Our RV Adventures

Or To Skid or Not To Skid . . .

Or The Cow Strikes Again . . .

Our son Chris called about 6 this evening with some scary news. We were expecting to hear from him because he and Linda were planning on coming up tomorrow to visit and pick up our granddaughter Piper’s laptop that I had been cleaning up.

But he said they were on their way up in this direction now because Piper was up kind of near here ATV’ing with some friends and there had been a accident and they were all being taken to the hospital in Crockett, TX, about 55 miles away, and on the east side of I-45. He said all he knew is that Piper was the least injured, but he didn’t know to what extent.

When he called I was just getting ready to go to bed, and since I knew it would take them at least 2 hours or more to get up to Crockett, I went ahead and tried to sleep, but without a lot of luck. I finally got up around 9:30 just as Chris called.

He said Piper was basically OK, just banged up, but she did have a hole in her wrist all the way to the bone. He said they were going to keep her overnight to be sure there was no damage to the tendons and ligaments and that they got everything cleaned out.

So I guess we’ll know more tomorrow.

As I mentioned a few days ago, they were originally supposed to skid our rig over to the new drill hole today, but I didn’t see any sign of that happening. Turns out it’s now scheduled for Wednesday. But we’ll see.

What I’m not quite sure about is how they’re going to do it. I was surprised to find out today that they’re skidding the rig closer to us and not away. It doesn’t look like there’s enough room between the rig and the edge of the pad to get the two cranes in place. But since we’re kind of looking uphill at the rig, the lack of room may be an optical illusion.

And of course they might plan on having the cranes down here on the road and doing it that way. I guess we’ll know on Wednesday. Or not.

Well, the cow(s) struck again this evening. When Jan went in at 11pm to go to bed, she stuck her head back out and said DirecTV was down again. So I went around the front of the rig to check it out, expecting to find the sat dome on the ground again. But this time the stand was just tilted over and the wires jerked around.

I just wish the cows would pick up their feet (hooves), and stop tripping over the wires. This time I moved the sat stand up against the sewer trailer and then routed the wires up in the air through the trees. So unless some really tall cows come by, I should be OK.

Hopefully we’ll know more about Piper’s condition tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” — Thomas Jefferson

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The last several days have been pretty boring. But in some cases, boring is good.

Our vehicle counts have been in the 80’s, which is nice, especially since when the fracking starts, that could easily quadruple. From what we’ve heard, there are three sites ready to frack behind our gate, and that doesn’t include the two rigs that are presently drilling, the one right across from us and the other one down the road.

But if it’s anything like our past experience, it could easily be a while. We’ve been told that frack crews are in short supply, and it can take months after a well is finished before the frack guys show up. We heard last year of one gate guarding couple who sat on a gate for six months waiting for the frack, just getting one or two vehicles a day.

And when we were following a Marathon/HP rig in 2012, the couple at a gate right above us had been waiting three months. So I guess it’s possible that when we leave here in November, they still won’t be fracking.

That would be nice. 80 vehicle days as far as the eye can see.

I mentioned in an earlier blog about the rig right across from us being a ‘3 holer’, which means they will actually be drilling three separate wells on that pad. Well, tomorrow is when they’re supposed to ‘skid’ the rig to the second hole, but I haven’t heard if that’s going to happen on time or not. Probably not, because is seems like nothing stays on schedule in the oil patch. We’ll see.

Besides low vehicle counts the last several days, we’ve also had rain. And today, we got a lot of it. A heavy downpour for about an hour this afternoon. Luckily there was no wind, so I didn’t have a problem with it blowing under the canopy, but it did bring out a few leaks, mostly where the canopy rubs against the frame in a few places.

So I decided to try this Rust-Oleum Clear Leak Seal spray I bought a while back to seal the joints in our shower. Since it work great there, so why not on the canopy?

I’m sure you’ve seen those TV commercials where they install a screen door in the bottom of a boat, spray the screen with a leak sealer, and then sail away, high and dry. Well, this is that stuff, but the Rust-Oleum brand.

And I can tell it works just as good on canopies as it does on screen door boat bottoms. And it even works while it’s raining. I would see a drop forming on the underside of the canopy, hit it with a couple of shots of the Leak Seal, and no more drip. Neat.

For dinner last night we finished off the last of the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, and tonight Jan whipped up one of her specialty sandwiches, with sliced turkey, sliced roast beef, pepperjack cheese, basil pesto, and spicy mayo. Really, really, really good.

More tomorrow from the Gate.

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Thought for the Day:

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.” – Mark Twain

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