Taylor Badger

Welcome back to another out on the road podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Linker. We're coming live from Kansas where it is currently snowing. Today's episode is brought to you by Slickman Weldon Apparel as always. Night makes the best gloves and use them every day. Whether I'm pumping diesel, welding pop together, whatever I'm doing, I'm wearing a pair of Slickman gloves, whether it's the Vicaros, the TIG burners, the TIG, Normal TIG 716s, everything I wear Slickman's day in and day out, half for the past four years. That's SlickmanWeldmanFairle.com. WoBros.us. Same thing as the gloves. Chris has been with me since the start of the podcast. I wear WoBros shirts just about every day. I'm Weldon. I wear WoBros Weldon shirt. WoBros.us. He also has the mashup gloves with Slickman, the Camo, the Duck Pattern, kind of like what I have on my hat. He has that going on right now. Brought to you by Tina and Williamsplot, Towson Mary. They got a, it's a little, but a hardy Weldon supply there in Big Springs, Texas. You can get them on the phone. They'll ship you, drop ship you, anything you can imagine. From wedges, to roll out wheels, to jack stands, they have it all. Pearl snap pimps. Johnny has gotten into the Pearl snap F4 game. New, it was coming, been known. It's coming for a while. My new shirts are in Texas. Senator later I'll wear them. He's also got all the brand apparel for Pearl snap pimps, the cool logo or graphics on the back of the shirts. Pearl snap pimps.com. Andrew at Southern Leatherworks, Semia Weldon Hood. He makes the pop line or sugar scoop, chop down the Jackson Hood chop down. He puts a great lens in on the great product. Mines red, got the custom leather on it and stuff. Needed it so I can do these build trade jobs. All right. Now on to the guests we have today, Mr. Taylor Badger. Hey guys. I'm going to assume it's cold where you're at too, because you got to hoodie on. Oh yeah, I'm up here in Fargo, North Dakota. It's about 40 mile an hour away and then I think about four to six trees out right now. So it's a little bit chilly. I thought we was done with winter time here in Kansas, but I guess the good Lord said we needed a little bit of snow. Last week or last week. So it's pretty nice down there. So it says 67 degrees is what it's supposed to be today, but currently we're at 34 and it's snowing. Later in the week we get back to the 80s. So we got that to look forward to. So are you out of the Weldon business right now? Yep. Yep. I stepped my way back in July of 23. I did a little bit of inspection here and there. I did an inspection job last summer up here in Fargo. A little bit of inspection down there in a roller Nebraska on that tall grass plant they had going in down there for the carbon capture. Off of them gluten plants that their capture capture all the off of that. So that's where I delivered to that then, but I've been full FedEx since 23 basically. We've grown, we got a Fargo location or Shalina, Kansas location, and we got a Tulsa Oklahoma location right now. I'm running them. Are you just buying the trucks, kind of like subcontractors? Yep. So all the contractors are subcontractors to FedEx. Like all the little FedEx ground band you see running around them are all subcontractors. Yeah, everybody used to do that. He had six or eight trucks, something like that. I used to, I mean, he makes pretty good living doing it. We used to come to help him with some trucks here and there. Yeah, it's really good. Moving. Like said, we've we've expanded. We also got kind of like a contingency team basically kind of like pipe on in the run around helping out other terminals and other stations. We got some guys and thank Gomez Erie to peek a can this right now. So we kind of run all over the country. For the people who don't know here, Taylor was a welder. We'll get into that stuff for a second. What made you step away from Walden? What made you start? You know, I was kind of looking into this. This kind of started to get pretty heavy. This was supposed to be kind of a passive income game and then kind of become a full-time hitch. You know that. And you know, as everybody knows, the game of the welders kind of went to the ship side for the pay. And you know, what it was, you know, when I started back 2010, you know, it definitely changed a lot different from then to now. And so what are they going to do something on my own? And this started consuming a lot more time than what I was expecting. I was supposed to plan on having this kind of going, you know, running itself within a couple of months, but it consumed up all my time. And then you know, it started to make a pretty good money. And now I've expanded from about 14 trucks. And now we're got about 60 trucks. So, damn, pretty good. Business is booming, you know? So let's get back to the welcome curve. What got you into welding in 2010? I guess that might have been the year you broke out, but what got you into welding? So my dad was a welder. You know, we started welding the Urodborne through the booms, you know, that would have been 91. I started helping him when I was 13. He had badger welding out of Gillette, Wyoming, had that till I think he started that 2006. And he closed the doors in 2000. I think 2012, 2013, when he kind of closed the door down in it. But you know, I started helping all the guys on the shop in the summertime, you know, through, you know, when I was, I don't know, probably eight or nine helping there. I got to be on my first ride away, actually. Dad took me out on the weekends. Inspectors were super cool. You know, I got went in there and helped grind on the beads. You know, I was only six or seven years old back in the day. So it went out really good. You know, and that was always kind of what I always wanted to do was follow my dad's footsteps and becoming a pipelineer. They, uh, things used to be a lot different for a lot of people that don't know. We used to get away with a lot more stuff. Even in the 2010 to 15 range there, you can get away with a lot more stuff. And you can these days with the regulations and all these JJ inspectors and stuff. I won't use the word I was going to use, but job-scared, you know, uh, kind of stuff, you know, helpers used to be able to weld on pull heads and whatnot. Now it's a whole ordeal, you know, you gotta try to understand everything's got a lot of ability on it, you know, but if a welder stand over a shoulder, it's kind of how I've always gauged where my helpers that because most of them, they x-ray those, at least for cracks and whatnot. You know, what have you? You can't do that anymore. They taking all the fun out of pipeline and pretty much so at this part of your okay, so breaking out in 2010, uh, kind of dead right at this time or just this is tail end of another boom, right? 2010, that's, uh, 2010 was kind of a slow, you know, um, out there in Colorado. And then, uh, you know, in 2013 when it really started picking up again, um, you know, Mike Wiley, uh, was working at Sterling at the time. That's who I was working with there. Um, and then I went to work while man, he was running Tomahawk for them years, uh, 13 and 14, you know, I spent most of my time down there in Douglas Wyoming. So, uh, yeah, that's where I kind of broke out and then, um, stayed in order to go the rest of the time. So, I, you know, I don't know, but yeah, you, uh, we worked for the same company for a while, right? Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I thought. I couldn't remember if I was at K&K and you was at Manhattan or bus or I went, but I knew that we, I knew we'd been at Manhattan, the art northern stuff, the least together there for a while. Yeah. Um, I didn't stay there very long, but my old man worked at Manhattan for, I don't know, I think he's having eight months there for a little bit. Yeah. So, he's been a great company to work for. Now, I've found bigger and better things to do with my time. Yeah. I got buddies that's going back to my, they're fixing a test out again for my Manhattan right now, uh, to get their year going. So, manhattan phase better than most companies, you know, out there. Yeah. They showed. So, they, uh, you know, and that's the thing, you know, the company's, uh, you know, Joe Maxx was kind of a rat outfit for a while and then API bottom, they turned in to be a pretty good company. You know, um, but, you know, it's kind of like every, every pipeline company, you know, your time coming to an end at times when it's time to move on. So, in 2010 here, this 2010 to 2013 range, what bit of advice do you have for beginning welders to chew their cud on in that time frame of what was an important experience for you or a bit of advice? You know, uh, networking with the biggest thing, you know, knowing everybody, uh, being respectful, being a good hand, um, you know, showing us where, uh, even if If you're out already until four in the morning, get your ass out and go back to fucking work. Everybody can work hung over. Doesn't suck, damn right it does. But that's the biggest thing, is showing up being a hand. You don't have to kiss ass, but do your job, do your job correctly, don't catch repairs. Now the biggest thing that most people didn't understand was they'd drag their feet and drag ass, catch repair and pan. That's a lot of the reason why people only stay in it for one or two years, because they can't get any work, because they, you know, drag up happy and all that shit. So it, you know, not saying I didn't have my fair share of drag up parties, but, you know, for the right reasons, but, you know, I wouldn't drag over, you know, a lot of people would drag up for a dollar to go across the road, you know, and drag it up for that extra dollar, you know, my model would have been eight for six, it ain't for me. So, just, uh. They, uh, I didn't plan any of that dragging up. I'm surprised that I didn't ruin my reputation right off the gate the first two years, you know. I didn't really give too many fucks, you know, still really don't, you know, but I know how to, uh, go from seven to five o'clock and then go home and let it go, you know, and then do it again. It's a little bit different to you now, because when that check hits on Thursday, it's, uh, tends to be double what it used to be. So, yeah, you know, that's how the big thing is, um, you know, when we broke out, you know, the price was, you know, 42, 45 bucks an hour when we, when I broke out 2010. And the way he didn't ever win anywhere, you know, maybe the truck paid one up a buck or two, you know, the arm weight went up a dollar or two, but I mean, from 2010 to me, even in 2023, I mean, there wasn't hardly any change in the wages, you know, uh, you know, I bought my first truck, um, a brand new Ford and 23, uh, you know, I paid 48,000 bucks for it for a layer yet, you know, you can't buy a layer yet for under 80 grand now. And so that was, you know, kind of the bigger thing of, uh, the reason why, you know, a brand new well machine. Now it's what 30, 32,000 bucks, probably, you know, why you bought my, uh, Miller and 2014 or 2015. And, you know, I paid 16,000 bucks for it. And now you can't buy one for half that. Just in less than 10 years and, you know, the prices haven't, or, you know, the wages haven't went up. And so that was a bigger push to get out, you know, you'd argue with everybody on wages and they were like, oh, you know, you guys make enough in this and that. But really, you know, we're running around with 150,000 or rigged and they don't give a shit. You know, all that stuff, it just, it was kind of bullshit. So I, yeah, we're looking at passive income to kind of build it. And then, like I said, just kind of jumped into this stuff that I'm doing now. So, you know, they, you know, they're, they drive a bus that asks F250 to the right away and they're getting paid $50 a day, some tie informant or whatever and you pull up out there, you know, like I drive a newer layer of the 24 model. And I paid up pretty penny for it. You know, before this side, the king ranch, uh, any, a lot of people say, yeah, you don't have to have it. No, you don't have to have it, but I want it. And so I got a job to where I can afford it. And it wasn't just about it, if, if you're going to go around saying that you're the top of the food chain and you're this and that, then why don't you make the most money doing it? And so, you know, like me joined the $7.98, I mean, they pay more money, you know, that it's, it's, it's, it's, it's welding welding at the end of the day. It's just how much money you get paid to do it. And I don't care what anybody says. They're like, well, we're not going to work in Texas. Well, I don't work in Texas anyways. Haven't for a long time. I've been in the Midwest. The union works in the Midwest. So why not go make, you know, $59 and I are going to do it instead of 42, you know. It's the same country I've been in for years. You know, you know, there's, we know each other for a while. It's, I mean, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, all the way back down to Oklahoma is the area I've ran for years now. So it's kind of at home. I mean, in this part of the world, but the, you know, in the coming from 13, you know, I didn't break out to the tail end of 15 coming in 16 there, you know, back into another boom. That generation from, you know, say 2008 to 2014 there. Them welders that kind of broke out, you know, even though there was a boom in 13, it wasn't the boom that came in 16. You know, it wasn't the boom of the early 2000s. You know, when we went to war in Iraq, it wasn't them style of boom. You know, that was a, it was a boom, but not like, not like them times. You know, like when Trump coming to the office, the 2016 boom was fricking massive and roared till COVID hit, you know, pretty much you could, you could quit a job, you know. But then welders, then welders from like 2008 to 14 there, 15. That's a different group of welders than my generation that broke out. You know, it's, because it's a little, it's a little bit more of caring about the quality, you know, and it's still, you know, we say it's a boom, but it wouldn't the same style of boom, you know, is what I'm trying to kind of get out there. You know, them guys like yourself and some other guys that broke out in that time, they had to work a little bit harder to, you know, to keep their reputation to where we could fuck off more is the, is where I'm going at with that, you know. You know, and that's for, you know, like work with them older guys that, you know, I had my, that were working, you know, for my dad, when it's time, got slow and stuff, you know, you know, like Lee Kramer, all of them