Jason Becker

Jeremy Perkins  0:00  

This is Jeremy and Eric with bucket talk powered by brunch. This week we have Jason Becker on the show. But before we jump in, Eric, what's been going on?

Eric Girouard  0:10  

This is bucket talk weekly podcast where 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 to trades and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now.

Eric Girouard  0:23  

So if you're hungry, it's time to eat.

Eric Girouard  0:27  

We discussed 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.

Eric Girouard  0:37  

All right, so in my side of the world, which you are a part of this, we celebrated our one year anniversary at brunch. So 12 months to the day, September 10. Last year is when we shipped our first boots to customers. And it's been one hell of a ride over the past 12 months. It's been like a ride in a bowl on top of a roller coaster. And it was super exciting to bring it in, did a ton of Giveaways on our own page giving away some Yeti time is Brian cooler. Some of our big supporters and partners out in the Instagram world and tick tock world also helped us ring it in by doing stuff like that. We get the whole team together. I spent some time at the office at the garage reminiscing over the past year and the team has now grown from four when we launched the business 10 folks and it was all hands on deck for that really is kind of absorb the past week or two of my life. So nothing too exciting outside of work. Unfortunately,

Jeremy Perkins  1:35  

I don't think I ever congratulated you. Congratulations on your one year.

Eric Girouard  1:38  

Thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  1:41  

so I'm on my side of things. It's kind of interesting. I was very fortunate enough to be asked by Eric if Jenny, my wife and Olivia, who is my barn manager if they wanted to do the photoshoot for our first female work boot. And I mean our family was completely honored. I think it's a milestone for women in the trades to have a female boot. So my wife was super pumped about Olivia was super pumped about it. So they sent Ian up. And a photographer and first off the photographer is hilarious. He missed the barn by about 100 yards and then just just slam the brakes on in middle of the street and then ripped it in reverse because he was about an hour late. I was awesome. Nobody actually showed up the barn which is hilarious. I mean, usually we have a million people in and out but we're fortunate that day had good weather. And so we got into just kind of modeling some of the stuff stuff we don't usually do. Or definitely not the most photogenic people good thing. You're only taking pictures of our feet, right? Yeah, there we got one of the cool highlights of the day was the the photographer, the horses came up to him. And we're kind of poking at him and prodding them because they've never seen it. So he's out just taking pictures and there's horse bite in the side of his head. But other than that, you know, just been kind of working on the farm and getting ready for school, which is coming up.

Eric Girouard  3:03  

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I saw some of the photos is looking good so far. I'm excited to see and bring into life on the site. And thanks for allowing us to come up to your farm and crash your workday. take some photos you guys anytime but

Jeremy Perkins  3:13  

Jason Becker. Jason Becker is the podcast host of art junkies. And welcome, Jason.

Jason Becker  3:26  

Thanks for having me, guys. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to bring you on. Awesome, awesome.

Jeremy Perkins  3:31  

So I want to get into where you came from and how you got to where you are now you took over the show from what Jimmy McKnight?

Jason Becker  3:38  

Yeah, took over for Jimmy McKnight pray April 2020. So been going at it just over a year now.

Jeremy Perkins  3:45  

So bring us back to the early days. I want to hear how you got to the point you are now.

