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...

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...