up at 11:45 am, loaded up 8, 40 foot class 5 poles and sat down for lunch at high noon. My foreman then called dispatch and set us up with a one shot so if by some freak of nature we got into the primary wire it would only take one shot or hit to knock that circuit out. Have you ever been at home and the lights come on and off three times within a couple of seconds? Well that's because the reclousers are trying to clear what-ever is causing the fault. Sometimes a limb/tree branch will fall on the phase and the reclouser will try up to three times to clear that branch. Anyways, a little off the subject but that's what the flickering lights mean. Um, what next....well we headed out to the country road where these poles were flagged by our engineer. I set up on the first pole and laid the phase out in a hot arm, I did that to give up enough room to slide the new pole in between the phase and the neutral without making contact. I went down the line and laid out several poles since we were running a little behind schedule. We set a total of 5 new poles and wrecked out three more. We had to re-span all of the new poles so we won't pull the old poles until later on. I took a few photos that I hope will show you how to handle copper wire ~ how to tie them in and so on. There's a different way to tie the primary verses the neutral. You want to make two ties before you go up, you'll need your rubber gloves on to tie in the primary wire, and what you want to do is take your tie and twist it like your screwing in a light bulb and make three small wraps or buttons as we in the trade call them, then twist the wire out about three long wraps followed by three more buttons. And when you tie in the neutral wire you want to wrap your clevis spool with one side of the tie going under the wire and one going over the wire, you'll make one button, wrap the tie two to three times and then make three tight buttons on each side. This will keep the wire nice and tight, you just don't want to cross the ties b/c that could the tie to become weak and break.
Anywho, we did stay alittle late tonight ~ about two hours and that has put my blog a little behind but I have took the day off of work tomorrow to attend a Lineman's Rodeo as I have previously mentioned about. I will try and post some pics and tell you how I do. My fingers are crossed but I hate climbing in front of people that I know and well my better half is going down with me so let's hope that I don't fall:)
Talk to you guys later, wish me luck!
l8ter,
hurtman dan.....
So today was another great day in the life of an apprentice. We had some safety meetings until 10am in paxton illinois ~ so usually we don't get as much as we'd like to get accomplished on days that we have meetings but that wasn't the case today! We have eight more single phase poles out east of Bismark Illinois, about 8 miles from Indiana. I actually took some really good photos today, I wanted to try and show you guys what it's like to clip in/tie in copper conductors/wire. The poles have 6a copper weld as the wire size and they are old ratty poles from the late 30's. I took a few photos of some of the arms and I wanted to show you what a pole looks like after lighting strikes, can do some serious damage. I cant say how these poles have been this way, but it's time they are getting changed out!
Okay, so we arrived at the show up at 11:45 am, loaded up 8, 40 foot class 5 poles and sat down for lunch at high noon. My foreman then called dispatch and set us up with a one shot so if by some freak of nature we got into the primary wire it would only take one shot or hit to knock that circuit out. Have you ever been at home and the lights come on and off three times within a couple of seconds? Well that's because the reclousers are trying to clear what-ever is causing the fault. Sometimes a limb/tree branch will fall on the phase and the reclouser will try up to three times to clear that branch. Anyways, a little off the subject but that's what the flickering lights mean. Um, what next....well we headed out to the country road where these poles were flagged by our engineer. I set up on the first pole and laid the phase out in a hot arm, I did that to give up enough room to slide the new pole in between the phase and the neutral without making contact. I went down the line and laid out several poles since we were running a little behind schedule. We set a total of 5 new poles and wrecked out three more. We had to re-span all of the new poles so we won't pull the old poles until later on. I took a few photos that I hope will show you how to handle copper wire ~ how to tie them in and so on. There's a different way to tie the primary verses the neutral. You want to make two ties before you go up, you'll need your rubber gloves on to tie in the primary wire, and what you want to do is take your tie and twist it like your screwing in a light bulb and make three small wraps or buttons as we in the trade call them, then twist the wire out about three long wraps followed by three more buttons. And when you tie in the neutral wire you want to wrap your clevis spool with one side of the tie going under the wire and one going over the wire, you'll make one button, wrap the tie two to three times and then make three tight buttons on each side. This will keep the wire nice and tight, you just don't want to cross the ties b/c that could the tie to become weak and break.
