Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 27 - 28

Thursday, March 27, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 64 degrees and cloudy, fog to 84 degrees and partly sunny.
It was afternoon when the sky’s cleared to partly sunny but it was warming with high humidity until the sun came out then the humidity dropped.

Bonnie had some trucks come in last night as they were doing a cement part of the drilling operation. She also slept better today after a couple of short nights sleep.

Friday, March 28, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 66 degrees and cloudy, fog to 89 degrees and mostly sunny with a sixteen mile an hour wind all afternoon.

We have had another generator problem, with the 110 volt receptacles on the outside of the unit . There are two duplex receptacles on the units and the ground fault will not reset on one of these receptacles. Today they came with another generator unit and coming at the same time was the fuel company to set a refuel tank for the generator so the generator change was done first then set and fill the tank. While all this is outside the bedroom so Bonnie’s sleep was interrupted again today, but she was able to get back to sleep. There was a grader working on maintaining the dirt road today.

We use all these receptacles as we power two sets of outside lights, water pump for water into Buster and a sump pump for water out of Buster and our portable air conditioner. In the gate guarding business you need to know your colors.

Black tank is water, green is sewer and yellow is diesel for y=the white generator

Dilly, Texas - Buster’s New Gate Mar 25 - 26

Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 50 Degrees and cloudy, rain to 72 degrees and partly sunny.

Our new gate site is smaller as we are parked within sight of the well drill rig all the time and county road is on the other side of Buster.  A lot of activity with the pad crew having a mid day meeting with lunch catered, we also got plates in to go boxes, shrimp and steak, with fixings a great meal. We also had busters water and sew tanks move in with us today fuel for the generator tomorrow.

Bonnie stayed up this morning and went shopping in Pearsall, TX about a twenty-nine mile trip one way. We needed groceries as it had been eight days since our last trip into town (Pleasanton).  This was Bonnie’s first trip by herself into town for shopping.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 57 degrees and cloudy, sprinkle showers to 68 degrees and cloudy. About noon there was an actual raining shower of tenth of an inch. This put down the dust on the county road when the water tank trucks roll past our parking location next to the county road.

This drill rig being smaller than the last one I am expecting less daily traffic thru the “gate”, actually there is no gate and no fencing. It is just a field on this side of the county road.

Drilling was going thru the night there was no objectionable noise for sleeping from the night drilling operations. Yesterday Bonnie’s sleep was disturbed by the operations around Buster getting the water and sewer tanks set and operational.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 24 Move

Monday, March 24, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 51 degrees and cloudy with rain sprinkles, to 67 degrees and partly sunny.

some of the last rig base parts leaving the gate

The drill rig pieces continued to move out today and in the afternoon I got the call from the company they wanted us to move to a well site west of Dilly, TX today. I had to wake Bonnie and we had to get on the road by six o’clock today. Buster is moving to a new well site. the plan was to move Tuesday.

With drill rig parts and pieces still moving out we are making Buster ready to move this afternoon.  A single man in a car arrived about six to take this gate and then Buster was on the road to Dilly.

About an eighty four mile trip from west of interstate thirty-seven to west of interstate thirty-five eight miles and north three and a half miles on a dirt county road. We are parked right along the county road at the entrance to the drill pad. We arrived just after eight or just as it is completely dark.

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Today I updated the header to show our current location with the rig and Buster.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 22 - 23

Saturday, March 22, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 68 degrees and cloudy, wet fog rain to 70 degrees and partly sunny. The weather cleared slowly all day into a fair day.

Gate comings and goings increased this Saturday as the drill rig prepares to move to another site. A second crane came in this afternoon along with flatbed trucks.

Sunday, March 23, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, rain to 80 degrees and mostly sunny.  More trucks came in today and parts of the drill rig were moving out afer nine o’clock.

Busy all day checking in and out opening and closing the gate. I was able to record the NASCAR race from Fontana, California and watch it delayed when the gate traffic was lower. We talked with our company on Friday and they want us to move to a gate west of Dilly, Texas on Tuesday.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 20 - 21

Thursday, March 20, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 51 degrees and mostly sunny to 77 degrees and mostly sunny. A very nice day sun and low wind, cannot ask for more.

Started as another slow day until later in the afternoon when trucks came in with a crane to move the rig and other trucks for completing the well drilling operation. The drill rig will start moving out on Saturday so I am expecting to be busy for a few days.

Friday, March 21, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 58 degrees and cloudy to 80 degrees and mostly cloudy.
The pace quickened today with trucks coming and going finishing up the well and preparations for moving the drill rig out. We might be moving to another gate on Tuesday of next week. It seams that after the rig moves the company will close this gate for a while.

                      

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 16 - 19

Sunday, March 16, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, rain showers to 70 degrees and mostly sunny. I awoke to wind and rain this morning I guess I was expecting yesterdays nice afternoon to continue today. It was not to happen that way as a fron moved down from the northwest to spoil my plans.

