Long Time No Update

Just sayin..It has been awhile from last posted.
We left south TX. for the Dallas area, met up with family. Headed to MO to watch granddaughter graduate from U of MO. Back to Dallas. Parted family drove to FL arrived home to find all well with house after 5 months being gone.

I bought an air conditioner off Ebay it arrived just after we did.  Now waiting on help to get the damn thing on the roof. all the work inside has been done..ran power to new breaker in power panel..had to find 12 volts supply. luckily there is a light that has continuous 12v within reach and I tapped into it and ran wire to where unit will go. Mounted the thermostat on wall...all is ready for the unit to go in.....Will get help this weekend to get it on the roof ......I did forget to mention that there is a part missing that will be here next week (I hope) that I will need to complete the install.....

Had to replace the faucet in the kitchen. just can't trust the cheepies as the last one $40 didn't last one year..This one $70 is at least all metal.

Here is something that I found while researching air conditioners.. When they talk about easy start kits they are referring to larger starting caps that are like 2 times as powerful as the factory ones...this means that it is less load on your generator to start the compressor...now if you have two airs the easy start will really help...also if you are running close on the size of the generator.

We wer really surprised to see that the canals in our area were dry as we had heard that there was rain in FL but NOT one neighbor has made a golf hole in his canal...it used to be 10 feet deep....not good here ...lawn is dry, dry, dry...crunches when you walk on it. It will take a lot of rain to fill the lakes back to normal...

Still planning on returning to TX for work around 15 of June...Sure hope all the jobs are not taken!!!

On Vacation !!!

Beer Beer Beer......So.. A man walks into a convenience store and asks for a six pack of beer. What brand asks the clerk? Doesn't matter says the man "I'm a gate guard".

I'm kinda reminded of the song line that says "six weeks on the road and I'm gonna be home tonight".. I gotta say that we have only been off the gate for a week and I do kinda miss it.

I guess we got off the gate just in time..The rains have hit and I'm sure that ain't purddy!!! We didn't have Calechie , but rather reddish clay.. still the continuous trucks turned it to powder and with the rain it is prob close to 2" mud.

The generator that we had last was an 8 kw. We have only one Air unit. The couple that replaced us have two units plus the lights at that site are the 500 watt work lights times 4......We were on site for about a month with no generator problems...the new couple have been there 1 week and the generator is toast. overloaded and apparently non repairable and was replaced by a generator/ light tower unitthat is way bigger. I was asked what I thought of the 8 kw generators when we left and (you know my mouth) told the company man they weren't big enough for the job...perhaps in winter when not using air so much, but as temps climb and people start using one or two airs....

By the way one of our tasks when we get to FL is to install a second air unit in our rig....LOL don't even show up with one of them thar toy generators.....

OH !!! FRACK !!!!

When I was growing up I had a whole nother meaning for "Laying Pipe". Well here is a story of laying pipe today.....at least at our gate.

First our gate is a "tweener" that is there are two pads and the gate is "tween" them. Both pads have two gas wells they are all ready to be fracked. So last Wed (after us being here bout two weeks) we see a frantic crew running like scared roaches scattering pipe, Welders everywhere, a broken trencher, two track hoes. What the hell is going on? The trucks are coming the trucks are coming. they are bringing in the frack equipment and people on Friday. We need to get this pipe in between pads done before then.
I know the obvious question " why did you wait.....never mind.
They had to cut the road between pads three places (oh that wont take long). Well they were packing the last cut as the first trucks arrived. Way to go guys you beat the clock...this time.

It is now Saturday and the bulk of the frack stuff is arriving and being placed. I'm glad that I can't see the pad as it is a bit small and there are 16 trucks with equip.
They are fracking the two wells on pad A then moving equip to pad B I have no idea how long this will take and don't really care cause we are leaving on Friday.
Actually met the company man yesterday and he (at this point) seems to be a nice guy. On that note I will feel bad leaving people that are good to work with. On the other side I don't mind passing on a good site.( doesn't seem like you might be running out on a  bad deal).

