Very Abnormal

Things be changing. Today is October 12th. Whaaa? As of now I've been working one rigs for four months.
Things that have changed: 
1 - the rig I work on. Two weeks I got a call from my driller who told me that our rig was getting stacked out (shut down). Poop news, as I really liked our crew and liked work. Buuut he told me that we all still had jobs and that we'd be sent out to different rigs. I was sent to a rig just outside of Crosby, North Dakota. It was a little different from the original rig I was assigned to, but overall it's the same kind of setup so I got used to it pretty quick. We had a great crew of seven guys (one more than your usual, full crew) and work was really easy as we had to drill real slow-like that week. Not only was our crew great, but our camp we stayed at was brand new - ten times better than the living accommodations that I was used to.
Buut that all changed after one week. On my seventh day on my second rig my tool pusher (rig manager) told me that I would be working on another rig. After work, I'd have 24 hours off work to pack up, leave camp, and drive to the new rig and man camp. Woof. I wasn't too happy about it. The biggest thing that I wasn't too happy about was that my schedule was changed. That brings us to number 2.
2 - My work rotation. So far this year I've been working two week rotations: working for 14 days and then getting 14 days off. That is no longer the case. On my new rig I am working 7 days on, 7 days off. There ups and downs to it.
Ups: I only work out in the freezing cold 7 days in a row rather than 14 days in a row. Also, I'm working with the most fun crew of all time. There are 5 of us: me, our floorhand, motorhand, derrickhand, and driller. Our floorhand and motorhand are brothers, 14 years apart but they are two of the funniest guys that I have ever worked with. We joke around a whole lot out on the rig - and it gets real gay real fast. Haha. Our motorhand like to use the drill pipe as a strip pole, dance on it, maybe sing a song while he's at it. Couldn't ask for much more. This last week of work was probably the most fun I've .had at work in a long time. Another plus: mo money. Each day we work on this particular rig we get a bonus of $25, so basically a $2 hourly raise due to the fact that we are using this material in our mud called invert. It's nasty. Invert can be a little irritating on the skin but ya know, it's worth the money. I like money, I want more of it.
Downs: I can hardly ever go home. With such a small amount of time, it's hard to make the 2500 mile round trip. Right now I'm looking into flights back to PDX and if prices are right, I think I'll be back home for Thanksgiving and right before Christmas. So that's a bummer but I've decided to stick with the schedule because I love my crew and I really don't know if my body could handle 14 days at a time in the North Dakota winter. And I really want to stick out this winter, 1) because I
want to say that I actually did it and survived the insane temps, 2) I want the money for longer than just these four months I've put in... I guess that's it. If I could find another job that paid just as well and was in a real warm, indoors environment then yeah, I would take it in a heartbeat but until then I'll be sticking it out with the company that I'm working with right now. Gotta do what cha gotta dooo.
3 - My residence on days off. I plan on crashing with my family on days off because they love having me and there's no rent involved. Livin' real cheap-like. So send me mail! I love getting it.
Nick Steffl
1015 18th Ave S
Grand Forks, ND 58201

Here's a segment I like to call work terms. If I ever use them in the future, you can look at this and know what I'm talking about.

Work terms:
Roughneck: A worker on a rig . i.e. me.
Man camp: Where a company puts up their workers, whether it's a huge facility or a trailer. I getadatrailer :P))
Tool pusher: Your rig manager. He da boss. Ours is pretty cool.
Stack/BOP: This protects our lives if we ever get a kick.
Kick: a bunch of gas coming up from the well, which could lead to an explosion.
Well: That hole in the ground that we're drilling
Kick rocks: What you're told if you get fired. As in, "kick rocks down the road as you walk away from this place where you used to work."
Put out: Give it a lot of effort / swing real hard.
To get run off: To get fired.
To get stacked out: To have your well shut down, due to problems with the well, the company that your company is hired by, or whatever. Lately a lot of rigs have been stacked out and some guys have even been laid off.
Worm: Somebody who has just started. Also called squirrel, noob, whatever. That's me. You can identify a worm by the color of their hardhat. It's green. Once you're promoted you get a white hardhat. Hopefully I'll have one of those white ones within a couple months. That would be a promotion. I want it.


 I'm living a very abnormal life right now. That's what I can say for now. I work long hours for multiple days in a row and then have a good amount of time on my hands when I'm off work. But I'm not back home, I'm in my birthplace of Grand Forks, North Dakota. It's not too shabby though. It's quiet and should allow me to get some side projects and whatnot done while I'm out here. Aaaand I get to see a lot of my extended family, which is pretty great. Growing up I'd rarely get to see them all but now here I am on a somewhat regular basis, seeing everybody when I'm off work.
Side project/goal lined up for now: getting certified to teach English as a second language. Yes, yes. I just bought the groupon deal today and I'm going to destroy that certification within a few months from now and then I think I'll head over to Korea, teach some English and move on to the next thing.
Here's my tentative plan: work this gig til next summer, maybe throughout the summer, maybe go back to Alaska for a summer, go teach for a year, and then hopefully land a job with the Dept of State with the consulate and continue to work abroad. That would be siiiick. They like sociology majors. Whaaaat?
Anyways, that's the update for now, and they should be coming a little more frequently with my new work schedule. I'm off to go bring in my Buick baby for a tuneup. Send me mail!
- Nicholas J Steffl