Traffic started this day with five water trucks coming in mid morning and they will be the biggest action all day. The afternoon picked with pick up trucks going and coming back after getting something to eat. Some of these pick up have been in there for days before coming out for something.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 40 degrees and sunny to 73 degrees and mostly sunny.

Monday traffic picked up after a slow weekend. This morning I went into Pleasanton for our shopping it is a seventy eight mile round trip from the gate. The best part is we are right off the paved road two hundred feet, no six mile drive off the paved road at this gate. Although the state road is not in good repair with all the truck traffic that uses the road.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and sunny to 80 degrees and mostly sunny.

Just an average day of in and out traffic at the gate today.  

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 60 degrees and mostly cloudy to 80 degrees and mostly sunny. 

More of Tuesday. the pictures are of our gate looking out to the paved road from where we located our going out sensor and our outside table work area at night.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 13 - 14

        

Thursday, March 13, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 40 degrees and sunny, 74 degrees and mostly sunny.

There are two rigs in this gate one moved in our first week and a workover rig was here before we arrived. That workover rig will move out over today and tomorrow, additional gate traffic for me. The workover rig is a day time operation only so Bonnie will not have to deal with that at night.

Later today (after dark) there were six trucks come in three at a time with pipe

Friday, March 14, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 46 degrees and mostly sunny to 73 degrees and mostly cloudy. The clouds moved in with the wind coming up, so it started as a very nice day but went down hill over time.

More two more pipe trucks and two pickup trucks with workers to unload the pipe came in this morning. Then the workover rig people came in and moved the rig out.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 15

Saturday, March 15, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 63 degrees and cloudy, very light rain shower to 86 degrees and mostly sunny.

Slowly turned into a nice warm day. Very light traffic until late afternoon when things picked up for an hour and a half before quieting down again. Plenty of time to watch the NASCAR  Race from Bristol, TN. This is the moon rising in the east and our sun setting in the west, a nice ending of the day.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 9 - 12

Sunday, March 9, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 46 degrees and cloudy, rain to 52 degrees and cloudy with rain showers, just enough rain to keep the ground muddy.

NASCAR racing from Las Vegas today. Light Sunday traffic today, but there is continuous work at the rig with different company’s coming in to check or service their equipment. .

Monday, March 10, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 51 degrees and cloudy, until after two then the rain came back to 56 degrees and cloudy. The road was drying almost and the misty rain started to a full rain and the road went soupy. There was another heavy rain this afternoon. In the picture above there are puddles, but the other area is sticking to your shoes and can be slippery if your are not careful when walking. 

The company brought us a new light set to replace the broken set that was blown over by the wind. This set I will not use the pole and tripod but put on top it on top of Buster. Tomorrow when it dry’s, too wet today for going on the ladder.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 56 degrees and cloudy, rain to 68 degrees and partly sunny. Going to rain and mud. After the rain stopped late this afternoon I placed the new light set on top of Buster.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 54 degrees and sunny, “Windy” to 67 degrees and mostly sunny. The wind blew hard until after five this afternoon fifteen to 35 mph. In the picture the light set to the right blew over just after six this morning. The connection to the tripod is now broken. 

Drying we love the “road drying” there were more traffic with the nice day even with the wind, but there was no mud to walk in while opening and closing the gates.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 6 - 8

Thursday, March 6, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 41 degrees and cloudy, rain to 66 degrees and partly sunny.

Only six belly dump trucks to finish up the dirt work. Things have calmed down with routine regular in and out traffic in and out during the daylight hours. Bonnie is having more traffic for her nights.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, rain to 73 degrees and mostly cloudy. We had a fifteen mile an hour wind most of the day.

Muddy road - Not mud Gravel 

Run of the mill gate enter and leave day for our traffic the rig is in and the process has started. It is not easy trying to keep the mud out of Buster, as trucks coming in want to stay more in the middle of the road. If I am out there before I wave them closer to me pointing to the spot for them to stop. Our company has put down the line rock and that will stop a lot of the mud from getting on our shoes. Usually they stop to as we can record the license plate number on the log sheet. Usually I give them the clipboard to record their name and company, while record the plate number on my small clipboard and will transcribe that onto the log sheet after they pull away. 

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 61 degrees and cloudy, rain to 80 degrees and cloudy with rain showers off and on all day.       

George & Buster

the driveway continues to almost get dried out and the rain comes agin enough to make mud. We were trying to keep the gate closed as the traffic does not warrant the gate staying open all the time. But I donot want to keep walking in the mud.

Late today I went to Pleasanton after Bonnie had gotten up from her days sleep. We needed to get a full propane gas bottle and our weeks food shopping. I purchases a new printer as our old one and failed during the week. Size was important as I need the printer to fit into the compartment. 

Our wood deck is drying out

New Printer

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 8

Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 41 degrees and cloudy, rain to 69 degrees and mostly sunny.