Jason Becker  3:50  

Okay, I got into welding at the age of 15. And never thought I was gonna make a career out of it. But I got out of high school join the Marine Corps. I was in the Marines for four years as a welder I was planning on reenlistment, but you know, I was tired of playing in the sandbox tired of you know, doing tours over to the Mideast and stuff. So I was like, you know, maybe it's time to get out and start my journey on life, maybe go to college uses this GI Bill and stuff. So I got out of the Marines and got into structural steel iron work. And I did that for about 10 years while I started my Associate's Degree in construction. Fast forward that got my associate's degree and then the first term of my bachelor's degree I got into teaching welding at the college that I was attending for my degree, and I just, I fell in love with it. And I've been teaching ever since finished my bachelor's degree and right before I finished my bachelor's, I was like, I really don't enjoy the paperwork side of this stuff. I don't enjoy the fact that I'm probably going to be sitting in a cubicle, you know, working on scheduling and invoices and budgets and all that Bs and it's like I want to be in the field with my hands or at least still working with my tools and fall in love with teaching there. You know, I was like, maybe I can just get into this teaching gig full time. So I got hired by another school right before I graduated. My Bri and signed on with them. I've been with Valencia College in Kissimmee, Florida ever since 2016. And it's been a hell of a ride man and teaching, welding, teaching something that I'm truly passionate about. It's just amazing, you know, and that's kind of what drives me to get out of bed in the morning, every morning, I don't dread going to work, I get up, I'm excited. And you know, I get to pass that knowledge off to the next generation. It's really cool.

Unknown Speaker  5:21  

That's pretty cool. I mean, you have something in common, I'm actually on the GI Bill now, which has been a huge blessing to me, it's afforded me the opportunity to do things that I never a could have afforded or being ever really stuck with. And so it's opened up a whole lot of doors I never knew existed. So when you said you're 15 when you started welding, was that your goal going into the Marine Corps was to be a welder? Or did you have other trades presented to you and you just decided that that was going to be your passion?

Unknown Speaker  5:47  

No, I remember you think you were enlisted in the Coast Guard. I don't know if you do the same thing but so with the Marines in the army, they pretty much just guarantee you your field so I was guaranteed something in the 1300 field 1300 is engineering I was able to choose to MLS or military occupational specialties and Yep, they could guarantee me one. It turns out that the staff NCIC of my recruiting depot there he knew the guy that passed out jobs right outside camp devil dog and everything once you get to marine combat training so he's like you pick two of these jobs I will guarantee you one and I wanted to go infantry originally, but um, my mother's only natural born child so I promised her that I won't do infantry. So combat engineer was the closest thing I could get to be in inventory without breaking the promise to my mother, and they just get up the last spot of combat engineering and I was like alright, screw it, I can just go welding I think that'd be fun you know, it's something I'm already used to. So I should be able to breeze through them less school and just get a little bit more depth into it. I just kind of I've never got out of welding you know, it's just something that's it's continual growth for me.

Unknown Speaker  6:51  

That's actually funny. So combat engineer is destroying things and being a welders putting them back together. I think that's hysterical.

Unknown Speaker  6:59  

Yeah, structural welding was that way up high high steel or what kind of work was that

