Tyler Blanchard

All right. Welcome back to another episode of Out of the Road called Gas. I'm your host, Tom Linker. Today's episode is always brought to you by Slipman Weldon Apparel. Nate makes the best gloves on the market hands down three years or years running. I wear him every day. TNT and Weldon supply. Towson Mary have by four of the best Weldon supply for the rig welder or the welder in general. They carry everything we need to do our day and day out stuff. They'll drop, ship anywhere in the country, you know, four feet, whatever. Look them up. Binks forings, Texas. So if you're crossing through to the to the Thunderdome, stop in there and give him a shout. Pearls, that pimps. Johnny's got the Weldon Apparel shirts with cool sayings and all that on the back. He's now got the FR shirts. He's got the Slipman cross over Weldon Loves. PearlsNapPimps.com are all social media. Woe bros. Woe bros.us. Chris been making FR shirts for a long time. They're my favorite shirt to wear. Got all sorts of crazy designs, patterns. Now he has weld hoods. He's got his own crossover gloves, mashups with Slipman. And then we got Andrew at Southern Leatherworks, our Southern Leatherworks. Andrew makes a great chop down, sugar scoop, hoods, that sort of thing, more of your plant hand style. Weldon, I've been welding, wearing one every day. So I've been doing this building trade stuff. Been pretty nice. Today I am joined by the one and only Tyler Blanchard, one of the most requested guys to have on the podcast in the flesh. Can you hear me alright? Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah. So we won't go into specifics of where you're at. You know, you might have some crazy stalkers out there, but I know you're in the north. You've been up there for a while. Yeah, I came up to North Dakota. I've been kind of bouncing around like different towns and stuff around here since the last summer. But you're originally from California. That's correct, Rob. Yeah, I was born and raised in California and then back in like 17 I think when Pipeline and everything was kicking off on my buddies were going out there and I just went for it. Yeah, I think, well, I think the first time we crossed paths was probably about that in 2017. That would have been a burial if I'm correct. Yeah, yeah. So I thought I was only there about three or four months. So there's there was another guy that come from California. I can't remember his name around at the same time. My buddy Matt. Yeah, yeah, Matt. I don't know, y'all might be the only y'all in Gerald W might be the only real welder I know from California. So a question I'd like to start every podcast with. What got you in so well? Well straight out of high school, I didn't really know like what I was going to do. I was going along. I was, you know, same as everyone else. I didn't really want to go to college. I knew that and then throwing up all my friends, their dad's, they all worked in the old building, California. So I ended up going to work for my buddy's dad and my good buddy's dad and then I don't remember what, I think a steam line blew up or something and then I was like doing cleanup on that. They brought a welder into the demo to pipe and then I got put on a new construction job and I got put with a welder. I was a welder helper and you know, still didn't know if that's what I wanted to do and then one day he made me weld some supports or something and I could do it and it wasn't bad. So just kind of transition. Yeah. Yeah, I was still. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was a helper for like two years before I actually started welding. It was probably like a year before I started taking it seriously. But she wasn't a helper in Texas. When you come to Texas, she was already a regular welder. Yeah. Yeah, I've been involved in for like three, three, four years or something. Yeah. As far as I guess bikers would be the biggest kind of oil and gas area out there in California, huh? Oh yeah. It's a lot bigger than a lot of people don't know. Like current river is massive. Like there's so many pump tracks you can't even see like a quarter mile over there by the grapevine. There's a lot of stuff over there. It's been so long. I don't remember the names. There's another on the I guess it'd be the west side of the valley. There's a lot of shit but now like the permits and I'm guessing the lift cost is just too much. It ain't worth it. Yeah. I had an opportunity to go out to California a couple years ago but we was looking at Airbnb's and stuff and it was the process of living out there. It was great. I mean the pay was great but I felt like it was going to be like kind of break and even if you're in Texas, you know some jobs you're just right there. You're making money. Obviously you're making money. But if I went to California, I would have been making the same money in the state of Texas so to speak. The way it would have broke out. Another question I'd like to ask it to be in a podcast is you know when you're getting into this, what was one piece of advice that you kind of held on to when you was getting rolled in here? So I was taught by like two older guys that have been rolled in for 20-something years and mostly what they taught me like anyone can weld like you could pick up on the welding but you you got to be the guy that they want. You know what I mean like you have to show up every day. You have to be good and you have to have a integrity you know you got to you got to be honest and fair and just do a good job just show up and do what you can and that has to be the best that you can do. There's always someone better obviously. If you don't work. Go ahead. Go ahead. Like when you when you go work for a company and there's 15 welders you know there's always going to be someone better than you faster you might be better at something but you just do what you can and just kind of let it let it happen I guess let it go. I think a lot of a lot of people get the you know like when you post your wells and stuff on the internet like I see people still in your beading videos a lot which is I thank you one other day oh boy it's like he's when you when you when you tilt your head it says blanchard across the pancake I think I think everybody would kind of know you know but I think I always think it's funny like when people are still often to bring to videos it's like to be the beading and everybody wants to be the beading yeah that's why I put my name on my hood honestly because it just shit like that someone would send me a video that they were they seen me or something but if someone else posted it and there was some kid that he actually like was making it sound like it was him and like in the pictures and stuff you know I get it yeah well if