"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 28 & 29

Thursday, November 28, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 37 degrees and mostly sunny to 59 degrees and mostly sunny. Bonnie and I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

Almost the bare minimum number of vehicles in and out today as the holiday has cut out the wayward lookers for rigs or the wrong location vehicles. Bonnie and I had out big meal about noon before she went in to sleep. Then it was time for football.

Sunrise moving further to the right

 Friday, November 29, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 38 degrees and mostly sunny to 62 degrees and mostly sunny.

I went into Pearsall today needed propane gas tank exchange. I also picked up a couple of 2 X 4's for the coach stabilizer jacks. I have eight by twelve inch blocks and twelve by twelve blocks but the front stabilizer jacks are pushing at an angle thus digging into the dirt. I cut the 2 X 4's into two foot lengths and placed them to make a twelve by twenty-four inch pad for the blocks, more surface area to distribute the weight. When not properly stabilized the coach rocks when entering or exiting. If you are the one laying down to sleep you realy notice the movement. After getting to sleep there is no noticing the rocking. There was just the regulars in and out the gate almost like a Sunday or holiday today.

On Wednesday I talked with the person we are relieving here at the gate and he wants more time to finish what he is doing. So we agreed to stay until the end of December. After that we will need to go the RV dealer to have the front heater blower repaired. That will be our first thing after the gate.

Thanksgiving 2013

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 42 degrees and mostly cloudy to 52 degrees and partly sunny. Today we are having wind gusts of 25 MPH but there is no more rain.

Unless there is a change we will leave this gate Sunday morning, I should know sometime Wednesday. If we do leave Bonnie and I are headed towards Van Ormy, Texas southwest side of San Antonio for about a week to figure out what is next. Of course there could be another gate be nothing known as of this writing. That will make two months here and five months three weeks for the year working.

Well the front furnace in Buster started making a horrible noise when the blower started this afternoon. Sounds like a bearing went bad. I have both turned off until Bonnie wakes up, maybe she did when the noise was on be she did not getup and come out. Maybe a change in plans? I connected the brick heater because the temperature is forecasted to be 31 degrees.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 34 degrees with frost and mostly sunny to 55 degrees and mostly sunny. There was a sunset today they are quick, I was out to check the generator came back for the camera and it was too late for the picture.

Pre holiday gate traffic today just the bare minimum number of vehicles coming and going thru our gate. Well there is a change we are here thru the end of the year more on that later. 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 25

Monday, November 25, 2013

Sunset after three days of clouds

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 38 degrees and cloudy with rain showers to 47 degrees and cloudy. Late in the day today the sun peaked out then was hidden by these clouds in the picture. The most sun in three days.

One of the crude oil trucks has gotten stuck on the pad loading oil, this rainy wet weather is making the place a muddy mess. Normally it takes them from fifty minutes to and hour and twenty minutes from going in the gate to coming out the gate. The truck was there over four hours stuck in the mud. I made a run to Pearsall for drinking water food and mail a letter yesterday after Bonnie got up from her sleep. Our caliche road is a mess there are mud holes every so often the road is passable but a mess. The top or surface is like a sloppy mess where the water collects.

Today I took a "selfie" picture outside in our "work area" there has been talk on the television of selfie being included in new dictionaries. Bonnie suggested I post a selfie on the blog.

 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 24 & 24

Saturday, November 23, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 38 degrees and cloudy misty rain to 43 degrees and cloudy misty rain.

Bonnie and I watched Florida State Seminoles win their football game and stay undefeated this season and next is UF (University of Florida). A below average day of vehicle traffic except for the crude oil trucks come no mater what the weather.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 41 degrees and cloudy with rain showers to 43 degrees and cloudy with rain showers.