guys, you know, I know Lee, since, I mean, I was two or three years old or well, probably about five when I met him, you know, super great, you know, they're really guys that I broke out with, you know, Tom Wallen. He's not in the, in the game anymore. He's working for, he started a company with a dad there in Kansas, you know, all of them guys that were good welders, you know, super good welders, and you know, they would drag up like a drop of a hat. And so it, so I knew a lot of them guys there would come into the boom stuff, you know, 2010 was tough. Then, you know, like you said, the 15 and 16 and on end, you know, you could get a job anywhere. You really wanted, you know, you could make a phone call and like, yeah, you're hired in tomorrow, you know. And that's where that's where we're having a good name, really, really counts, you know, especially across the board with all the welders, just because, you know, carrying a good name, you get in, it's easier to get in instead of being a guy that dragged up or don't work, gets a bunch of repair, you know, that, that name traveled pretty fast in the pipeline. It doesn't matter if you got the repairs in North Dakota, people in Texas are going to hear about it. So 100%. Yeah, we talked about this earlier with another guy. How small the pipeline really is, you know, welders are going to dis, what do they call it? Disassociate with the good welders going to disassociate with bad welders. It's just poured over, you know, in that, and then conversations may not be had public, but they're had at the campgrounds or they're had amongst each other. You know, it, it, word travels a lot faster than you think it does. I mean, when I got ran off from Manhattan, I didn't cross back, I was in Ellsworth over here. I didn't cross back in Oklahoma yet and was already getting a phone call about a job. And I just literally repaired out on a job, you know, like it shit happens at times, you know, whatever. But went down there, went back to Texas, done the job, no big deal. He's busy, you know, fast test. I don't even remember how long the line was, hot past the whole thing. No problems, you know, just, but caught a slag line up here, you know, so shit happens at times. The, oh, Lee, that's, that's it. That is a good motherfucker. I've been around a little bit, you know, and also seen Lee drag up a job. So he's a good old boy. Uh, you know, we worked for 10 K together up in Maine, Kato, Minnesota. A couple of years ago. Yeah, he's a good old boy. Yeah, he's pretty good. He knows it's shit too. So that's, um, yeah. He brought in a Bobby buzzard to replace Lee when Lee left. But he was kind of running our fab. He was kind of, he was kind of overseeing the job, so to speak. And then when Lee left to go do something, I think he drug up. I think he was ready for a vacation because winter time was coming or whatever. And he drug up to go do whatever he was doing and Bobby come in and on the rest of that little job. And I drug up like two days later, three days later, something like that. I hate game. I'm not going to say it. I just like them people very, very much. So, uh, never did work for getting K so, so you, the middle part of your career. Let's talk about the 2015, 2016. That's, you know, we look at the grand part of the, I'd be your sixth year, say, you know, um, that part of it, when you look at it, what kind of a boss do you have during that, um, you know, when it is booming and work truly good and you don't, you know, you don't have to worry about a job because if you lose this job, you can call and get another job like that, you know. You know, uh, being respectful, uh, you know, I work for, uh, quite a few companies there in that time. Um, you know, cause they're when it got slow, um, right before the boom, right, you know, I went to, uh, and worked in shat, uh, not shattering Nebraska, um, working on the sugar beet plants, you know, building pipe for the watering. I mean, it's, uh, it's still welding. You know, we still made good money if you want it, um, in the coming into the boom, you know, uh, all the contact, you know, that I made previously, you know, everybody was working again. And so that's, uh, you know, like I said, um, old your ground, you know, uh, you know, a lot of, a lot of people that, uh, you don't want to work here for, uh, 14 hours and then only pay you for 10 or 11, you know, don't put up with that shit, you know, that, uh, people are easy to go, uh, you know, those, those are the people that are easy to drag up on, right, um, you know, you're, you're there for your work, make sure it's right, um, you know, And then going from there, you know, coming into 16 and 17, you know, and that's when I started running the wilders from Go Max. It was really good. Go Max, they paid, you know, pretty low end, but they also kept you busy 24/7. You know, I never, I never missed a paycheck from 2017 till, till COVID. You know, I got late, let go for about three months, and then they brought me back, you know, with the word, but, you know, making a good name for yourself, even, even while everything busy. As a, as a big thing, keeping, keeping the contacts, keeping a good name, you know, that's the biggest thing is, you know, your last name is everything in this, in this industry. So it's 100%. I never dealt with Joe Max. I almost went to a Joe Max job one time. I don't know, maybe 19, 2019. Yeah, so Joe Max was good on some spread, right? Um, some, you know, had some cocks after it for wild bosses, and then there's some others that, uh, works bad, you know, I was with Joe Max for a long time, carried a pretty good crew, kept a lot of good guys busy for quite a few years. Um, you know, but it's, it's still pipe finding you once, uh, once work gets slow, that's part of it. You're gonna have to go home for a bit. So, but, uh, yeah, you know, the, um, when I made the home up here in North Dakota, that's, um, we had a pretty good run there. I mean, like shit with Ronnie Heaton and everybody, you know, we, uh, we, we, uh, ship from 17 on, you know, we were, we were, we were bowed up the whole time, not having to worry about any work. And we did a bunch of big projects, you know, 50, 60 mile projects, 16 and 20 inch, um, got on a little bit of 24 inch there, but it, uh, yeah, I mean, we stayed super busy through that whole time there. The, uh, was that, that was a lot of tall grass work, huh? One of one of one of one out, yeah, I guess it would have been one of kind of big them. I can't remember. I can't remember for, I think it might have been one of, I can't remember. It was in Nebraska, but that was kind of before I really traveled too much. I, I had made a trip to into Louisiana. Like working in West Texas. I've been in New Mexico a bunch of times, but, um, I'd made a trip to Louisiana, one to South Texas, maybe two to South Texas by that one for sure. And then, um, then COVID hit, you know, we went up to Canada or Washington, done that stuff. And then we come back and that was kind of when the whole career changed because it wasn't, it wasn't working in Texas anymore. I didn't want to go to West Texas anymore. I didn't want to part of that. I survived the boom out there when I lost a lot of buddies driving trucks up to 85, you know, or, or, you know, well boss. I worked for got killed on 128. I just survived a lot of that