he was wearing short sleeves doing it obviously you know people would know a lot of us would know from the from the tattoos you know oh yeah it's the same thing you can't fucking deny that funny that people you know they don't they don't go here and try to I think I lost you for a second there but it was yeah okay you can't deny what that was the last little bit I heard there yeah the tattoos or the name on the hood like I said that's why I put my name on there I don't know that I have people go around still in my welds because they're probably not near pretty enough you know like I might steal your welds and post them on my page one day but not they I don't you know it's one thing it's kind of like the football player that played for Nebraska trying to be like Patrick Mahomes you know it's one thing to kind of want to idolize somebody not really idolize but be like them so to speak you know but you also need to pick up on their work ethic too you know they why they got to the position that they're at you know yeah I tell people and a lot of people don't know this dude when I was when I was 19 2021 I missed out on so much shit like all my buddies they're going you know even all the funs got off one of the bars I never did that I was always wealthy but I have buddies that broke up with me they're good and they have good welds and shit and you know I want to be like that I wanted to have a full truck I wanted to talk. like that that's well and I dedicated so much of my life to that that I missed out on a lot of stuff and I mean I look back on it now like I feel like I do the school truck I got good looking wells but you know now the older I get on the other side you know fuck it you know it's not really complacency I would well I mean some of it is kind of complacency because we do the same thing every day you know but you know it's you got to enjoy I don't I don't like to say that I I work I lived a work I work to live a life outside of working you know I like to have fun I like to go you know I think the I wouldn't say that I like I wouldn't say I let my weld slide because of that part of it you know because you got to obviously you know keep a high standard to stay employed and you you know like okay so you was in Utah for a while there and I asked kind of pretty jealous of that it was a pretty place to work I love Utah I love that area right there yeah it was some of the some of the snapchats and photos I've seen this stuff is bad ass I you know I I like to say that I've laid pop in all these cool places but I mean maybe maybe Florida might be the coolest but I don't know the UP Michigan was pretty cool but I think Utah in itself is just pretty country I'm not going through there I'll never work there obviously but I think overall it's a cool place to work yeah I was over there this last year for a few months and I was working for a good dude like he took care of me he brought fair real on it dude and he would just he would know you want we were gonna do it and then he like he was the kind of guy where he would just let you do you know he expected this to get done and that's all you had to do there was no pressure there if he told you he was gonna do something he would do it you know it was really really good to you I really like working for him and then uh the views on everything like that's another thing I love about that flanks there's lakes over there there's a lot of the cowboy Indian history uh Salt Lake was only three hours away maybe and then I have my side by side so you know you could go ride derby side by side all that stuff and shooting you know shoot you go to there it's about as place to go yeah I know you you did spend your fair share on a boat while you was over there seemed like that was your Sunday adventures that's the top I would do the same if I was in a place like that yeah sure so when do you think that you know you transition from your every day kind of welder you know just a solid hand I mean you're saw obviously you still solid hand now but into the bead hand kind of slot where you spend you know quite a bit of your time so how did that transition go you think yeah so I was uh I was working for a little company I'd been there for a minute and you know I looked just on the fire line or hot feeling and then I'd go back and I'd catch it behind something and they you know they started trusting me and then it was just one of those deals where we were laying there 24 inch line and I'll talk to me and the beads are paired out so they pushed up the hot cast hands they both paired out so they pushed us up there and you know I was probably all right up the time but nothing kept and then they brought this on the next job it was some 12 which I think he used to be weld boss but his name's James Kelly and I'll run a bead with James Kelly and he's an older dude and he put it on me so bad that I was like I finally got to the point I was like alright you'd be like what the fuck are you doing to get to weld that fast you know so I I was asking if I do do this how do you do that and then I'd watch it and then I'd take it up and now I was two thousand probably two thousand seventeen or eighteen as well maybe it's two thousand eighteen and then I got put on like a 40-mile line to hold it you know your running beads all day every day so I'm gonna pick it up and figure out what a what you can do to get faster or what works for you that this has to and you know just from social media people seeing the shit that I was posting stuff and then they want me to spread beads for him I'm pretty lucky to have a lot of opportunities like that to where people are following me to be slow so you kind of you kind of got to the bead hand stalled just by having chance you know but I mean you took advantage of it you know I ever I ever came about you you done a great you know you've done a made a career out of it I mean anybody that knows you knows that you're on beads just like Austin you know when you think of Austin to freeze you think of a bead hand you know you think of a shaggy you think of bead hand John Brooks you know bead hand there's guys like that you know they're just phenomenal I don't know any seven ninety eight bead hand so I can't shout them out but you know the known unity guys I know are phenomenal you know I've passed many of joints apart behind John Brooks that's Emma Keith Wagner some sure enough hands when it comes to putting beads in a pop the I never had any real aspirations to be a bead hand I don't know why I mean maybe I just thought of what fast I don't know maybe because the you know tend to some guys repair out of there you know I I had aspirations to be a hot pass and I enjoy or used to enjoy it I don't want to do it anymore now if I go to a pop line I just want