Well NASCAR racing season is over and we can concentrate on football only on Sunday. With another slow day traffic wise even the crude oil trucks seemed to come early and were finished early. I do not know how the trucks are scheduled in to pick up the crude oil. Although I get the usual drivers and truck numbers it is only one crude oil trucking company and never in the same order. Some usually in the morning and some usually in the afternoon and only once in a while an overnight pick up of crude oil. Water removal trucks are another story there are two different companies and they could be three or four a day that show up and some of these trucks are looking for wells that are on another ranch. 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov21 & 22

Thursday, November 21, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 71 degrees and cloudy misty rain and humid to 82 degrees and partly sunny. Took a long day to get to partly sunny with less humidity but we did get there. Now the "weather talkers" are forecasting cold weather starting in the mid morning earlier than the mid afternoon spoken earlier this week.

Friday, November 22, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 70 degrees and cloudy rain and temperature will drop this morning as the front comes thru. To 46 degrees and cloudy windy.

Looking out the gates

The rain came early, before eight this morning and the rain in the large economy size rain drops. They came in showers Bonnie got one before going off shift. I was greeted with another shower with a good stiff wind on my first trip out this morning soaked to the skin on the back side just letting one truck out.

Normally when opening the gates we swing them in and they land on large rocks strategically placed to hold the gates open. But with the north wind blowing that is not easily accomplished and if the incoming vehicle is up close to the gate the difficultly is greater than when they stop further back as some do so I can just let the gates swing open towards the vehicle with wind power. The left gate only has the small sign but the wind does get behind it and more force is needed than the pipe gate seems to need. 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 19 & 20

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 60 degrees and partly cloudy to 74 degrees and mostly sunny.

I am glad we made the trip to Pearsall yesterday as that rain last night was not forecasted and the caliche road is a mess today with these trucks in and out splashing the mud puddles and wheel spray caking mud all over the vehicles. Tan Jan (our car) coming in is covered with dust has been cleaned off with that rain. Every time I go into town I use the car wash and spray off the dust spray wash, rinse and spray wax, looks nice in town but returning to the gate the car looks like I never left as a new coat of dirt dust is now there all over the car.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 64 degrees and cloudy to 78 degrees and mostly cloudy.

Looking in at the speed sign

Also on Monday when I was going out there he was on the side of the road in front of Buster going to the left side of the speed sign a four point buck. He had walked up the left side of Buster continued past and then crossed the road and into the brush never to be seen after. This ranch is a no hunting as compared to other ranches that dose allow hunting and does limit oil field work during hunting season.

Looking out at the speed sign
the deer came along the brush line towards this camera location

I was just inside and looked out the front windshield before reaching for the door handle. Saw the buck and called to Bonnie to come and see the deer. We were fixated on the deer forgetting to reach for the camera. It was still dark and the tower lights from our generator made for great visibility to see the buck.

The buck walked into this brush here

 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 17 - 18

Sunday, November 17, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 65 degrees and mostly cloudy dropping wet fog to 82 degrees and mostly sunny.

Football and the end of the NASCAR season from Miami, FL. The crude oil trucks were coming earlier today finishing earlier, less interruptions during the race and football games.

Crude oil truck departing the gate

Monday, November 18, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 60 degrees fog to 78 degrees and partly sunny changing to cloudy and rain for the rest of evening. There were some lightening and thunder claps with trucks still loading oil there at the pads.

On Thursday last week I called for mail, the first since September and it was in the post office on Saturday but the office was closed when I went for grub. So Bonnie and I set it up to be there at eight-thirty Monday. This means she stayed up latter while I made the mail run to Pearsall, Texas. Interesting is the fog seamed to slow the day at the gate as most of the usual truck traffic did not come until after I returned.

This was the start of the cloud change to rain in the later afternoon

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 15 & 16

Friday, November 15, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 52 degrees and mostly sunny to 78 degrees and mostly sunny.

Today was interesting as a water tank truck came looking for a place and English language was not his strong suite. Turns out they are re-grating the caliche road from the gate out to the paved road (FM 117). The water was to be used after grading and rolling the road. My gate vehicle traffic is just daily well checking and crude oil removal and water that comes up with the oil is separated and disposed of at the proper facility.

Saturday, November 16, 2013


"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 60 degrees and mostly cloudy and fogy to 84 degrees and mostly sunny. It was humid most of the day even after the fog burned off in the late morning.

