The Bakken Adventure: One Man's Story from Rags to... (Minot: extended stay, school)

[Broncogirl]

Originally Posted by fixall man

well,I arrived in williston today at 1 pm and started work at 2 pm.it seems that I am the only maint. person at the camp,gotta decent room,had prime rib and crab legs for dinner(part of the package)gotta get some sleep,will spend more time in forum on sat.

Nice, be interesting to learn how it is on the inside of a camp if your up to sharing on it.

[robione]

Originally Posted by fixall man

well,I arrived in williston today at 1 pm and started work at 2 pm....

Congrats!!!

[supernova_sunset]

Hi robione,
I read your complete thread and I've read perhaps 30 threads on this site about the bakken oil field jobs. This is my first posting, so, hope I do well, lol. I'm gearing up to head that way myself shortly. I just wanted to suggest, rather than having to wake up, get out of your vehicle, and go inside walmart at night, just get yourself one of them urinals that the hospitals use. Walmart sells them for $6. It's a plastic see through bottle with a lid. You can keep a bottle of bleach on hand and bleach it out periodically.

I have a degree in Electronics with no experience and am hoping to get in as an electronics tech somewhere in the oil patch. I'll be sleeping in a topper on the back of a pickup truck. I got me one of them sweet Coleman propane stoves and I'm gonna keep my food and tea in a cooler. I'll probably stop off at Dickinson on my way to Williston, and end up in one of the two places.

Good luck man.

[itsMeFred]

Originally Posted by robione

have always wondered if it's itsMeFred's significant other.

Nope. My husband camps in the company yard.

A forum member has someone coming up here and was asking me about what people like "us" do in regards to matters of hygiene.

You can also pay $6 for a shower at Behm's truckstop. (It's free with a truck fill. But I'm not sure if it'd be free with a smaller vehicle's fill)

[WestCoastWilson]

Originally Posted by fixall man

well,I arrived in williston today at 1 pm and started work at 2 pm.it seems that I am the only maint. person at the camp,gotta decent room,had prime rib and crab legs for dinner(part of the package)gotta get some sleep,will spend more time in forum on sat.

Congratulations, Fixall man! I see as of this morning, TL has 16 openings on their website. How interesting to learn that you are the only maint. person at that camp. WOW!!! Can you tell me about how many people would you be supporting at the man camp where you are and if there are any housekeeper/janitorial openings where you are? What are your hours going to be like (i.e. 8 or 10 or 12 days)? Do you think that you will be okay there without a car? How will you get around during your time off?

One last thing I wanted to know, did TL give you any hassles in regards to not having a ND address when you applied for your job there in Williston? I have read in this forum as of late, some employers automatically reject applications if the applicant does not have a local address on their application.

Your dinner you had yesterday sounds DELICIOUS!!! YUM!!!

Good luck to you, and please keep us posted.

[itsMeFred]

PS: robione-- just talking to hubby today and he said the guys in WalMart probably aren't actually at WM so much as they're parked as close as possible to the wings place.
Free WiFi.

[robione]

Originally Posted by supernova_sunset

... rather than having to wake up, get out of your vehicle, and go inside walmart at night, just get yourself one of them urinals that the hospitals use. ....

I have a degree in Electronics with no experience and am hoping to get in as an electronics tech somewhere...

Good luck to you too. I think with your degree you should not have much of a problem. You might've come across this in your reading... setting up ethernet networks, and other cabling is also a plus for e-techs. Read rinkydink63's threads. He's an e-tech and I believe gives a brief description of some of the skills that are pluses.

As far as the bathroom goes at night. I keep myself mildly dehydrated and only have 4-6 hours of sleep on the average night so it isn't an issue for me. If you saw my car you'd see why I'd rather not put one more piece of anything in there, LOL.

[Ann in Oriental]

Originally Posted by supernova_sunset

Hi robione,
I read your complete thread and I've read perhaps 30 threads on this site about the bakken oil field jobs. This is my first posting, so, hope I do well, lol. I'm gearing up to head that way myself shortly. I just wanted to suggest, rather than having to wake up, get out of your vehicle, and go inside walmart at night, just get yourself one of them urinals that the hospitals use. Walmart sells them for $6. It's a plastic see through bottle with a lid. You can keep a bottle of bleach on hand and bleach it out periodically.

