Colby and Lavalea

All right, welcome back to another episode about on the road podcast. Excuse me if I'm a little baffle brain I've done two already today working on third. All right today's episode is brought to you by Slickman who is always Nate makes the best gloves on the market hands down where on every day you've been wearing them for years. Not just saying that because he's a sponsor of the podcast. If you have an issue with the glove you can call the man directly and get that issue resolved. He'll send you a new pair and make it right with you. We're working on getting them to be 100% American made or at least some American stuff and some made in Mexico just like 90% of the stuff we touch every day. You can find all that at SlickmanWeldenaparel.com and get up with Nate, get your pair of gloves. Wobrows.us American still in sex appeal. Chris has been making FR shirts for three or four years now where I'm just about every day. I like the weight of them. You know the patterns. I don't really care for the patterns. I like the OG one just the red one but I own several different flavors in that shirt. You can also get the camo gloves that him and Nate did together him in Slickman. They're at his website wobrows.us. TN and welds fly. Tows to Miss Mary have hands down one of the best welds flies in the country. They'll drop ship you whatever you want wherever you're at. You can when you call the phone number you're not talking to somebody that don't care about you 90% of the time you're talking to Tows or Mary. I don't know if they really got a website but you can find them at Big Spring, Texas. Southern leather works. Andrew I don't do a lot of plant stuff but I'm doing some plant stuff now and so I got Andrew to make me a weld and have a custom weld and hood. Word every day. Love it. Love the lens that he put in it. It's been a great. It's been a great asset to have a tool I guess you would call it in the pickup outside of just wearing your everyday pancakes. You find it. Andrew great great guy down there in Florida for all your weld and hood needs. Pearl snap pimps. Johnny finally got into the FR Pearl snap game. I don't reckon he could really call himself Pearl snap film without having an FR welding shirt. Now he has it. Some super crazy patterns and stuff. A few like all that. He has the graphic shirts, logo, whatever you want to call it on the back of them. Pearl snap pimps.com. Johnny is a great great guy. I think that's it. All right. Today I am joined this afternoon. I am joined by Colby and lava layer. Rich. What's up y'all? How y'all doing? Hey. This is one I've wanted to I wanted to do this podcast for a long time because y'all are very outspoken and let people have a lot of insight into y'all's life. The days and days and so of being a couple on the on the road together you know. It's I think a lot of people think that it's the same as living in a four bedroom house but you know you know y'all know it's not obviously you know. Especially y'all got two kids you know. Oh yeah. That's definitely a major but there's definitely a major change compared to us selling the house and packing everything into one little camper. So you definitely find out you got way more shit than you need. Oh yeah. I love me and just a dog and I can tell you there's more shit than that camper than what I need 100% it's just me and my little dog. So do you homeschool the kids or do y'all when y'all set up they go to a school or how do y'all go about that while we're on the topic? We homeschool so we started homeschooling about two years ago and we love it. Yeah well I don't know. I'm not a big fan of the whole go to school thing. I mean you send a kid down there for 50 hours a week you know that might as well have full-time job get paid to go down there you know. It's crazy you know like I got two girls a 16-year-old and are almost 16-year-old and a 10-year-old and you know luckily they're pretty good kids but you know they put all these kids on medicine all that they want to calm them down you know especially young boys you know but I mean back in the day you know the boys was running around the woods all day you know burning off injury. Energy now you trapped them in a schoolhouse for eight hours a day or whatever you want to call it. Yeah because no kids meant so fucking sit still for eight hours a day just they're chalkboard. They say then they give all the well they got issues with this and that you know and they don't act right because they're wound up you know or cut the sugar all that craziness you know I never thought about it when I was in school I just hated going to school you know but as I've got an older you know having kids and stuff like damn I think home I've got plenty of buddies that pop line and their wives travel with them and they got one or two kids and they homeschool them you know and you probably get a little bit better education because it is that one-on-one time you know it oh yeah yeah I just wanted to do it. He used to actually get in trouble a lot at school and a lot of it was they would say he would flirt things out talk out of turn that kind of thing and you know I assumed that that meant that he was just like being off topic or anything like that but whenever we started homeschooling he was doing the same thing but I came to realize everything that he would flirt out or want to say always had something to do with what we were learning he just wanted to know more about it he wanted to talk about well what about this about it like he was interested in the topic and wanted to know more but at school I guess because they hadn't called on him they wanted him to just stay quiet and so it's really nice that while I'm homeschooling if he does have a question about something I can take the time to if I don't know the answer search the answer given the answer we can dive into it more right and do you all take like a trip to like museums and what not the aquarium like stuff like that you know oh yeah yeah I feel like that you know like a field trip in school you got to set everything like it you know like fear the bomb obviously you know or that you can just load them up and take them wherever you know and have more opportunity to do that you know I feel like because you know we do travel and we go to all these different places you know I feel like there's a lot more that can be seen you know maybe benefits them a little bit more than just you know your field trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards I you know that's something we can do on Sunday you know that's not like I mean I'm sure it's fun and exciting to go do you know but it's something that we can do in any given time you know right the way I look at it anyway and we also feel like you're more hands on with your kids like you're actually helping be there every day raising them versus sending them off to school that you got a complete stranger telling your kid right and wrong what's what's learning all that you have a lot of trouble so I okay to kind of go back to the beginning there I just didn't want to miss out on the kid park you know they're so how long y'all been together we go with that 12 years or boys 11 and a little girl 7 so pretty close y'all got a little gap in her out honestly thought I was only gonna have one kid I never have to but I'm glad I love both my girls but I would have been fine with just one kid because I kind of knew you know at a young age that I was fixing to be gone a whole lot you know especially once I got into welding like into welding into welding I was like I'll just and I've never been one to really set still you know yeah we knew we were done it too we hit two and we were good after that the how how long have you been welding Kobe 12 years 12 years kind of all come together it's right time huh yeah well we got together quick and we got pregnant quick and the only thing I knew to do to make money was weld so I had to jump on the boat now just funny how that all works out you know well you know it's kind of different for a lot of kids that are 18 to 19 years old you know mom and dad's been paying a lot of their bills their lives and stuff you know and they it's a different kind of want to when you got kids and a wife involved you know that that struggle to to get rolling is a whole lot different than when you just have a cell phone build a pay for you know because mom and dad still paying for your truck or whatever you know and that's what I tell people it's a difference between wanting