Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

 I'll try and get through this quick......so we can get to the good stuff. That's me. the future mover of mountains For the most part, the blasting biz on the Coast was a roller coaster ride of no phone calls and no work ( no money ) , and tons of good work and fantastic money. My favorite bits were doing good work in super challenging situations. Building logging roads was always fun and I loved the people that I worked with, and the customers who appreciated the work and paid their bills on time, all good.  At about eight years into it, I could see that the business as it existed wasn't feasible any longer. The cost of doing business was sky-rocketing. Insurance premiums went through the roof every year after 911. The cost of drill parts,bits, rods and drill rigs themselves all went up, as the prices paid for work to be done stagnated or fell backwards. The choice was simple, get out of the business or spend the money to go bigger. I ran the numbers backwards and f...

So here we are, I've been approached by a developer who wants me to do his blasting work on a new subdivision. Don, the fellow schooling me in the art of blasting for whatever reason at this time, decides not to part with his company at the moment. Now I'm a bit surprised because I thought the whole point of this exercise was to pay a fair price for the existing business and hit the ground running. I tried a few more times to get a commitment, but on each occasion a vague answer would be the only thing that came back. Now to be fair, Don had his hands full with other things going on in his life and maybe this deal wasn't at the top of his agenda.  The time came to piss or get off the pot, so I met with the business man who offered me the partnership deal in the marina parking lot. We decided to move ahead on starting a brand new blasting company instead of purchasing the existing one. The upside is that it was actually cheaper to fire up a new biz than it was to pay for T...

How on Earth do you go from working as a dock builder in Secret Cove to supervising the blasting on the hairiest section of the Sea to Sky Highway? I'm not really sure myself, and I'm the guy who did it. Building the curved sections of main dock at Secret Cove Marina Part way through the construction of Dick Clayton's boathouse for his 53' Fleming  It began innocently enough with a need for more income. My prized gig in the marine construction business was slowing down due to a bump in the economy and I had four kids, a wife and a house to support. As fate would have it, one of the customers at Secret Cove Marina, was in the blasting business and wanted out. Don Fowler owned Thunderbird Drilling and Blasting, based on the Sunshine Coast. Don did mostly residential work, that is working close to houses and other structures, it requires a high level of skill to successfully work in this end of the game. He had enough of the drill and dynamite business and was loo...

The very next week after launching the fake sea serpent in Davis Bay,  http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2011/10/davis-bay-sea-serpent.html I found myself on a Hawaiian beach. My girlfriend and I scrounged and borrowed to finance a getaway trip to someplace warm, a change of scenery. Plus this is February and  I'm feeling the need for some sunrays. Maybe some beach time will help me to get clear about the next steps in my life.  So off we went, from Canadian winter to a mid-Pacific paradise. When we arrived, after being cramped into that little steel tube, the first thing I craved was some sand and surf, and maybe a beverage or two. Now at this point, ask me if I took into consideration, the difference between Canadian sun rays and tropical sun rays. Go ahead ask.  Well I didn't, and spent my entire first day in Hawaii at the beach.  Nap , swim, snack, cold beverages, the whole bit.  I was a kinda, a little bit reddish by the evening.  ...

I went to see the last race at the old Mission Raceway before it was torn down and rebuilt. I took my dad to the races that day ... The Ken Carter Jet Car Jump show came last....the deal was supposed to be Ken Darter himself doing a test jump in the jet powered Lincoln car. This all sounded very exciting and phenomenally foolish. (no one on the planet had ever jumped a howling jet car over a pile of derelict cars before) It took ages to set up....the rocket car was displayed for all to see and we noticed that as things progressed...it wasn't getting unloaded as the jump time grew near. Some technical difficulties were announced...stand-by for further updates. Lots of pacing and arm gesturing out on the track...a little bit of dirt kicking for extra good measure ( always the sign of a serious situation) It was announced that it was too risky to jump the jet Lincoln in the event that it sustained damage in this attempt. Excellent idea I thought... becau...

In the 90's I got into scuba diving to solve some problems at work. I had been  building docks,boathouses and the like for a few years (loved every minute of it)...when it came time to do various underwater chores...the divers that got hired were just not up to the task....they were good divers,but not great at working underwater. Keep in mind these are pre-regulation days in light commercial diving. The joys of work dives   frozen fresh water on top of sea water Diver Mike  So I decided ...I'll just do it myself. I signed up for a scuba course in Sechelt and met a man who would go on to be a huge factor in some great future times....Bill Brooks. I'll leave those tales for another time. Flash forward a few years...Bill and I have salvaged sunken boom boats, a slew of pleasure boats at the bottom of a damaged marina and had experimented with dives past 200ft.  By the time of this story rolls around I'm an establish local work diver. In the cou...