stuff. And I was like, how do I get out of here? And then, um, and then dealing with my divorce and stuff. It was kind of time to see some new sides. That's why I went to Louisiana. Uh, I can't remember name that company now, but then that's when I got hooked up with the whole, uh, K and K thing and went to Iowa that first trip was in like 21 early 22. And, uh, then I just kind of stay in the Midwest. Now, it seemed like I leave the, I leave from up here and I'm like, I'm going to go work in Louisiana or whatever. And then next thing I knew I batting on. I'm back in Minnesota or Michigan or wherever I'm out. I don't mind it up here. Like I don't, I don't really care much for Ohio, but I don't mind the typical Midwest Nebraska Kansas, you know, that Iowa. I don't really mind it. I don't care much for North Dakota and South Dakota. I think they're, uh, desolate shit holes, but, but they're going to fall to look at. I just don't care to work in them. You know, it's, uh, I don't mind going to look at the sides and then leaving them. I never, uh, I never did much West Texas. You know, I down there a couple of times, you know, see day Heinrich once and then I helped to get friend of mine out for a little bit. But, uh, that West Texas shit wasn't for me, dude. I, as soon as I got in there, I found a fucking way to get the fuck out because I, you know, that's, uh, there's not my, not my cup of tea. You know, like you see a people dying and right, you know, um, you know, I help her, uh, wife was headed out with her kid. They got killed once. Um, you know, and after that, I was like, it ain't for me. But I mean, North Dakota was that way too, you know, in the back in the boom, uh, when they was booming up here in 12, 13, you know, it was, you know, the road between Dickinson and Woffer and Williston, you know, I mean, that was just like 285, you know, everybody fucking. Get killed driving like maniacs. So it, uh, so yeah, um, you know, when that, that comes with the boom and everybody being busy, you know, everybody's got a place to be. I mean, I always say this and I've told a million helpers and anybody that listen that them dinosaur bones have been on the ground for millions of years. And they're going to be here when we're all dead and gone. They're still going to be here and they're still going to be getting them up. You know, that, that $3800 paycheck that they pay you a week, ain't worth out here jumping around passing cars and doing all that crazy shit, you know, like the probably the most dangerous part of being a pop on welder is getting back to work and back home afterward, you know, yeah. You know, like it can just a guy got hit by a train when we was over there and working for men at one of the crew trucks, they got hit by a train, you know, I mean. They probably just stopped at the train tracks, even though it didn't have markers on it, but, you know, teach their own, I stop and look both ways. I don't, you know, I'm that big of Harry. The, um, let's see here, like, um, rolling on into to the COVID area, you know, 19 coming into COVID there. What, what is you, is that kind of when you started this deal, during COVID is, you know, when everything was kind of tight. Um, no, I was fucking around with something else called pub tech. I was working on an invention for, for, um, for drinks, you know, whenever your drink gets empty there to borrow, it'll notify the, the waitress or the waiter. Um, you know, of, you know, when it, when it rings low. So I fucked with that for, I don't know, started in 19 or 2019, worked on that for about two and a half a year and it kind of run out of the money. You know, we got, we had some pretty good, pretty good runs on that. Um, but like I said, that, uh, that kind of went away, um, just because I didn't have the funds for self funding the whole time. You got to, you got to dive into this a little bit deeper. Like, was it a glass that would tell them or like you have a weight on the bottom out of the coaster. Basically, you know, like a coaster, you said on the, uh, on the counter. And, uh, it would basically, uh, once it got, you know, it was weight censored and then once it got a certain weight, you know, we had six different, like, say, the bar had like three or four different glasses, you know, it would read each, it would know which glass was which and where it was out on the weight, right. And whenever it got to say a third, four, you know, it's in a, um, a notification to a, uh, an apple watch or a smart watch. And, uh, let the waitress know, saying, hey, this table needs, um, you know, some attention, you know. Just, uh, that was just kind of something I come up with, you know, I'd down in, uh, Oklahoma at a, uh, a bar there and the lady would literally look at me and be like, yeah, she'd smile and, you know, you, you drink would be set there empty for 15, 20 minutes. And so I kind of went off of the, uh, you off the deep end on that, try to. I'm just a great idea. Um, I can see the link go and show you, um, we still got the link, um, you know, we got it to where you could basically order off the box or you could talk to the, it'd be basically like a hey Alexa, but a, you know, we call it a Hey pub check. Um, and it would, uh, go through, um, you could talk to it and say, hey, you know, we need, we need the waiter or, hey, we need another round and it would basically send the, what we're saying to the, to the wristwatch of your waiter. It would program and tell him a, you know, we need some service or something of the sort over there. So it's pretty cool. Same like you kind of would have took off, you know, to make a code. Um, you know, ramrod of that, you know, it, uh, I spent a lot of time in Florida trying to get it going. And then COVID hit and then, uh, you know, 21 basically, you know, everybody was starting to somewhat get back to normal and then in 22, you know, if I kind of run out of the cash on, uh, on funding that thing. And so we just kind of put it to the way said. So, um, let's crazy. I didn't know that. That's an inventful thing. So the, um, COVID was tough time for a lot of people. You know, a lot of people sold out, uh, during that time, some of them was gotten back in now, you know, like I, I worked through COVID pretty, pretty steadily didn't really affect me much. You know, it did, it did it first one because working in New Mexico and that sort of thing. I'm not going to get into all that, but people know how I went in certain states and how it was in other states. You know, kind of at that time, Louisiana kind of opened up a lot. I feel like for a lot of guys. So it kind of pushed that drive east, you know, for a lot of the good welders to, uh, are. Guys with enough skill level to get out of West Texas. I'm not going to say that because I know a lot of great welders in West Texas still. Um, I took advantage of it to, to like be like, hey, I'm not coming back to West Texas. No one, no part of which I, you always say you're, uh, you're leaving West Texas, but you don't know how long, you know, especially if you're Texas welder, you know, I've been fortunate to only make one trip in the past four years, maybe something like that. But you know what I'm pretty fortunate. having a good name right you stayed busy through the slow times you know I haven't haven't done that good last name really helps you know the