Anywho, we did stay alittle late tonight ~ about two hours and that has put my blog a little behind but I have took the day off of work tomorrow to attend a Lineman's Rodeo as I have previously mentioned about. I will try and post some pics and tell you how I do. My fingers are crossed but I hate climbing in front of people that I know and well my better half is going down with me so let's hope that I don't fall:)
Talk to you guys later, wish me luck!
l8ter,
hurtman dan.....
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Road Work for the City and the first fatality of my lineman career...
Hey guys,
So today we went to Hoopston Illinois and did a little road widening for the city, looks like they are giving the north side of town a little face lift. Much needed to if you ask me:) But anyways we changed out three poles, was going to be a four pole job but one was actually marked okay and we might change out later on if our engineer finds it a must need to change. The first pole we changed was a simple pole with a DD light on it with two services attached. Nothing much, but most of our street light poles are 35 foot poles class 5. Also, I should mention that I noticed the pictures that I posted on here yesterday very TINY, probably since I took them with my phone while at work and I'll try and bring my digital camera with me as much as I can but for now the pic's are probably going to be small since I don't want to slow the crew down or get in trouble;)
And our second stop was for a lift pole, a lift pole is when the service to your house needs to be lifted up to either clear the road or b/c the distance from the transformer pole to your house is to far and would cause a great deal of sag in the wire. Ameren has a pretty good policy about keeping our services that are over roadways up at least 18 feet in the air to keep any passing trucks from snagging them. Every year we replace 5-6 poles b/c some farmer got a new piece of equipment that is HUGE and rips down the service along with the pole. You'd be surprised the amount of damage the farmers do to power lines and poles. Not knocking farmers, just trying to give some credit to the lineman when credit is do:)
The third and final pole was by far the hardest one. We had two primary phases that were dead ended on a 40 foot class five pole. The primary wire was 1/0 aluminum, and the neutral was the same size, which was also dead ended. This pole required a dead end arm which is made of fiberglass, anytime that a pole has two or more phases and it's the end of the line, the pole is going to require a fiber-arm, or a "fat arm" and that's just more or less for your protection ~ you will also find these at any train crossing or distribution that crosses the interstate. So, to dead end the wire we put two fish ~ fiberglass rods that give a little support and also separates the phase from the end of the fiberglass arm. So we will have to fish, then a figure eight washer to connect both female ends of the fish and a poly together which will have a dead end shoe on the end. If anyone is actually reading this, that might not make to much sense but I will try to post a picture later so you can see a fish, poly, and a dead end shoe. Once we have the material in the air and on the arm, we took a strap hoist from the end of the shoe to about four or five feet out on the wire and took tension on the wire in order to un-pin the old shoe and re-pin the new shoe into the poly. Sounds like a lot of work right, well try doing all of this with hot primary wires so we were in our rubber gloves and sleeves and it was close to 75 today ~ lot of sweat and dust from all the road work and farming going on.... This is by far one of the toughest jobs I could ever think of doing let alone that I'm trying to do this. I do like challenges tho, and again I've been trying this for over two years now. I actually caught myself thinking about my first few months today and how I did a lot of standing and wondering and now I pretty much know all the material needed and I try to play a game with myself and see if I can get all the material out and ready before my foreman asks for it ~ not much of a game I know, but lately I've been winning:) haha But seriously, things are going so much smoother now then they were 2 years ago and I'm very pleased with my progress but I should be further along ~ I am a little disappointed in myself for that matter...
