Training day...

At last our first day on the job site arrived, and along with it winter seems to have arrived, too.  I think it got into the low 50's today, but barely.  We had a steady wind out of the northeast that continued into the evening (and as of Friday morning at 6 am, is still blowing).  The rain let up well before dawn, but the cold damp conditions continued all day.

We had a date with our trainers out at Sugar Valley at 1 pm, so we just hung around the coach with electric heaters blasting all morning.  Around 11:30 I started to get out and organize my cold weather clothing which I have been acquiring for the past few months culminating two days ago with my purchase of my $3 winter jacket.

Around 12:10 pm we got in our car and followed two other couples north on SR 200 toward Fairview 11 miles away.  Just past Fairview the road turns right and we crossed into North Dakota just about 2 blocks to the Sugar Valley Pile Station.

I "love" first days on the job.....you have absolutely no idea what you will be doing, or how difficult it will be to learn the job.  Everything that comes at you is new.   You're in a small room with dozens of people trying to sign in, get your lock (I'll talk more about that shortly), fill out your first time card, get a hard had that fits, safety glasses, safety vest, and ear plugs.....yeah, it gets pretty noisy.

There are six piling stations that look just like the ones below.  These stations create large piles of sugar beets 18 feet high.

I know you are still wondering about the "lock".....whenever the piling station is shut down a "scissors" type contraption is clamped on the lever that turns back on the power at the main electrical service for that piler; then each person working on that station attaches their lock to make sure it cannot be turned back on until each person has removed their lock, and is back in position before startup.  If you are in the wrong position when these beasts are powered up you will get squished.

As each pile reaches its maximum height, and width the piler is moved backwards to start a new pile.  The lot where the piling is done is quite long......maybe 7-10 football fields long.  When we reach the other end we are done.  Sugar Valley is the largest sugar beet piling station between here and the Pacific Ocean.....over 2,000 trucks a day will come through here at the height of our operation.....that's about 333 trucks per station per day.

We spent just over an hour examining the equipment, asking questions, and being assigned our positions.  We figured we would be helpers on one of the stations, however, when our turn to talk with our supervisor, Travis, came he said they were looking for one couple to work slightly different hours.  TLE would be assigned to work in the "scale house" (in out of the weather)....where the trucks are weighed coming and going, and I will be a rover moving from station to station giving workers break time.  Our hours were going to be 6 am to 6 pm, however, with our new positions our hours will now be 10 am to 10 pm.......perfect!  In addition we get a $4/hour bump to $14/hour.  We love the hours because we don't have to get up at the "butt crack of dawn" , and we don't get to bed much before midnight most nights anyway, so we are very happy.

We'll head back to Sugar Valley to do more on job training with trucks coming in and dumping their loads to get the hang of our jobs.  We'll work from 8 am to 12:30 pm Friday, then no work again until Monday morning when we start our 12 hour schedule.  Although North Dakota is on Central time, we will be working on Montana time, or Mountain time.

Thanks for stopping by!