connections you know being good for uh look at all around field whether or not just pipeline and you know fabrications one uh a big thing you know um the plants are always needing work you know the shutdown the shit you know don't be above that you know especially when uh pipeline they're busy or pipeline they're slow you know it's uh it's good to have that knowledge of uh you know doing you know the multi-trade just where you can uh you don't provide feet for the family as well so that's uh when I really learned that rehab stuff was deer in COVID you know working for K&K and working for uh for Manhattan you know and I got a I kind of got to where I fell in love with it more than pipeline and just because of the less wear and tear on your body and your equipment you know that you know we'd be at Manhattan and we'd play golf four or five times a week and make one weld you know I mean it was it was good times so kind of they kind of got away from that they're towards the end you know and then wouldn't you bet the yard the whole time and all that stuff yeah but uh that's uh the change of the hand change of the manage but you know um you know in 2010 you know a lot of times you know the the the tie informant would be like hey you know be out here at noon one o'clock you know instead of be out here at seven to set around and fucking you know twitle your thumb until they get a weld and half the time you know they wouldn't get a weld till three or four anyways and so that's kind of the change of the times you know from then until now um everything kind of changed so it uh you know going from that to what there is now you know they want you there 24/7 and you know and then they ask you just you know work for you know four hours a day when you know you need to be on standby because they can't get their shit together and so that's that was always a big thing with a lot of them uh smaller outfits is you know they uh you know they didn't they didn't want to pay you know for your time right so that's where uh you know I always avoided the little little rep outfits that uh um we're doing all that shit all the time you know wanting to come in for four hours set the set around and then they didn't want to pay you the rest of the time so yeah I can't I don't do well with that whole uh if I got a wake up in the morning and show up then you better just go to put down 10 hours I don't do well with that with that uh cutting hours and all that stuff like um the 798 has a policy if you make it to 1130 and then they rain you out it's 10 hours pay you know that non-union side they just want to pay you the four hours or whatever you know which should be right now prior to 1130 if they call you in the morning you're only going to get your four hours in per day or whatever five hours I think it doesn't per day and whatever it is uh but you know the the non-union side of things was starting to get away from that you know I know companies that rain the out and they didn't want to pay you anything because they told you the day before they was raining out that kind of was the end of my uh non-union career for a company that over in a course of text course of canatexis a lot of folks will know exactly the company I'm talking about uh but they worked the dog shit out of us all week long and then it's like it's going to rain on Friday so you're not uh we're not going to work so they didn't pay us and guess what happened on Saturday the the sun was shining and we didn't work and I was pissed because they was like well you could have went home dude I don't care if I could have went to the to the moon it didn't matter to me I want to work 60 hours a week you know I signed on for 60 hours a week to get paid 60 hours a week that's what I want you know it's always it you know not to not to uh bring too much union proper game then to it but I mean they do have that stipulation over here how it goes down on rain outs and all that uh you know and I spoke to a lot of union uh union guys you know I just always had a good gig with Joe wax and so I never did uh you don't make the jump you know uh Kenneth Thonker good he was a good union guy really good friend of mine he uh was in the union for uh I think four or five six years before uh he started his uh tree chip and business over there um and Wyoming and so that's uh you know he always talked to me about it and I always thought about making the jump just never did just because I you know it's had a pretty good gig with Joe wax you know they kept me busy and then you know my my crew my core guys that I always kept you know we out we were always busy you know um would only for a little bit and so that's where I never did make the jump right but if I would have been running around doing all that other shit with like a lot of these guys I probably would have ended up you know I'm going seven ninety eight the uh so to kind of uh accelerate a little bit there towards the end of your career twenty three twenty two twenty three here even even if we want to go later twenty one uh you know that time period of it what what was kind of transpiring you to get away from welding anymore you know like what was it to be was it to being gone from your kids or you know like uh that that sort of stuff you know no I uh I actually didn't have kids until after I got out of pipeline well if I had one in the making there in twenty two I had him in June of twenty three and then you know I took off from Joe Max in July of twenty three um just uh you know all the changes you know um you know corporate would buy in a lot of these little companies trying to run them you know like a you know a corporate setup you know and it was just it wasn't right you know um to me anyway you know it wasn't the atmosphere of the good uh the good people animation a lot of them was uh you know the kissasses you know um they couldn't weld that were welding and uh you know a lot of kissasses that were weld bosses that just you know um that I wasn't going to be a part of you know and and then like said I uh jumped into the FedEx business and it's been really good that way so I haven't looked back on uh going back to welding but it just you know you can definitely see the change you know uh uh you don't tick tock and Instagram and all that shit brought a lot of uh a lot of people that don't that are not out here for the welding right they're out there for the fame and the glory of driving around in a big a welding truck and that's just something that I wouldn't uh wouldn't into you know on that side of things so no I like the nostalgic part of welding uh being a pipeline weld or not so much I mean I like not shit don't even wrong I do like not shit but I like one of my favorite times I can ever think I was being on a ride away you know it's the sun's barely peaking up and the 200 start firing up you know that shit gets me mother but I hate 200 200 machines I hate it with passion but it gets me going you know the uh that part of it you know and the brotherhood part of it you know I feel like it's kind of gotten out of hand away from what it used to be you know we used to all running pairs you know and all that stuff now you can't can't really do that anymore and that shit sucks you know but you know and that's part of probably part of it is you know a lot of the good guys that I used to run with are not in there