Unknown Speaker  7:04  

I kind of get into structural steel by accident and it was funny story I answered an article in the newspaper and I was like classified ads back in 2005 when I got out that's how most people still found a job was to like the classified section and somebody was looking for you know, somebody to come in and do some aluminum handrails using aluminum MiG, and I was like, well, heck, you know, I can do aluminum mag, but the job's not too close, but it sounds like a pretty decent job. So let me go check it out. I got hired on the first day and I got put on doing ornamental handrails for these stair sections out in a place called Baldwin Park which is actually a decommissioned Navy base here in Florida and so I was putting up the stairs were welding up the landings it was steel stairs and landings and then the aluminum all finished ornamental handrail and stuff so I did that for a while we got caught up on a schedule and went back into work and told the boss I was like hey you know we got all the stairs and handrails and everything hung up what are we gonna do tomorrow because you guys don't have the stairs bill I don't want to go sit at the house. He's like oh go out with our other team you know meet him over this address tomorrow so I was like okay cool. Like get out there they're not doing stairs and handrails they're hanging I beams and bar joists and decking and it was just like a whole new world to me I had no idea what structural steel iron work was and so I just followed one of the guys up the ladder you know just climb a ladder get on the bar Joyce and the IBM's I'm walking around they're like what the hell are you doing? You know cuz I've never done it before I was just following the guy in front of me I was like alright, let's go this is where the works that we're gonna go up here and it was probably only like 4045 feet it was some big kind of like storefront areas you know, they're about three storeys tall so there's only about 3035 feet you know, up on top of the roof. And I just I was like man this is this is pretty neat. You know you get a pretty cool view up here everything's a little bit different and I started getting into helping them out doing I beams and bar joists and decking and, you know, framing steel buildings and all that stuff and, you know, doing the stairs and when I wasn't doing the stairs, I'd be back out with the iron work crew and I did that for about a year with the company. It wasn't the safest working environment, not because of the heights, there's a lot of drugs and alcohol involved in it that just wasn't my scene. And I was like, you know, I gotta get out of here. It's a little sketchy. The more I worked there, the more I understood, you know, this isn't a place where it's gonna allow me to grow as a person. I'm constantly looking for new challenges. And that just wasn't the space for me, you know, so I hired on to another company, ran by a group of South Africans and they did pre manufactured metal buildings. They were over here on a work visa started up their own company. They're now American citizens. I currently do CW I work for them off and on but I started off with their company you know, just basically as a welder, doing more structural steel with them putting up you know, pre manufactured metal buildings, doing the roof, siding and all that stuff running a crew I did that for about three years before signed on to the ironworkers union 808 out of Orlando, Florida. And then I did that while I was still attending school, and that's right around the time that I got into teaching Rosa 2014 but I was still doing structural steel at the time. Sounds like long hours. It was My first week, you know, they're like, okay, we work eight hour days. And I was like, okay, cool, you know, Monday through Friday, eight hours, no problem, no big deal. Well, by about Wednesday, they're like, Hey, we're switching over to 610s. And I was like, I don't even know what that means. They're like, we're doing 10 hours a day for the next, you know, six days Monday through Saturday. I was like, Okay, cool. Well, then Friday, they're like, Okay, now we're on 712. And then so I started doing the math. And I was like, that's a lot of hours, man. Okay, whatever, you know, the money was good. I got overtime after eight hours. So everything Saturday and Sunday was all over time. So I was making like ridiculous money. Still going to school, I was going to apprenticeship school, you know, because I was an apprentice, Mondays and Wednesdays. And then Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I was working on my bachelor's degree at night, either online or on campus. And I did that for about four or five months. And it was like, I was just a zombie man, I would leave the house in the morning, and it's pitch black outside. And then I would come home at night and it's pitch black outside, get about four or five hours sleep, get up and do it again the next day, and did that for months on end.

Unknown Speaker  11:02  

That's crazy. That sounds intense. Where did you picture your crew growing at that point versus where you are now? Is it similar place or completely, you know, had no clue can picture going here. Or maybe this was a little bit outside of where you thought I was gonna end up.

Unknown Speaker  11:16  

Yeah, I'm not anywhere near I thought I was going to be I figured I was going to get this degree in construction management. And I was going to be out on the job sites and pushing work and working alongside people meet schedule and stuff like that. If you would have told me back when I was 15, or Heck, even when I was like, 20, that I was going to be teaching welding and become a welding instructor, I would have laughed at you because I never thought that was a possibility for me. And I didn't think that I would get into teaching and love teaching as much as I do. And I'm just like, completely, completely not where I thought I was going to be. But I'm glad that I'm here. I really enjoy the path that I've taken.

Unknown Speaker  11:52  

So you're teaching all these young kids how to weld what's one of your biggest takeaways, what are you teaching kids because a trade to trade you learn it you progress and you do well if that's what you want to do, but what's one of the biggest values you want to take away from it.

Unknown Speaker  12:06  

I think just trying to instill work ethics you know, and I try to do that by example you know, where you're supposed to be when you say you're going to be there if you're supposed to be there at seven o'clock in the morning be there at 645 do extra and this applies to all the different trades and like all the different instructors, you know, they face their challenges with it to be there on time. Be there every day. If you come to a point where you're at a standstill and Gainey the instructors help or you know you're just waiting for a piece of metal to cool off or something be productive you know, grab a broom sweep up maybe start prepping material for the next thing you're going to start working on just keep moving you know, don't sit down don't plan your phone, Don't slack off don't just disappear for 1520 minutes, especially if you're paying for an education you're paying for somebody to teach you a set of skills that you're going to turn into a career and support your family support yourself put in 110% effort I mean you're paying 100% tuition you know take advantage of every single minute that you have at that school in that lab in that classroom under your mentor or you know even if it's an apprenticeship and it's free if you'd like I know a lot of the unions they do free apprenticeships as part of their program or show up early stay late put in all the hours that you can it's just going to pay dividends when you get done you're going to be so much further ahead than your counterparts that go in there and just kind of slack off

