Brennan Ruault

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is Bucket, a weekly podcast for people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity in the trades and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:28  

All right, on this episode of Bucket talk, we're here with Brennan Ruault also have a special guest. Eric Gerardi is joining us for this one. Welcome guys.

Brennan Ruault  0:38  

How's it going?

Eric Girouard  0:39  

Thanks for having me. Jeremy, hey Brendan, the real guest here. But I he was, I've been dying to talk to this guy for a while. I had, I had to jump in. Hell

Jeremy Perkins  0:52  

yeah. Hell yeah. Well, it's great to have you both and and Brennan, awesome to have you on Europe in the Yukon mining gold. But man, how'd you get your start? Like, go back as far as you can. I want to hear you know what young Brennan did, and how he got into this whole how, how you got into the whole Gold Rush scene. But like, go back as far as you can.

Brennan Ruault  1:18  

Well, I was pretty fortunate growing up with my dad. He was in the logging industry, and my grandpa and pretty much my whole dad's side of the family, and he used to cart me around out in a car seat when I was six months old, he told me, and he used to have an old Caterpillar cable skidder. So that was my big claim to fame. I just could not wait to run that thing. And I remember I was five years old, and it was pouring rain like crazy, and he was trying to fix my grandpa's skidder and and he wanted me to back it over to, I think, Oh, here's my big day, right? And I was terrified. We're in the mountains, because I grew up in BC, like, you know, pretty steep train up there. So I remember he had to come over, and it had an air break for, like, you know, the park break, and I was so nervous today, he just comes screaming at me, what the hell I've told you 10 times how to do it. Start crying. You know, his voice would just make you cry. And I remember has laughed my ass off afterwards, but drove it over. And then ever since then, I would just every day I wasn't a normal child. I didn't go and have fun with my friends. I was in the bush with dad and and, you know, at lunchtime, he'd let me drive around the landing with it and push up some brush and and go and hook some dog trees out on the trail and Winch them in. And, you know, there's tons of pictures where I'm sitting there sleeping with my hard hat on in the skidder, and had a lot of fun. But from there, from there, just kind of, you know, every spring, summer, Christmas, any Pro D day at school, I went to work with dad, you know. And nowadays you can't even do that kind of shit, which really sucks, because I feel like it would bring more work ethic to this younger generation of all the trades, like I've, you know, I've talked to some people that said, what are we going to do in five years, there's going to be no tradesmen, because everything is like computers, and just the whole mentality of it is different these days, you know, and it's and it's the truth, and it's kind of almost scary. So that being said, you know, it was quite cool that I was in that era, that I was able to still go out and do that with the dad and and from there he went on work for another outfit, and he had quite a bit more equipment. And, man, same thing every Christmas break, everything. I just bugged the shit out of everybody at lunch time to run every piece he had annoyed them. I talked so much, and they used to ride right behind the seat. Man, and they'd all say they'd turn the heater on till I quit talking. They'd feel my head hit the back of their head, pass out sleeping like, Oh, did he eat all my lunch on me? But yeah. And then after that, just slowly advanced to getting to work out there. When I was old enough to actually have a job in the bush. And I went from a dozer to a skidder. We did highly cable logging on the steep mountains. So, as you know, would be pulling cable in the side hill, hooking trees and and then a log processor and a Faller Buncher and a log loader. So I was quite neat by a young age. It's pretty well rounded on a lot of pieces of equipment. And, yeah, I don't know. I just, you know, that was my passion, and it still is, and and definitely would like to start learning more of the business side of things and take a step back from operating so heavily. I mean, I've put a lot of hours in over the last 20 years in my life, you know, I've been working on the road for good almost 15 years now. Not much, not much life. You know, I get off gold rush, and I get three weeks at home, and I'm right over to Alberta, working all winter with barely a day off again, like there was a few years, I think, was put in 330, days a year, man with gold rush and logging. And it just is this, like, oh, like I had, you know, I know we've talked about the podcast before, and I feel bad. I just like I was just busy, you know? And I, I guess I gotta learn to find time. To do a little bit more living than working all the time. You know, it's just, just how it's been, and I guess it got used so.