to do tie-ins but that's what I've like I want to go chill and tie-ins yeah I know it I used to complain about being on you know some jobs I'd go to the fire in line then I made my way to the back of the fire in line a few times and I'm like I'll just stay here you know I'm most time a little bit faster than some of the guys I used to be I don't know if I am anymore used to be faster than some of the guys in front of me and staff so there's a chill advantage I feel like the fire line like if I get told I'm going on the fire line it's almost like all right what did I do wrong you know I feel like it's a punishment but when you're back there like with all your buddies I feel like that's more fun but if you know you go on to a job where they already have their boys that's there I'll go to the back of the fire in line and I feel like that's you know not say a reward itself you know oh yeah I like the fire in line like we laid that hundred and miles down in those zones and I spent quite a bit of time on the fire line so the end of the job started doing time stuff but the you know it was all back there we was cooking out having a you know just bullshitting between whales and stuff we stayed pretty tight to the front end so we you know they didn't like run off and leave us it was all pretty consistent moving down and we had a lot of time but the the union side of things you know they don't race on the fire line so it's not you know they hold two rods which is which is cool in itself and it kind of keeps everything moving but I don't know it's kind of fun to get out there and let the pin the ears back and I enjoy that you know them days are gone now obviously for me but oh they was fun when it lasted oh yeah for sure so the middle part of your career you know what you got to play the part but the middle part of your career what is like when you transition from from like the west Texas welder into you know now your reputation is kind of grown you know the middle of your career this 18-19 2018-2018-2019 that that part 2020 what what's some advice for that part of your career that you kind of held on to I would say it's like just taking the opportunities while they're there I had some good opportunities around that time that you know I was still kind of young and I wasn't making I was making like selfish decisions about like I wanted to go I don't like I was working for a company I thought I was gonna stay with and then you know shit hits the fan with them it's not even anything to do with me like they've changed their management around or they do this and then you know I turned down opportunities to go work for Troy you know I had a good buddy working over there he had been there for years he was in Thai with David Woolmack I could have went over there and I'd probably still be so it up with him you know but it was in my opinion I think what it was is I was letting much dollar hang me back from going places like because Troy paid a little bit less than what I was making and it was just being the stupid decision like that like not going over there they paid two dollars for this or dragging up I was one of the guys graduating from some other outfit paying two dollars more but just you can't you can't make these decisions sometimes based off of obviously unless it's a horrendous amount. Consistency is a lot in our line of work. You know, whether you're making $38 or $58 an hour. You know, it's how long can you, are you consistently going to make that 60 hour check? That's, that's the big thing. I think for a lot of guys. Yeah, and that's what I would like to say. Like I said, I wasn't making the best decisions on that. But, you know, that's another thing where I got to travel around a lot. I met a lot of people. I went to hit a lot of different jobs. Like I still did some cool jobs and stuff. It just wasn't, you know, like you said, the consistency not taking off, you know, being off for two weeks here or three weeks here or a week here, and then traveling and just shit like that. The, you know, like to get into kind of some of your beliefs here. When it comes to pop line and though. You know, you're kind of, you're kind of at the, there was a group of welders. I think that are like the, the guys that broke out in 14, 15, 16 are different than the guys that broke out. 17, 18, 19, you know, and obviously different than the, the guys that broke out in 20 and 21 and 22. I don't know if that anybody really broke out in 20 and 21 because of COVID. And then, you know, now we got the modern day young guys that are breaking out, you know, in 24 or 25. And, you know, I'm sure someone broke out this year. But they have this belief, you know, truck. You know, tires on a truck before they, before they develop an arm, you know, where we. I feel like I wanted the cool shit, but developed a standard and a. And an arm before we went after some of those things, you know. Bro, my first truck, my first welding. Well, I had, so I had a six. It was my favorite truck. It was a lifted single cab. Had wheels and tires on it. And I bought it as a helper and that was going to be my welding truck. But, you know, then this is where thankfully the guys that taught me how to weld actually cared about me. And they talked me out of it. So I sold it and I bought my first welding truck was a 86 F 250 single wheel long bed with a gas 460 motor and it got four miles to the gallon. And it wasn't a complete polish, but it was pretty ragged. And then my machine, I had a blue bottle, same thing. It was just a rust bucket, burned and linked to four every two days. And, you know, like I barely made it by, barely made it by. And then I don't know if you ever saw my red second gen, I ended up buying that red second gen after I saved up like eight months or a year or something. Unless it's on social media. No, I think he was gotten a black truck or gray truck when I met you. Yeah, it was my great. So yeah, then I ended up. I think I bought that when I was in West Texas. Actually, I, I was a high planning for maybe a year or so. And then it was just time for an upgrade. I never bought a new truck, you know, the kind of money I was making at the time was a lot. So, you're double what I was making in California, so I ended up buying that gray truck. I'm trying to transfer some, you know, like, the younger generations is I think we have allowed it to get too far carried away when it comes to what we was taught about pop line and then the way that we're kind of letting some of these dudes go about it today is. Is the night and day difference. I feel like, you know, when you was in West Texas, you take Kyle mystic was there way bright was there. Dalton chavez, you know, Kenny win was still welding in, you know, there was a lot of good welders in