anymore you know I had a couple of them get healed couple of admitted suicide real good friend of mine down there in Texas committed suicide so uh it's kind of you know you started to kind of you know that group you kind of grew up and run around with you know dissipated out and so uh and I've seen some you know like said Joe Maxwell's a good company to work for depending on the company or depending on the spread that was there there was some that were wouldn't recommend going to but you know we had to bring it spread up and coat it so it um yeah that was probably my biggest thing was you know the brotherhood kind of went away you know you getting a bunch of shitty shitty people you know the more it is you know a lot of good guys you know I seen you know that were before pre-COVID never come back you know they they had enough of it and they wanted to shit them more and so um you know guys have been welled in 15 20 years they just said the hell with it so yeah the uh COVID was a blessing and occurs for a lot of reasons I feel like because it kind of did uh then up the whole pool of some of these some of these guys that wouldn't really in it to be in it you know before the for the you know the the big trucks whatever you know you want to call it uh I don't think it I don't think it was so much about uh feeding your families anymore you know like I'm not saying I'm not talking shit about the younger guys because we need the younger guys but you know it's different when you don't have a family to feed and you know you're just out there for it can make in uh you're making all this money you know but you're not you're not reinvesting in yourself you know like you're still running that 200 still making it we're gonna run the 200 you know uh my second gen needs wheels and tires only you know it's a clapped out piece of shit you know like when I when I got the opportunities to to buy a new truck I bought the new pickup when I got thought when I when I had the need to buy a new well machine I bought a new well machine and uh just to get me up a leg you know to to quit stressing about this shit that was in my control because I'm making this money a week you know it I mean like I do like not shit but I'm at a little bit different level I let it grow with itself you know when I needed a new camper it come about I got a new camper you know never buy another new camper I mean it's better by one two or three years old than it is by brand new when I promise you, but I feel like they just jump right to the mix of wanting to have all that stuff instead of doing it in steps, you know, I mean, that was a time I could freaking, if I couldn't find a welding job, I could have went and helped and made and still paid all my bills, you know, wouldn't have been a big issue. You know, and that's, you know, I went from a 200, you know, and when I broke out, you know, I carried parts, I carried everything to a fucking tip to a 200 besides an ended block. You know, underneath the middle of my camper, you know, I starters, max, basically everything but a block, you know, I carried shunt coiled, I carried all the shit that you could ever need besides an ended block for a 200 because you only needed them. You know, one day you'd be sitting in the weld and go to fucking fire up at three o'clock break and guess what, so much mag down, you know, and I actually got run off of job prior to me buying my Miller because my 200 would be breaking down about every three days, you know, and granted the next day I'd have it running because I had the parts and then know how to fix it, but it was always broke down and, you know, it was coming to the end of the job, you know, and that weld boss, he's like, hey, dude, you know, we're two days from being laid out, you know, I was planning on keeping you on tie-in, but you can't keep your shit in order. Get the fuck out of here, you know, and so that's where we're having good quality, like you said, you know, you're making $3,000 or $4,000 a week, go buy you a good shit, you know, don't run around with the clapped out shit, I understand breaking out, you know, you got to, but once you get that a little bit of money in the bank, you know, get you some better quality equipment because it will cost you a job or, you know, if they go to welding like shit and catch you some repair, you know, got your job, got your job, you know, and so that's, I always gave guys that run quality equipment a little bit more, you know, as a weld informant, a little bit more leeway, you know, because I understand, you know, you're running and get equipment, it does break down, but the one that we're, like I said, driving the clapped out to our second gen commons is in the old 200s that were broke down 24/7, you know, then we're, then the guy that normally got cut pretty quick just because it was paying the ass to deal with. So, you know, if you're the angus running good equipment. The, the part of it that I don't get is the, you know, it, you know, consistency in this line of work is what builds bank accounts, you know, the more consistent you can be in, I agree, there's a lot of guys on the internet and stuff that says that you don't need the $100,000 truck, and you don't need $100,000 truck, but you need a solid pick up. I don't, I like to, that my shit starts every morning. I don't have to worry about it. She starts, my machine starts. I mean, a lot of people are mind blown that mom weld machines of 2018. I got 5200 hours on her, where she sets that right now. That is a shit ton of welding done with that machine, you know, and you know, she never let me down. I, I can say, but a lot of that goes to preventative maintenance, you know, changing fluids, keep her check on the oil like right now. It's out of guys house over here, north of Lawrence, all right, a shop, and then got him to go through it, you know, put a new belt on it. What's the fluid look like? And what's the coolant look like? You know, what's it? Get everything ready to rock and roll. So when I go back, pop line, and I'm not, I'm not worried about my machine. I mean, you always, it's getting, it's getting to be a kind of an older machine, but for the most part, it's a solid-ass machine, you know, it makes me the loader that I'm not for sure. So I'm big on maintenance, you know, like the last Sunday, I canceled the podcast because I needed to break so much up, you know, it's just taking care of your shit. And especially when you get to the point, like, you know, you said you bought a new truck in 23, when you get to the point to where you're going to forward to buy a brand new pickup, it's fucking kind of a bad ass or deal, you know, when you know that, you know, like people carry notes for five and six years, you know, I'm not my cup of tea. This summer, she can be paid off in two, but. And, you know, when I broke out in 10, 2013, about my first one, you know, I had a year of the payments on it, and that's all I had, you know, I made it down to where if, like you said, if I had to go help and or had to go back on the farm to help grandpa for a company, or, you know, because everybody always talked about, you know, the shit don't last, you know, and it's feast or famine. And so I, you know, whenever I had enough money to, to go out and pay that for a new truck, I did, right. And then I had just a year worth of payments. And then