An Adjustment in Lifestyle

Our boss has always been more than fair with us. We have taken exception to his management style on occasion, but all in all we have had a pretty good relationship for over two years. As some of you know we have ventured off a time or two, but we always seem to end up back at J&G. Our return to the fold this time was problematic, to say the least. We had two false starts and an extremely short emergency call out. All along, Justin (our boss) assured us he would make it up to us. In fact, after the second false start, we were given travel money and a paid stay at an RV park. Perhaps you can see why we find it hard to find fault with J&G.

 

We have finally landed at what will hopefully be a fairly long term gate. It is not your traditional oil gate, although there are wells and facilities here. There is also a guard on the main gate who controls that traffic and will also be allowing our traffic in. Our traffic will be for the construction of a pipeline. There are a lot of benefits to having someone else opening and closing the gate, plus the pipeline does not have near the traffic of an oil gate. The pipeline also rarely works at night and usually has at least one weekend day off. It has been and is quite an adjustment.

 

With the time we have at hand, our boss suggested that we work some of the pipeline's ancillary gates, which would help him and supplement our income. That "day or two a week" job morphed into an opportunity for Missy to oversee the "day gates" (essentially gate openers on private land, most of whom also have to record their traffic) and the night watchman position.  Someone had to ensure the gates were covered, people were in place, those people got paid, etc. Someone also had to be available to liaise with the company representative. That all became too much for both Justin and our field manager (J&G also has a flourishing oil gate business, in case you forgot); hence the offer to Missy. So much for all our free time; but the devil loves idle hands-right? We still have nights and Sunday together. We are also making a ton of money, since we have more than doubled our income-the most we have ever made in the patch.

 

So, here we are, back on a gate (or close to one) and working in the oil patch. As I have said in past posts, we have been unable to find employment as fulltimers that pays as much as the oil patch. To be able to make that money without monitoring a gate or having to deal with fracs or drilling will require an adjustment in lifestyle. You'll have to pardon us if we do it with a smile on our faces.