a confined space, you know, I feel like the talent of that generation is we're not getting the same talent, you know, eight, nine years down the road is what we had in that generation. You know, like, y'all, obviously, I was just barely broke out then. I think I was on my first year, first full year of rig welding, but like that caliber welders is, is, I mean, you couldn't pick. I don't think that they had even. I can't remember all the guys that was there at that time, but it was that was a high quality of welders that I feel like you don't get jobs like that anymore like you don't get that group of welders anymore, you know. I think, I think a lot of it is these, these kids, they see people like, Kyle Mishnik, he's always had like slick ass truck, he's always have bad ass trucks and he's a badass welder too. And same with Dalton chavez, I worked with him at a NMR same thing probably back in 18 or something. And these kids, they see the trucks and they see that those guys are bad ass welders and they think like, I don't, I don't understand it, but you got to be the part before you look like the partner. And they're buying the trucks like I couldn't imagine showing up with God knows how much money these kids having these trucks and you can't put a beat in the pipe on a test. You know what I mean? So that to me, I feel like if you show up in something that looks like you can afford it and then you do the best you can on the test, they're going to, they're going to be a lot more lenient with you versus showing up in a nice truck, a brand new pie pro, you got $10,000 in wheels and tires, and then you can't put a beat in the in the pipe. They're going to tell you like this one ain't for you, you can go on and try the next one. Like I know that we have a lot of pop line inspectors that truly was never rig welders or the pop line standard, you know, but we still have a lot of them ones too. You guys are automatically going to know when you step out of the truck and you look like not that you look young because I know a lot of young welders is broke out and made hell of hands, but there's just a difference in the way that you carry yourself when this is your 50 of tests first this your first test, you know what I mean. Yeah it's your demeanor as soon as you come out and they start talking about what they expect you to do on the test or what they want to see. Did you see it these kids his face they get all nervous and yeah I don't get it I don't get the whole where the wheels cost more than the truck and shit you know. The most I mean I bought that king ranch in 2017 but in or 2018 but I needed to pick up you know I had this dog just kind of a piece of shit I'm not big fan of dodges so I got the king ranch it was out of necessity that was the only duly they had it was low miles. It was priced right it was like $51,000 and barely had any miles to have the classic on the seats and shit it was it was a nice truck but the moment my 200 started to fall flat on a face it was replaced by the MP my 300. That I think it was 19 model it was replaced by it you know and then when I left Ozona and had to go back to West Texas I busted the first test I took. I was going to say that part that that some ship factor into it because I knew the guy noted forever had tested for several times prior but back then I had that junk gas 200 and the dogs and I come in there and kind of doing some things that I didn't typically do but I think some of it got judged off that I had the new truck and I had the new well machine you know and he I guess maybe he wanted to humble me a little bit I don't know but I was kind of feeling myself a little bit and run a lot but I don't think it was that bad of me. I don't think it was that bad of quality of test I think he was just a little bit itchy on it I don't know look I was still pretty young then too you know but not I was seasoned but that was a West Texas test and I don't know the last time the guy seen me I was one way and I come back after doing that 100 miles down in Ozona I was different way I feel like he took advantage of a little bit I guess I don't know. At the end of the day you're gonna go ahead I think we had kind of lag there but go ahead and watch that. At the end of the day you just got to do the best you can with what you got with these inspectors like they're going to expect to see this and the whole thing about showing up with there's nothing wrong with having nice equipment like reliable equipment that's why I ended up getting my pipe pro and my truck and stuff like I wanted because I never had that I but I was already welding for years at the time before I before I bought all that but showing up after I mean like breaking out with that kind of stuff you're you're going to be held to a way higher standard then if you showed up like in an older truck with maybe a 200 but even some guys I know guys that have been welding for years they like a 200 more than a diesel machine but the whole thing you're going to be held to a higher standard I don't care who you are whatever you show up in a nice truck nice machine and everything you're going to be expected more than maybe what you can do and that's what gets these kids 100%. There's nothing wrong with having good equipment. Just know what you're getting into when you show up in an $80,000 truck with a brand new Lincoln or Pop Pro on the back of it. Like you said, you're going to be judged a little bit harder. And I didn't think about that back then, you know, that was probably my fourth year, third year of welding same at the time. And I'd just come out that big job. And I thought up my shit didn't stink. You know, I made the whole job starting that, you know, was there for the final vowset and everything. And I thought of, you know, a little bit cocky, a little bit airy, you know, I would say. And, you know, I think that back then I might have been a little bit complacent because of the caliber of welders I was around, you know, like I, I kind of thought, I guess, that I was on their level when I'd just really just kind of got going, you know, because you're around them. You're like they're making that weld. I'm like the welds, you know, I'm just good as they are. When all reality, I set back and think about it now. And I was nowhere fucking close wasn't even the same fucking galaxy is like tall mission that you, you know, don't chavez them guys like, though, but, but just the experience of how they carried yourself or how y'all carried also fact in, you know, and then I went and welded on that big line of those zone around Aaron Davis and all them guys, you know, in Katarina Perez. And just the way that they went about their business, you know, kind of adjusted even more in that, I feel like that's something