Well it's been 3 weeks now ( 5 more to go ) and I said I would keep those of you interested updated. Lets see now, the first 6 "long" days were spent in the classroom learning all about safety, maintenance, greasing, basic earth moving procedures,videos etc... then finally on day #7 we were put on a machine . The first 2 days I spent pushing a tire back and forth with a Hitachi 120 excavator. That's alot harder then I thought until you get few hours practice and very good to learn as I later found out ! After that we spent 2 days digging trenches and backfilling them ( on the same machine ). Next day I got to use a Cat 312 excavator to make a big pile of fill while a dozer kept pushing it to me. Now the last 2 days I've been on a fairly new JD 310 backhoe and I don't think I ever want to get off of it it's pretty sweet ! It's all been great so far and we're on the machines all day, there's more machines then students. Still have 3 or 4 more days left for in the classroom:Banghead but that will be saved for rainy days. The 2 instructors seem pretty decent too, which helps. In 5 more weeks when I'm done I'll be ready for work, I feel real comfortable on everything ( so far ):notworthy Any questions just ask. I'll post again later.