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Show Wednesday, January 23, 2008 A7 n rt of tiie joEs n woncin MS IS I1ISK Vernal Express , a m mm g ililii V 1 By Lmg E. Wwrre Uintah Basin News Service Joe Shields and his roughneck crew with Peak Well Service, Rig 900, are used to working 13 hour days, six days a week outside in bitter-cold temperatures on workover rigs. "During the day it probably warms up to 5 degrees, early in the morning it is 10 below," said Shields. "I usually wear two pairs of coveralls, dress in layers, stay busy and keep moving. The more you work, the warmer you stay." Except for when the crew is stripping a well in the winter. Then they are working in the cold while soaking wet because of the production water that sprays them almost constantly while they pull rods and tubing. Even worse, the water builds up and sits on the derrick where they must stand. Shields said the guys on his crew usually bring a few changes of dry clothes when they are stripping. When they get too cold - there are no heaters or open flames allowed where they work - they jump in a nearby truck and change out of their wet clothes. "And we don't pack around a boiler to make steam, so we just tough it out," he added, obviously proud of his crew's stamina. A lot of guys will quit their roughneck jobs in a bad Uintah Basin winter - and as Shields and others who work in the cold that the Standard talked to agree - last winter was even worse than it is this year. "Last year was colder - it was 37 below for a week straight," he said. Shields is lucky though, his crew has stuck with him. At just 22, he's a veteran of more than 4 years in the oil field. It's given him time to know what happens when temperatures are below zero for weeks at a time: equipment equip-ment breaks down constantly, making it even more formidable to get the job done. "Equipment don't want to run, it takes forever to get the rig started and going. It broke down a lot when it was (37 below)," he said. By the time Shields makes it home from work, he usually is so exhausted he often goes to bed without dinner. So what is it that makes someone endure those winter working conditions day after day, with no relief in sight? Shields has the answer: "Just think about the paycheck, I guess." In the oil field, where guys still in their teens can earn with overtime as much as an up-and-coming business executive, the bitter cold might not seem so bad - after all, it's not Alaska, it won't last for months. Right? Online resources on working outside in cold weather are full of safety precautions to take when temperatures are well below be-low freezing. Page after page of instructions on how long gloves can be off hands before frostbite sets in; how long the human body should be outside at specific temperatures tem-peratures without going inside to warm up. But when we asked people who work outdoors if they received re-ceived safety training from their bossorcompany-theanswerwas resoundingly, "Uhhh no, when we get cold we just know we need to go inside and get warm." Jared West co-owns a construction con-struction company that builds homes in Roosevelt and unincorporated unin-corporated Duchesne County. He oversees two construction crews and despite the icebox effect that has set in, his men are still busy framing homes. The work takes twice the time it does in the warmer weather, said West. "You just wear thermals and your coveralls and that's another factor that makes it really slow," he said. "You just can't move. It still gets done and it's still profitable profit-able but not by much." West's construction crews build fires with excess lumber to keep warm at the job site, that's another factor that slows down the work. Interestingly, he said his men prefer to work outside when it's cold, rather than inside a house. "A lot of guys will fight to work outside in the sun, because it is so much colder inside. A heater inside doesn't really do it (while framing) the heat just kind of goes up and out." Winter is the hard on construction con-struction tools, too. "You have to run diesel antifreeze through your hoses and set the compressor by the fire in the morning just to get it loosened up to work," West said. Rural mail carrier Jennifer Cambridge isn't really out in the elements, but she drives a car with the windows down in the winter. Cambridge delivers mail to 120 individual boxes. It's a job she's performed for 7V2 years now. Depending on the route and how much mail she has, it will take Cambridge anywhere from half a day to the entire day to make her deliveries. Her job is made more difficult by the snow, especially the snow that builds up around mailboxes and isn't cleared away. "That's the worse thing for me, people who don't clear snow around their boxes," she said. "I jump out as many times as I can to put the mail in the box and leave notes." . It's the homeowners' responsibility respon-sibility to have snow cleared from around their box, Cambridge said. When it comes to driving rural I.IU..I lJ mill Miiim nm iiuiiil nu i lili huiiiiu. i fc -l I l :Y.VlVcJr'j. l 1 -C;:. -it j.J,.