to and having to I don't have a choice I had to get with it learn how to weld get good that should I had to take care of you know that when I went on the road as a helper like I was already kind of doing some welding stuff here in there you know but I wasn't really growing up yet you know I'm not gonna lie was kind of kind of just floating through life pretty much you know but when I went to that first helper job like we had a house in weather for you know I had I'd child support on one kid I had another kid that was almost a year old you know had car notes to pay for you know then try to get a truck and a weld machine and all this stuff so it was taken very seriously when I went on the road you know it was a strict budget you know because I was making helper wages I mean I was only making $1,300 a week and so it was a strict budget but you know in all the struggles it makes it you know I mean we're divorced now and whatever but during that time it was you know them struggles that we had together is just out of the water you know that we made it through though we even survived that part of it you know Oh yeah, I'm gonna see, so what did you do when you first started welding? Oh, well, I started out as a structural welder. I did that for about six, eight months probably. I need it more money, so I got in a backyard and practiced every single day, broke out on pipe. I've been in the plants my whole career. So, rub, they, let me see. Let me back it up here a little bit. So, if I just shorten it up to lava, is that okay? Yeah. Okay. I call it anywhere. Okay, perfect. Perfect. So, if we back up here during this time, when when Colby's spinning all this extra time in the backyard and working on it, mashering the skill, that support part of that, but you know, y'all got a young baby, you're trying to take care of and stuff. I feel like for some women, that builds a little bit of resentment when they can't see the big picture in things. Oh yeah. Now looking back, I wish I could just backhand myself because there was a period of time where I did have resentment and I would get angry at him for leaving all the time, going to practice, and I was being very selfish because I wanted him to just spend time with me, come home, and now looking back, I realized that, you know, he was doing what he needed to do to be able to take care of us, but at the time, for some reason, from my immature brain, I couldn't see the bigger picture. And now I'm so thankful that Colby is like that, like he is so such a determined person, and when he wants something to happen or needs to take care of something, he's going to do everything it takes to make that happen. And that is something that I feel like has allowed us to have such a long, healthy, happy relationship because he puts that into every aspect of his life. So, I mean, it was rough for a little bit there. And I remember coming out there to get on my ass one day and I just had a telly like, I'm trying to make it to where we ain't got a struggle. I mean, yeah, you still struggle every day, life, but shit. I'm trying to get some big money. I'm trying to take care of us, keep you at the house. Eventually she caught on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just knew, you know, I remember when I was practicing and stuff and the amount of try that I had during that. And I remember having sometimes that was a little rocky there, you know, because sometimes I mean, it's hard to like for welders. It's hard to look outside the two by four lens. And sometimes for women with hormones and all that, it's a little bit hard to get out of that tunnel vision too, you know, get out of your own way sometimes and see what's going on, you know, because they are dedicating so much time to, you know, to a craft. Like, I don't know, I'm big on the Navy seal thing, you know, and they listen to Sean Ryan and all the guys that go make it to seal teams and all that. God, they're women are straight troopers because it's like it's one thing to be a welder, you know, that's one thing, but they're giving their whole life 24 hours 365 to something. It takes a heck of a woman. I mean, it takes a heck of a woman to deal with a welder, but it takes a crazy woman to deal with that, you know, and to raise kids and all that stuff is just a whole different aspect in life. But the, so the first part of here, we started out structural welding, which I mean, I think a lot of us kind of go down that path, the structural welding to get our foot in the door. And then the pop welding part of it, you know, like you said, you spend, you know, your time in the plants, which is another thing I'm trying to get into this year, a lot, a lot more, not just because I'm welding in the plants right now, but like, when I started the podcast, I shouldn't have named it out on the road. I shouldn't, I don't know what I could have named it outside of it, but I was sitting on the right way because it wasn't so much about just the pop line. I mean, it was welding as a whole because there's a thousand ways to go about this line of work that you don't have to be a big bad pop line or, you know, or a big bad plant welder, you know, you can go out here and be an everyday guy and have a rig truck and weld on these branches and all that stuff and make a good honest living as well, you know, I got some guys coming up here in the future that do that kind of work, you know, or they chase the old, they chase old rigs, you know, it takes all of us to make the world go around. So, um, why do you think that you chose the plants over the pop line? Just asking. No, my stepdad, he's a welder also, he's the one to talk me everything. I mean, I just followed in his footsteps. He showed me the right way to get in and just jump on. Which I can agree, you know, I just learned how to weld stainless not long ago and it's, I mean, it's by far the best process of welding that there is, but just because you're, you're clean all day every day. It's nice. It's crazy. But I wish that I would have had more aspirations to maybe go into that a little bit deeper before I started rig welding. For the reason, I think the reason is it takes it when you're when you're a pop line or it's hard to kind of humble yourself and step back and realize, you know, to learn a new craft or learn a different part in this welding business. You know, you got to humble yourself pretty hard because you ain't, I ain't nowhere near your top of the food chain when it comes to doing this stuff in these plants. You know, it's 7 to 18. Yeah, I do that on the pop line, but when it comes to this tick-well and stuff, I am like a kid in the candy store trying to learn from these guys, you know, that are good at it. Oh, yeah. And it definitely takes a little bit of getting used to having to use your other hand. Yeah, I talked to a guy earlier, and he's a good, he's a combo rig welder. And he, I weld, when I have to take that 6G test, even when a pop line, I weld left-hand and right-handed. And so when I, when I started tick welding, I just assumed that people done it that way too. So I weld up the offside left-handed and the guy that that taught me at the hall, I'm in the 798, but that guy that taught me at the hall, he was born away that I welded left-handed, but it's just comfortable. If I got to do it right-handed, it looks like a a monkey doing monkey business. Yeah, so, but, um, let me see. So the beginning, oh, yes, ma'am. My, my daughter's TV, she, like, turned up the volume, which can tell it turned down. Okay. Okay. Okay, sorry. Oh, you're fine. So going, going back here, I meant to ask this question, let's begin an art. So your stepdad's a welder, so you, you're not officially first generation. Out here, you would be considered to be second generation, right? Are you got a grandparent that was a welder too? No, I'm second generation. I was always being to ask that question. Sometimes I forget to lean, but I'm glad that you said that your stepdad was a welder kind of answered the question for me. So at the beginning of your career right here, and I'm going to do this two ways, you know, because, you know, there are a couple. So at the beginning of your career right here, Goby, what do you say was an important piece of advice at that part of your career? Don't give up. I mean, the first two, three years, I think, for any welder is the roughest you're ever going to have it, because you're still learning your bus and test, you're getting, uh, ran off of a job, bad welds, because you're still