Anywho, tomorrow I will be bringing all my gear home with me as I am competing in a lineman rodeo on Friday and Saturday. World Class Lineman Rodeo, or WCLR and local 702 is putting on this rodeo near my home town in southern Illinois. By no means am I the fastest or greatest climber but I do love competition and we'll see how I do. Jen is coming down with me so maybe she'll take a video or two of me doing the hurtman and speed climb and I'll post them. As for tomorrow, I think we will be headed back down to Bismark to continue on the ICC work. I know that we still have about 1o poles to pull and back fill the old holes, we will probably frame up and lay out 5 or 6 more single phase poles as well. But I will let you know more tomorrow.
Im going to end by saying that I know I haven't had may views on my blog and this might not be the most interesting trade to some people, but I do feel as if I'm retaining more of the job by now telling all of you about my day. I'll work on better photos from tomorrow on k.
thanks so much,
hurtman DAN.....
ps, the first fatality of my lineman career happened today.....it was a squirrel that you may have seen in the photos ~I opened my truck door to get my lunch out today and about shit myself when I saw that someone put that dead squirrel on my seat. Kinda funny, but again not trying to hurt any ones feelings in case we might have some animal lovers out there.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Day 2, helping farmers help you:)
So today was another pretty easy day. We ended up changing out two corner poles, both single phase and one had a tap off the east side that was headed to a farm house. My boss was away to attend a safety meeting so I teamed up with Adam, he is the Foreman for the two man crew and his apprentice is away at school for the next two weeks so the boss man sent us out to Bismark to try and get closer to finishing up all the ICC audit jobs. There's a lot of work to be done by July 1st!!!
I'll try and break things down a little on all the tasks that I went over for the day and explain the area's that I need work on or that I messed up....typical apprentice:)
So, for starters the poles that we changed were already framed up and at the job site ~ Adam ran the line truck while I laid out the phase in a hot arm. I lined up Adam with the augger and he dug the first hole, when setting poles you take a simple rule into effect ~ 10% of the height of the pole, plus two feet ~ so if it were a 40 foot pole you would dig the pole 6 feet deep. These poles that we are removing have date nails from 1937.....Cedar poles seem to last forever, now adays we use mostly pine poles that don't hold up hear as well. Also, we have started to rock all our poles, what I mean is that we fill in and tamp the hole with road-pack rock to help keep the pole from leaning one way or the other. When that done, you can hook up your guy wire. Now the first pole didn't need a new anchor set so we strung up a new fish and jonny ball and made up our guy. It pretty much keeps the angle of the pole from going one way to much, and when I say fish I mean a fiberglass rod that seperates the guy wire from the pole and provides a small bit of seperation in case the guy wire would get energized. Once the guy wire is in place, pole is tamped and the line truck is clear of the new pole ~ I went up in the bucket and transfered the primary phase and clip'd in the neutral wire and then cut down the old pole. I should mention that the primary wire was energized while we were working on the poles today so that means that I had to put guts on the wire and I was wearing my rubber protective gloves and sleeves.
The second pole that we set was also struck by lighting and we had to move the anchor on this one. Adam again set up the line truck while I laid out the primary phase and gutted up the phase so we could slip the new pole in between the neutral and phase. Once we dug the hole, we then set the anchor and Adam raised up on the winch line and I moved the new pole over the hole and Adam then lined off the pole and the we used our plum bobs make sure the poles were level and straight, then did everything all over again and tamp'd the hole with rock and I transfer over the hot phase and also I had to mack the neutral wire out so we didn't have to take the customer out of power to change the pole. A electrical mack is a device that allows you to change the direct path of the of the wire without killing the primary phase or in this case the neutral.