Jeremy Perkins  5:07  

So let me back it up a little bit. How'd you make the jump from timber to mining? Um,

Brennan Ruault  5:13  

well, I got real tired of the bush for a while, just because it's the early hours, like even right now, I'm waking up at one in the morning seven days a week to go to work, right? So, wow, I needed a break. A buddy of mine had patient company in town, and I ended up running bobcat and, you know, Minnie hoe and all that shit with him, and and we'd do basements and kind of back filling, and not landscaping like planting trees, but we'd shape all the everything we dug. And so it was nice to get to learn some dirt work, and then went back logging for a while. And then it was breakup, spring breakup, and I ended up going to the railway man, if you can believe it. So I did that for a couple months, and then I got into the coal mines in Fernie and spar wood, which is in BC, they're huge mines. And from there, the company had a sister company, and they needed help up at a gold mine in Mackenzie, BC, which is a huge open pit hard rock that was just getting started. So I that was just kind of like my first venture out of town, away into a whole new world that I had not no idea of anything. So it, you know, from there, I think just the hard work ethic of the growing up log and really helped make a name for myself. I knew nobody out of town like that was one thing I was always told, if you want to get in the oil patch in Alberta and shit, you need to know somebody. And it's true, I couldn't get a job to save my life. Like, just put your resume. And they'd all tell me, put your resume. And I said, the one guy blew up. And I said, What the hell is that going to do? I said, this year the 20th guy of phone. And said, like, I can be there tomorrow. I said, I'm not gonna send you a goddamn resume. And he's like, holy shit. Nobody's ever talked to me this fucking or he goes, We're finishing the job up there for two weeks, and then I'll have a full, like, two month job coming up. So I don't want to bring you up for a little short I said, Well, there we go. Now we're making ground here. I said, I can't take this anymore. And in the meantime, I got another call from the logging outfit that I'm working with for the last 10 winters the same day, and I ended up saying, well, that's a sure thing. I was gone the next day and did that seasonally. And then I got a call to go to gold rush. Man, like it all like within a six month period, everything just kind of snowballed into working out in my favor. So it was, A, it was a very good feeling, you know, to have after working so hard to build that name up, and then after gold rush. I mean, the rest has been history, right? So, so,

Jeremy Perkins  7:31  

how's that? How was the learning curve? I mean, you, you go from the coal mines, you go from the rail, you go from timber, and then you, you get called up to gold rush.

Eric Girouard  7:43  

Obviously, it sounds like that happened fast too, with, like, not that much time in between.

Brennan Ruault  7:48  

Yeah, no, honestly, it didn't. It was like, maybe, like, I wouldn't even say it was two years after I left town, man. And it was like, I I met a guy named Carl, who's actually was Rick's mechanic for a couple seasons there. He had the health problems, and he's, he's one of my best friends, and he me and him, we've met at the coal mines, and Vic instantly were best friends that day we met. So it was, it was awesome, and and we always kept in touch. And then he, he just called me out of the blue, said, Hey man, and Eric texted me at first. He's like, Hey, man, what are you doing? I said, I just moved to Alberta, you know, I've got a good logging gig, blah, blah. And he goes, Oh, yeah, okay, never mind. I said, Well, why? What's going on? He goes, Well, I'm in the Yukon gold mine. And I said, Well, he had yukon gold. And he goes, No, I'm working for Parker. He said, bullshit. You are. I said, Don't fuck with me. No, I really. I said, Okay. And he calls me from FaceTime audio. This is, you gotta think, this is in 2015 it's freaking out. The iPhones were still pretty he Yeah. Then we talked two weeks later. I'm like, Oh yeah, he got me pulled a fast on me. Lo and behold, Parker phones out of the blue. I'm like, No, we all recognize that voice anywhere. So we ended up talking and man, it was like, boom, within like, a week I was on the road and headed out. Yeah, it was, it was incredible. Man, coming from a tiny little town in BC, and never thought something like that would happen.