in the learning process of things. I mean, shit, one of my first jobs, I went all the way to Arkansas just to get fired my first day. Damn. It's part of it though, man. I mean, part of it. Yeah, you got to keep the hustle going and chase the next job you get. That's a, you know, uh, yard from Texas, right? Yeah. That's why I'm really from Mississippi, but yeah, I grew up in Texas, so I considered this home. I don't think people think about it when you break out welding that drive and to go take a test, you know, you might make the test and then, you know, like I said, get run off the next day. I've been down that boat, drove 1,000 miles to bust a welding test site. I mean, I don't think people really can wrap their brain around. I know my dad could never wrap his brain around all the tests and stuff. He was like, that shit's crazy. They ought to make it to where you take one test for everybody. I'm like, well, they don't do it that way, Bob's, you know. Oh, yeah. You don't know anybody really to like get your foot in the door. So you're just bouncing around company to company. Just trying to get a start somewhere. And yeah, but I always tell everybody the new world is starting out in the plants. You're going to have to fake it till you make it because they expect you to have experience. So just go ahead and lie to them and fill out that paper with whatever company you can think of just so you can go get a test. You got to do what you got to do to try to get the job. Right. And just smile and shake your head. Yes, when I ask you to do it, you know. So lava going back to it. At the beginning, at this party, y'all's relationship and Kobe's career, what advice would you have for women dealing with that, that kind of part of it? like the resentment part or not like moving past that part of it. Like how to be supportive kind of in that part of Kobe's career, you know? Because you are taking a chance Kobe, you know, drives Arkansas bus to test. You know, he's already down in his in his shit about bus in the head. Nobody wants to bus a test, you know? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is just being their biggest supporter and by that, I mean, like, if I was sitting here and, you know, he went to Arkansas bus to the test, came back home and I was like, what's wrong with you? Why'd you do that? Like I've said about it. Like that definitely would have like his confidence. I'm sure at that time was already kind of took a hit from that. And so if he was to come home and then me also add on to that. Like that does not help the situation at all. Um, I think it's just being the type of voice to them and like telling them like, Hey, yeah, you might have busted this test, but you're going to get the next one. I know you're going to get the next one and just being that person that, you know, believes in them, you try to believe in them more than they believe in themselves. Because as a wife, that's what you should be for them. Their biggest cheerleader. Good answer. Very good. The, all right, let's, let's fast forward a couple of years here. And so now you're established welder up. What would you say during this time was your favorite job you kind of hit? Shit. Uh, it's a job down in Bay City. Uh, and we still a load of damn, not bad. Uh, even though we're plant welders, I mean, we still get rigged jobs. And, uh, I was using my rig down there in Bay City and I was able to save up money and get our first house off of that job. So I probably go with that one just showing, showing to myself that I was able to provide for my family and give us what we needed. Right. They, uh, I think a lot, I think it's a big miss interpretation about plant welders and, and pop liners, you know, is that like, I mean, like stew, obviously, yourself, Johnny, you know, at one time or another, y'all ran a rig in a plant, you know, I think, but I think people overlooked that because of the pop line, you know, and how, you know, not the big trucks and the weld machines and, you know, all that crap, I think it's overlooked. And the only time that I will, all right, I'll say the, the only comparison I can put to the two right in, and say, like, pop liners, this and plans that is when them jobs kind of correlate with each other, you know, and, I mean, you're not going to take your everyday pop liner and put them in a plant. I'm learning that right now, pretty, pretty hardcore, you know, it's just, you know, like, we all like to say we're the best at this and best at that, right, you know, like pop liners are the best, you know, I'm a pop liner, so I'm always going to think pop liners are the best, but I'm trying to get the way from that mentality and try to make it to where it's welders, burst contractors and verse everything else, you know. It's a, it's a, that's a big cookie to deal with right there. So, because you know, it's always the egos that's going to be involved in it, you know, but we're working on it, working on it slowly but surely. So, love and you're in, in y'all's time with this, so y'all would have a y'all have y'all son, but maybe the daughter is she, was she be here yet? Because my mask been terrible today. No, not yet, not yet. So, during this part of the career where y'all kind of not have it made, but things are balancing out, right, what would you, what would you say about the home. So, y'all about the house, like living at home in Kobe, working that part of it. I mean, I think at that time, it was still kind of rough, just because I was a new mother, and I'm, I was learning how to be a mom, and there were times where Colby had to go on the road, and I wasn't traveling with him. So, I was home by myself, and so there were a lot of times where I had to go through things alone. I mean, Colby was always very involved, as far as like, you know, calling all the time, face timing, coming to visit us any chance he could, but I think it was still kind of rough, like realizing that, you know, I couldn't just come home and how all of us have dinner together, like he, I wouldn't get to see him for another week whenever he would come on the weekend or something like that. So, it was, it was pretty rough for a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know, in, I don't care when anybody's, and a lot of people may or may not experience that stuff, but FaceTime will never take the place of being at home or being all together in a situation. It does, it does the best they can do, but it's just, it's not the, it's not the same, I hate that crap. Like, as I've gotten older, it bothers me more now than what it used to. Obviously, I'm not going to quit pop line in anytime soon, but in my girl, like my youngest daughter, she was raising this all she's ever known. She's 10 years old. I've been a pop line in her whole life, you know, but from the oldest one, I mean, it's kind of, kind of is what it is at this point, you know, just part of it. But the other thing, oh, my bad. No, go ahead. Another thing with that, like, yeah, we're able to buy all this nice shit and everything, but like I said, when I bought that house, I didn't sleep in it more than one night for like six months. I never made it home more than one night, man. Now, it's something that a lot of people need to also keep in mind getting into the lifestyle, like, you can get whatever you want, no problem, but are you going to actually be able to enjoy it? So I'll never understand people buying boats, because we ain't never there. That's the best months to work. You ain't never home to use no damn boat. And when you do use it, probably tear up. But another thing I'd also want to tell people is just whatever time you get, take it and go spend time with your family. That's what you do it for. So any chance you get, go be with them. This old man said one time, he said, well, how does it go work to live, not live to work, you know, like I don't like to work 12 months out of the year. I've left up. I don't like it. I like to work like nine, maybe tens, pushing it, but I need them a couple of months at home, you know, that I like to go home in November and stay through February, you know, back in Texas, right, you know, or go to Alabama. You know, I'm really from Alabama. So go to Alabama and spend some of my mom and all that sort of stuff, you know. I think people get caught up in them dollar bills. And sometimes it's a little hard to get away from it, you know. Oh, yeah. So when did y'all make the, oh, go ahead, go ahead. I don't want to. I was just going to add on