While changing out the last pole we recieved a call state'n that a farmer hit another one of our single phase poles with his tractor and some customers were out of power. So luckly we had some poles near by and we rob'd one of them and headed towards the fields to change the broken pole out. I should mention that the poles we changed out earlier had 1/0 aluminnum wire as primary wire and the pole that the farmer hit had #6a copper weld wire. This isn't the first time that a farmer has hit a pole, in fact this is the 3rd pole that we changed out in the last two weeks b/c a farmer snagged a wire or hit a pole.
Well, tomorrow we have a road widening project in Hoopston, and some of the crew had to head to Danville for some EEC training....how to be a better person touchy feely crap:) But I think there's a total of four poles, two lift poles one single phase primary pole and maybe on overhead guy pole. I'll check back in with ya tomorrow and give you an update.
o, and the stuff that I messed up on today ~ well, I should have set the anchor a little bit more in line with the new pole and while pulling the old pole I should have let the pole rest in the line trucks ears a little more before trying to push the butt of the pole towards the front of the truck....nothing major but things that I should know better seeing as I'm a 3rd step apprentice...
anywho,
see ya tomorrow
I'll try and break things down a little on all the tasks that I went over for the day and explain the area's that I need work on or that I messed up....typical apprentice:)
So, for starters the poles that we changed were already framed up and at the job site ~ Adam ran the line truck while I laid out the phase in a hot arm. I lined up Adam with the augger and he dug the first hole, when setting poles you take a simple rule into effect ~ 10% of the height of the pole, plus two feet ~ so if it were a 40 foot pole you would dig the pole 6 feet deep. These poles that we are removing have date nails from 1937.....Cedar poles seem to last forever, now adays we use mostly pine poles that don't hold up hear as well. Also, we have started to rock all our poles, what I mean is that we fill in and tamp the hole with road-pack rock to help keep the pole from leaning one way or the other. When that done, you can hook up your guy wire. Now the first pole didn't need a new anchor set so we strung up a new fish and jonny ball and made up our guy. It pretty much keeps the angle of the pole from going one way to much, and when I say fish I mean a fiberglass rod that seperates the guy wire from the pole and provides a small bit of seperation in case the guy wire would get energized. Once the guy wire is in place, pole is tamped and the line truck is clear of the new pole ~ I went up in the bucket and transfered the primary phase and clip'd in the neutral wire and then cut down the old pole. I should mention that the primary wire was energized while we were working on the poles today so that means that I had to put guts on the wire and I was wearing my rubber protective gloves and sleeves.
The second pole that we set was also struck by lighting and we had to move the anchor on this one. Adam again set up the line truck while I laid out the primary phase and gutted up the phase so we could slip the new pole in between the neutral and phase. Once we dug the hole, we then set the anchor and Adam raised up on the winch line and I moved the new pole over the hole and Adam then lined off the pole and the we used our plum bobs make sure the poles were level and straight, then did everything all over again and tamp'd the hole with rock and I transfer over the hot phase and also I had to mack the neutral wire out so we didn't have to take the customer out of power to change the pole. A electrical mack is a device that allows you to change the direct path of the of the wire without killing the primary phase or in this case the neutral.
While changing out the last pole we recieved a call state'n that a farmer hit another one of our single phase poles with his tractor and some customers were out of power. So luckly we had some poles near by and we rob'd one of them and headed towards the fields to change the broken pole out. I should mention that the poles we changed out earlier had 1/0 aluminnum wire as primary wire and the pole that the farmer hit had #6a copper weld wire. This isn't the first time that a farmer has hit a pole, in fact this is the 3rd pole that we changed out in the last two weeks b/c a farmer snagged a wire or hit a pole.
