New neighbors..and friends arrive!

Drilling was stopped temporarily until repairs could be made on the rig, so we didn’t have much traffic on the 3^rd and 4^th.  The whirring sound of a helicopter caught our attention Saturday morning.  Ron sat outside and watched it fly back and forth along the tree tops.  When talking to the ranch manager later he learned that they were netting deer, using a bazooka-like air gun that shoots a net.  The deer were then tagged and relocated.  Some were taken to breeding pens on the property. 

It was nice to have things quieter on the weekend, but it was business as usual on Monday.  Monday through Thursday is always busy because, in addition to deliveries and the workers going in and out, salesmen come to see the ‘company man’ on those days.  Ron talked to one of the workers as he came through our gate and learned that they drilled a total of 16,411 feet.  They drilled 9,000 feet down and then it took another 1,000 feet to slowly make it turn so the pipe can bend to go the last 6,411 feet horizontally.  That’s over 3 miles of pipe!! 

It continued to be busy all during the drilling process.  Our nighttime traffic is usually a welder or someone making a delivery to the drilling site.  

We have neighbors now!  Another couple was brought in to be gate guards at the gate across the road from us, which is also part of the Stewart ranch and where the hunting lodge is located.  Sadly, our friends, Chuck and Nancy missed being assigned to that gate by only a week.  They pulled into Whitsett on the 15^th and were moved to a gate fairly close to us on the 17^th.  We can see their oil derrick from here...only a couple of miles away, but 13 miles by road...which includes the 6 miles driving on the dirt road where we are parked.  It takes 40 minutes to get to their gate. Even though we can’t all get together at the same time, it has been nice having them nearby. 

Our new neighbors across the road from our gate

 Nancy and Chuck

Nancy and I make the trip to Pleasanton together now.  I drive to their gate and pick up Nancy or I leave our truck there and ride with her.  A typical grocery shopping day takes 8 hours from the time I leave our gate until I get back!  We spend about an hour online doing banking, paying bills, etc. before we eat lunch, buy groceries and do any other errands.  It still amazes me how long it takes to get things done here.

Below are a few of the pictures we took on our walks during the time we were gate guarding.  We didn't get a picture of the javalinas, wild boars, or the rattlesnake that we saw!

Things got even busier at our gate the following week when they were doing the casing.  The casing involves putting a pipe in the middle of the hole and pouring cement between the pipe and the sidewall.  We were up all night a couple of nights, with cement trucks coming in and out.  If we had known in advance, we would have taken shifts during the night.  Instead we had to take turns sleeping the following day.

After the cementing was finished and dried, they began moving the oil rig to a new drilling site across the road.  Without knowing that they would begin moving our rig out that day, Nancy and I drove to Pleasanton to get groceries on the 21^st.  While I was gone, Ron logged 144 vehicles!  The next day was even busier, with 174 vehicles passing through our gate.  As quickly as it began, it was over.  Several of the guys came by to tell us goodbye and to tell us they enjoyed ‘working’ with us.  The last of the crew moved out before the end of the day on the 22^nd.   And suddenly it was quiet!

I didn't get a picture of the drilling rig when  it was at our site, but here it is after it was moved and set up across the road

We now have only a few vehicles coming in each day so the men can clean up the site and ready it for production.  No one comes during the night now!   Our peaceful existence will last until they begin the fracking process.  We’ve heard that the company responsible for fracking is a month or more behind schedule, so we’re hoping that won’t come to pass until after we leave. 

Ron and Chuck met in town for lunch on Wednesday.  I was happy that they both had time away from the gate.  Nancy and I get an occasional break when we make our weekly trip to Walmart for groceries.  I’m looking forward to getting back into civilization when we leave here in 3 ½ weeks. 

Friday was grocery day.  Nancy and I drove to Pleasanton and went to H.E.B. and Walmart and then to the Verizon store to see about suspending Ron’s cell phone service.  Since the phone is in Ron’s name they wouldn’t do it for me, so I got online and took care of it myself.  I wish I had thought of suspending his service a month ago! 

First two weeks at the oil well

The next morning we had a visit from Carl, the ranch manager, and he said he wanted us to move up by the gate and he wanted the gate to be closed at all times.  We found that puzzling, since there is no fence beyond the right side of the gate!  We didn’t have a phone signal, so I had to drive into town to call Larry and let him know that we had been told to move.  We needed to have a pad prepared for us at the gate and, since we don’t have a ball for our hitch with us, we needed Larry to come out and move the utility trailers for us.  Later that afternoon, someone came to see that a site was prepared for us.  He leveled the site with two loads of caliche gravel (which was more dirt that gravel) and then asked Ron to check and see if it met his approval.  It did.

Leveling our new parking spot.  If you look carefully, you can see that the fence on the right side of the gate opening goes out to the road, turns the corner and ends.  There is no fence beyond that point!

 Wednesday was moving day.  Larry came out to relocate the utility trailers and set everything up again.  Soon we were back in business and it was just in time!  Trucks were beginning to arrive with supplies for the drilling site.