what we were saying to that and people not being conscious about their spending. You start getting all them bills and now you can't afford to miss work. Watch what you buy and be smart about it. Particularly the, so at this point, you'll have the house and stuff. What, what made y'all decide to get rid of the house and get the can or let me do it this way. So did y'all get the camper to stay out of the hotel like when Kobe was on the road start with or did y'all get the camper when y'all decided to to all be together. The camper just get out the hotels and get out of rent in the little tiny homes. They got to the RV parks and shit. Something to have my own space that was actually mine. Yeah, I think I had you going to hotels. Oh, yeah. That and then a little while down the road. She got tired of being away. Yeah. It's a, I don't know. It, it takes a heck of a balance to balance those things, you know. Luckily, you know, for some of my buddies, you know, they, they live in West Texas. They work in West Texas. They're home every night. You know, I got buddies in East Texas that work in East Texas. Stay busy or you know, western Louisiana right there. You know, that whole little corridor there and they get to go home, you know, every weekend or at least every night, you know. I can't remember what the statistic was. I was talking to somebody anyways. No, we're only like 2% down from the military and our divorce rate, you know, which is crazy, you know, but. And then while we're in the middle of your career here real quick. All right, so I know this is a thing. It's a thing for all trades. How do you, how did you manage the, you know, the part about staying away from drugs and alcohol and all that business. When I don't touch on enough that I need to touch on and I know, you know, they're big on this deal. Well, in the beginning of it, I mean, me and her party and like rock stars, bro. But I mean, once the kids came along and I started getting older. You got to realize your age is here for yourself no more. You got responsibility to take care of and you. You're a role model to your kids, so you want to do right by them and show them what you're supposed to be Love are you got anything to add to that? Yeah, and I think I I've always been very proud of Colby because you know where He can't where he comes from where he grew up There is a lot of people that you know do drugs all that kind of stuff and old friends and all that all that and So there were I feel like there were a lot of times where he had moments where he had to make a choice like There's a lot of times where you're offered those things and people want you to do those things with them and Every single time Colby was so like sure of it No, like it was always a no and I remember Colby told me it was because he cared more about his job than he cared about anything like that and so I always was proud of him for having that kind of discipline to put us in our livelihood and taking care of us above things like that especially when it's things that are like People around you are doing and kind of like trying to peer pressure you into also doing it It's it's super easy and convenient, you know because you're homesick and all that stuff to fall off on them trails I mean, I'm not I'm not above anybody because I have plenty of times early on in my career I'm done plenty of stuff that I shouldn't have been doing, you know But as I've gotten older, you know I kind of got more of that mentality that nothing's going to interfere with this, you know with my job my livelihood You know and and things have changed, you know like with the podcast and all that stuff is not like I'm just Get to go be the everyday welder anymore, you know because Them kids getting the DMs and all that stuff, and I'm like, I don't want any control over your life brother because I barely got control On mind at any moment this shit and go off the rails, so But I hate I don't like to give it out a vice part like it's different when I got a helper in my truck And he's gonna be here for a year. That's a little bit different to manage that deal, you know Then tell some random kid on the internet. Yeah, you know, I don't know what to tell you brother, but Try to help as much as I can with them, but it's I just want to touch on that because you know, I know You know, they're in the plants. It's there's things that are a little bit more prominent than what it is on the ride away You know, we deal with DOT, you know, they can come out there which I they can't in a plant too But like they'll come out there and snatch the hair out of your head right there on the ride away, you know like It's a big deal when you deal with railroad commissioners and DOT and all that stuff, you know, and It's not just that one time once your stencils on that pipeline. That's forever And you know until that pipeline goes out of commission they can go back all the that's why you put a stencil on the pipeline It all can track back to the to the day that you took a welding test, you know, and Everybody's liable for it. You know when something goes wrong. They go to digging, you know, oh So in this part of your career, what bit of advice do you have during this this boxed off part of your career? I'd say Even though I Started getting better, but I can perfect in my craft and everything Still humble yourself because you can still learn something from any welder from anybody Draws how how long you've been doing it how old you are I have no problem taking advice from another hand and putting it towards what I do Because everybody does it different, but that different way it might help you out Right, so don't be too scared to ask for advice on Figure should out a different way Like I tried to tell everybody all the time you can take that, you know, you can take the advice or Constructive criticism and put it to what you're doing if they don't work just disregard it, you know, you don't have to be a you know Asshole about it, but I don't need your help, you know, you just take it try if it don't work or don't try at all I don't care which one you do join to be an asshole, but and I'm and I've been guilty of that a thousand times of Not taking constructive criticism very well The all right, so y'all So y'all are in the camper now, you know with a little baby Let's talk about that experience because I've done the say I've been there. It's not that is not an easy task at all Well, thankfully Because we just got in the camper two years ago both of our kids were kind of grown by then our daughter was five so I mean Little but she was getting to the point of being independent. I've never had to experience like a newborn or like crib Baby, so that's like a whole different field that I mean I'm sure that that is very rough Yeah, we had a Our daughters still slept in a pack-and-play like crib thing in the camper for a while, but I'm here when I went I the first camper I had was a little one little bitty like me and my dog is all we could do and it you know And then then we got the first fifth wheel and that's when she decided to come on the road um, and it had like the little bunk room and stuff, but To four people in a in a camper is you got your organization skills got to be out of this world Tell me about it Especially you they like toys and all that stuff, you know, oh yeah I definitely give it up to her for keeping everything situated I couldn't have done that shit Yeah, and especially because when we first like our last camper was a bumper pool and it only had one slide it was very We were very confined like now that we have a fifth wheel The difference is night and day. I feel like this is a mansion compared to what we were living in before yeah um I don't know but like I I have the fifth wheel And then I have a bumper pool and me and my dog are in the bumper for right now and I'm like I'm ready to get back in the other one because just me and he's a 25 pound dog and he's in my business too much You know like There's a whole other side of the trailer. It's only got one slide and stuff and I'm like dude go to the bunk bedroom back there Do your own thing but the um Let me see where I want to go to next here So where would y'all say y'all's favorite place y'all going to work at I know mine just I was out there On the outskirts of Austin working out there. They got a samsung plant going up out there Just being out there in the country. I mean I liked it out there Mine's different Mine's probably where we are right now um because we're still