College football watching Florida State Seminoles win their game. I went to Pearsall shopping in H E B and brought back Bar B Q brisket for tonight’s dinner. I started just after two o’clock trying to have Bonnie wake in time for the game that started here at two-thirty. The drive back the sky was painted with the sum’s rays and was a nice view.

Switch off key removed, towing position

Well I received a comment to my post on the battery switch and have decided to reply here in this post, thank you Wil.

I have no idea but the choices I have are as follows. Going back in time the switch was installed in July and the first noted problem was in September 24 I had the left the electric rear hatch back open and lights were on. Later when we were going to town I closed the back and not enough left in the battery to start as the solenoid would not stay energized.

I put a battery charger on for some minutes and started ok on the return trip no problem the next day mid afternoon again there was a problem to start but this time I got a jump start. That day I purchased the new battery. Since that time I have been more careful with the rear door as the electrical load could be a problem. Now the only other high load I think there could have been would be supplying a jump start to someone else. Yes it was definitely a load issue maybe the attempt using the remote start was the last straw. 
 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 14

Thursday, November 14, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 37 degrees and mostly sunny to 61 degrees and mostly sunny.
An average day of vehicles coming and going, mostly hauling crude oil out. 

Electric cutoff switch

I went to start Tan Jan using the remote start to allow the car to run for ten minutes I saw the lights flash and assumed it was running. When I went out and used the key fob to unlock the door there was no response I had to use the key to open the door.

The dash was dark no interior lights on and nothing no response from the key in the ignition. I connected the battery charger. The charger read zero (0.0) then I connected the charge to the other side of the switch, you know the hard to get to side. The battery charger started to work reading 12 volts and the battery mostly charged. I removed the switch and connected the cables directly and every thing is now normal. Except I can not tow this way as the electric power needs to be off when towing. In the picture above you can see the left post is at an angle and the material is partly melted.

This is the cables connected without the switch

 

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 12 - 13

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 65 degrees and partly cloudy to 82 degrees and mostly cloudy. We had w front pushing a windy day so much so that I had to roll in the large awning and the table awning. The northern wind was rattling the awnings so much that Bonnie could not sleep.

Kind of a slow day today as there were a minimum number of vehicles coming in the gate today. I guess there were a lot of vehicles honkering down with the "weather" moving in.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 45 degrees and mostly sunny to 62 degrees and mostly sunny. Well the cold wave came thru last night and we did not get as cold as predicted and the wind did lay down before sunset last night.

I had more traffic today mostly from hauling out crude oil. We learned we will be here thru the end of November as we were expecting to leave this gate on Saturday. I was out letting a truck out of the gate when I noticed this nice sunset. But by the time I went inside and came out with the camera the sun had dropped below the horizon thus some of the beauty of the look had disappeared.  

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 9 - 11

Saturday, November 9, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 57 degrees and cloudy rain shower to 72 degrees and mostly cloudy.

I realized the last post that I am taking mostly sunrise pictures compared with when we were at Fox Creek. There the positioning of Buster as the sun came up from the right rear and set over the left front. Here at the Batesville gate the sun comes up over the right rear and set over the left rear as I spend most time near the right front I do not notice the sunset unless I make it a point to go around to the left side of Buster.

Bonnie had a nice time in Cotulla on Tuesday having lunch at the Baptist Church with the other gate guard ladies. A woman from the chamber of commerce was there to promote the town’s businesses passing out goodie bags.

I went shopping in Pearsall today H-E-B and a few things at Walmart from the gate a three hour trip, gasoline $ 2.95. Now I did not have the camera with me and there was a nice large orange sun setting there in the west with an interesting cloud formation.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 65 degrees and mostly sunny to 75 degrees and partly cloudy.

A nice day getting ready for and watching football and NASCAR racing on the television.
Just the crude oil trucks, water removal trucks and regular Sunday well checkers came in today.
Monday, November 11, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 64 degrees and mostly sunny to 74 degrees and partly cloudy.