Jeremy Perkins  9:15  

Wow. So did when, when you, when you hopped on site. Is that, was it overwhelming? Were you just like, you know, obviously, you're confident in your skills, but now you're now, you're there, you're on TV. Like, what the fuck like? What do I do? Like? Am I to walk us through that?

Brennan Ruault  9:35  

Well, the first thing that happened is I pulled, pulled into camp when the cook drove into town to get me, to drive me out, because I didn't know where to go. And I get there, and then Rick walks into the camp shack back then, like, Hey, Rick, he's like, You must be bred. And they said, Yeah, I am. I said. I said, How many? How did I put it? I said, do they call you dick? And you go. Was only once

drove over to the cut to watch, and he was learning how to run the grader, and he kept stalling it out, and all I hear is of just screaming the F word at the top of his lungs and let all the camera crew come around. Yeah, that was a I don't know, never really bothered me, but it definitely that first few minutes were overwhelming, because you're just like, holy there's, I think even then, they were still using helicopters before drones that year. So, you know, they had a, it wasn't a day of that, but you're just like, holy man, this is like a whole movie production you think when you hit before. So, yeah, I just, I got there, dude, and, like, I remember the camera crew were like, wow, you revolutionized the way we're moving dirt up here. I said, Well, I wouldn't go that far. But, yeah, I don't know it was, it was, like, it all just worked out. The camera crew threw me on and and the one guy says, Have you done this before? Said, Never in my life. He goes, holy shit, man, you're naturally said most people are terrified looking at the GoPro and then at us out here, and they're, like, nervous, and they can't answer. And I said, I don't know. I'm not even watching you guys out there. I'm just doing my job, digging. And, yeah, it was. That's huge. It's definitely a lot. There's a lot going on the first when you're learning how to do all that, because you gotta learn how to, like, incorporate what they're asking you into your answer, without you know, because nobody knows that they're outside watching you Yeah, or kind of like asking what you're doing. So it was a, it's definitely a hard to learn how to word things when you're so focused on your job and you're just used to running an excavator, not talking to anybody for 1012, hours a day.

Jeremy Perkins  11:53  

Yeah, I could see how it could also be. I mean, I've been, I've been on jobs before where you might have a customer or whatever that's asking you what you're doing, and you're like, just leave me alone. I'm, you know, I'm trying to get, trying to get done. I could, I could imagine how it would be like who you are, trying to meet deadlines, trying to get done, and then all of a sudden, you got a camera crew that's trying to prep you. And so how much of it was, was towards the actual video production versus actually making a living out there? Was there a healthy balance or, or was it you guys catered more towards the towards the production of the Gold Rush season? Or were you actually really trying to get it done and and get as much gold as you could possibly do?

Brennan Ruault  12:36  

Well, I'm sure if you watch Parker, you know that we're there to work her ass. 40 foot whip you cracked at all times with him, but, but no about it. It was a it was a really healthy balance. And one thing there was times it could get frustrating because, you know, having someone ask you 50 times a day, what's going on? If it's a slow day to them, was a productive day. To us, meaning no breakdowns. Were full tilt, full like, all day, things were running perfect. Like, that's what we wanted, a mining operation, or any operation, right? The least amount of downtime. But that's it makes it harder to fulfill. I mean, you know what? I mean, so it but in the end, it all worked out. We'd always say, like, you guys just got to be patient. Things happen, like we're running equipment. Things break, you know, accidents happen, whatever. So when I look back now, I'm like, Yeah, I got frustrated, but it split the day up quite nicely. If you had to get off and do some filming and stuff, you know, you got your little break from just going as hard as you can from seven till seven every day. You know, like, we don't, we do seven days a week. So,

Eric Girouard  13:40  

so it sounds like you had two, two you had, you had, you had the goal. You obviously had the gold side of it, and then you had the TV show. And it sounds like the show actually liked when the when things were going sideways, and the the gold side liked when things were going smooth, and the TV, the TV side wasn't that sexy. So either way, you're kind of winning depending on what's going on.