pretty new into this so we haven't really had that many different locations Um, this is only our second I think right or my my second living full-time um in RV but I think I this this place where we are now holds a special place in my heart because this is where I Truly found god and started going to church and um, so we go to church here and we've met a lot of people here That also go to our church and so I think it's always just gonna hold a very special place in my heart Um, I guess in another thing about being in the plants compared to the pop line like our jobs typically last two to three months You know sometimes they're shorter than that sometimes they go longer, you know, so we see a lot of places like I've been to canada One year and I've been in Key West Florida one year, you know, I are Kissimmee Florida one year, you know are one a couple months whatever you want call it but like um I don't know The Midwest is kind of my favorite places where I spend the most time at it seems like you know, but I went to Ohio Uh at the end of last year and I and early into this year. I hope to never see that place again It's a frozen tundra in the wintertime. That is I've been in some cold places, but Ohio is a different animal um, I wish that I You know like I welded in corpus for a while um Benalewis and a quite a few times, but always I wish that I'd got on Bigger better jobs down in corpus Christi's probably one of my favorite places that area You know uh quarter ends this angle side all through there. My favorite places go to work out Yeah, I'm in now. I was down there for about a year But I'm like you. I hated it down there. Yeah No, I my favorite thing about is the food. I like you know, I like I like good Mexican food And so when I leave Texas, I don't eat Mexican food at all like Period, I don't I don't care if it's Oklahoma and the guy don't speak a bit of English I'm not eating there. I'm sorry because they they change it They change it than how it is for us, you know, like as Texans is just made one way, you know Either it's gonna be burn spicey or burn your mouth, or it's not you know, but they I don't know it's super bland outside of Texas, but oh yeah So what Let me see how I want to go about this um Maybe I probably should wrote down some questions instead of going on fly. It's a little bit easier when I'm dealing with welders, but are just dealing with the welder uh Let's see All right, let's see Let's do this, let's talk about this. Y'all's clothing brand that y'all come out with here. What transpired that? - So I've always been really artistic. Colby has been trying to push me real hard to become a tattoo artist. I think he just wants free tattoos. - Right. - But I actually started to practice tattooing for a while when we had our house. And I got to do my first tattoos on me. And Colby, we have, I did matching ones on us. But I've always loved drawing. And I always wondered how I could turn that into something, like a business, something that could make us a profit. So it was always something that in the back of my mind that I wanted to do, but I was afraid to do because I just never believed it would be good enough. But once we started doing TikTok and we started getting bigger on social media, we kept getting all these messages and comments of people saying, y'all should come out with hats. Y'all should come out with something. We would buy it, we would buy it. And at first I was like, ha ha, he he, that's a funny joke. But then I kind of started taking it seriously. And I was like, what if we actually did that? And it just, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna stop thinking about it. I'm just gonna do it. If it taints and it fails, oh well, at least it's right. - Yeah, you miss 100% shots, you know what I'm talking about. I love it. I love y'all's shirts and stuff. Y'all are some fancy designs. I just 99.9% of the time I wear something that says 2T on it. You know, and I remember when we was in Kansas, my buddy Jansen got some hats made and he was like, you gotta get some hats made and I was like, whatever, I don't want, you know, but I got some made. And then it turned into, you know, I'd go out in town or whatever and they'd be like, I don't want them hats, you know, like, like that blue one that Cole was wearing there. I like that hat a lot. It's a good looking donut, you know. - Appreciate it. (laughs) - Are them Richardson's? Are you punks? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, they're Richardson hats. - I love them, Rich and Outdoor hats. You can, you cannot beat 'em with a stick. - It was one of my friends one time because our last name is actually Richardson. So she came up to me and she was like, that is so crazy, you got your last name on the back of the hat and I was like, no girl, that's the brand of that, it just works out. - She blonde-headed? - Actually, no, she's not. (laughs) - Maybe in another laugh. Well, I can see that. I mean, if you're lastly Richardson's seat on the hat, but it's, you know, it's, you gotta brand yourself. We live in a world of branding yourself, you know, and it's whether it's, you know, a podcast, a clothing company, a parallel company, the gloves with Nate, you know, it's, which is kind of, it's kind of a blessing and a curse at the same time. I think for a lot of a couple of different reasons, you know, 'cause I never sought out to be this whatever you wanna call it. You know, like I'm sure y'all didn't start out on the TikTok trying to be this or that, you know. Any kind of rolls into you. Well, then you got this responsibility, and I am the best at procrastination, you know. Like the podcast went away for a while, and people don't understand how much, like we talked prior to the podcast, how much work goes into all this stuff on top of welding, you know, 60 hours a week, taking care of kids, you know. That's a 24 hour job, you know. Main its own trucks, main its own campers, you know. Going to church on Sundays, you know. It's, going and trying to spend time with y'all's family. You know, it's a lot like y'all are taking advantage of that, 'cause y'all are close enough now, you know. You don't know, Kobe's next job could be in Wyoming, you know. You never, you never know where you're headed to next, you know. So it's, it's a lot of balancing acts. So let's talk about this a little bit, 'cause I know y'all are big on family, 'cause it's, you know, like it doesn't seem like. But every time we would try to set something up, you know. A family events happen, which is 100% understandable, you know. And like y'all done the retreat in the summertime, right? Like went to the ranch. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's, let's, let's talk about food and family first here. I don't really have a question on it, but let's talk about what family means to y'all's values. As y'all, as y'all's family, y'all, like y'all and the kids, to y'all's immediate family there. You know, the, that part of it. The main thing, like when my boy is showing them everything and life ain't free. You gotta work hard to get what you want. You gotta put in hell of time. And sometimes I wake them up when I leave. Just, you wanna do what I do. This time y'all wake up every day, get your ass out of bed and get going. Just to show you them a little inside of what it's gonna be like. But, and from my daughter, I wanna show her the type of man to look for whenever she gets older. You ain't gonna, don't go looking for no bum. Some sorry ass dude that ain't gonna help take care of you and everything else. It's really just been a role model for them too. As far as immediate family, anytime somebody needs something we're always there to help each other out. Regardless, if you need, if you're doing something today and I'm within distance, yeah, my ass is coming over there to help you out. Family helps family and I mean, that's my take on it. - Yeah, I think family is just really important to us. Like kind of like what you said earlier. Like right now we're blessed because we're only an hour away from our family. Like an hour from mine and hour 45 for him. But that is a big difference from whenever we were outside of Austin, we were like four hours away. So we couldn't do the, hey, my nephew has a birthday party this weekend, we can just show up. Like anytime we were gonna go see our family, it had to be something big enough for us to make that drive after he's been working all week and then he has to go back to work on Sunday. So I think