Rig Life

I Did Not Forget You

2009-03-01T09:04:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I last posted but I did not forget you. Sometimes life is just too busy and I have a hard time finding a minute to think.

Hubby is working so far...Thank God! It seems oil field work has been on the decline for awhile. I am sure it will eventually pick up again but for now every bit of work is greatly appreciated. So while we are not quite broke yet we are being very cautious with every penny we spend.

There are quite a few people who don't understand oil rig life and they seem to think that if you work the rigs then you must be rolling in the dough. Let me tell you, it is really not quite that simple. Yes, during the busy times life can be great if you are not busy catching up from the slow times. And those slow times can be very brutal. Last year was a brutal year for us. Adding up the months my hubby worked we came up with 4 months total.

He did pick up odd jobs here and there but basically ended up with about 6 months of no work through the year. Now some people may read this and think that he was just being lazy and not looking for work but that is not the case at all. Resumes were sent on a daily basis and phone calls were made quite often. With over 10 years in the oil field my hubby has quite a few contacts which helped pull in a little work but in all reality there was just really no work last year.

We are really hoping this year is a little better but it is not looking to promising. Oh well, we keep our heads up and do what we have to do to provide for our kids and we are not at all ready to give up the ups and downs of rig life yet. We may have to take a break and wait for more work but oil rig life is in our blood and it is all we know.

Pay Rates for Alberta Drilling Rig Crews

2009-01-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Drilling rig crews in Alberta are generally paid hourly. Most companies pay is based on CAODC recommendations although there are a few that offer a slightly higher amount. This base amount was current as of this posting.

Driller makes $40/hr or $42/hr with rig tech premium
Assistant Drillers make $35/hr or $36.50/hr with rig tech premium
Derrickhand wage is $34/hr or $35.50/hr with rig tech premium
Motorhand makes $29.50/hr or $30.50/hr with rig tech premium
Floorhand wage is $28.00/hr
Leasehands make $26.00/hr

There is also LOA which is paid to help compensate for living cost while on the road. This is $140/day for non camp jobs or $50/day for camp jobs.

Family Christmas

2008-12-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

So far we have bee very fortunate and my husband has managed to make it home for all but one Christmas. This year for the very first time we will be having a very unusual Christmas.

Every year Christmas at our home is filled with family. We live very close to both our parents so we have the opportunity to spend Christmas with both sides of the family. However this year our families have both chosen to go away for Christmas to see other grandchildren and children. So for the first time in over 25 years we will be completely alone. Also this year my husband will be working however the rig he is on is only about an hour from home so he will be here Christmas morning to open gifts.

It will definetly be an interesting Christmas this year.

Helping Kids Deal with an Absent Father

2008-12-11T21:27:00.001-08:00

Well tonight, after a long wait, hubby has finally headed back to work. It always seems to work that way. Right when we start feeling the christmas crunch work picks up and away he goes again.
Good news is he should be back in time for Christmas. The kids were mostly O.K. with him heading back, except for our little princess who was just a little peeved that her daddy is not going to make it to her very first christmas concert. Also it seems that hubby will yet again be missing a birthday party for one of our kids.
This is the part of rig life that I really don't enjoy but it is what it is and we all learn to cope with it.

When you are dealing with little ones it is harder to swallow this particular part of rig life. We have discovered little things that do help the kids deal with dads sudden disappearence from thier lives.

Such as:

A phone call every night or day depending on which shift he is working. Every day my husband calls home and spends a few minutes talking to each of the kids about their day. He makes sure to only focus on positives and basically leaves any disipline up to me. We do it this way because it is already hard on the kids and if he only ever phones home to give them trouble then they will eventually not want to talk to him for fear of getting in to trouble.
Bringing home a special treat for each of the kids. On the way home my husaband always stops somewhere along the way to pick up a little treat for the kids. It is usually nothing big maybe a post card or a sticker book. The kids always look forward to dad returning because they know it will be a good time.
We also let the younger kids help him pack his clothes when he is getting ready to leave. It makes it much nicer to involve the kids and gives them some special time with dad. It also helps to let them gradually get used to the idea that he is heading back.