We must go to a graduation then return to FL where we will put another AC unit in the 5er. I have already purchased the unit and it will be waiting on us when we get to FL. I hope that it will only take one good day to install.

Some info to pass on here I learned that a "hard start kit" for air conditioners was not necessarily for older units but in fact to make the units easier to start on generators.

Gravy Train Over!!!

For the last couple of weeks we have been riding that train.... No, Nada, None, traffic at night crews left at 6pm and came to work at 8 am.... As we were put on the gate when it was a 24 hour operation we were thinking that after the shift to 8 hours we had been forgotten. seems that this in fact was the case. When the oil co. rep visited the site to see progress he realized that we were still there. Well the next day (Wednesday)we were told that Friday we would be released.

We immediately reported the (rumor) to our company which had a gate for us to go to only 40 miles away. We are really grateful to them for making that happen...

This new gate is a double pad gate. to one side is a new drill which is in the workover stage as we speak. As a matter of fact they just finished the work and rig is down. They will clrar pad by noon today.

In the other direction is a pad with two wells on it. The wells have been completed and they are building the tank part, with a connecting pipeline between the two pads. . Lots of welders scurrying around and jack stands everywhere.  

This is the friendliest gate thus far..the guys drive up to our trailer to sign in and out. The actual gate is like 300' from our rig so doing this is greatly appreciated.

I have to wonder now that the rig is leaving if we will be relieved, as the rig was the only operation on 24 hours. We certainly hope not we need to wor a couple of more weeks before we need to leave...

Never Know What You'll Find

Oil field handyman special. While wandering on our last assignment I wandered across this old house, I wanted to get a closer look at the pans but never did.

The house was furnished and move in ready..just needs minor roof repairs as there is none

All offers considered.

Fracking Again Questioned ????

Information Taken from Skywatch / Eco Watch 

 

USGS: Recent Earthquakes ‘Almost Certainly Manmade’

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04-04-2012

Environmental Working Group

By Dusty Horwitt and Alex Formuzis
A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research team has linked oil and natural gas drilling operations to a series of recent earthquakes from Alabama to the Northern Rockies.
According to the study led by USGS geophysicist William Ellsworth, the spike in earthquakes since 2001 near oil and gas extraction operations is “almost certainly man-made.” The research team cites underground injection of drilling wastewater as a possible cause.
“With gasoline prices at $4 a gallon, there’s pressure to rush ahead with drilling, but the USGS report is another piece of evidence that shows we have to proceed carefully,” said Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel and chief natural resources analyst at Environmental Working Group. “We can’t afford multi-million-dollar water pollution cleanups or earthquakes that could pose risks to homes and health.”
The USGS study, published by the Seismological Society of America, will be presented at the group’s meeting April 17-19 in San Diego.
The authors shared their findings with EnergyWire’s Mike Soraghan in an article published March 29. Soraghan wrote:

“The study found that the frequency of earthquakes started rising in 2001 across a broad swath of the country between Alabama and Montana. In 2009, there were 50 earthquakes greater than magnitude-3.0, the abstract states, then 87 quakes in 2010. The 134 earthquakes in the zone last year is a sixfold increase over 20th century levels.