-' .!! f ' i i"ittliii , -r-?c.i ir i tti i -tin in'' rj -i t- ----- M r- v ' - ASPEN BROOK REALTY INC. S yd Located on approximately Vi acres it includes a beautiful view from thedeck, overMOOsq. ft. of l:..: .J. ..... J.....I.:.. L..LA.II 0 ;, ,. I-,,.. mint spuce mm uismi wimmmijj mwuyuuui, mmvun a mum wwi, iuic Jessica shop, puttingqreen anion incredible landscaped loUdditional land avaikblt Schofield Watmmotkssicaimi 766-5280 "Expect the Best" Pat Harrell, Agent, GRI, CRS 828-5063 1340 West Highway 40, Vernal, UT 84078 Office: (435) 789-7555 Fax: 781-2913 Thu 124 2311 Partly cloudy. Highs In the low 20s and lows in the low teens. Sunrise Sunset 7:32 AM 5:26 PM Fri 125 259 Snow showers at times. Sunrise Sunset 7:31 AM 5:27 PM Sat 126 279 A few snow showers. Sunrise Sunset 7:31 AM 5:28 PM Sun 127 259 A few snow showers. Sunrise Sunset 7:30 AM 5:29 PM 3 Mon 128 241 Snow showers possible. Sunrise Sunset 7:29 AM 5:30 PM We Celebrate Hometown Life Stories for and about hometowns just like yours. Look for us each week m tins paper. Utah At A Glance Logan . 3 120 Ji.9 Ogden TrST 3525 -W- O 3726 Provo vs$nS' 3823 Ji5- Cedar City, 3722 J J Vernal 231 1 Moon Phases o o Full Last Jan 22 Jan 30 O O New First Feb 7 Feb 14 UV Index Thu 124 2 Low Fri 125 2 Low Sat 126 3 Moderate Sun 127 2 Low Mon 128 2 Low The UV Indox Is mesijrd on a 01 1 number scalo. with a hnihor UV Intfnx showing the nood fnr rjm.ilor skin pio-teclion pio-teclion O -.. 1 1 Area Cities Beaver -) an snowor Blanding 38 20 sn shower BrtghamCity 33 23 sn shower CednrCity 37 22 sn shower Delta 37 20 sn shower Elko, NV 32 12 sn shower Evanston, WY 26 16 sn shower Farmlngton, NM 39 18 sn shower Fillmore 38 23 sn shower Flagstaff. A2 33 1 1 sn shower Ciiund Jut, IO Green River Heber City Kanab Logan Moab Mt. Pleasant Ogden Park City Preston, ID 33 29 38 31 35 31 35 29 29 Zi. sn shower 13 sn shower 12 sn shower 21 sn shower 20 sn shower 1 8 sn shower 1 6 sn shower 25 sn shower 21 sn shower 18 pt sunny National Cities Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Denver J4 28 11 42 41 it' iiii.l bunny 10 snow 6 pt sunny 33 pt sunny 26 ptsunny Houston Los Angolas Miami Minneapolis New York 46 58 76 12 31 41 nun 46 rain 59 pt sunny 7 pt sunny 16 sn shower Provo Richfield Roosevelt Salt Lake City Sandy St. George Tooele Vernal Wendover PtHHJIHX San Francisco Seattle St. Louis 37 21 24 7 14 mi bhowoi 38 23 sn shower sn shower sn shower 37 26 sn shower 36 27 sn shower 44 34 sn showor 36 25 sn shower 23 11 pt sunny 37 21 sn shower bt 4( lain 47 39 rain 42 34 mixed 23 13 pt sunny Washington, DC 34 21 sn shower rr'no Amollrno Profllo Hnmolnwn rnntnnl Pnrvlrn roads along her route in the County crews. Cambridge said, adding that in bad weather, she said Duchesne "You can really tell when you the warmer months, Uintah County's snow removal crews hit Uintah County on my delivery County actually has much better do a great job, but she can't of- route in the winter because of all roads with pavement practically fer the same praise to Uintah the snow that is on the roads," everywhere. I i i I 1 - .i vVi'ZV'.:-. N.' .i '4 in r -A The key to working in the sub-freezing weather and staying warm is to dress in layers. Make sure you have good boots, a hard hat liner helps too, along with a couple of different gloves, said one veteran of the cold-weather work. ) ' -"A OPTIMUM MORTGAGE, L.L.C. . Phone: 435.789.7705 ' Conventional Fax: 435.789.7706 FHA , ltJ Purchases (Up to 100) J ' 80 North Vernal Avenue State Income Loans i 1L 1 Vernal, Utah 84078 . Manufactured Housing fett Kd breynoldsoptimumusa.com . h Perfect Mortgage Loan J Specialist VERNAL AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 1? MMlii t kj voter conference January 29th & 30th, 2008 Western Park Convention Center 300 East 200 South Vernal, Utah Presentations: Keynote Speaker Lt. Governor Gary Herbert Drought in Utah District Project Updates Water Forecast & Climate Change Storm Water & Other Legal Issues Facing Canal Companies Storm Drinking Water Update Green River Water Study Secondary Water Systems Ashley Creek Adjudication Conservation Landscaping Special Discounts for Ranchers, Farmers, Irrigation, & Canal Users! mountain America! I ' r i n i t file R2Ell HORROCKS ASrhN UMOUK RIAITYINC ' lt0 ftllrv vWQfarr stawrr ii'ii ENGINEERS Vernal Area Chambfr of Commerce I walmart Express SvMor l ivf H.1I.T I I -"wwp |