Well, tomorrow we have a road widening project in Hoopston, and some of the crew had to head to Danville for some EEC training....how to be a better person touchy feely crap:) But I think there's a total of four poles, two lift poles one single phase primary pole and maybe on overhead guy pole. I'll check back in with ya tomorrow and give you an update.
o, and the stuff that I messed up on today ~ well, I should have set the anchor a little bit more in line with the new pole and while pulling the old pole I should have let the pole rest in the line trucks ears a little more before trying to push the butt of the pole towards the front of the truck....nothing major but things that I should know better seeing as I'm a 3rd step apprentice...
anywho,
see ya tomorrow
Monday, April 19, 2010
FIRST DAY OF MY LAST YEAR
HELLO EVERYONE,
I THOUGHT IT WOULD INTERESTING IF I POSTED A BLOG ABOUT MY FINAL YEAR AS AN APPRENTICE LINEMAN, ALL THE DIFFERENT TASKS, STORM RESPONSE, OVERTIME CALLS, AND THE EVERYDAY CHALLENGES THAT AN APPRENTICE LINEMAN WILL FACE DURING HIS/OR HER LAST YEAR BEFORE BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN!!!
SO TODAY IS DAY ONE, APRIL 19TH, 2010. MY NAME IS DANIEL PUTNAM, AND IM 28 YEARS OLD. I HAVE BEEN IN THE AIR FORCE FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS AS A FIREMAN AND RECENTLY MY BASE LOST THEIR F-16'S AND MY JOB WAS TERMINATED SO I THOUGHT WHAT BETTER TIME TO GO AHEAD AND TRY THE ONE CAREER THAT I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN ~ BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN!!!
I HAVE COMPLETED THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF A THREE YEAR PROGRAM, AND I CAN SAY THAT THERE HAS BEEN PLENTLY OF CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PRETTY QUICK AT PICKING UP ON THE SIMPLE TASKS OF ANY JOB THAT I'VE HAD OVER MY YOUNG 28 YEARS BUT I WILL ADMIT, THERE'S BEEN MORE TIMES THAT MY BOSSES HAVE BEEN PRETTY AGGRAVATED WITH ME. THIS JOB DOESN'T HAVE ONE OR TWO SIMPLE TASKS TO COMPLETE ~ EVERY SINGLE SETTING IS DIFFERENT, SINGLE PHASE, THREE PHASE, UNDERGROUND, DISTRIBUTION, OR TRANSMISSION... THIS IS THE PART THAT MOST APPRENTICES STRUGGLE WITH, AND I'M NOT AFFRAID TO ADMIT THAT I HAVE HAD MY FAIR SHARE OF PROBLEMS TRYING TO RETAIN ALL THE INFO WITHOUT HURTING MYSELF OR OTHERS AROUND ME.
I RECENTLY BECAME WHAT IS KNOWN AS A HOT APPRENTICE, I CAN DO ALL THE WORK IN THE AIR OR OFF THE POLE WITH ENERGIZED CONDUCTORS AROUND...WHICH INCLUDES CLIPPING IN/TIE'N IN THE CONDUCTORS OR INSTALLING NEW PRIMARY CONDUCTORS, INSTALING NEW POLES AND SO ON.
THE COMPANY I WORK FOR IS AMEREN, AND THEY ARE THE SECOND BIGGEST ELECTRICAL COMPANY IN ILLINOIS, NEXT TO COM. ED. IN CHICAGO, BUT AMEREN COVERS MORE OF THE STATE THAN COM ED DOES.
I GREW UP IN A SMALL TOWN IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS BY THE NAME OF HILLSBORO, I HAVE A TWIN BROTHER WHO IS ALSO A APPRENTICE LINEMAN BUT HE WORKS FOR HENKELS & MCCOY IN TENN. I HAVE TWO OTHER BROTHERS AND TWO MORE SISTERS. MY FATHER PASSED AWAY WHEN I WAS IN THE 8TH GRADE BUT I STILL HAVE MY MOTHER AND SHE RE-SIDES IN HILLSBORO.