that kids kind of block off these days is they don't want to take notes like that. They don't want to sit back and be like, they just want to take that you got a big truck in your fancy, you know, your fancy truck with the wheels and stuff, but they don't want to take your attitude and put that to you. You know, they don't want to take your mentality of, you know, I'm not saying that we all show up to work on time and we're ready to go every day because, you know, we do some drinking, some party and chill like that. But the difference is once the, once a hood drops, it's, you know, the business end of that starts. Yeah, for sure. You know, the part that we have that, that that like, it's different when you, when you're, when you're just breaking out and you're trying to wail and you show off hungover versus your 10 years down the road or at, you know, five years down the road, and you show off hungover, well, you're probably still going to give the same quality of work. Then you are if you just broke out is what I was kind of trying to get at with that, with that point. Yeah, for me, it just gets worse like I don't hardly drink on school nights normal or try to stay up too late. I'll be going to bed. I go to, I like to get like seven, six, seven hours of sleep, probably. But not let's take a drink, but I'm sure in North Dakota up there when the weather really kind of breaks, you know, it's going to be hard not to take a little summer day, you know, little golf course, maybe. Yeah, I know I'm in trouble on a Sunday, pretty quick. Oh, yeah, when we were in Utah, I was going golf with my dad sometimes and he gets a little right. He don't even hardly drink and he gets routed. It's hard. Something about a golf course to not weather. It's hard not to get a little routed. We was in Louisiana. I like to kill myself down there one day because, you know, you're only golf course and you're wearing shorts and everything's nice, you know, and you throw one back a few cold ones and you go to work the next morning, you're like, this was the same weather as yesterday, but it's just two different parts of it. So we, we kind of laid low on the on the coffin on Sunday, pretty heavy. Yeah, I don't know. I should be fine. I broke my back this summer. I don't know if you remember that, but I think I'll be fine this summer. Oh, yeah, I remember when you was kind of stoked up. I didn't know if you broke it or not, but I remember when you was kind of all stoked up and going to your appointments and stuff. Yeah, I ended up crushing my L2. It was crazy work. I know. But you still welded quite a bit. Oh, dude, I was back to work. Was it, is that what happened? You jumped in the water and messed it up? Yeah, I jumped off a bridge. Yeah, that's what I knew. It was something like that. I didn't care if it was a bridge or a, or a land or whatever. I just remember to add something to the water. Yeah, it wasn't my best idea, but I thought it was a great idea until I got up there. And then I was already up there. You know, you can't go back down. So I was like, I got to, I got to, I got to made your fare of high and deep water. So nobody has to worry about me jumping off anything. You know, I don't, I like the water, but I like to just look at the water. You know, I'm not a big fan of you ever seen. There's a, there's a movie about a someplace in Utah. It might even be California, but they get piranhas in the dam water and some lake or whatever. Uh, you know, it's probably one of them sci-fi UPS movies, but I woke up in the middle of the night one time and it was on the TV. And I watched it in the hotel and it was, I don't know, it was some crazy shit. Ever since then, I'm like, I don't know if I want to swim in the lake, you know? Yeah, see, I've never been like that. I've, I've grown up at the lake stuff. So like, I, I love being on the boat or I like going to the lake. I don't really know about the beach, you know, beach from California. We went like bogey boarding in shit, but nothing crazy, but the lakes like that deal. I jumped off them. It was pretty high up there. And then it was like 80 feet deep. I went down quite a ways, but I mean, I'm not really scared about stuff like that. I, I usually pretty good about jumping off stuff like that. I guess the impact of the water, what calls the breakage? Yeah, it was higher than I thought. And then it just ended up like that. And it just, like when you're spying compresses like that, it just gone to a certain point and it just literally crushed my L2. I didn't know it was, I didn't know it was broke. I didn't know what was going on at first. And you know, I went on with my stuff. I was doing it and I drove back from, I was in Utah, drove all the way back to North Dakota. And then like the next day, I went to go to work and I was like, I didn't know. I don't think I can go. This hurts. And then I went to the car director. He shot my back. It's like, no, it's not broke. So he did some adjustments. And then the next day was 10 times worse. So I went to the hospital and they did a, I think a CT stand or something. And the dark was like, yeah, you're L2's fresh. So you need to take off work for four months and they give me something. I don't like like the hardcore pain killers or nothing. So he gave me like this real mild one. And I took one of those and took a nap, worked up the next day and went to work. I mean, I mean, you're going to do crazy stuff. You know, you've got to pay the toll sometimes. I don't know that I've, you know, as far as the worst thing I ever experienced is like a welder, not being able to go to work. Maybe it was when I had COVID, when all that shit was going on, like, they sent us, they sent us home. I wasn't even sick, like I felt fine, but they, you know, they tested us up and I were for COVID. We had to go home. We played golf for seven days. And they had to pass. It was a crazy experience. I'm off. It's the only time I think I've ever dealt with something where I couldn't officially go to work. You know, even when I messed up my hand, I still went to work every day. I just welded left handed instead of rotting it. Yeah. But I mean, having your back, having a spot crushing your back and getting around a piece of pop is crazy work. That takes some mental forward to for sure. Oh, yeah. It was pretty bad. That's, that's the good point that you made about like having a weld left handed. That's also something like I was left handed when I first started welding. And then no one else was left handed, so I went right handed. But it's a good thing like to practice. I tell like some of these kids, I do like practice everything because you never know. You could break out of it. You get, let's say, you get on time and you left handed well that you cannot do