Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 21 & 22

Sunday, April 21, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 54 degrees sunny this morning to sunny 89 degrees.
NASCAR Sunday - Kansas; slow gate traffic today more time to watch the race.


Monday, April 22, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 64 degrees cloudy this morning burning off slowly to partly sunny 89 degrees. Over night we had some wind gusts that were rocking Buster form time to time.

The crew working the pad close to Buster finished their work early this morning. Otherwise a slow morning. Bonnie went into Pleasanton today for water shopping and a haircut. On the return trip she stopped at another "gate" to talk with the guard, working for a different company and a much busier "gate" (high traffic) along Franklin Ranch Road.

This sign is on the right as you turn onto the road

Franklin Ranch Road marker - Ranch founder, Ralph S. "Rafe" Franklin, was born in Louisiana, April 4, 1848. He came to McMullen County in the early 1860's with his family. He started this ranch about 1870, building it up until he owned 40,000 acres, one of the largest holdings in this area. On Nov. 4, 1870, he married Minerva Holland; their children were: Murray; Buddy; R.S. Jr.; Green; Felix; Chapman; Amy; Claude; Tom; John; Margaret; Sam; Julius. The ranch headquartered on San Miguel Creek. In 1913, the present ranch home was built at the same location. It was a travelers' refuge; relatives and friends from near and far visited often to attend parties, dances, picnics and other social gatherings. For a short time Franklin ran sheep and goats but changed to cattle. In 1902, he purchased a herd of black Angus, the first in this part of the country. The old "San Antonio-Laredo Stage Road" traverses ranch, crossing San Miguel Creek below ranch home. During the Civil War much cotton passed over this road headed for the Mexican border. The Franklins were pioneers in truest sense--few were more dynamic than they in early McMullen County development. "Rafe" Franklin died March 14, 1913. 1967.

Coming south on SR 16 from Jourdanton we cross San Miguel Creek before turning onto Franklin Ranch Road, still a dirt road and going all the way to SR 97 in the west.

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 18 - 20

Thursday, April 18, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 75 degrees cloudy mist and rain (nothing to measure just enough to make mud) this morning burning off to partly sunny 72 degrees. A cold front moved thru this morning winds change fron th east - southeast to being from the north and west.
 

Rain on Buster's windsheild

Friday, April 19, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 53 degrees clear morning to sunny 72 degrees with some unique wind gusts.
Just the now normal work of every day the same a dribble of in and out pickup and work type trucks coming and going. We also have crude oil and water tankers everyday.

Saturday, April 20, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 46 degrees sunny to sunny 78 degrees. We are still experiencing winds with gusts that will setoff our driveway alarms.

One gust of wind set off the incoming alarm then blowing on up the road going to the back pad sites setting off that alarm and there was nothing to see, not even a dust cloud.


 

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 15 - 17

Monday, April 15, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 74 degrees cloudy mist this morning burning off to partly (hazy) sunny 89 degrees.

Yesterday and today three air conditioners are running trying to keep buster cool.
Bonnie went to town for relaxation (shopping) and four gallons of drinking water.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 72 degrees cloudy fog this morning burning off to partly cloudy barely 82 degrees and windy. The clouds today meant the third air conditioner was not needed.

I woke up with allergies to what I do not know but a runny nose anyway. I toughed it out blowing and wiping the nose all day. When Bonnie got up I cried sick and went to bed early with some medication.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 72 degrees cloudy this morning to partly sunny and windy 89 degrees. Wind is picking up this afternoon and the third air conditioner did not operate.

I feel much better this morning and the nose has stopped running. Started as a slow day but picked up a little at mid day (gate traffic). Bonnie was up earlier than usual and went into Pleasanton today more relaxation (shopping).

 

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 13 & 14

Saturday, April 13, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 58 degrees mostly cloudy this morning to 80 degrees and partly sunny most of the afternoon.

Enough of a wind today to not want to sit outside. We did not get the weather as advertized on the televison the previous two weather telecasts. Light gate traffic day today as we finished the heavy work for the week yesterday.

We are in this gate guarding six weeks now and are planning another six and see how we feel then. But we are starting to experience the hitch itch to move down the road, or thinking where we will go from here. We need to see doctors for prescriptions and we need to have our eye glasses changed. From here we plan to get eye glasses and see our doctors in New Mexico probably in July.

Sunday, April 14, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 68 degrees partly sunny this morning clouds burning off to 96 degrees and sunny most of the afternoon.

NASCAR was last night so it was tape delayed for me. There was minimum gate entrances recorded today. Bird action was the order of the morning, Cardinals two females and one male were about looking for bugs. The females would only show me their back side when the camera was in hand.

 

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 11 & 12

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 49 degrees cloudy this morning to 74 degrees and sunny most of the afternoon. There was rain overnight and cooler temperature this morning.

An easier day traffic wise as the rigs are gone and all their support equipment. The sun was nice but slow temperature warmup.

Friday, April 12, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 49 degrees sunny this morning to 89 degrees and partly sunny most of the afternoon.

Gate traffic was sporadic all day with incoming and outgoing all day. Late in the day I

went to town as Bonnie went Tuesday. That old cabin fever came over me I did not mind the late start as the sun goes down later now. I prefer to travel the dirt road in daylight after a couple of trips last month in the dark.


 

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 10

Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 74 degrees cloudy mist this morning burning off to cloudy 58 degrees. A front has moved across Texas, I awoke to a warm morning after high temperature yesterday and temperature went down from there.

A nice slow day (traffic wise) with stragglers most of the day. After three o'clock a convoy came in parking some for the night in preparing for tomorrow’s work. This pad has been quite since Sunday and a new work crew starts in the morning. The work over rig will move out of the other pad in the morning as that work finished up today.

 

Work over Rig ready to leave the pad

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - Apr 8 - 9

Monday, April 8, 2013
Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 71 degrees partly sunny this morning to 94 degrees and sunny and windy most of the afternoon. The wind really picked up this afternoon with some good gusts.

Work over rig on site

Another busy day at the gate and the crew at one pad stayed until after dark. The other two crews were out by five today.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Fox Creek Gate Tilden, Texas - 72 degrees partly sunny this morning to 102 degrees and sunny most of the afternoon. There is haze in the distance and wind gusts stirring up the road dust again today. I kept the big awning on a shorter leash today as the past two days I needed Bonnie’s help to roll the awning in safely. When I had it out Sunday and Monday it was tied down to limit the blowing around, I untied the awning and I held the end while Bonnie rolled it in with the electric switch.

This wind has made a day where the entry alarm has activated a number of times, we have the ghost alarms but an abnormal high number of ghost alarms today.

Today has started slow thankfully and slowed down today with only one pad active and the others a small number of visits. With the expected high temperature I attempted to stay inside Buster as much as possible.