I LOST ONE OF MY FRIENDS DUE TO A DROWING ACCIDENT A FEW YEARS AGO AND HE HAD JUST COMPLETED HIS FIRST 16 WEEK APPRENTICE COURSE AND WAS WELL ON HIS WAY TO BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN, I REALLY BELIEVE THAT JOSH IS THE REASON THAT MY BROTHER AND I HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE OUR APPRENTICE PROGRAM A SHOT. WE BOTH ATTENDED SLTC, SOUTH EAST LINEMAN TRAINING CENTER IN TRENTON GEORGIA. IT'S A 16 WEEK CLIMBING SCHOOL THAT STILL TEACHES KIDS TO FREE CLIMB WOOD POLES AT HEIGHTS OF UP TO 70 FEET IN THE AIR. THEY TEACH THE BASICS OF ELECTRICAL THEORY, AND GET YOU READY TO START YOUR APPRENTICESHIP.
WELL, I THINK THAT'S ABOUT ALL I HAVE TO START. I SHOULD MENTION THAT A FEW OF MY FUTURE PLANS ARE TO MOVE WITH-IN CITY LIMITS OF THE COMPANY I WORK FOR, I HAVE BEEN ENGAGED TO MY HIGHSCHOOL SWEETHEART JENNIFER NOW FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND WE HAVE BEEN SAVING UP FOR OUR WEDDING.
I WILL TRY AND LOG IN TOMORROW AND FILL YOU IN ON WHAT ALL HAPPENED AT WORK, I HAVE A RODEO TO COMPETE IN ON SATURDAY, I WILL BE TIMED IN THE HURTMAN RESCUE, SPEED CLIMB, AND A FEW OTHER TESTS THAT APPRENTICE'S GET TO COMPETE IN.
AS FOR TOMORROW, I BELIEVE THAT WE ARE CHANGING OUT TWO SINGLE PHASE CORNER POLES, ONE HAS A SLIGHT ANGLE AND ONE WILL NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER ANCHOR INSTALLED. WE WILL BE WORKING IN A SMALL TOWN NEAR INDIANA CALLED BISMARK. WE HAVE BEEN CHANGING OUT POLES THERE NOW FOR ABOUT A MONTH.
ALRIGHT, IM OUT FOR THE NIGHT ~ THANKS FOR READING AND HOPE YOU ENJOY,
HURTMAN DAN
I THOUGHT IT WOULD INTERESTING IF I POSTED A BLOG ABOUT MY FINAL YEAR AS AN APPRENTICE LINEMAN, ALL THE DIFFERENT TASKS, STORM RESPONSE, OVERTIME CALLS, AND THE EVERYDAY CHALLENGES THAT AN APPRENTICE LINEMAN WILL FACE DURING HIS/OR HER LAST YEAR BEFORE BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN!!!
SO TODAY IS DAY ONE, APRIL 19TH, 2010. MY NAME IS DANIEL PUTNAM, AND IM 28 YEARS OLD. I HAVE BEEN IN THE AIR FORCE FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS AS A FIREMAN AND RECENTLY MY BASE LOST THEIR F-16'S AND MY JOB WAS TERMINATED SO I THOUGHT WHAT BETTER TIME TO GO AHEAD AND TRY THE ONE CAREER THAT I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN ~ BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN!!!
I HAVE COMPLETED THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF A THREE YEAR PROGRAM, AND I CAN SAY THAT THERE HAS BEEN PLENTLY OF CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PRETTY QUICK AT PICKING UP ON THE SIMPLE TASKS OF ANY JOB THAT I'VE HAD OVER MY YOUNG 28 YEARS BUT I WILL ADMIT, THERE'S BEEN MORE TIMES THAT MY BOSSES HAVE BEEN PRETTY AGGRAVATED WITH ME. THIS JOB DOESN'T HAVE ONE OR TWO SIMPLE TASKS TO COMPLETE ~ EVERY SINGLE SETTING IS DIFFERENT, SINGLE PHASE, THREE PHASE, UNDERGROUND, DISTRIBUTION, OR TRANSMISSION... THIS IS THE PART THAT MOST APPRENTICES STRUGGLE WITH, AND I'M NOT AFFRAID TO ADMIT THAT I HAVE HAD MY FAIR SHARE OF PROBLEMS TRYING TO RETAIN ALL THE INFO WITHOUT HURTING MYSELF OR OTHERS AROUND ME.