right handed or you are right handed. It's good to be able to like know how to do everything. So fabrication, you know, you're getting sometimes things don't work out. You know, you don't get all right handed welds. You got a team that just has to be welded a certain kind of way left handed weld. You know, they're just stuff like that. You know, sometimes you can't dig a ditch properly because there's lines in the way, you know, or train tracks. I've dealt with that before, you know, they can't dig no further that way because of the train tracks. And it's not to be able to just swap hands like, you know, I've been learning tick weld. I do it and I've tainted it on the test. I don't know because the other way I look like a monkey fucking a football trying to do it right handed. It's just But I can do it left handed and I'm out of my way, you know? which is, I mean, it's kind of weird because I don't have any kind of real experience too well and I just learned it at the hall a couple of months ago. But, uh, but being left handed and right handed obviously is a very good skill to have in pop line and our welding general, I feel like, to to develop. And like, when I had helpers breaking out or getting ready to break out and stuff, you know, once they got their fundamentals of passing a welding test and because that's the most important, that's why you're practicing every day. It's not, it's not for what you're going to do in a field. You'll get that experience on the job. It's, it's getting past that test, making sure you can look at a bead and find that little, that one little spot that they're going to see because a guy gets painted looking at a welding test every day, learn how to cut back into it and fix that spot. You know, that's, that's what's forever for, but once you get past that part of it, then, you know, you can take the time to do a little left handed stuff, you know, do a little, put yourself into bad spots because you're going to run into that stuff sooner or later in the field. And the last thing you want to do is get out there and struggle when you're working for well balls or a superintendent or a time ball, that first job you've been around them. You don't want to go out there and really struggle. You know, you want to, all of them's going to kind of understand if you look young, but, you know, you want to build up productions everything. Yeah, I agree. Um, so the middle part of your career, you know, you moved on, you got this reputation as a bead hand. Um, I guess we kind of jump part some of it, you know, kind of the first guy I've interviewed a while with, with kids. So let's talk about that a little bit because I know you've got two daughters, I got two daughters. Um, you know, finding the balance in that part of your life, you know, I know, I know you do a pretty good job of it, you know, but um, that's a talk. It's kind of a tough thing. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say that's a thing. It's not that Dakota. Who bought all Winkle's red truck? Uh, I don't know that dude, but he shows it off like he built that rig. I don't know. I think you know, show it off like he put together that pick up. I don't know if I could do that, but he's, um, contract. Anyways, uh, yeah, anyways, uh, yeah, I have two daughters, uh, and they actually live in California with their mom while I travel. So that's probably like the worst thing about traveling for work and stuff. And just just out on everything, you know, that goes back to the shit I was saying before about making selfish decisions about work. You know, I could have stayed here. I could have been with my kids and stuff and making decisions to go somewhere else for a little bit more money and then I regret a lot of decisions I've made. With work, stuff, and you know, part of life, you're kind of stuck with what you, what you've done. So, you know, I'm not perfect like a lot of people. It's in choices where I have to deal with them. We, uh, all of us as the whole spend a lot of time, you know, uh, and that's another thing I'm just stressing these kids because a lot of, you know, these 18 19 year old kids, they come out here because they see all the fancy stuff and they see the fun we have, obviously, you know, some of us like to not laugh and what not, you know, as me and as I've gotten to 36, it's kind of slowed down, you know, some, um, quite a bit actually, but, you know, they, um, that part attracts them, but they don't think about the whole part about when you have kids, or, you know, you sleep with this one gal and, you know, then you got a can or whatever. That's, you know, you get homesick pretty fast when you, uh, when you kid, you know, like my kids shows, um, and footwork or whatever. And I'm in Kansas, the Nebraska Ohio recently, you know, that's, that should kind of suck. So, you know, my other daughter's at a cheerleading competition, you know, and I don't get to make that. Um, not a lot of kids just think the fun in this line. They don't see that part of it. You know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to do a better job of bringing that to life. So to speak. Yeah. I, I really agree with that. I, I think if you're going to do it before and there's nothing, I see a lot of couples. I mean, you travel around and uh, you'll see a lot of couples where it's the welder, a helper, duo, and they're traveling around. They don't have kids yet. Like I think that's awesome, you know, travel around, see the world and stuff. But if you can get yourself into a position where when you do start a family, that you're, you're going to be in the same uh, vicinity, the same area for the most part, you know, and it's possible to do it and still pipeline like that deal I had in Utah. You know, there was guys that had lived there for years and they were still working, still still traveling around that little area. But if you can set yourself up for that type of situation, I think you're good, you know. Yeah. The last hope I broke out, Clay, he, he does not want to leave West Texas. And I, I mean, he's a good enough welder to go, I think to go anywhere he wanted to go, but as long as I'm working with Texas, he has no aspirations to leave because he was born and raised in Lubbock, Midland's a two-hour drive or whatever, two and a half hour drop. He can go home every Sunday not, you know, there's not all of that. I mean, he's been hooked up in the same company now. I'm pretty consistent for a year, year and a half. But it's just, I got into pipeline in the travel. I, you know, I drop pins on my phone every time I make a weld in a new state or a new area. I drop a pin on my phone just, I like to ramble, you know, some of us should be able to ramble and some of us should be able to stay put. And I feel