Good luck! I considered joining the IBEW in FL and my electrician friend told me apprentices start at $9/hr. Wasn't worth it to me. Hopefully your situation is better.

In other news I have been hiking and rock climbing a ****load out here. The bikes I have to work on suck but having 5+ hours of daylight after I clock out and amazing coworkers to hang with makes it all worthwhile. At least half my coworkers are people from medical/engineering/chemical backgrounds who decided the 9-5 grind was killing them and are reassessing life up here. Yesterday I finished building a platform for my hobo shack that overlooks the airstrip and downtown with a 10 min ride to work. I'll try to post a couple photos next week after I hang the tarp roof and mosquito netting.