I RECENTLY BECAME WHAT IS KNOWN AS A HOT APPRENTICE, I CAN DO ALL THE WORK IN THE AIR OR OFF THE POLE WITH ENERGIZED CONDUCTORS AROUND...WHICH INCLUDES CLIPPING IN/TIE'N IN THE CONDUCTORS OR INSTALLING NEW PRIMARY CONDUCTORS, INSTALING NEW POLES AND SO ON.
THE COMPANY I WORK FOR IS AMEREN, AND THEY ARE THE SECOND BIGGEST ELECTRICAL COMPANY IN ILLINOIS, NEXT TO COM. ED. IN CHICAGO, BUT AMEREN COVERS MORE OF THE STATE THAN COM ED DOES.
I GREW UP IN A SMALL TOWN IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS BY THE NAME OF HILLSBORO, I HAVE A TWIN BROTHER WHO IS ALSO A APPRENTICE LINEMAN BUT HE WORKS FOR HENKELS & MCCOY IN TENN. I HAVE TWO OTHER BROTHERS AND TWO MORE SISTERS. MY FATHER PASSED AWAY WHEN I WAS IN THE 8TH GRADE BUT I STILL HAVE MY MOTHER AND SHE RE-SIDES IN HILLSBORO.
I LOST ONE OF MY FRIENDS DUE TO A DROWING ACCIDENT A FEW YEARS AGO AND HE HAD JUST COMPLETED HIS FIRST 16 WEEK APPRENTICE COURSE AND WAS WELL ON HIS WAY TO BECOMING A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN, I REALLY BELIEVE THAT JOSH IS THE REASON THAT MY BROTHER AND I HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE OUR APPRENTICE PROGRAM A SHOT. WE BOTH ATTENDED SLTC, SOUTH EAST LINEMAN TRAINING CENTER IN TRENTON GEORGIA. IT'S A 16 WEEK CLIMBING SCHOOL THAT STILL TEACHES KIDS TO FREE CLIMB WOOD POLES AT HEIGHTS OF UP TO 70 FEET IN THE AIR. THEY TEACH THE BASICS OF ELECTRICAL THEORY, AND GET YOU READY TO START YOUR APPRENTICESHIP.
WELL, I THINK THAT'S ABOUT ALL I HAVE TO START. I SHOULD MENTION THAT A FEW OF MY FUTURE PLANS ARE TO MOVE WITH-IN CITY LIMITS OF THE COMPANY I WORK FOR, I HAVE BEEN ENGAGED TO MY HIGHSCHOOL SWEETHEART JENNIFER NOW FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND WE HAVE BEEN SAVING UP FOR OUR WEDDING.
I WILL TRY AND LOG IN TOMORROW AND FILL YOU IN ON WHAT ALL HAPPENED AT WORK, I HAVE A RODEO TO COMPETE IN ON SATURDAY, I WILL BE TIMED IN THE HURTMAN RESCUE, SPEED CLIMB, AND A FEW OTHER TESTS THAT APPRENTICE'S GET TO COMPETE IN.
AS FOR TOMORROW, I BELIEVE THAT WE ARE CHANGING OUT TWO SINGLE PHASE CORNER POLES, ONE HAS A SLIGHT ANGLE AND ONE WILL NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER ANCHOR INSTALLED. WE WILL BE WORKING IN A SMALL TOWN NEAR INDIANA CALLED BISMARK. WE HAVE BEEN CHANGING OUT POLES THERE NOW FOR ABOUT A MONTH.
ALRIGHT, IM OUT FOR THE NIGHT ~ THANKS FOR READING AND HOPE YOU ENJOY,
HURTMAN DAN
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