that's way of always, that's way I've always operated with everything, you know, a camper or if I'm going to buy a new new or camper, like you said on the new campers, I bought a new camper and I fucking will never do that again. Oh, by one. Yeah, it's gonna stay two or three years old, just because you got the water leaks and the bullshit that, you know, little gunning is making six bucks now or putting the water line then he doesn't give a shit because he's not going to have to deal with it. Yeah. So then you move all your shit in it and then it's hard to get him worked on because you're you're living in it, you know, you can't just take it down to the dealership and leave it for two or three months to let little John work on it again. You know, it's, it's just took so bad. Become a plumber, you know, I learned how to, you know, become a plumber off my off of working on my campers all the time, you know, water leak, you know, I had to redo all my water lines, heater went out in order to coat it once when I went back home for Christmas and froze the camper up solid. So another lesson is, whenever you leave your camp or turn your water off, blow the lines out, especially in the wintertime. So that's a, that's a, that's a big take on that just because that's definitely hell to do. So I told my buddy, Janssen, I said one time I told him I said, do you leave your water turned on? He's like, yeah, well, we left and we didn't make it back before the campers unfroze and it flooded his old camper because he didn't leave the drain open for the water to run out of the camper. You know, he's like, well, you didn't tell me about that. I'm like, I thought you knew, dude, if we was going to leave to at least leave the, you know, the gray tank open. So the water, the water could run out of the camper if it did on thought, you know, which it wasn't supposed to on thought, but they did anyways, you know, for sure flooded it flooded it. So that's, that's a whole thing in itself, you know, and I, I think a lot of people, you know, they don't think about all that goes into living in campers because it's not, when you pull them the way that we pull, you know, the way that popliners pull them, they are not designed to be drugged that way. I don't give a fuck what you pay for it, they are not designed to be drug 1600 miles this week and then a month later drug another 1600 hundred miles, they're not designed for that. Yeah, I think my first two campers, that one that I bought, you know, I put probably close to 28, 30,000 miles on that on that camper and it was fucking falling apart by the time I went and got rid of it, you know, and so, you know, if you're going to get one, get a good one, you know, they do come apart pretty fast, especially if you're going to be pulling them a lot around the country, so I think Porsche River is the best camper shout out to Porsche River, you know, if you want to give me a deal, be happy to talk business with you, you know, I've used y'all's campers for the past 12 years, I've owned three of them, been great, maybe they'll give me a sponsorship deal coming to a discount. I really want them on Tana is what I really want because I got one that's got a front office. Yep, so I think, you know, it'd be bad asked to have that to podcast and stuff, but if you know, get Montana's, I would highly recommend them, they're especially living in the winter, you know, I've had all sorts of campers, I think I've had probably 13, yeah, 13 probably throughout my whole career, and yeah, I traded in campers, like I traded in my trucks there for a while, so, but Montana's were the best, especially living in the winter time, you know, they got the a lot better set up for cold weather, so I would, if you're going to get one, then you're going to be living in the colder areas, I'd recommend them on Tana, so, oh yeah. And I'm not against people owning 200, let me throw this out there real quick before we move along. I'm not against the 200, I think I own 200s, everybody should own a 200 and learn how to work on well machines. I learned to listen to when it's making a different noise and all sorts of shit and to teach you responsibility, it'll teach you how to handle your own shit and it'll teach you patience, because then things are loaded up pieces of junk. The 200 did you a lot of patience when it comes to dealing with things, you know, but I'm not against owning 200s, you know, I mean, it's, they're going to be obsolete, I'm just going to throw it out there for everybody, by 2028, you ain't going to weld on no major pipeline with the 200, it's coming, it's going to be 250s or better, and it's just the way of the world, because them 9045s are here to stay, and they're, they're going to hit every big pipeline at the lake, so practice with 9045s and save your money and get away from the 200s, so you're probably best bets to go buy a damn miller for 100 and be done with it, but I didn't say that because I don't like millers, but you can't buy the MP anymore, so yeah, I think if you got the money, you should buy a brand new one, you know, I look at machines, like I look at golf clubs, you know, you're at least going to get 10 years out of it, unless you get bored with it, you know, so 10 years of a future with the machine, if you take care of it, then that's pretty good odds, I mean, if you pay, for what you pay for one, now the, I mean, a pop rose, probably 30 grand, so are 28,000 and some change, whatever, and you know, you got the new Lincoln 325 that's, you know, closer to 20 grand, you know, that's kind of The new Lincoln pop line. I can crazy. I can't believe they got rid of arm trimmer. but it's normal business. Yeah, you got anything on that topic? While we're on the topic? - Like I said, I broke out with 200 for years. Like you said, they teach your patients, they teach your maintenance, how to work on your shit. But like, you know, whenever they come out of that 90, 45, you know, there for the first time, you know, I never personally went on with the pipeline job, but I got a lot of shit. You know, my old man gave me, I don't know, probably 50, 60 pounds, and I weld it with it. And that's a, that's a pretty good rod. I like it. You definitely better have your shit together when you are welding it. Welding it with a 200, I didn't like it at all. You know, you basically had to have that 200 wound at the whole time. So I do agree that, you know, in the next few years, I think a 200 will be pretty well obsolete on the bigger jobs, just 'cause, you know, you can go back through my repair log and I got up here in the shed, in the closet, you know, from all, you know, doing repairs, and you can tell who was catching repair, and who wasn't, you know, in 200, or definitely at the top of the game for, you know, the repair catching on these rods, so. - Well, just 'cause they're so damn unpredictable, you know, they change every day, where you fire your 400, I mean, even if you hadn't used it since 2023, you could fire it up today, knock the dust out, I mean, it welds exactly the same, you know what I mean? That's three years later, it's gonna be the same weld machine. I don't know if he's still owner or not, but I'm just saying. - Stand up. - You still say, yeah, I still weld it. I've done some, you know, structural shit around Fargo. You know, guys call me, I'm like, hey, can