Soooo I should probably do a better job of explaining what exactly is going on. Billy went to school to be a lineman (the manliest of men that work on power poles) in Summer/Fall of 2011. So in November of 2011 he took a job working as a groundman for a company setting telecommunication poles that was supposed to lead to an apprenticeship with the NorthWest JATC (Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee) the following spring or summer, which obviously ended up falling through. Since then Billy has applied to several other JATC across the U.S. as well as utility companies, both of which are the best places to go for your apprenticeship. An apprenticeship is something that's different from line school (line school basically just makes it easier to get an apprenticeship) which you must complete in order to become a journeyman lineman. As an apprentice you're still studying, taking classes and tests, your wages are lower, and you're basically learning about all the different areas of linework. You're required to complete so many hours in several different areas. It usually takes about 4 or 5 years to complete your apprenticeship, at which point you get your journeyman's card and it is much easier to get a great paying job, in one permanent location.
So Billy got an apprenticeship! Yay! And it's a really great one, through a union: the SW JATC. So what the JATC does is basically acts as a mediator between the apprentices and linemen and the contractors. The JATC will hire Billy out to different contractors throughout his apprenticeship to make sure he gets all his hours in the right areas. So the first contractor he's working for is in Sherman, TX, he's building something that has to do with transmission towers (I'm honestly not quite sure, it's kind of confusing).
Some other good news, there are several different steps of your apprenticeship (I want to say 6? but I'm not positive) based on how many hours you've completed, and your wages go up with every step. Billy is starting at a 2nd step! The JATC has given him 1,000 hours for the telecommunication work he's been doing. So not only does he get higher wages, but he probably shaved about 6 months off his apprenticeship!
Ok enough of all the technical stuff. Now you can celebrate with us! We'll be in the same place for the length of each job (some last a few months, others last over a year) which means we can build relationships, be a part of a community and I can get a job! Hopefully substitute teaching and/or working in a coffee shop :)
Last Wednesday we left Champaign, IL and although we we're trying to make it to Fort Worth in one day, we decided to spend the night in Malvern, AR. The park was very humble, shall we say, and we just pulled up on a patch of grass. Of course, it rained on us all night and we were stuck in the morning! Thankfully the trucker staying next to us was able to pull us out :)
We got to Fort Worth (where the SW JATC office is) on Thursday and stayed the night outside of Arlington. Billy went in to the office on Friday to sign some paperwork and to find out where he'd be working: Shermon, TX (about an hour north of Dallas). So we looked up some RV parks in the Sherman area and they were all full! Eventually I found a mobile home
community that had 3 RV lots, with 1 available! I couldn't believe our luck! Until we pulled up... It's definitely not the nicest of places we've stayed but it's crazy cheap and only a few miles from Billy's job site so I'm telling myself it's worth it :)
Billy went to work for a few hours this afternoon and everything is looking good! Everyone's pretty relaxed and they aren't working with anything energized (which makes me really happy).
I haven't really seen any of Sherman yet, but it's pretty big and it's close to the Dallas/Fort Worth area which is nice.
Our gypsy life is about to slow down A LOT compared to what it was but we'll still be moving more often than most people and I will continue to update this blog in the meantime!