Brennan Ruault  14:02  

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Man, 100% so it was quick to see how they had all all works out, you know, and, and, yeah, it mean, it's hard to fully understand until you get to be in the mix of it. All right. See, there's days it's so much shits going on, man, you're just like, holy, your brain's going to explode. In other days, you're like, oh, it's pretty sweet. So,

Eric Girouard  14:28  

well, good news is this is where we're going to tell Jeremy. We're sending them to Yukon with you for the next six months. So,

Jeremy Perkins  14:38  

but that being said, it's so you guys spend a lot of time on site, months on end, right? And you're away from family, you're away from friends. The sole focus is on the job. Obviously, the rewards are are exponential if you guys do it right? But for future, future young, young men and women in the trades. Who, who haven't gone away from home, looking at, looking at pipelining, or working in the petroleum or gas industry, timber or or mining. What's it like living out of a trailer for months on end and and living with a group of guys? Is it? Is it good? Is it bad? Like, walk us through a little bit of that? I'm sure it's a little bit of both.

Brennan Ruault  15:25  

But Well, Matt, that is a test of time up in the Yukon, because most, most jobs we've ever been to, other than the mining, has been a shift where, you know, like, whether it be a month most of the time, like, there's time limits now to having days off for safety reasons and in WCB and all that crap. So, you know, you at least get to go home where you can do, like a 21 and seven shifts. So you know, you got the end goal, or, like, I mean, end date, when you get to see your family and friends again up there the first year I went man like Parker, you know, you was just starting out. So it's not like there was a ton of money, like that was the oldest, roughest, I can't even my friends are like, I can't believe you made it six months doing that. I said me, either man, like, that was, that was, it wasn't easy. And like, you see, you can leave whenever you want, but, I mean, you can't. It's so far away that you just, you go and work right and get it done. And it's, it is very tough, because it is a six to eight month season with the same 10 to 25 people. And you know what? We've ourselves into one big family up there, like, you know, nobody was fighting and nobody was like, you know, sure, there's days you have a tough time with one another, but you have to learn how to adapt to be a family, otherwise it would never work like you don't like, you know, towns an hour and a half from where Parker's camp was. And the first few years, we'd all go in on we'd try to do a 12 day on two day off shifts every second weekend. You know, you get a break. And after a while, dude, nobody even went to town anymore once or twice a summer. What are we doing? We're we're we're on the shittiest internet on the planet. Like, if you went on at 730 because we get off at seven, everybody's on Facebook, Instagram and face timing home. You're like, you have to stay up till midnight to get a phone call through. And like, we're an hour behind at home. You know they're staying up to water the morning so you can actually have a conversation note each other's so,

Jeremy Perkins  17:27  

so how do you guys deal with this? This is actually because we talked about it a little bit before the show. But how do you guys deal with with the the sunlight for pretty much all day, or darkness all day. How does that all work? Well,

Brennan Ruault  17:45  

like, as explained to you before, is there looks like a big mess lab up there with all the tin foil all over our trailer windows, just so you can sleep. The first the first two seasons were really tough, because it's so bright that you do not feel tired like the sun is. I mean, at midnight it looks like four o'clock in the afternoon. It it's crazy, yeah. So it was a lot to adjust to, but got one hell of a good sundown, let me tell you that.