Nothing as in no projects are under was now just the daily checks on the wells and crude oil trucks removing oil and the water that comes up with the crude oil. 

Monday, November 11, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 6 - 8

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 70 degrees and partly sunny to 75 degrees and partly sunny. Everything is wet this morning from a heavy dew and fog.

Then they came most of the day in and out back again for a second time today. A very busy day but there was no major construction underway on any of the pads. It was lighter for Bonnie at night.

Buster at Batesville Gate

Thursday, November 7, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 55 degrees and mostly cloudy to 67 degrees and partly cloudy. Just a bla day there was twenty drops of rain I was sitting out and looked up and then they stopped. It was one cloud passing that dropped the small rain drops.

Today I learned there was a problem with the tanks that were installed last week. So now the traffic really picked up with vehicles coming in to fix the problem, resulting in another busy day for me.

Friday, November 8, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 54 degrees and mostly cloudy to 82 degrees and mostly cloudy. There were a few rain drops in the middle of the afternoon, just enough to make me move inside.

Another cloudy sunrise

Today was better traffic wise just enough to keep busy not crazy like the past two days with the number of vehicles and those going out and coming back in again. I do not know where they go some for an hour others three or four hours out and come back to one of the pads to continue working.  

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 5

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Happy Birthday to Carole, our daughter

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 69 degrees and mostly cloudy to 82 degrees and partly sunny.

Not a bad day weather wise and the gate traffic was slower today picking up mid morning and tapering off early. Less crude oil trucks today for some reason I will never know,

bonnie went to Cotulla for the Lady gate guard luncheon, she is sleeping in now. More another day.

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 3 - 4

Sunday, November 3, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 49 degrees and mostly sunny to 82 degrees and mostly sunny going to cloudy as daylight faded. Mostly crude oil trucks today for our gate traffic and even one of the oil transport trucks arrived here was given the wrong directions and needed to be at a different gate.

The day was restful and allowed time for football and NASCAR racing from TEXAS. Bonnie slept until after five. When she was up and ready I drove to Pearsall to purchase some grub to restock Buster. It was almost completely dark as I was driving out made me think of wildlife moving about, but I saw nothing. On the part of the caliche road I was remembering seeing a deer come out of the right side of the road. The deer seamed the look at me coming and went back into the shoulder and into the brush. This was not a close sighting it did take some time to arrive at the spot the deer came out onto the road. There are fences on both sides of the road and in that area the fence is only barbed wire strands. This has happened two times on this road, at least this deer knows to look both ways.

Sunrise Monday

Gasoline in Pearsall has dropped to $ 2.99 a gallon, but we have not driven very much since the last fill up so it was a small purchase.
Monday, November 4, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 62 degrees and mostly cloudy to 77 degrees and partly cloudy.

A slow day thankfully starting with a rain shower to wet everything, keeps the road dust down. More wandering lost soles. Following peoples direction and not reaching their destination but finding my gate. One group was redirected to the other side of the interstate thirty-five about the same distance.

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas Nov 1 & 2

Friday, November 1, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 60 degrees and mostly sunny to 82 degrees and mostly sunny.

Well this was the busiest day with the amount of vehicles arriving here and in and out’s for vehicles as today the tasks under way at two locations are to be completed. Parts delivery, equipment out and in for each of these locations all the while crude oil being hauled out from three other locations. There were the early ins then the mid day arrivals or more man power to complete the jobs underway and the late arrivals for that final push to completion.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

"The Gate" Batesville, Texas 56 degrees and mostly sunny to 82 degrees and mostly sunny. Beautiful sunrise, clear and crisp this morning. The same nice weather yesterday only not the time to enjoy and no time for picture taking the past few days or no time to remember the camera at all.

Some of these vehicles from yesterday left here early this morning having worked thru the night while I was sleeping. Bonnie had her busiest night also as transport trucks arrived to remove equipment and aas work was completed vehicles straggled out the gate.

Today has started slower and is winding down and even slower tomorrow.