Unknown Speaker  13:18  

it's good to hear that too because there's a lot of guys out there that preach you know hard work gets you more work and it's still good to hear that there's people out there that are pushing good work ethic do it for yourself don't do it for others it did get me more work but you know what more work got me more experience more experience got me more skills and that was one of the biggest takeaways is if you better yourself in your trade your craft it's gonna pay dividends the lazy guy is you know essentially going to be the one that falls behind yeah you got out of a job great but you know at the end of the day you're going to be the one who wins exactly that's a good message for the youth is work hard and you know grind it out I like to say do it when you're younger because you have less responsibilities and and less obligation so it's nice to not have to worry about being late for dinner or being late for recital in the hopes is that you can be in a more stable position when you get to those places because you put in the work up front Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  14:11  

and I mean hard works just gonna breed opportunities to Yeah, like everything that I've done I think it's based off of my work ethics and efforts that I put forward and people see something in you and they give you an opportunity just like my professor that you know, he seen I showed up to class every day I was there early. By turning on my assignments on time I did everything that I was supposed to. He saw enough in me to say hey, you know I think you'd be a really good fit for this position over here with the college and he liked me on while I was a student to go work that leaned into the job that I have now everywhere I go I get recommended for things in new opportunities present themselves based off of what others see in me and I try to pay that forward you know, those same types of skills and qualities and somebody you know, I tried to present them different opportunities that will put them on a better path. Right

Unknown Speaker  14:58  

makes total sense After all this experience and all these unexpected turns your careers taken What's one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were an earlier set of your career just getting started figuring things out?

Unknown Speaker  15:12  

Man, probably the same thing we just talked about, like I probably would have went back to 15 year old me and kicked myself in the butt and said, you know, hey, back in the voting booth, pay attention, you put forth more effort, it's gonna pay off in the long run, then probably the one thing that I would tell myself is like, just keep pushing, keep hustling, don't back off, and Don't slack off. Don't relax, you know, you can rest when you're dead kind of thing. Yeah, yep.

Unknown Speaker  15:34  

What's one of the biggest things that you're facing right now one of the biggest challenges whether it being a teacher, whether it's a home life balance, what's one of the biggest challenges you're facing right

Unknown Speaker  15:42  

now? I would say right now my biggest challenge right before COVID took off. Last year, I got promoted to manager the welding program. So I taught my last cohort last year, and I've had to hire my replacements. So I'm in the process of skilling up and kind of making sure that my instructors are on track doing what they're doing. They see the same vision for the program that I set up, we just set up a new program at the school. I'm working full time there, I run the arc junkies podcast in my spare time, I still do weld work on the side. I've got a wife and kids. I'm the chairman for the Central Florida section, the American Welding Society. I'm actively involved in Freemasons. I'm also actively involved with scouts because my son just crossed over last January, from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. So I'm actively involved with that. So I think my work life balance, balance trying to make sure everything gets equal attention and equal effort and not slacking off in any one of the areas so trying to squeeze like 30 hours into a 24 hour days has been my biggest challenge for the past couple of years.