Unknown Speaker  18:16  

And what up? What? So

Unknown Speaker  18:17  

when you guys get

Eric Girouard  18:17  

off at like, seven, so you guys are working 1212, 12 twos or whatever. Then eventually, like, screw the twos. Let's just keep working and make money all that stuff. When you guys get off, you said it's a family 1012, to 25 guys. Are you guys hanging out, playing cards? You guys having beers? Are you guys like, Nope, I'm smoked. I want to go right to bed. Like, or is the combination like, what's the what's like the non work life up there? You know? Oh, we

Brennan Ruault  18:45  

definitely put a lot of beers away. A lot of beers to that. Oh, man, cheers, for sure. I know I'm not having one right now, but I'd love one. Yeah,

Eric Girouard  18:57  

got it. You guys will hang out after work together and have beers and sit by a fire or something like that, and shoot the shit. And my guess is, talk probably more about work than you probably should. Yeah,

Brennan Ruault  19:11  

you know what that idiot did today? Know that idiot did today? Yeah, yeah, it's we used to have lots of campfires and have beers out there every single night. And I mean, later on in the seasons, you know, we kind of slowed down on that a little bit, and we gotta detox that, especially when we'd have plant move days with Parker, like it was, it was as it was, as high intensity as you can, even more than you could even a picture on the show, right, like your whole tilt from dark to dark. Well, I see dark to dark, but it would tire you right out. So, and we've started those quite a bit more. I mean, that one, the last season is there. I think we did nine or 11, and I know he's been doing more than that, man. And like, they're two full days, like, around the clock, go, go, go, go, go. So I'm on top. We just kept doing bigger and bigger. Are bigger cuts, and everybody's just like, walking zombies. But, yeah, yeah, pretty rewarding, though, when you see, like, when you think of the size of cuts we did, and then you see the the gold at the end, like, it doesn't seem like it adds up, but, you know, so much money. But to say, Man, I it was part of digging that up, of as a team like that, is there's something when you see that yellow shit in the pan, or in a big buck the end of it, or in a gold bar that he pours, man, it just like lights us a fire in your soul, like it gets in your blood. It's crazy. Yeah, I don't know where else you get shit like that, right? Like they poor, like, nobody gets to be around that stuff.

Jeremy Perkins  20:43  

Yep, now, now. So I like food. And we skipped over this part when you were talking about family and like, what you guys, how's the how's the food up there,

Brennan Ruault  20:53  

dude, beverage didn't add 40 pounds. You're really good, man. We had some really awesome cooks. Like,

oh, be like, hit your best steak. Host, seven days a week they're working at parkers. My god, no way. I was

Jeremy Perkins  21:13  

thinking the complete opposite. I'm thinking like, spam and beans, like campfire TV

Eric Girouard  21:19  

dinners. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  21:20  

exactly. You guys are the opposite.

Brennan Ruault  21:22  

Oh yeah, he knew he wouldn't have much of a crew if we ate like that.

Eric Girouard  21:26  

No, yeah, I guess that makes sense. You know, keep you guys fed. I'll keep you guys energized to keep going hard. Yeah, that's cool.

Brennan Ruault  21:33  

Oh yeah, 100% so it was awesome that way, man. Guy couldn't wait for dinner time and be like so you could get through machine, greased and fueled the fastest to get first line, no, make a big brisket every like once a week, like huge, we'd all race to get the end piece that had all the season on it all the time. You shoulder checking, coming in the kitchen.

Jeremy Perkins  21:55  

So what, what, what you said is actually that kind of resonates with me, because I've never heard it, but I know what you're talking about. You said getting through machine grease. So would you guys, like, at the end of the day, all you guys would get out there and grease all the machines and and prep them for the next day. Oh