especially right now since we're so close, we're trying to take advantage of every time that we can go see family and make sure we can show up to events and stuff like that because yeah, like next week he could be laid off, you know, you never know. And then we'd have to bust ass to Wyoming. And then we would go who knows long without being able to see our family. So we're just making that a big priority right now. - And also with that, I mean, you never know when the last time's gonna be you see somebody in your family. Life happens, all kinds of crazy shit happens. So if you got the opportunity, take it. - Yeah. - Because if you don't, you're gonna be spending the rest of your life like damn, I should've went and did this with him. I should've did that. You can't get back time you miss. - They kinda stay on the subject here. You know, I think a lot of people, especially, I don't think moms and dads, right? You know, like your step-dad was a welder or is a welder in the plants, you know? So he has a huge concept, like your mom has a huge concept of what goes on inside them plants. You know, like I'm not saying that everybody sets out the day to be unsafe, but there's people that it's only worried about theirself and they're not thinking about well, if I turn this valve, you know, like lock out, tag out huge on your side of the business. You know, like sometimes things just happen, you know, and there's no coming back from it. And I think as a whole, the experience level in the trades have dropped off so far. And nobody has the initiative, you know, enough people don't have the initiative to really lift it back up and hold people to the standards of when your stepdad was in the plants. You know, I'm sure it was a lot less safer, but they might have carried a little bit more about the brotherhood part of it. You know what I mean, especially if he spent a lot of that time down in Bay City in that general refinery area of Texas. - Yeah, yeah. That, and I just feel like back in the day, people took more pride in their work. 'Cause now you got these youngsters coming in that, their daddies, sisters, cousin, baby daddy is who they are just getting in because you know somebody when you ain't worth a fuck. - Oh, I definitely agree with you on that. - I'm gonna say this, the first time that I ever seen any of y'all's, no, wasn't the first time I seen y'all stuff, 'cause I think the first one I seen she was packing her lunch, you know, don't use your own outdoor and stuff. But when y'all kind of done y'all sit down, little podcast interviews together, you said that same exact thing, and I was like, "I like these shit out of that old boy right there." - Oh, yeah. - It is exactly what you said. - Yeah, it's the fucking truth, man, I mean. - And they just don't have no will to want to learn, want to do it right. They're just there collecting a free paycheck. - Well, they're okay. People think these days it's okay to be okay. Whether you're the wife, whether you're the guy doing the work, whether it's your marriage, whether I say that as a divorcee, you know, and I'm guilty of it, you know? We're not arguing, so everything's okay, you know? Instead of coming in and being like, "Hey, how was your day?" Shit like that, I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that would have fixed our marriage by any means, or anything like that, but it damn sure wouldn't hurt, you know what I mean like that? People's okay with just being okay about things, you know? like we wasn't at one time you know if you're if you're a rig welder or a plant welder if you're any kind of welder and one time you wasn't okay just being okay because you worked your butt off to get to where you could pass a welding test and get out there in the field you know you and you had the drive then so you make it to a point you get it taut over your ego sets in you know and you kind of step back um and it's a shame you know and you always want to strive to be the best every single day of your life push other people to be the best they can you can't settle for not less one uh and we'll touch on this because i'm i'm not a huge religious person which y'all are so you know uh sand yells walk through faiths here you know getting baptized the kids getting baptized and all that stuff um you know i um i don't want to step step in it here but the uh you know i like i'm when i said i'm not a huge religious person didn't mean that i didn't believe in god let me clear that up um but i feel like that you have to try to do the right thing like i don't think that you just get a pass because you got in some water so to speak and that makes it okay you know i got i grew up Southern Baptist and the whole thing with that's a whole i don't know if y'all know anybody like that coach from Mississippi so i'm sure you knows about it the hypocrites that's involved in that in that line of work there with the Southern Baptist probably one of the biggest scams of all time but you know you um i don't know i just try to sit out and try to be a decent person every day and i hope that it'll it'll pan out in the end you know but um as for y'all what was kind of the turning point to lead y'all in that direction um so for me i i didn't believe in god for a long time um probably before since before me and colby got together up until two years ago um and the turning point for me was that when colby was gone and this was actually also helped me make the choice to come with uh live with him full time and travel with him full time is that my mental health got really really bad and it was the worst it's ever been and i went through some really rough things that um i feel like i i tried to be strong on my own and it wasn't working and like up into that point i thought that i was strong enough that's why i didn't need god um but then i got to a point where i wasn't strong enough and i needed something else to help me and um that's when i kind of started searching for god and i think you know colby has always believed he's never but because i didn't believe we never really had that conversation much like we never talked about religion um until that happened and then i came to colby and i was like hey i think i want to start reading the bible like i think i need some god in my life and he was just immediately supportive and he was like yeah let's do it if you want to find a church we can go start going to church and i was like oh really like i was really surprised just because like i said we had never even had that kind of conversation about where we were in that but um so yeah i started reading the bible and then we found a church here and started going to church and that's whenever we decided to get baptized and it just kind of has evolved from there you got some thoughts on it, colby? i mean i've always believed in god i mean i grew up in a church and i've had the opportunity to check out a bunch of different other religions and i always just fell back towards Christianity and i'm not the type of person to push not knowing nobody i mean i ain't your mama i'm gonna tell you one time and one time only if you like it you like it if you don't you don't so that's why i really wasn't pushing nothing towards her soon as she wanted uh as soon as she said she wanted to check it out and everything i was all in for it like took her to some places and we bounced around a couple of churches trying to find one that we both liked and we settled where we're at right now and it's going good for both of us that uh that kind of goes back to the not being to the okay just being not being okay would just be an okay kind of deal you know um i think i don't i don't i'm not really going to talk too much on because it's not um i think in our line of work and our business and businesses as a whole the the marriage part of it kind of gets pushed to the back of uh of it you know because you got goals you know in like this situation um lava comes to you and says this you know you don't just turn it off you know because you're tired because you worked 16 hours Saturday you say okay let's let's do this on Sunday you know what i mean this makes a lot of your character in that situation because you could have been like hell i worked 70 80 hours just like i'm more out i don't want to talk about it you know and i think we do a lot of that you know when it comes to kids you know you you come in off the road you've been gone you know three or four months and you forget they've been started of your attention the whole time that