you, you know, so I go over and help him out. But the, you know, like 200, you know, you fire it up at 8 AM, it's wound up like a 10 day clock, and then, you know, at noon, it's fucking boggy, and then you gotta go up into the, the higher range on, I don't remember what range they got on them. And then, you know, by, by, by three o'clock or so, and it's hotter and shit out, you know, you're up there in the, and Maxine and, you know, so that's where I would, I personally would go with the, you know, like you said, a Miller. I, once I got away from the Lincoln's, I've been, I've been bleeding blue across the board, so I personally would, if you're gonna go with the new one, that's where I'd be at. So, I'm just saying it because of the warranty aspects of it, you know, I know I've seen it time and time again, when it comes to millers and, and what they're willing to do to make sure the customer's happy, you know, but, I mean, for me, I've been a Lincoln guy, I always be a Lincoln guy. I'm gonna, if I buy another machine, it's probably gonna be the 325, and I'm just be done with it. But my everyday machine would still be my MP, obviously, until I can't get parts for it anymore. But, I do want a new machine just because of where I'm at in my career, I know I've still got years in front of me, and I might as well get a new one here, especially right now. I mean, there's a little bit of a boom coming here, so it's going to be plenty of work. So, get into the FedEx truck business, you know, a lot of people, I don't think a lot of people understand that whole concept, which I, my buddy Will, he passed away a few, well, been a while now. But he used to do the, do the truck business with FedEx. Pretty lucrative little deal, you know. If you have decent enough trucks to keep them running, you know. - Yeah, so that's where, you know, my plan was to be, you know, kind of hands off with it. But once I got into it, kind of started learning the game, you know, it's like going from a fire hose, you know. I literally wrote in a truck for two days, and spent fucking just under two million bucks to buy my first operation. So, yeah, I didn't know a fucking thing about it. And if I would have probably spent four or five months doing it, I probably wouldn't have spent the money to do it. - Yeah. - You know, I'd look at for something to get into. It made pretty good cash flow, you know, on the books before I bought it. This was supposed to be kind of a, you know, a side gig got in here, you know, I could mechanic on about anything. So, once I got in here, you know, the trucks I bought were new or right, but they were, they were real hard to put away wet. And so I basically rented a shop, started doing my own mechanic and started growing, you know, and then about three months into it. I took over a whole another area out of this terminal. We added about 10 more trucks to it. So we basically doubled in size overnight. And that's when I knew I wouldn't be able to get back out on the pipeline for any time soon. So, been doing that. And then, you know, we started doing our contingency stuff where basically I got a group of guys, you know, basically I got a group of pipelineers who run around and deliver packs all over the country. And last year we were in 10 different states, you know, delivering, you know, between Wisconsin, co-down to Louisiana and Honeybird and Honeybird, Mississippi. So we had quite a few states last year. And that's been pretty good ever since, you know, every day. - Yeah, so. - Yeah, I was about to ask you that. - If you missed Python and Palette. 'Cause I know it was a little bit of time I took off. It could drove me crazy, you know. It does, you know, you know, get snap chats from a couple of the guys still. You know, they're out there welding on the pipe. It brings back good memories. You know, there's some day that way, I could just say, fuck it. You know, get rid of everything and go back pipeline. And just for the, you know, the simplicity and not having, you know, 70 employees and, you know, 70 trucks running around. It's definitely, definitely put some great hairs on my head, but it's been, it's been good. But I definitely 100% missed the, uh, Mr. Pipeline. It's, uh, I don't think I'd ever go away, you know, there are days that I'm glad that I'm not out there, but, you know, there's quite a few days I wish I was. - The, uh, to kind of wrap this whole little thing up. What part of like, from welding to now being a business owner, like if you had some advice in both of those aspects, what would that be? - Um, it's a model that I always go by, and that's, it's yoga with it. You only get out what you put in it, right? You know, um, what are we put into welding? You're going to get out of it. It doesn't matter, you know, showing up and working, you know, like here, you know, uh, you know, I put in my heart, so one of this thing, and it paid me 10 fold, right? And so, uh, that, that's been my biggest thing is, um, you know, you only get out what you're putting in to your product. You know, if you're only putting half ass weld on the pipe, you're only going to get a half ass, you know, that's, um, that's just a return on your money, um, you know, when you go all in, you're going all in, you know, and that's the big thing is, uh, you know, putting everything to it because that's what, uh, that's what it takes to be, be successful across the board. It doesn't matter what you're doing day in and day out. You got to, uh, you only get out what you put in it. - 100%. Well, I won't take up any more of your Sunday. The, the, uh, I appreciate you coming on. And, you know, I know where you chitchat it over the years to snapchat and stuff. So it's, it's good for it to kind of come full circle. You know, I, I'm trying to do a better job of not just going after, um, the guys like I typically go after, you know, uh, the bigger names, right now that the brand is built. They out on the road brand is built. People just want to hear welders talk about their experiences. So I'm trying to make sure that I am encapsulating as many as those as the, of those as I can from a long day. And for podcasts is a lot, a lot more different conversations. - You know, there's a couple of good guys that I'll shoot you over, uh, see if you want to reach out and talk to them. The kind of, like I said, we're, uh, pretty good names. You know, back in the 15, 16 era, um, if you wanted to kind of reach out to them and kind of get their follow up, you know, um, like I said, that great people, you know, they're now out of the pipeline, but they're, you know, also successful at, uh, you know, what they're doing. You know, like Nick Adams, you know, he's doing his own thing with not pipeline anymore, um, you know, they're plenty of a, plenty of the good guys that were in there for quite a long time. And then, you know, they kind of stepped away and started doing, not even, you know, oil field related shit. And so, uh, it's, um, super good. Like I said, it's just, you know, it's good for so long. And then, you know, you talk to them guys right now. We still miss the pipeline. It's just, you know, we've got our own thing going on now. So. - Well, I sure appreciate your time. And don't, don't jump out of the studio. We got to make sure that I'm going to hit stop. But if we got to make sure everything gets uploaded. - I do.