Brennan Ruault  22:11  

yeah, yeah, we get about a half hour at the end of every shift to few club and service and be all ready for the next day. The best part was like, Parker and Rick would always come down in the cut and they jump in the 700 or the D 10, turn around for an hour and leave that there. And I'd have to shovel the tracks on both of those full of muskeg moss and trees, and then just see you later. I'll be like, Oh, thanks, guys. Be down there for an hour and a half. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  22:38  

yeah. I mean a lot of people, I mean, I was on the maintenance side of things, but we not to the degree that you guys are. There's a lot of time to go. You know, everybody wants to hop in the seat and be an operator like, that's the number one goal. I'm going to get out there. I'm going to do it all. But there's a, I don't know, 1000s, 1000s of grease fittings on your entire site and to go through and, I mean, must have been cases of tubes of grease for you guys every day. Like you guys must have. You guys had to have had a grease sponsorship at some point in time.

Brennan Ruault  23:13  

Yeah, I honestly, I'm not sure I would sure hope we did, though, because Kevin Peter to D 10 and 11 man like, you know, they take a lot of grease, because you got to think a lot of those Bucket are down in the mud. You know, we're overloading buckets and the Ripper platforms are on that permafrost. And as soon as the sun comes out, we rip the black mud, which would be like a nice Alberta soil that's been frozen for a million years. Like, as soon as it gets broken, water just pours out of it. So it's just a mess, you know what I mean? So it definitely everything needs to be gone over quite thoroughly every day so we can stay in optimal production, right? Wow. Yeah, Jeremy.

Eric Girouard  23:52  

Jeremy's thinking, you guys maybe grease, grease the machines once a year. He's not used to greasing things daily. He's like, it keeps them in business.

Jeremy Perkins  24:05  

I took the grease gun to the end of the I was like, hey, yeah, I agree that, you know, yeah, I

Brennan Ruault  24:10  

got to throw in a quick thank you to Milwaukee grease guns, because those are, those are business. Man,

Jeremy Perkins  24:16  

good. I bought, I bought an electric grease gun, and it was night and day. I couldn't imagine the guys of old that were out there just pumping grease fittings with their hands. Like, I mean, that was before my time. I got it a little bit, but like, geez, that's got to be now. It's easy. Just

Brennan Ruault  24:38  

that's why they were nails back,

Unknown Speaker  24:40  

right? Oh yeah. Fuck. Right.

Eric Girouard  24:43  

Oh yeah, your hand. And so how the nickname big cat come about? Give us the history behind that.

Brennan Ruault  24:52  

That's really stupid. But I was working in Ferdy on the coal mines here before I headed north. Uh. There was this one bartender at this at this little tiny pub all the time, and I'd always flirt with her. And she had to been 40 at the time. And I was like, maybe 2221 I remember I was going to the gym quite a bit in a little bit better shape that I'm in there. Was like, just give me a kiss. And she's like, No. Like, come on. And she jumped over the bar and just gave you this quick little kiss. And I started laughing. I'm like, no wait. She goes, Oh, big cat. I just feel so safe around you. And I'm like, big cat, I like that.

Eric Girouard  25:32  

That's awesome, by the way. That was not what I was expecting. That is awesome.

Brennan Ruault  25:40  

Just just a young idiot at the bar back in the day. I love it. Love it. Love it. Mitch. Mitch didn't know that story for longest time. He's like, I don't know it's big runs a big cat. I'm like, no, no,

Eric Girouard  25:53  

yeah, exactly. I thought it was equipment you only like to ride, caterpillars, all that stuff. Oh, man, all right, go ahead. Jeremy, no, no,

Jeremy Perkins  26:05  

boss.

Eric Girouard  26:06  

I was gonna say we I know you love to run your machines, your sleds when you can your ATVs, which sounds like you don't have enough time to actually have fun when, when you are back from the bush and all that stuff. Obviously, it's working out. I've seen it working out, sleds, all that stuff. But tell us, obviously, time with family, time with friends. But in order, what? What's your day when you're back from the bush? Like, alright, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, and I'm doing this. What's your like, fun, fun, fun stuff.