The belly dump trucks came in today over fifty different trucks for one hundred  forty five loads in addition to the regular daily and rig traffic. Here at this gate we had to log the belly dump trucks license plates only by time in and out. The other traffic is more detailed information. At the last gate we did not log the  belly dump trucks as the load tickets were more detailed and the ticket taker at the dump out had that information.

We are tired of the rain but we are not sniveling here. This weekend the time changes so remember to put your clocks ahead.


                                                 

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 3 - 4

Monday, March 3, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 31 degrees and mostly cloudy, rain to 50 degrees and mostly cloudy.

Dirt company was here again with their own gate person, he was in a pickup truck and I stayed inside Buster as the temperature was too cold to socialize outside. It is Monday so our traffic increased and will ramp up even more over the week as they go into drilling the move in of the rig is complete and now the setup and actual drilling will start.

Looking southeast at Buster

Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 34 degrees and cloudy, rain to 50 degrees and partly sunny. There was a front move thru last night with a heavy rain shower that was enough to wake me just after midnight. There were more light showers during the morning.

Because of the rain the dirt workers canceled for the day other wise there would have a high number of the belly dump trucks for me to check in and out. Bonnie has had more than she had at the other Gates the past few nights. There has been no napping for her during the night.

The generator company came and replaced our generator this afternoon, the first one had all 120 volt receptacles broken. There is a need to plug in outside lights, fresh water pump and sewer sump pump. The lights are three plugs and they are teed together for power

More equipment going in the the drill site

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 1 & 2

Saturday, March 1, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, fog and heavy few to 80 degrees and mostly sunny.

Slowed down for me today and Ryan was back for another day checking his company’s belly dump trucks. For me the total quantity of in and out’s was lower as things slowed for the weekend.  Racing in Phoenix, AZ this weekend.

Sunday, March 2, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 71 degrees and cloudy, rain to 84 degrees and mostly sunny.

Then the clouds came back and the temperature dropped when I got out of the car in
Pleasanton, at the post office to mail a letter and do shopping. I started out at the gate with the air conditioner in the car and at Walmart I wanted a jacket that was still at the gate inside Buster. The temperature dropped thirty degrees. But there is no sniveling as other parts of the country has more that I want to handle.

                 
 

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Feb 28

Thursday, February 27, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster's Gate 34 degrees and cloudy, rain to 50 degrees and cloudy overcast and showers.

More settling in today for Buster. The drill rig and support equipment coming in for the third day. Six bunkhouse trailers were brought in yesterday with their support systems, water sewer and fuel. The yellow furl tank is full with three hundred gallons of diesel fuel for the generator, set and filled yesterday. There is another company building a pad a half mile in on the left side for building some sort of facility. They are not working today so there is less confusion as to who gets signed in here, that company logs their own truck and suppliers so I do not log them.

Friday, February 28, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, rain to 80 degrees and mostly sunny.

Early Sunrise

The number of gate enter and exit slowed down some today but the company building  another pad was back and they had belly dump trucks scheduled for mid day but they have their own gate guard. Both of us worked from our table taking care of business and having each other company to pass the slow time. That company doing the dirt work has only a ten hour day seven-thirty to five-thirty. Tuesday and Wednesday the person doing the gate log for the dirt company was in the pickup truck outside the gate and when the second trip for the belly dump comes in it was hard to tell if he was logging or if that was for me to log. Ryan was easy to coordinate the trucks for a nice smooth easy day.

Latter Sunrise

More Equipment coming in

Note the trailer axles, five these can carry very heavy loads and I have not noticed these type trailers in other places, but here in the pucker-brush oilfields there a standard use trailer.

Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate Feb 26

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Calliham, Texas - Buster’s Gate 48 degrees and cloudy, rain to 50 degrees and cloudy overcast and showers morning and early afternoon.  Cold front with north winds blowing all day.

Yesterday the settling in also involved the setup of water and sewer. Turning on the generator, (White) learning the controls and finding the regular plug receptacles on the unit were not working. The four pin connect for Buster was ok. We need plugs to operate the sewer sump pump and pressure water into Buster. With this company the outside driveway lights are these six (orange) small ground level lights. I do miss the large overhead lights the other company supplied.

We have all that plugged into Buster until the electric plugs are replaced. They delivered a fuel tank to transfer fuel into the generator (Gravity transfer) it has a catch pan in case there is a leak.

The water and sewer systems are much larger than the last company we worked for. The fresh water tank (color black) is three thousand gallons compared to three hundred and forty gallons. Sewer tank green is two thousand gallons compared to three hundred  gallons. There is also a sump tank that has a pump, so water coming out of Buster is drained into the sump then pumped into the large green tank. Color blue on the ground, pressure tank and fresh water pump with pressure switch for 50 psi water pressure.

Fuel for the generator (yellow tank) with gravity transfer hose. The generator is muffled better and there has not been a power surge yet where there were regular power down then back no so low as to cause any resets but the noticeable change in sound.