you're gone you know because you've been focused on the job and stuff and then you come home and they want to go whatever go play pupa golf or whatever you know and you're kind of or go to the arcade or whatever you're like them i've been listening loudship for the past three months and you want me to go in there you know but it's just i feel like as a as families in a whole you know um we kind of got sidetracked on some things that used to be are used to not be important that we've made important you know um trying to gather my thoughts a little bit there the uh it's i've enjoyed this podcast there's a lot of different stuff than what i what i've normally covered you know because you know most of them i talked to guy they're they're divorced you know they got their thoughts i mean the guy just got off of podcast with he's got four x-washing four four kids one with each of you know so his thoughts on on the whole thing is a little bit different you know like just because i'm divorced i'm not a hater on marriage you know i like and or do i take it as a joke or lightly or anything like that you know like uh my parents was divorced but my dad was married to my stepmom for 20 something years you know like uh everybody has that one person and he probably wouldn't got to the point life for he got to without her you know to push him to that point you know so it's it speaks volumes you know just like we talked about Tory and Wilson earlier i mean that that way they go but they they literally work together all day long come home being a camper together and you know they're figuring it out somehow you know like uh he would have done bearing me in a ditch yeah yeah don't know uh my ex-wife helped me little job one time it actually it wasn't that bad we the only argument that we ever got in is i'm massive or not sliding your ass out of my truck seat i don't care who you are she said well my name my note my name's on the note and i said i'm the motherfucker that pays the note she got pissed off we're just going out of right away she's riding on the bed of the truck there's a hundred and one in degrees outside i'm like get back in the truck i'm sorry you know just i don't like that she gets in the back seat like i'm driving this daisy down the right away you know she's you know but we can we can turn it off at home and just go home and it wasn't that bad you know uh ramen wasn't that bad at all i mean ever some days there's some days oh yeah and to touch on that a lot of people at work ask me like why i'm such a asshole to them and why i cuss at them so much all the time i'm telling if i don't take it out on you i'm gonna go home take it out on my wife and kids so i'd much rather piss you off and my wife and kids so the um so do you you typically do you find yourself in formant positions or do you know you can't just go be a hand yeah i'm i've always been a hand i mean i've talked about it just you know just what what would it be like but as of right now i'm i would be in a hand right now for a couple more years and see what happens i don't ever want to be a world informant i don't like people enough i don't think i can handle the the superintendents and the project managers and that part of it like the welder part would probably be fine but dealing with people that don't know how to do my job tell me how to do my job or how to tell or how to line the workout that i know how to do i i don't think i would adjust to that very well would be a short name of welcome boss career i don't think coby would you they don't they like for you to do know i have transparency i and in my little my short time here you know in on the union side of things they call it building trade drop plans of building trades there's a lot of bosses in this shit you know you got a lead for me and you got a for me and you got a damn this other for me then you got a area manager all this shit i'm like fine you got one boss so it's welding boss and that's it you know nobody else has been your matters i'm saying There has been somewhere missing. Is there something that we're missing that y'all want to talk about? Should I write nothing down either? I don't know if you're supposed to bring notes brother. Oh, not really all talking my head. I mean, I guess as far as a work wise for welders, because I'm on the non-union side. That's just, I guess I'm mainly around like the Houston area, like central to East Texas. And I've been asked the question plenty of times before, but I really can't speak on it because I've never been part of a union. But I've always told people just depending on the area of the country you're from, I mean, some places the union is fucking booming. That's the route to go in another place is it's more non-union. Oh, I guess my so far have you had a good experience in the union? I can't. My, my experience is going to be different than other people's experience because I. I wouldn't use the word neptism, but I went into it with the, with an open mind, right? You know, I welded 10 years non-union, right? I have that full experience. I know day in and day out all their stuff. So when I got into the 798, pop line is always going to be pop line. You're going to, you're going to well pop together. That's what it is. That's what you're there. That's what you're paid to do no matter what. Coming over here to this building trade side, it's a little bit different because welders ain't the top of the crop over here, brother. You know, it's it's kind of a field of swallow, you know, especially with the. With the mentality that I have that pop line into the best, you know, but I love the insurance part of it, you know. It only takes me 500 hours. I get insurance, you know, for the next six months that I don't want to pay for, you know it. And for my kids or my oldest daughter, she's had insurance, but when I was non-union, when my ex-wife quit at the bank, we didn't have insurance anymore. So everything, come out of pocket, you know, I think I think it's. Everything is what you make it non-union union. It makes no difference. So Joe and we'll get out of what you put into it anyway, but the like you said, different parts of the country, different things, you know, like we've been making a huge push or the 798's been making a huge push in Texas. And Louisiana, Oklahoma, you know. And so. It's coming sooner or later it's coming. It looks like it looks like it's going to be pretty good to weld pop in Texas and you weld for the 798, you know. I had to check you out sometime. But I don't know how it would be like to be, you know, to be a plant guy to go, you know, because you're used to being. Rush all the, you know, the big dog. And so if you've done this kind of building drag stuff all the time, I'm sure that if you get in the right local with the right. Set up, you know, you would still be on that high, that high run, you know, but I. I mean, you just have to do your research like anything, you know, read the Bible doing whatever, you know, getting married, you need to do your research. You know, go talk to their family before you marry on kids. So, say it. Love you guys anything else? You got anything on your chest that you want to get off? Why, let me ask you this, let me ask you this, why is it important for you to get up every morning and make Kobe breakfast? And as much. Oh, I'm very passionate about this actually, but. For me, a lot of it is that one, I stay at home. So that is a big thing that I always try to make sure to. Tell people because I get women. On my video sometimes or messages, comments and being like, well, I go to work and I have young babies and all these reasons as to why they don't do it. And I try to explain to them that my videos of me packing lunch and stuff like that is not to say, hey, look at me, I'm this perfect wife, you should be doing this. It really is just that my situation right now where I'm at in life are children or older, I stay at home so I don't have a job that I have to go to. Like that works out for me. If I had young children and I was getting up three times a night having to feed a baby, I most definitely would not be waking up and I'm sure and I did it for a really long time. I actually just started waking up and packing his lunches maybe two years ago. Before that, I never did it because there were so many things factors as to why I didn't. But during that time, Colby never like made me feel bad about it. Like he understood that I had other things I was having to take care of so that just that schedule wasn't