I am sure there are numerous other little things that we do to help the kids deal with him going away but these are the big 3. We have plans to implement more ways for the kids to communicate with there dad while he is gone but until then a phone call and a few encouraging words can go along way with kids.

Dealing with Money Problems

2008-12-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, let's face it rig life is great when the rigs are in full tilt and going stong but it is not quite so fun when break up rolls around and your rig is racked for 2 or 3 months. Sure there is rig repair and odd jobs you can do to make a little extra cash but that doesn't always cut it.

What can you do to prepare for the down times? Well the obvious solution is to save for the future while the present is good. In other words create a little savings to get you through the slow times.

A great way to do this is to figure out your monthly living cost. Include all your utilities, mortgages and other loans or credit cards. Multiply that amount by 3, so you are in the position to get through 3 months down time. Then divide it by the amount of paycheques you expect to recieve before the slow times come. If you have been on the rigs for any amount of time you probably more or less know what time of year your rig shuts down and for how long it is usually down for.

You may find yourself in a situation where the bills have piled up and you are so far behind that you think you will never see your way out. If you do don't panic and definetly don't feel bad about it. You are not the only one out there that has been overwhelmed with bills and debt. If you do find yourself in this position there are many options out there to get you out of a bind.

You can always try and consolidate your debts in to one loan to make things a little bit easier to handle. You can also look in to credit counseling in canada and see what they have to offer that might help you out.

The main thing is to remember you are not alone and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Don't let money problems get you down just keep going and do what you can when you can.

Drilling Rig Jobs

2008-12-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Tips to getting drilling rig jobs in Alberta, Canada:

If you know people that are already have drilling rig jobs then the quickest way to get hired is to talk to them. Through the years my husband has switched rig companies a few times and also through slow times he does look to work for other companies that might be have work. We find that he is most successful at getting work if he calls people he has worked with before. Generally this is the easiest way to get drilling rig jobs.

If you have no contacts yet don't worry you can still find work. Winter months are usually the best time to look as that is when oil rig companies are doing the majority of their drilling. Go check out Rig Zone or InfoOil to start your search. Send out some resumes and see if you get a bite.

If you are living in Alberta another great way to find work is to go right to Nisku, Alberta. Take a few copies of your resume and start handing them out to as many places as you can.
Don't give up. This is probably the best tip. You might be lucky enough to get a drilling rig job at the first place you apply, but remember it takes time to find a job.

For more information on the different drilling rig jobs visit Oil Rig Life: Drilling Rig Jobs

Oil Rig Life: Keeping the Love Alive

2008-12-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

When you live an oil rig life you tend to find that relationships at home can get difficult to manage. We all get lonely, wives get lonely for their rig hand husbands and rig hands get lonely for their wives. Over the years my hubby and I have found ways to help with the loneliness/ It is rough at first for some couples but if you value your relationship then you find ways to make it work.

Here are a few things we have done over the years:

Surprising each other: There have been numerous little surprises over the years but there is one in particular that stands out in my memory. It was Valentines Day, a day we never seem to be able to share, and my husband was working fairly close to home. It was only about a 4 hour drive to go see him. So I dropped the kids off with grandma for the day and headed up to visit my hubby. I left home at about 4 in the morning, when I got close to his motel I called him as this has always been our morning ritual. I acted like nothing was different, like I was at home caring for our family. You can only imagine his surprise when about a half hour later I was knocking on his room door.
Calling every day: It has always been a daily part of our lives to talk to each other at least once a day. Generally my husband will phone in the morning, when he gets in from his shift, in the afternoon I call and wake him up and then he will call one last time in the evening to talk to the kids and say good night.
Being together when the rig is down: When the rig shuts down for spring break up and then again in the fall to wait for freeze up we make sure and spend as much time together as possible. In fact during those times we rarely ever do anythign alone. We believe in keeping our relationship strong and growing together and not apart.

We are both waiting for the time when we can sit back in our rocking chairs and reflect on our lives. When this time comes we want to make sure we know each other and still share them same interests. with rig life it is easy to fall in to a habit of living seperate lives, if this happens you may find yourself growing apart and losing interest in one another. Take the time now to keep your love alive so you will not regret it later.