Unknown Speaker  16:45  

Well yeah, I mean as you get older you realize how important time management is and the ability to rest when you need to you're probably compartmentalizing a lot of things too because you come home from a hard day and you got to deal with you know, whatever Boy Scouts or what have you and you got to stay a little mentally sharp there you know,

Unknown Speaker  17:02  

yeah, yeah, that's the hard part. I think the biggest thing that's helped out is like physically taking care of myself trying to find time to get to the gym stay away from crap foods you know like give my body the best fuel take all the vitamins I'm supposed to you know just you got to take care of your body the biggest tool that you have is your body and you know a lot of people especially in construction you guys see it I mean I used to live life off of Monster Energy drinks Red Bull and the roller grill at 711 takes a hell of a toll on your body you know when you put in 1618 hours of work so you know just kind of finding that balance as well keeping your body fit and healthy that's going to keep your mind going and you know you can be able to take on more things without getting you know exhausted so easily. It sounds like you made a big change when you're grinding those long hours and in that lifestyle you made a big switch basically and kind of read it the ship. Yeah, yeah, for the most part. Awesome. Awesome.

Unknown Speaker  17:55  

Okay, you kind of nailed the one question I always like to ask but I guess we'll leave that out. Obviously, we always have what's the number one tool we rely on to do your job obviously, your body is number one, but in terms of for tools, from a work perspective, anything that stands out in your mind is the one thing you couldn't live without or couldn't get your job done with.

Unknown Speaker  18:15  

It honestly depends on you know which hat I'm wearing at the time. If I'm doing welding work and stuff like that my tape measure I think that's probably the number one tool that I use all the time I always have tape measure a piece of soapstone and a sharpie on me at all times. When I'm doing anything related to welding as it comes to like running the podcast or running the welding program I'd say my cell phone is probably my number one not for entertainment purposes not to be scrolling social media and watching YouTube videos but I've got a calendar on there I've got reminders set up all this stuff you know, just so I can stay on track and stay focused and everything setting different alarms for certain parts of the day to remember to do things tracking email, you know, exchanging emails back and forth, all the logistics, everything's pretty much taking place in my computer, because I'm back and forth to various locations all the time. So that's kind of my go to tool.

Unknown Speaker  19:00  

Yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker  19:01  

it's funny. Better the first two tools, the tape, and the soapstone. I don't know how many pieces of soapstone are lost. I don't think I've ever finished a piece of soapstone can then fire. And then secondly, one of the biggest challenges for kids these days is being able to read a tape measure. I mean, it's unbelievable fractions are a thing of the past.

Unknown Speaker  19:23  

That's actually one of the first things we covers day one, a welding class as soon as they come in the program. We obviously cover the syllabus and you know, the course calendar, here's all the stuff you're going to be learning get through welding safety. And then the first question I asked is how many y'all know how to read a tape measure? And I get to see your hands and I say, all right, perfect. And then I give them a test. And then the best I send them on break and I grade everything and as soon as they come back in I was like, all right, y'all lied to me. You know, out of the 13 kids in this room, there's probably about three all that note, actually how to read a tape and you still didn't get them all right. So step one here, you know, a pass out rulers and I've got a dry erase board with it. Prominent 16 graduations of the one inch and we start covering all the fractions right then and there. And as we go through the program we talk about, you know, adding multiplying dividing fractions, different tools you can use because I'm not big on pencil and paper, I always second guess myself. So I've downloaded the construction master Pro, which is a calculator that I carried in my pocket forever until they came out with an app for it. Now I show the students here's how you use your calculator to figure out your work. Everything that you do is going to revolve around measurement. So don't try and just fake your way through. If you really don't understand how to read a tape measure, get with me one on one, we'll walk around the entire building, we'll just measure stuff for like two hours a day. Just measure random things. Okay? How thick is you know that that plate on that table? How tall is that leg? How wide is that door jamb? Get me to a 1/16 fractional resolution, you know, give me a 16th tolerance. And we start building on that, because it's one of the most important things you're going to do and everything we do, whether it's welding and construction, carpentry, and it's all going to rely on measurements, you know, you cannot put something in a spot and be like, it looks good there. No, I mean, there's measurements and dimensions on the print that you have to hit.