Brennan Ruault  26:37  

Most of the time I'm pretty damn burnt out by the time I get home. So it's like, I definitely take some time to rest, but yeah, man, I don't know it's kind of tough, because, like, when I get home, most of my friends are at work, you know what I mean? So it's like, I don't have I kind of got to wait till a weekend to do anything if I want to go sledding with a group of the boys or riding the Harleys. Get like, well, I'm usually at home and it's snowing already. So this summer, I was at home, man, and I got to ride my Harley. Knot was like, that's my favorite pastime in the world, right? But it's nice in the winter I come home, get to spend time with the girlfriend and the kid, you know, during the week and when they get off school and work and everything else. So get that's what I've seen earlier when we're speaking too. It's kind of, you know, covid hit up there, and it was tough. I didn't come home for six and a half months, for two years in a row. I got to see them for seven days. They come up two seasons. Man, like, living light, living a relationship and a kid on FaceTime. That's tough. You know, like, yeah, yeah. Dan, I look back at all these memories and to come up on Facebook, and I'm like, holy man, like, he's, he was three when I met him, and he's going to be 13 in February. And like, Man, I missed a lot of his younger years of growing, you know, him just being gone. And it's like, when you get older, you start to realize that stuff a lot more. So try to make up for a little bit more. You know, he's got hockey every weekend, and I go out as many as I can when I'm not stuck at work. Yeah? But yeah, there's that dude man sled, and it's definitely nice to

Eric Girouard  28:06  

it sounds like Harley hits her soul,

Brennan Ruault  28:11  

Yo, man, I put the pipes on it. They're called D and D billet fat cats. They should

Jeremy Perkins  28:18  

be naming the big cats?

Eric Girouard  28:21  

The big cat? What? What are you thinking for the for the little guy? You think you obviously, he's, he's only 13, but you, you want him following your footsteps? You're like, Absolutely not. I've, I've done this and I've killed myself. I don't want you. I want you doing something else.

Brennan Ruault  28:40  

Yeah, I keep telling him that he's, I haven't got to have him out like my dad did, you know. So he, he loves running the excavator when he's around, but I feel like his interest hasn't quite been there. So I do tell him he's like, you know, I sure hope that you can find something a little bit easy, like where you don't have to be away from home to do it. I mean, I'd never deter him. If he has a passion for it, I'll, I'll stand behind it 1,000% it's just I'm like, Jesus Christ. I've given up a lot of life in the last 15 years to, you know, a lot of cool things have happened, but I've also given up a lot of my own personal time in life, yeah, well, in my younger years, when you have the energy to do a lot of cool, fun things, right? So I was like, whatever you want to do. And behind you, he's really loving hockey now and and I hope that that'll go somewhere with him, you know, like, I mean, he's still pretty young, so we'll just have to see where that all falls into place here in the next year we'll

Eric Girouard  29:34  

have, we'll have to welcome here in Boston to the Boston Bruins, maybe one day. And then you have to come. You have to come visit us,

Brennan Ruault  29:40  

dude, 100% I was seeing that before you got off. Like, I've been dying to come see you guys. I know things haven't worked out, and then covid, dude, you'd kill for that stuff.

Eric Girouard  29:50  

We're in the clear. Soon, I think now we're in the the clear. So once you have your home for a while, and we got to figure that out, get you guys out here. You the lady and the little guy? Ian, do it right?

Brennan Ruault  30:01  

Man, that'd be so cool. I can't wait. It's been a lot of bit of how many years has there been no since we started out? Jesus, time flies. Man,

Eric Girouard  30:10  

I know. Yep.

Jeremy Perkins  30:14  

So. Brennan, what is what? What is your most memorable moment on gold rush?

Brennan Ruault  30:21  

Oh, boy, that's a good question. No, I

Jeremy Perkins  30:24  

don't ask easy ones.

Brennan Ruault  30:26  

No, Jesus, I've never been asked that.

Jeremy Perkins  30:29  

Hmm, good or bad?