going to work out for me. And even two years ago when I started doing it, it wasn't because Colby asked me to and he's never expected me to do it. It was just I was so overwhelmed with the fact that like, I'm now living in the camper with you, I can go with you wherever you go. So our kids are older, you know, I'm sleeping through the night and getting my beauty sleep. So it was my way of showing him how thankful I am for everything that he does and everything that he has done for the past 12 years. Like he has always taken care of us. He's been an amazing father and amazing husband. I couldn't have asked for like a better man. Oh my gosh, don't get emotional. But yeah, it was the reason why I take so much pride in doing that is because I am just so thankful to him for everything that he does. And so I feel like that is one small way for me to show him how much I appreciate him. So like and it's not just that it's, you know, making sure that we he has a dinner to come home to making sure the camper is clean when he comes home. He's not coming home to chaos all the time. Like he deserves that because he's at work every day from sometimes dark until dark, not getting to experience a lot of his life like a lot of his life is spent at work. And so I want to make sure that when he comes home, he has time to de-stress and to be have peace and relax because I mean, like I said, he deserves that. He deserves more than that. Maybe one day I can retire ahead. Who knows. Maybe the shirts are cool enough for anybody to wear. You don't have to just be in, you know, in our lifestyle to wear the shirt. I don't feel like anyways. So maybe it does. Maybe, you know, you've come like night and you sell, I don't even know how many sets of gloves, nights sold, but it is a lot. It's some crazy numbers. I do know that. The, you know, and I, I think you're not, this is not me bashed on women, but I think a lot of women get to a point where they, where they marry a welder, or they, you know, they marry an operator, somebody like that, and they get this entitlement thing, you know, because they, you know, like. Like you don't have an expedition, you know, but like a lot of women, you know, they get them fancy cards or whatever, you know, obviously y'all went to different round, got another one ton. But I think a lot of it. Yeah, right. I mean, you do run a dog. No, you're a white truck to Chevrolet. Yeah, yeah, okay. I guess I never paid it into it. I just assumed that you said you had the black truck that that one was a dog, just too, probably. No, I had to try something different this go around. See how it goes. I'm a big Ford guy, you know, big on the boards. Yeah, I don't like paying for them. That's for sure. No, you're fine. I was thinking I was trying to think how to wrap this thing up. So at this party, your career here, go we, what is some piece of advice that kind of sticks with you that. That's important to you at this point, something that you think about, you know, pretty regular to keep your mind in it and growing in your career. Just remember why you're out there, man. I ain't out there for no company. I ain't out there for no plant. I give a damn what happens. I'm out here to make a living from a family. That's the only thing keeping me going. It's I feel like and you still want to keep proud in your work. Make every well you make count. I don't need no bullshit in the pipe because it's going to come back and bite you in the ass eventually. Try to do the best you can every chance you get because you're here for a reason and that's the vibe for your family. It's a little different to plants too, but I think a lot of people don't think about this. either is most of that stuff's above ground. So people can walk by and clearly see it. You know, like pop line and most of that shit gets buried, you know, but, you know, in a plant. I mean, I'm in a plant right now. I walk by and judge people on their welds all the time. I don't know who made it, but sometimes I'm like, it's a straight dog shit. Don't find out I was a guy that I was the one that welded it. And I was gonna. But I'm sure somebody walk by my weld, doubt that. - Oh yeah, and the most beautiful you weld you made on the whole job site gonna be in a place nobody can see. - Yeah, probably so. Well, I enjoyed y'all, and I really appreciate y'all's time. It's been a very good podcast. - Oh yeah, you too, ma. - Why did y'all quit doing y'all sort of interviews? - Yeah, that was, I was actually gonna say that earlier 'cause whenever you were talking about how life gets in the way and this kind of stuff, like social media, podcasting, all that takes so much more time than people think, is that like we were doing the podcast and we were getting them out and everything was great, but then Chloe went to seven days for a really long time and there was just no good moment to be like, hey, can you sit down for like an hour and a half with me and let's do this, but when he gets home, we wanna eat dinner, spend time with the kids, go to bed. And so we kind of had to take a step back from the podcast. We were actually just talking about recently, trying to get it back up. It's just really trying to find that time with his schedule, 'cause if we were just sitting at home and not doing anything, yeah, we would be busing out podcasts like nothing, but he does still have a full-time job, more than a full-time job. - Yeah, I just got caught up with work 'cause shit. I wanna say thanksgiving, I've been on seven days and just recently these past couple of weeks, they bumped the hours down a little bit, so I'm able to enjoy the weekend now, for now, so they get a wild hair up there, I ask them to pick back up, but-- - Yeah, that's my thing really. - I was enjoying them, you know it. Like, y'all know Chase on Smoke, the people that make the grills and stuff? - The people that make the grills. - The grills, Chase on Smoke, have y'all seen their grills? They feel like they're in the rocking stoves and stuff. Well, Jason Miranda, they was kind of doing a podcast, kind of similar to y'all's, you know, talking or whatever, and then they just kind of went away. I'm sure they got busy or whatever, you know? But, I don't know, it's good to. Like, as far as the welding community, there's like four big ones that are bigger than mine, you know? But it's like, it's a different kind of perspective, you know? 'Cause y'all are really getting to discuss day in and day out lot of being on the road and all that. Where I pretty much have a format, you know? What's your story where you come from blah, blah, blah? Why do you do this? Why did you do that, you know? That sort of thing. So, this was great for me because it's well outside my realm. You know, I've only ever had one other woman on the podcast. I try to get some other ones on there, but it's hard to get women to talk about a dominated, a men's dominated work environment because they're already under scrutiny anyways, which is unfair because I know some women welders are better welders than I am myself, you know? And so, I hate that. It's kind of like trying to get operators on here. I've been trying to get operators on here, but I can't get an operator, you know? Just stuff like that stinks, you know? 'Cause they're worried about saying the wrong thing and whatever, where welders, for normally, they'll say whatever pops in their mind and come right up to them out. You know, they don't really care. But I hope in the future, I can get more women involved in it, you know? 'Cause they're, I mean, y'all probably don't experience from us, but like when I go to Arkansas to put on the welding competition, they're, I mean, there's girls in there, you know? If there's 60 kids, four or five of them be girls in there, you know, women, young women or women, older women, you know? So it's becoming more of a thing, you know? And I wanna get some of that stigma for that too, you know? Where they can come over here and thrive and dominate, you know? - Thank you. - Well, that's like one of the things I said in one of our little podcasts, me and her, dude, like, money don't discriminate, like, man or woman, as long as you got the skills, like, it's paying the bills. - Well, look at it. Watch your appreciates, y'all's time. On Sunday, I know y'all Sundays are busy with the kids and family and all that stuff. So I really, really appreciate it. And, uh-- - Sorry, thank you for having us on, huh? - Yeah. - Yup. Okay, it's gonna stop but we just got to make sure that it's