like there's a stigma kind of around that when guys quit. I've been guilty of it. You know, I've had some buddies quit and go home and I talk shit to them about it, but in all reality, good for them, you know, if you can go home and make it work, that's power to you. It's just never been my cup of tea. Yeah, seeing that's where I feel like the selfishness really comes in for me because for my kids, it's not fair, you know, like they, and then I hear from it from my kids mom and I do feel bad about that for her. Like, we're not together anymore, but, you know, I still, that's not a reason why I couldn't go to like, you know, how many faller daughter dances I've missed out on? You know how much shit that my daughters are doing? You know, like I see them very seldomly and then, you know, when I face time on them every night or every other night or whatever, but when you're with them, like you see how different they are in three fucking months, you know, like it's so crazy how kids change so quick and rapid that any time you're gone, you're missing out on, you know, who knows what, you know, they pick up on stuff so fast, they like my oldest daughter's 10, like, and guess what? I fucking missed her 10th birthday. So it's really, really, really weird to see like how my oldest daughter Taylor is now, you know, she has her own personality, like how she likes all these things, she knows what she doesn't like and she just, you know, her own person and then my youngest daughter Tegan, that kid's just fucking wild, so anything she does is all surprising, you know. Yeah, I got one that's 15, 16 years old, my youngest is 10 and it's just like their personalities are crazy, you know, that like, for Bella, she's getting all these aspirations in the world, you know, she's getting to the point now where it's, I mean, she's a sophomore in high school, she's, I mean, she'll be to college and then, you know, TV, she's a, she's my little crazy one, but, you know, it's, it, like you said, you're gone, you know, four, five, six, seven, eight months out of the year and then you get to spend time with them, well, that, that time's like that, you know, every time you, you go home, it seems shorter and shorter, you know, if you get to go home for a month, hopefully, then that month seems like a week by the time it's done, it's never enough time, and I don't, the, I didn't know this statistic till the other day, I was listening to Sean Ryan podcast and the only, the only company are the only industry outside of the military with the highest suicide rate is dog owned construction. And I did not know that's crazy, it's like crazy numbers, but I can, I mean, I can see why for a lot of folks, but like I said, I'm kind of selfish that I, you know, I don't know what I would do like I'm kind of transitioning now because, you know, being in the 798, I hope to just work eight months out of the year that I'm going to spend four months at home, you know, and then over the next couple of years, I'm going to transition out of pop line all together and hopefully podcast full time from Fort Worth, floppy people into Fort Worth and just podcasts, you know, as I continue this whole shabane because there's a lot of welders that I, that I, you know, over the past two years, I talked to and wanted to get on the show and I didn't ever get them on the show, so, but it's hard too, at the same time, it's hard, you know, like we, I planned a podcast earlier, well, I had to shuffle it to the back so everybody got shoflips up, you know, an hour or so, you know, and if I got appreciated, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. She's still taking the time to get on here because a lot of people, I don't know, you've seen someone to post, your name's always brought up, so yeah. Yeah, a lot of kids look up, look up to Mr. Blanchard. Yeah, that is cool. I've been on some jobs where, uh, you know, kids follow me from Instagram and stuff and, you know, it's cool and, and, you know, some people don't like me. They never even fucking met me. They don't even know me and they don't like me, but, you know, then we get to hang out or do whatever and, you know, we end up being pretty good friends. So I've had that a few times, but, you know, you kind of get that with everything, I guess. What it is cool to see kids out of quality or, um, maybe look up to me, but, you know, it's cool. Uh, like, uh, you know, Joel Welch, did he? Yeah, he got literally lost his job for taking a picture with a kid that followed him on the internet, you know. Which is crazy. I mean, it's people like to hear Joel Welch's voice. I, you know, I don't know what, I mean, he is pretty smart fellow, but people over here, it's my most listened to podcast of all time. By like 50,000 listens. Yeah, by like 50,000 listens. People just, they continue to listen to that episode over and over or whatever they, it just that episode really kind of. The podcast, kind of took off pretty good, but that episode kind of sent it on up there. So, you know, um, but I enjoy the social media guys, you know, but also like. I want to get the calm and everyday guy too, you know, like, when I started this whole shabang, I wanted to interview all welders, you know, because everybody's got a different route to how they got to where they're at, you know, and. A lot of guys don't fall with the internet. I for one don't really care for the internet. It's just what I got to do to promote the podcast, mostly, you know, and, and I use it somewhat for my beliefs, because I don't agree with the wages on the non union side. I don't agree with a lot of things, but. That was part of my jump to the union side as it was the wages and the insurance, you know, I don't know what your back cost you, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap. I'm just a singer. Yeah. Not as bad as what I thought it was, but you also didn't have to have surgery or nothing, right? No, I mean, they want you, but God knows without a cost and then you know, worth and stuff. That's where. Making the right decisions when your younger really comes in. If you get in the 798, when you're young, I feel like that's a no brain right there. Oh, this is August to be my second year, but I know in the when I was first offered to come into the 798 back in 2000 and called you 17 or stuff. Maybe 18. I was not near mature enough. I would have never lasted over here. You know, that's all I was back in the 18. I had the offer and didn't go. I would have never survived these, you know, it's, you know, I quit pop line for a little bit. And then I went down to Louisiana and done a 798 pop line job there and just. I mean, there's good bad apples and everything, but I, you know, my last trip to West, not even really West Texas, Texas, it