I have a degree in Electronics with no experience and am hoping to get in as an electronics tech somewhere in the oil patch. I'll be sleeping in a topper on the back of a pickup truck. I got me one of them sweet Coleman propane stoves and I'm gonna keep my food and tea in a cooler. I'll probably stop off at Dickinson on my way to Williston, and end up in one of the two places.

Good luck man.

Someone, I think it was"rickydink" writes of getting a job and that they need electronics techs, I think it was in Minot, but I'll look again and let you know.

[robione]

Yesterday was just another day at the base. So unremarkable I really can't remember what we did... oh yes, beds! The beds are now done in the building. I was given the option to work today (Sun.) but that was rescinded a few hours later. Apparently the boss had gotten in trouble for letting two people stay yesterday. :/ That's too bad. I was looking forward to putting beds back together.

Today is research day. Going to learn all I can about fracing. There was a little snippet in the Minot Daily News describing the interactions between different positions: company man, toolpusher and mud logger. I knew I had to do it some time. After reading it yesterday I figured I'd get it done today. So I'll be well versed in vocabulary and the working of a well. Can only help the cause.

I saw a line about a dozen+ cars long at the drive-thru at McDonalds near the Dakota Square Mall. Wow! Parking lot was nearly full. But I'm fairly good at finding the path of least resistance (in some aspects of life anyway ) and went inside to find... no one waiting in line. Usually take out is faster than drive thru at that point. Despite however busy Walmart is I usually have the same luck. There is usually a POS open some where that people don't think about.

I think I mentioned I was not going to the base Monday. Still the plan. It's more follow ups and applications. Looks like Tuesday is looking to be the same however. ( That's not really helping the cause to pay this month's bills... although I do have one ace up my sleeve I can play for this month.) I have an interview in Williston for the UPS driver position. That process didn't work out exactly as planned LOL. #1. I didn't think I would have to go to Williston. #2. I thought I could apply to the Minot position too. Not so. My data is "on file." I applied to Williston first. Although wages were not posted, I assumed it was like Fedex. (Same position had higher wages in Williston.)

Since I'm headed that way Tuesday I think I'm at least going to finish off the week there. I can get work at the Command Center there... hopefully. If I can get enough money together (so I can research/write without stress) I was thinking about putting together an e-book about the area. Ideally I thought about doing it over the week off in a rotation but any income is a help. Someone has already done one. I'm sure I could do better.

Let's see if I can pull off all these (below) on Monday:

• Applications
  • Fedex
  • GoldSpur
  • Con-way Freight
  • Sanjel... been waiting on my 2010 Schedule C . Err.
  • Frac Tech
  • Strada
  • Sundre Sand & Gravel
  • Zimney Oil Field Services
• Follow-ups
  • UCP Personnel Services
  • Wolf Oil Field Services
  • Fox Run
  • Magnum - Took forever to find the address for this company. I had three spots to check out and found: a family's house, Sundre Gravel, finally Magnum LOL.
  • Cross Country Couriers
  • OMI Diversified
  • Job Services @ Williston... not waiting 'til Tues to follow up on driving positions. They'll probably tell me they would've called if interested. Gotta get to the point where I plug along and not make assumptions that keep me back.

I think there's more too. Seeing the list helps me organize it. Gives me perspective as to how big it is too.

My interview is at 1pm on Tuesday so hopefully I can apply to a few places in Stanley and Tioga on my way out there (and back... maybe).

Ended up going down what my brother and I call a 'rabbit hole' online yesterday. Saw an ad foretelling the death of the credit card. I couldn't resist. So for those investment savvy people you may want to research this. It's near field communications (NFC). The trend these people see are smartphones are gaining a greater and greater foothold in the masses. People are using these for everything. (Hell I couldn't wait for the day back in 2000 for this to happen... cell phone and palm pilot in one device. Woo hoo!) Why not start waving them at the register and paying for your products? That's where NFC comes in. The big company in NFC chipsets is ticker NXPI. NFC is being used on a small scale in Europe already. I think some in the U.S. too, but Europe and Asia usually pave the way here.

Anywho this industry is embryonic (hence who really knows what's going to happen to it) and NXPI is the big-daddy in it. Others are OTIV, INVE, USAT, and AUTH. (AUTH implements software security and is something necessary for NFC transactions.) Just thought I'd put this out there for those with more means than I. But it's something to add to my DGP, AGQ positions in the near future hopefully.

[itsMeFred]

Also look into Sand Solutions in Berthold