The USGS authors said they do not know why oil and gas activity might cause an increase in earthquakes, but a possible explanation is the increase in the number of wells drilled over the past decade and the increase in fluid used in the hydraulic fracturing of each well. The combination of factors is likely creating far larger amounts of wastewater that companies often inject into underground disposal wells. Scientists have linked these disposal wells to earthquakes since as early as the 1960s. The injections can induce seismicity by changing pressure and adding lubrication along faults.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that between 1991 and 2000, oil and gas companies drilled 245,000 wells in the U.S. compared to 405,000 wells between 2001 and 2010—a 65 percent increase.¹ As an example of how much more fracking fluid is used, New York state’s review of oil and natural gas drilling regulations in 1988 assumed that companies would use between 20,000 and 80,000 gallons of fluid for hydraulic fracturing per well.² The state’s 2011 review of regulations for natural gas drilling in shale formations assumed that companies would use 2.4 million to 7.8 million gallons of fluid per well—a 100-fold increase.³
According to Anthony Ingraffea, a professor of engineering at Cornell University who has conducted research on hydraulic fracturing, the increase in both the number of wells drilled and the amount of hydraulic fracturing fluid used per well has been driven by a shift of drilling into so-called unconventional formations such as shale in which gas and oil are distributed over very large volumes of rock, which need stimulation by fracking. Companies have increasingly tapped these formations because they have depleted most of the conventional formations in which gas and oil are contained in a relatively concentrated pool. In these conventional formations, companies can simply perforate the pool with their drill bit and drain a significant quantity of oil or gas. In unconventional formations, however, energy companies must drill more wells because the energy deposits are widely dispersed. Drillers must also use significantly more fracturing fluid to create larger fractures that can access a broader area of oil or gas.
“The rate of drilling and the volume of fluid used have increased tremendously,” said Ingraffea.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates underground waste disposal wells under its underground injection control program. The agency often delegates primary enforcement authority to the states. According to an article written by Soraghan and published in the March 15, 2012 edition of EnergyWire, an EPA task force is preparing recommendations for “managing or minimizing” earthquakes caused by underground injection wells. “The group appears to have receded from its initial goal of finding ways to ‘avoid’ earthquakes caused by injection,” Soraghan reported. An EPA presentation included in the article showed that the EPA sets specific standards for avoiding earthquakes for some types of injection wells, but in the case of oil and gas wastewater injection wells, such measures are up to the agency’s discretion.⁴
The USGS report is likely to be of particular interest in California, where earthquakes are a part of life largely as a result of the 810-mile long San Andreas Fault. An EWG investigation recently discovered that companies are engaged in hydraulic fracturing, mostly for oil, in a number of counties throughout California, including several directly above the fault line. It is unclear how the companies are disposing of their wastewater.

Blast From the Past.

I was brain dead today when I went to write a blog. I wanted a bit of inspiration so I looked at some old stuff I had written for For a site called Suite101. http://barry-houseknecht.suite101.com/thoughts-on-new-years-resolutions-a11333  I wrote this in  March of 2007. Seems like a good time to post again.

 

I seem to be unable to keep regular resolutions so I thought I'd list some that come to mind that we all could use...With the hopes that some might become traditions. 

 

Another year bites the dust. Time again to make those resolutions for the New Year. I resolve to do, quit or be _________________ (insert words here) use better, more, less, or different this year. Well let’s reflect back to last year. Do you even remember what your resolution was? I don’t. Much less having kept it.

I generally don’t like to make resolutions cause I’ve never kept the ones I’ve made. And it would seem that any time I have done anything in that realm it was not due to a resolution.
With that being said here are some resolutions I am making for this year. I would like to pass these along to you in hopes that perhaps some of these would catch on.

1. Take time to reflect on the day. Remember that chair that’s on the front porch? Grab a beverage and chill.

2. A random act of kindness. At least once a month do something for someone. Just any little thing, maybe it will catch on.

3. Say hi to a stranger and speak to your neighbors. See that person in the same place every day as you drive by? Wave to them every day. How many days did it take for them to wave back?

4. Hug and kiss your wife and kids every day. We so much take our family for granted.

5.Drive with your headlights on and turn your temper off. The first is easy.

6. Read a book. It’s a lost art.

7.Save a few dollars towards retirement. Something us older folks should have been doing but it’s never to late.

8. Do something for your community. Perhaps a stroll down the road with a picker-upper and a bag.

9. Recycle something and tell someone that you are. I had to take some items to the landfill (great name for dump and should really be called trash mountain) and was reminded of just how much crap we throw away.

10. Say thank you to all the military men and women, firepersons, police and teachers that you see during your travels. It just seems to me that we give actors more credit than we do these people and that is just wrong.

Read more at Suite101: Thoughts On New Years Resolutions: Some Resolutions I'd Like To See Stick | Suite101.com http://barry-houseknecht.suite101.com/thoughts-on-new-years-resolutions-a11333#ixzz1qmhNUzub