Unknown Speaker  21:08  

And you're not one of the first people that say it either. I mean, we had a guy on the podcast was a framer, Tim Mueller, and he was talking about how the number one tool on his tool belt was exactly that as construction calculators you deal with angles, your degrees, everything, right? I guess the stigma with the trades is they're dumb, and they don't know what they're doing. But I mean, the amount of math and reasoning skills that you need to have to be able to do it. And it's learned that you don't have to jump in knowing exactly what's going on. But as you get more experienced, and as you learn, you'll definitely become proficient. Yeah. That's awesome. So I want to go into your podcast, how did you get involved with that?

Unknown Speaker  21:44  

Actually, it was right during COVID right around I think mid March and I was out for an evening Jordan and Jimmy called me up I hadn't met him a couple times we met up at fabtech and hung out we did an event at South Coast welding Academy prior to that, you know, so we'd become friends we would text and Instagram message back and forth all the time. And he's like, Hey, man, I'm getting out of welding. And I'm gonna give up the podcast and I was like, oh man, that sucks cuz I was an avid listener of the podcast before I even met him in person and you know before we came friends and so the funny thing was, he's like, yeah, I need to find somebody to take over the podcast. So I was like, you know, okay, I can call around ask a couple people and you know, see if anybody's interested Let me see if I can think of some people that I think would be a good host he's like no dumb ass want you to do it. And I really caught me off guard I was like, man, I don't know anything about podcasts and I don't know anything about audio recording.

Unknown Speaker  22:37  

I was either

Unknown Speaker  22:40  

I was like, man I gotta think about this one for a little bit so I hemmed in honde and thought about it and kind of wrote out some things. It took me about two weeks and finally I called him up and I was like, Alright man, I'll do it just tell me what I need to do. And he gave me a list of equipment you know good better best and I kind of bought the best that I could afford at the time we did an episode together and he kind of walked me through via zoom how to record the podcast and then once we're done he did a screen share showed me how to edit and upload everything to the hosting service and he's like alright man, good luck and I was like, Oh shit, I thought we were gonna like co host for a couple of weeks. Now is like trial by fire man. And turning wheels off or off here you go, man, right down the hill. Oh, safety protection, no helmet, no kneepads, nothing just get after it.

Unknown Speaker  23:27  

It's funny being in the podcasting space is because I'm a new podcaster by today's standards, and it's interesting to be able to talk with other podcasters and it's just interesting to hear everybody's story and how they came up. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  23:40  

it's been fun so far, I did a lot of like, videos with well calm and I worked with the camera guy, Todd clauser over there, like quite a bit. And he's like a marketing guru. I mean, that's kind of his background and he's learned the welding industry making videos for a while calm, and yeah, one of the things I learned from him was if you're going to run something, you got to be consistent. So I was like, Okay, I need to come up with a consistent release date and you know, consistent release time. And just make sure that I'm you know, sticking to that schedule. Because once they start consuming your content, then they start expecting it, you know, as you say, you're gonna release it on, you know, every Monday, you need to have an episode out every Monday. And that's one thing I've stuck to is like, putting out fresh content every week, you know, just to, you know, keep getting new listeners and everything, get more information out there, build traction, but not only that, like, learn the systems that I'm using because the more episodes I crank out, the more editing I have to do, the more uploading I have to do, you know, the more marketing and stuff that I have to do, the more sharing I have to do so it keeps me constantly engaged with it. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  24:42  

I mean, just lining up the schedules is one of the hardest thing we have two hosts on this podcast plus the guests, and it's like trying to align all three and then you have time zones and everything. It's always a challenge. Then you got to do that for the whole year, you know, week after week, and line them up. It's crazy.

