Underground Miners
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 06-04-2010
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With all the mine explosions, flooding and cave ins we are hearing about lately, makes me glad I gave up that type work years ago. It is a very honest occupation….Good and hard working people fill those positions…I started having night mares about cave ins while working underground. I had this one dream where there was a cave in and there was all type of debris, rocks and other stuff blocking the exit. The rescue team could see me and I could see them, but they could not reach me….When I woke up and discovered it was a dream I told myself it was time to change jobs…..I could not handle it….I feel for those waiting to hear about loved one in West Virginia and pray for their safety….It is a very high risk job and these folks may want to choose a different profession….The risk is just not worth the pay….
Why not? I bet most of those miners had rather work underground in the coal mines for the pay they’re receiving than they had work in the mountainous, rocky fields of West Virginia and Kentucky scratching out a living trying to grow cotton or some other crop. If the American people expect to continue living the easy life while powering everything around them with cheap electricity, then coal is essential to keep it all running.
Coal mining can be done safely. It can be done nearly accident-free. The Germans have been mining coal from deep underground for a 1000 years. If they have ever had an accident underground, I have never heard of one in Germany during my lifetime. The Germans have proved that it can be done safely. It must be done safely. Only Americans (and the Chinese) blow themselves up underground. Only Americans crawl into Toyota cars and drive them into poles all for fodder for lawyers to extract money from those who work for it.
I just learned something on the Hesterbooks website. I didn’t know that potash was mined near Carlsbad underground. I just always assumed that it occurred near enough to the surface that it could be stripped mined. I never knew that Pete ever worked underground. I just assumed that you drove a big machine that stripped that stuff from the surface easily and profitably. How else good potash be cheap enough to be used as a fertilizer?
Errol, the fact with me was not the pay or not that is was a good job, it takes a certain type individual to handle it…And it takes a certain type family to handle the wage earner working under those conditions. The Potash mines were safe enough I guess, the real dangers being caveins or earthquakes. Carlsbad had a magnatude 4.3 quake 18 miles north of Carlsbad last week. Fire is also a major concern in the mines…The Carlsbad mines are from 600 feet to 1800 feet undergroud and are methane free with the exception of very small pockets. I worked underground as a miner and ran a underground warehouse for a time…It is a very decent living, however, being a salesman for a trucking company suited me much, much better. Thanks, Pete
This Hesterbooks website is neat. I’m finding out more about my cousin Pete every day. I knew that he used to work in the potash mines, but I didn’t know that he was a real, genuine miner.