was to Eastland, kind of burnt me out. I went to the course of piano there. Everybody knows the company I'm talking about. I'm not going to say I'm out loud, but I went over there and just the people, which my dad had just passed away. I had a lot of shit on my mind, but the people drug me down. I didn't started not enjoy it. It was not fucking pop line, like it was back when it was all in West Texas, you know, in the campgrounds and stuff. You know, the camaraderie that it was back then versus the middle part that 20 to 23 air right there, 24 was just I just fed up with the pop line. I was tired of it. Didn't want to well because I didn't want to get to be around the people. That's. That was one of the best things about hot passes. You don't have to deal with a whole lot of people, you know, deal with the front end. That's really about it. The bean hands most time are are pretty chill guys, you know. But you know, I quit pop line up for like six months. I didn't want no part of it. And then I got the opportunity to go down there with them got it was much older to me and you know, in there. I was kind of considered to be a young guy on the job because most guys was 40 and above, but they just carried a lot about the quality of work they was doing, you know, I'm not saying it was the fastest and I'm saying it was the slickest, but it was a whole job of trying to do what they thought was right. Just motherfuckers. Did it come back? Yeah, I was just about to take that. Yeah, yeah, wait, I don't know why that it all of a sudden it would be doing great and then about from the pickup to the to the RV part Wi-Fi, but. Is there anything else you want to get off your chest during this use this platform for. No, I mean, if whoever watches this or any of the younger guys, y'all got questions like I'll just try to answer whatever I get I get so many messages on Instagram that you know, I still have a life, I still have shit that I'm doing, but I try to answer questions like I get a lot about like machine setup or like what kind of style I do for this and that. So anyone's got questions I'm always trying to answer as much as I can, you know. [silence] I can hear you. Okay, perfect. So I didn't went this part to be part because I thought I was going to set up a whole other studio and stuff. So back to what we were saying here, you're collecting thing that you think every young guy should know here. I would say that there's just a handful of things that if you do this, the company will want to keep you got to show up every day, you have to be ready to work. And honestly, just do the best you can and mostly integrity. And by integrity, I mean when no one's around and they leave you to to be by yourself, to do the right game, you know, you don't sit around on your phone and go get your truck, like, finish doing what you got to do. Just really do the best you can and that's all these guys want consistency. If you're consistently showing up, you're passing x-ray, you're putting out good looking wells and you're not bitching about the slightest inconvenience, like, that's all he's got. It's nothing crazy. You don't have to go here and be the greatest hand of all time. You know, you just got to be consistent, you know, and I think that's, I think that's a lot of things that kind of get mixed up and, you know, consistency matters more than anything showing up to work. I think it's a big thing for a lot of a lot of the younger generation is the showing up to work for it. They're coming up with all these policies. He says, handing them. It is building trade jobs. I'm going to tell you right now that these people, they'll take off on a Tuesday or Thursday. I don't give a shit. I'm like, and this is like, and every other week saying, I'm like, you don't work on the pipeline. You know, that's just to be run off instantly. You might get it by if somebody dies, you know, you might be able to get off work or, you know, like you can graduate, you know, but that's once in a blue moon, that ain't every other week or every week. Can you take it all? Yeah, some of the chance. I'm the only person. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on my crew that ain't missed the day since I've been up here. I'm like, I just come to work. Whatever, whatever floats their boat, you know, well, I know you got some stuff going on. So I won't hold you much longer, but the part of your career now that you're in, you know, you've been welding, you know, 10 plus years. You know, we know, we know about the consistency and stuff, like a, like a deep, tolerant, blanchored mentality thought, you know, what, what do you think that looks like? Like, as far as work, like, what do I think work was, like, like, like, laugh in general. Not, not, not just word, just like, like, your outlook, like a deep thought as far as, yeah, like your deep thought metaphor. I don't know if that's right word or not, but you just deep thought on your outlook of life. I would say, and I've been taught this my whole life is tree others, how you want to be treated. And then your actions can they're not just going to affect you. It can affect your friends, family, or whoever. So before you do something, just try to make the right decision. You know, like I still I wish I would do that, but I still end up making wrong decisions in my life. I'd say that for sure. I like that. I like that. Well, I hope it don't snow again in North Dakota before summertime yet. So try to snow here earlier and I'm in like North Kansas North East Kansas. They like, I thought it was Helen for a minute, but then I looked and it was kind of trying to snow. Three inches. Yeah, it's sunny skies today. It should be done. Maybe we'll get a little bit next week, hopefully. Well, be safe up there. You got anything or you want to shout out your social media platforms. I'd say see more of those are my boys, like the best things I've ever had. I've been wearing them for a couple years and the welding magician. He's pretty good dude. He hooks me up a lot. And, you know, same thing that you ran through at the beginning. They're all pretty solid guys and girls and I appreciate everyone that sends me stuff and wants to send me stuff. That's really funny. Well, I sure appreciate your time in coming on here and find me out. I think this episode will be the last episode of March. So Monday, whatever the last episode or whatever the last Monday of March is will be this episode. I'll get to you. I'll get you some clips for your social media. And like I said, I greatly appreciate your time and your thoughts on the pop line. Telling, you know, diving into your story a little bit there. Hell yeah, I appreciate you having me. Yep, yep, we'll be safe out there, everybody. All right. We'll see you later.