Is Rig Life Really Worth It?

2008-11-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you how it is for us.
We really have grown to love rig life, but not that long ago we really felt like we had had enough. My husband was on the road 5 to 6 weeks at a time and as soon as we thought that we just couldn't go another day apart he would be shipped home to sit for at least a month at a time. We were really being hit hard by the whole "feast or famimine" lifestyle that is part of the rigs. With all the finacial ups and downs it was wearing hard on our marriage and we were really beginning to wonder if getting off the rigs might be the answer to our problems.

So the opportunity came up for my husband to go give pipeline a try and we decided to take it. At first it sounded awesome. He would finally be close enough to home to be able to drive home after work every night and the pay sounded like it would be good enough to pay the bills. We were so excited about him coming home at night and the possiblity of a little stability was just to good to turn down.

So he quit his rig life and turned to the pipeline. Well, let me tell you it was not nearly as great as we thought it would be. Turns out when you have spent your whole relationship living a rig lifestyle it is really hard to change. We had hoped with him being home every night that he would be able to participate more with putting kids to bed, helping out with homework and just generally hanging out with me in the evenings. Not only are me and my husband used to rig life but the kids have grown up with him gone alot so they were used to me doing everything for them.

Don't get me wrong all the kids were excited to see "daddy" come through the door each night, they loved eating supper with him and having a chance to tell him all about there day, they even enjoyed him tucking them in and saying good night every night....But I still had to be right behind him doing everything that he had already done as they just would not settle down until "mommy" did it.

He would try and help with bath time and the little ones were just not happy about the way he did things. Guess it is hard for children to deal with change too. I was still happy to have my husband there but we also found it was a lot of strain. He was understandably tired after working 10 to 12 hours during the day and just did not feel like staying up to hang out at night. I can't say I really blame him.

To top it all off when he quit the rigs to go pipeline his pay was literally cut in half. This put an even bigger strain on our financial situation. We were getting ourselves in to a pretty bad situation. We considered all the options we had and finally decided that rig life was just in our blood and we were not ready to change just yet.

So it is back to the rigs and our beloved rig life. It may be lonely at times and there are definelty hardships but it seems that is just part of life and no matter what path you take in life you will always find hard times.

Hey life happens and all in all I am glad we took the chance to try and create a different lifestyle. Guess it just wasn't for us.

Check out Rig Life: How To Keep The Home Fires Burning. It has some great tips on keeping your relationship alive when you are working away.

An Introduction

2008-11-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

Let me first start off by introducing myself. I am the wife of a rig hand. Well not just any rig hand, he is of course a very special and exceptionally smart rig hand. He would have to be to make such an awesome choice for his wife...LOL.

Anyway, we have been living the "oil life" for..well it feels like forever, but in all reality we did go to high school before my husband started his life on an oil rig. So I guess that would mean we have lived an "oil life" for about 11 years now.

Why did we choose rig life? We made some mistakes in our teen years and by time I was 17 we had already had 2 kids...So where else could he make enough to support a very fast growing family but in the oilfield. Since we grew up in a oil rich community it seemed at the time the best option. Now 11 years and 2 more babies later we sometimes wonder if it was the right choice.

11 years later, though it is really to late to make to much of a change. In that 11 years he has worked his way up to driller/relief toolpush on drilling rigs. The only downfall is gone far too much. The up side of rig life for me is since I concieved our 3rd child 6 years ago, I have been a stay at home mom and had the privledge of watching my children grow up. I got say, I really do love my husband for making staying at home a reality for me.

I always wanted to be a stay at home mom and he has busted his butt to make that happen for me and our family. I thank him very much for that!!

So there is a run down of who I, or I guess who we are. We are an average family living the "oil life" With 4 healthy lively kids and a driller for a husband...This is my life and most of the time I love it. You will find over the course of time that there are days I love rig life and there are days that I absolutely hate rig life. I am not here to recommend or discourage oil life I am just here to give my view as I see it.

Please feel free to comment and let me know how you feel about rig life! I am happy to hear from all of you.