Our home site for the next 9 weeks

Our first neighbors:  Texas Longhorns and a few Santa Gertrudis cattle on the property behind where we were parked




 

Santa Gertrudis Bull

Our cell phone situation is better at this spot.  We now have an at&t voice signal  60% of the time, but no data reception.  Ron’s Verizon phone still has no signal at all.   Thank goodness we have a satellite dish or we wouldn’t be able to watch TV.

We're just less than 6 miles out on the dirt road.....a horrible, rutted, bumpy dirt road that is traveled by a large number of trucks each day.  We are parked just off of that road on a side road that leads to the drilling site.  When it's not dusty, it's muddy....the kind that makes you get taller as you walk. 

The ranch manager’s brother also helps out around the ranch.  He was nicknamed ‘Frito’ as a boy because he was always eating Fritos.  Frito told us that the owner of this ranch is an avid hunter and lives in Louisiana.  He is also a big game hunter and has made numerous hunting trips to Africa and other countries around the world..  Across the road from us, he has built a private hunting lodge that looks out on a huge lake below it. Inside are trophies of animals from hunting trips around the world. We can see the lodge from where we’re parked, but not the lake.  The owner stays in the lodge when he comes here to hunt and also makes it available to guests and rents rooms to other hunters who come to hunt on his land.

Close-up of the lodge that's on the property across from our gate

I drove to Tilden Thursday, with the hope of getting online to pay a few bills.  Although I could see a cell phone tower, I couldn’t stay online more than a minute or two at a time.  It was frustrating, to say the least, and I soon gave up. 

Ron had been using his cell phone to check the time each vehicle entered the gate, but that system didn’t work well while holding a clipboard and pen.  Friday morning I drove 40 miles to the Walmart in Pleasanton to buy a watch before they began moving the rig and equipment in that afternoon.  The trip took much longer than I expected and I knew Ron would be worried.  I couldn’t call him because I had the only working phone with me.  When I finally got back, Ron couldn’t understand what took me so long.  I was gone 4 hours!  It took 30 minutes each way to drive on the dirt road, and an hour each way to deal with the heavy truck traffic pulling in and out of drilling sites along the highway to Pleasanton.  I spent another hour at Walmart finding the watch and waiting in a long checkout line!  Crazy!   

While I was gone, Ron had heard from one of the drivers that a gate guard at another site had been hit by one of the big trucks.  He had crossed too closely in front of the truck and the driver couldn’t see him.  Luckily, he wasn’t badly injured.

Friday and Saturday were busy days, with a constant flow of traffic coming through the gate.  We found it easier for Ron to use a steno pad to collect their info and for me to transfer the information to the log sheet so it would be legible. (Ron’s handwriting isn’t the greatest). Sunday was a fairly slow day and I took over the gate while Ron got some much needed rest.  Instead of each of us taking a shift during the night, as we did when worked at the last oil well, Ron decided he could go to bed and get up to open the gate as needed.  I cover the gate during the day when he needs to catch up on sleep.  Ron has no problem getting up at night and going right back to sleep.  So far this system is working well for us.  We leave the gate open during the day and one (or both of us) sits outside or by the window with the gate in view.  The ranch manager has come through the gate many times and hasn’t commented on the gate being open.  It just doesn’t make sense to us to have to open the gate every time, especially since there is no fence on side!  However, we do keep the gate closed at night.

The crew is housed in trailers that were brought in to the drilling site.  In addition to the roughnecks, men with a variety of specialties make up the crew.  Most of the men work two weeks and are off two weeks, but there are others who work longer.  There is a day and a night company man from Chesapeake that oversee the drilling. There are two wells at the site.  A1H was drilled before we arrived and B1H is the well they are drilling now.

The at&t cell phone signal seems to come in on the wind.  One minute I have no signal and then suddenly I have 3 bars.  Saturday and Sunday night I was able to briefly get online using my phone’s hot spot… Monday I rarely had a signal at all.

Tuesday we had guests!  Our friends, Karen and Galen, drove down from San Antonio and spent the afternoon with us.  They are hoping to work at a gate sometime soon, so they got a glimpse of what it will be like.

The faces and names of the workers and truck drivers are becoming familiar to us now.  Many stop to talk to us and several have offered to pick up things for us when they go into town. 

Wednesday night was a busy one.  Ron was exhausted by the time the night was over.  I got up at 6:00 and took over the gate so he could sleep several hours without an interruption.  It continued to be busy throughout the day…one vehicle after another came through the gate.  I took another shift that evening so Ron could rest up for the night.  It turned out to be an average night, with Ron having to get up 3 times between midnight and 7:00 am.  I wake him up when I hear the bell (Ron sleeps through it) and he goes out to open the gate and log the driver in.

Friday night we had a special treat.  A caterer brought food in for the oil rig workers and brought Ron and I each a plate of food, too!  Fish, Cajun shrimp, fried breaded mushrooms, hush puppies, bbq beans, green beans, and banana pudding.   He also gave us a gallon of lemonade and a gallon of sweet tea. 

In the first 12 days we have logged in 466 vehicles.  The outgoing number of vehicles has been close to the same.  Some of the trucks will remain inside until the drilling is completed.