Unknown Speaker  24:59  

time zones are The hardest part man like when I was doing East Coast West Coast Mountain Standard Time and all this stuff and then I had a podcast with my buddy clay chesson from Australia they've got like five different time zones just on that continent alone so trying to figure out exactly where he's at what time it is. Oh man it was it was throwing me for a loop I think we ended up doing like nine or something on a Sunday morning and I think it was like you know kind of late where he was at I can't remember but it was it was like ridiculous trying to line that one up I remember that one specifically It was really hard to get the time zones and the times and everything where he was off work and I was off work and neither one of us were sleeping. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  25:39  

Yeah. Yeah, it's rewarding. The whole thing is fun and I enjoy doing what I'm doing. It's just one more thing that you know is all encompassing so you know, I gotta find time to do this stuff. But at the end of the day, I do enjoy doing the podcast you have a fair amount of listeners to consume our podcast and they like it I've had people drive by the shop when we're first starting out and they're yelling out the window that they liked the podcast I was like holy cow you know that's cool. Yeah, I never thought I would be that person you know what I mean? And and we're just keep at it and cheering me

Unknown Speaker  26:13  

You always been that guy.

Unknown Speaker  26:14  

I was the one hanging out the window before so outside of everything what do you do to unwind to the six of those 30 hours back in your day for free?

Unknown Speaker  26:25  

If I don't have anything planned or going on it depends you know if the weather's nice enough hunting fishing whatever is in season and if nothing else is going on if I can completely unwind I'll play a little bit of PlayStation but that's it's very very few and far between like I haven't picked up a controller since Christmas break

Unknown Speaker  26:44  

Wow Yeah, yeah. Any specific haunts or any times of the year you're going out or is it just whenever you can within shooting season

Unknown Speaker  26:51  

if I got time off it just depends on what's the season so you know, it's like springtime you know, I want to get out do some turkey hunting. My buddy just got a place up in Georgia so I was working with him trying to set it up for deer season and stuff like that plus, they got feral hogs whatever whatever time of the year it is you know if something's open you know, and I've got the time to go do it. I want to get out and enjoy the wilderness or maybe go down to the shooting range or the archery range.

Unknown Speaker  27:13  

Anything like that. So you do both if you're a bow hunter and you shoot yeah awesome. Awesome. That's a good time a lot of guys that fly fisherman and what have you I'm up in Maine, and I like fishing I haven't gone out hunting yet but yeah, I look forward to doing so

Unknown Speaker  27:29  

Jeremy's been hunting a lot of trees on his property with with his guns. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  27:36  

Yeah, it's been nice. I moved from Massachusetts to Maine and now I'm legally allowed to shoot on my property. So it's been fun for the neighbors. But yeah, I mean, this has been a pleasure to interview you. I mean, your God amongst men. I mean, I enjoy your podcast, I consume it, it's one of the ones out there that's good for the trades. I know it's weld specific, but you do have a whole bunch of good nuggets that you put in there like I listened to the number one tool and if that resonates you know a lot of guys get into this trade and you know, they party and try to get through the day and you were talking about motoring and energy drinks. I mean, that completely resonated with me. As you get older, you realize that you got to shift or you should shift your ideals to what it is I mean, now I got two young ones and you're you're sitting there going, I kind of want to be around, you know, longer than 50 years old. In the beginning, it's for the love of the trade and towards the middle of self preservation and kind of balancing both you know, I thank you for being on the podcast and I want to give you a little spots if you have any mentions please take the time now I'll

Unknown Speaker  28:43  

be up at fabtech I think the 12th to the 17th up there in Chicago, Illinois, anybody's plan on going to fabtech I've got a couple of interviews lined up with Nate Bowman rush Kane, also known as Kane kid, Shawn flockmen, aka dabs Wellington who you guys have had on the show

Unknown Speaker  28:58  

Oh yeah,

Unknown Speaker  28:58  

I know Ray ripples gonna be there who you guys have also had on the show but yeah, I'll be up there are those four days hanging out chillin I'll get a couple events after hours. You can hit me up on Instagram or junkies podcast you can find the art junkies podcast wherever you know podcasts are downloadable. Whether it's Spotify, Stitcher, amazon music, Apple podcasts, you know, wherever it's pretty much anywhere you can download a podcast is out there.

Unknown Speaker  29:24  

That's awesome. And like I said, Thank you for being on and it was a pleasure to dive deep into the welding trade again. It's always my favorite. So thank you for being on the show.

Unknown Speaker  29:34  

I will Thanks for the invite. I had a good time.