Brennan Ruault  30:34  

Well, I remember the first with Parker. It's like everything I touched was just breaking. I remember the dozer, the bearing packed it in, so he tore a strip off me. Then the track, the bolts come out of the the master link. There's this much mud, and all the pads I back up and turn poof, the track hits back the blade, and he's just few and mad and have something else happened. And then the TV crew wanted to try and call me major malfunction. I think you guys call me that I'm walking out of here, malfunction. I'm like, I do not need to get stuck to that name. Yeah.

The funniest part, I actually think that ever to me, was we had Parker's wash plant slucifer. We set it up one day, and we the bank would wash away overnight from, like, coming off the tailing chute and the thing tipped over. And so, like, you know that plants 90,000 pounds, I think he said, so, like, it's sitting like this instead of level, and the we get a knock on the door at like, four o'clock in the morning from night shift, and the girlfriend and kid were up there. And then she goes, and she goes, Ah, that's for you. You might want to get up. I said, why? She goes, the plant fell off the bank and I and we could see it directly from the camera, open the blinds. I'm like, No, I'm going back to bed. Boom, boom. Everybody's knocking on the door. Well, then the film crew gets up. Why are you guys racing away? Why are you racing away? We said, Oh, we're just really eager to get to work today. We didn't want to tell followed you, right? So get over there. And anyways, we get going, and I have the 700 hooked up just pulling this thing, and I can't get it to, like, come back onto the flat. And when they edited the show, I see that that when I come home that fall and I'm sitting there jerking I'm like, come on, you can't be fucking pig. Get on the bank, and all you hear is Mitch. You don't see his face in the edit. See, that's what your mom says about you. Bet. That's

Eric Girouard  32:44  

That's funny. They use the editing to yeah to make it

Jeremy Perkins  32:53  

hell yeah. So I gotta ask another hard question, and you're probably not going to tell me, and I don't blame you, so the way the season ended, what's next for Brennan?

Brennan Ruault  33:08  

I don't know. You guys are just going to have to wait.

Eric Girouard  33:15  

Nice. All right. I like it. Yes, sir,

Jeremy Perkins  33:20  

definitely. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Well, hey, dude, this was been, this has been, you know, a long time coming. You've been an amazing friend, friend of Brun you've been awesome on the show. Obviously, you're, you're a stand up dude. Um, thank you for being on the podcast. I want to leave Eric with The Last words on this one.

Eric Girouard  33:45  

Yeah, yeah. It's been, we've been chatting since, I think as soon as Brent launched back in, back in like 20, back in the heydays of covid. So it's been, it's been crazy, man, just to see one obviously we what we've been up to, but most importantly, seeing you as you've been going through the show, which is weird, because you're, we're always like, a year behind or six months behind it, what's going on in your life. So when we chat and text, I'm like, hold on, we That's the weirdest part about this whole thing, is I'm talking to you at different times, and so we're always playing, like, a year behind, but, but now just seeing what you're doing, man, it's cool. It's cool as hell. The show's like on fire. Obviously, you guys are rock stars come Friday night when that's that thing's on, but, man, it's been a ride, and it's only a matter of time before we're hanging out in the flesh, whether it's over here or up in your neck of the woods, ripping sleds or Harley's or whatever,

Brennan Ruault  34:42  

dude, you can't wait, man, it's going to be awesome. It definitely has been a long time coming. I want to say thank you guys for absolutely everything. I couldn't be more appreciative of getting to be part of the team and just even having to chat with you guys, man, like it means a lot, and I can't thank you guys enough. So it's been cool to see everything you guys have been up to as well. And I love every single product they have, man, you guys keep killing it. And

Jeremy Perkins  35:07  

as a special thanks to our loyal listeners, we're giving $10 off your next purchase of $60 or more at bruntworkwear.com Use Discount Code bucket talk 10. That's bucket talk 10. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai