04/12/2026
It's been an exhausting and tough few weeks with everything going on and trying to fight through hold backs!
We should finish up Gohagin's big 40*70*14 build this coming week after working the weekend on it. It has been a big, complex build with tons of detail work so it's a slow process but it's going to be the best barn I've built yet! I've been here since I left the paper mill a few weeks ago.
My F250 bit the dust on me, the CP4 blew and the whole fuel system is gone so it's not worth spending the $13k to replace everything and I'm not in a position to buy another newer 3/4 ton truck right now. So I've had to use my sons Tundra I bought for him and borrow my grandfathers truck a short while before I bought an early F150 3.5L Ecoboost pretty cheap and needed some little TLC and freshening up. So I had a lot of late evenings replacing parts and the little truck has been running dang good. I've still got to replace injectors and valve covers so probably tackling that next weekend. I know how to work on them pretty good, my son is good help with that too. I have lighter trailers so I put a gooseneck it in and just have to lighten my trailers and make 2 trips so not to overload it but will definitely get me by!
So since my 3/4 ton is done, I'm going to work with J&L Industrial Services as a Project Manager starting April 27th and I'll have a 3/4 ton company truck that I can use for pulling my trailers on the weekends also. I'll be working 4/10s some and still work on my current list of builds, then some 7/12 shutdown hours here and there also which will help me save up more for another 3/4 ton later this year! The Constitution Manager position at the paper mill in Cantonment wasn't much good for me after the overtime hours were gone. 5) 8 hour days an hour drive one way just isn't worth it, especially with no benefits at all as it was still a contracted position. But J&L has some great benefits that I've never had, the truck, fuel, 2 weeks vacation, 401k, different insurance options but I already have my own health, bonuses, all kinds of extras but my favorite benefit is being in their hunting club they own up in Wilcox County! I'll be helping to get the place set up nice as they just got it last year and have a lot of fixing up to do on it. Me and the ol lady will be up there hunting a lot this coming season! I've been wanting to try the project manager position with all the experience I have in the plants and residential construction and that'll be a goal accomplished for me! I might even be able to get some of the hands to help me on the barns on weekends and get a good crew going again. I'll be glad to put in some good work for them and help them grow and expand. They did a lot of critical and great work for our capital department at the papermill and bailed other contractors out during the outage that didn't come prepared enough for their own scopes of work. But Arch and J&L came out shining and helped other areas of the outage succeed for us! I've built a great relationship with them and glad to be able to be apart of the company!
We should finish up Gohagin's this week, Dylan will be off work Weds through the weekend so I'll be handling some easy stuff myself on the final touch ups of Gohagin's.
At the end of next week I'll be moving to my step father Roy White's house to start on a privacy and ranch fence which I can handle mostly by myself too.
Then I need to get Ralph Smith's roof the posts we set a few weeks back on so we can get the wall material cut and ready.
After that, I need to get Chris Alexander's posts in so they can be curing till we get the roof up.
If I get all that before Tim Minshew's 40*60*12 enclosure that will give me great timing to back track after finishing Minshew's back to Smith's & Alexander's walls after concrete is poured. That works our for me better so there's no hold time waiting on concrete slabs.
I'm juggling it all the best I can, I haven't needed a 3rd guy yet as I can't train them on all the detailed work I'm on now. Dylan knows most how I do everything but some of the detailed work has to be done by me and it's a slow go.
