Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 27 -

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Sunday, March 27, 2016
Morning 65 Degrees, Wind S variable & calm & gusting to 1 Mph, Humidity 97%, fog.
Afternoon 75 Degrees, Wind N 8 & gusting to 18 Mph, Humidity 70%, mostly cloudy.

Happy Easter to all

A summary as there has been nothing to write about. We have been sitting and waiting but we have had our taxes done in the past week and filed for 2015, Yea. We have made some inquires first to the gate guard company that took over, no call back. Checking with others nothing available. We have made the decision to first return the rental car tomorrow, the month contract is up. Then on Tuesday we will move Buster back to Pleasanton. I even contacted the company we were working for inquiring about work in other area’s, nothing now available.


Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Monday, March 28, 2016
Morning 52 Degrees, Wind NE 4 & gusting to 7 Mph, Humidity 82%, sunny.
Afternoon 76 Degrees, Wind SE 4 & gusting to 8 Mph, Humidity 48%, sunny.

We drove the rental car and Tan Jan into the San Antonio airport area to return the rental car and drive back to Buster in Tan Jan. Having the rental allowed us to keep miles off our car while running around the area.

Pleasanton, Texas - Atascosa RV Park - Mar 29

Pleasanton, Texas - Atascosa RV Park - Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Morning 62 Degrees, Wind E calm & gusting to 4 Mph, Humidity 94%, overcast.
Afternoon 74 Degrees, Wind ESE 5 & gusting to 7 Mph, Humidity 47%, overcast.
 
We took our time getting ready today for our trip to Pleasanton as it is a short trip. Only seventy-five miles on state roads (skinny roads, two lane with small shoulders) taking our time. Stopped in Floresville for diesel fuel same price as gasoline $ 1.799 per gallon. There was a time when the price between gasoline and diesel was eighty cents higher for diesel. This price for diesel is the lowest I have paid for diesel going into  Buster.

Our trip went well and we got setup in the site we were assigned with no problems. We were preparing to go into Pleasanton for some groceries when my telephone rang answering it was work coming to us. We have a gate on April eighth in west Texas southwest of Big Spring. We will start traveling there next Tuesday.

 

Thought for the Day:

I think I might try this diet.

Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of Purina dog chow at Wal-Mart for my dogs Shadow and Lady.

I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think, that I had an elephant?

Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that No, I didn’t have a dog – that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn’t because last time I ended up in the hospital.

On the bright side though, I’d lost 50 pounds before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is you load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and the food is nutritionally complete, so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, She asked : “Did you end up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned you?”

I said: No not at all; I stopped in the middle of the parking lot to bark at another dog and a car hit me.

The guy behind her was laughing so hard, I thought he was going to have a heart attack!

Wal-Mart won’t let me shop there anymore.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 16 -

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Morning 62 Degrees, Wind ENE 5 & gusting to 8 Mph, Humidity 95%, mostly cloudy.
Afternoon 75 Degrees, Wind ESE 8 & gusting to 15 Mph, Humidity 82%, mostly cloudy.
No more contract with that oil company, our gate guarding company has lost the contract with the oil company to another gate guard company. So we are out of work again.

Up until now we were awaiting another gate for the past eleven days now there will be nothing here for us so we will move to another location.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Thursday, March 17, 2016
Morning 66 Degrees, Wind ESE 3 & gusting to 4 Mph, Humidity 97%, overcast.
Afternoon 76 Degrees, Wind E variable & calm gusting to 8 Mph, Humidity 74%, mostly cloudy.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 7 - 10

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Monday, March 7, 2016
Morning 67 Degrees, Wind SSE 10 & gusting to 14 Mph, Humidity 90%, overcast.
Afternoon 74 Degrees, Wind S 19 & gusting to 25 Mph, Humidity 80%, overcast.
 
We are taking a rest day not going anywhere. After my wife came home it was breakfast then a sleep for her and I stayed in side resting also.


Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Morning 68 Degrees, Wind sse 9 & gusting to 19 Mph, Humidity 95%, overcast rain.
Afternoon 80 Degrees, Wind SSE 15 & gusting to 28 Mph, Humidity 74%, mostly cloudy.
Today we went to Victoria, TX for retail therapy and dinner.


Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Morning 62 Degrees, Wind N 5 & gusting to 7 Mph, Humidity 95%, thundershowers.
Afternoon 5 Degrees, Wind  & gusting to  Mph, Humidity %, .
Rain one inch plus today giving us good reason to stay in today.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Thursday, March 10, 2016
Morning 58 Degrees, Wind N 6 & gusting to 9 Mph, Humidity 97%, mostly cloudy.
Afternoon 67 Degrees, Wind N 2 & gusting to 3 Mph, Humidity 89%, overcast.
More rain today three tenths, good to stay inside Buster. No work tomorrow, probably all weekend, no need to go play in the mud.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 4 - 6

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Friday, March 4, 2016
Morning 52 Degrees, Wind NE 2 & gusting to 3 Mph, Humidity 65%, mostly sunny.
Afternoon 75 Degrees, Wind ESE 4 & gusting to 7 Mph, Humidity 32%, mostly sunny.
 

This is a coil tubing site we are working today (the work the oil company is doing here) so there is so much LESS traffic as in there are no sand trucks. My wife had worked here a while back when the oil company was starting a Frack (fracturing the rock formation under ground using pressure, water, chemicals and sand). This coil tubing job is a smaller work force, so the high traffic times are shift change morning and night.

Work area where the crane is up in the picture, temporary water mail left laying next to the road

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Saturday, March 5, 2016
Morning 55 Degrees, Wind SE calm, Humidity 99%, fog overcast.
Afternoon 78 Degrees, Wind ESE 7 & gusting to 10 Mph, Humidity 59%, partly sunny.
 

There is a work area in the fog

Slow drive to the gate today with the fog cutting visibility quite a bit. When the daylight came I could not see the work area in the distance from the gate area. The shift change is really broken into two parts with the coming is and a while latter the going out. They usually starts with the ones wanting ot quick then a rush of vehicle after vehicle then the stragglers vehicles

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Sunday, March 6, 2016
Morning 56 Degrees, Wind SE 2 & gusting to 4 Mph, Humidity %, mostly cloudy.
Afternoon 78 Degrees, Wind SSE 13 & gusting to 18 Mph, Humidity 77%, partly sunny.
 

Typical water truck

Five water trucks started after midnight last night while my wife was on the gate and continued into afternoon today hauling out water. These trucks kept us busy during our shifts today. In the below picture the temporary water mains to the well area are still laying on the side of the road.

Thought for the Day:

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 2 - 3

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Morning 52 Degrees, Wind variable & calm gusting to 2 Mph, Humidity 72%, sunny.
Afternoon 76 Degrees, Wind ESE 12 & gusting to 21 Mph, Humidity 57%, partly cloudy.

New water pressure regulator

 This morning I installed the water pressure regulator at the water filter I have for all water going into Buster. This does not protect the hose from from the water bib to the filter but that is outside. The hose and fittings are good for high water pressure, besides it is outside and will only water the ground if there is a failure. We are now getting decent water flow and pressure inside. There is an adjustment screw in the gray cap I could increase the pressure if there is a need.

Next to the water filter

Latter we went to Victoria for some shopping and on the return trip purchasing gasoline in Cuero. The price has ticked up $0.10 a gallon in most areas but here in Cuero H E B  it went up twenty-six cents, but this was the lowest price ($1.179) we have paid anywhere was here in Cuero to $1.439. Gasoline price you pay usually reflects the cost to replace the gasoline in the service station. The price per barrel of crude oil has increased in the past week and is reflected almost immediately at the gasoline pump.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Thursday, March 3, 2016
Morning 55 Degrees, Wind SW 2 & gusting to 8 Mph, Humidity 88%, overcast.
Afternoon 83 Degrees, Wind N 7 & gusting to 9 Mph, Humidity 47%,partly sunny.
 
Resting today and work tomorrow morning for me and my wife will be working nights at the same gate.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Mar 1

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Morning 51 Degrees, Wind  & gusting to  Mph, Humidity 95%, cloudy.
Afternoon 81 Degrees, Wind NNW 3 & gusting to 9 Mph, Humidity 45%, mostly sunny.
 

Sand truck going to unload

Look at this the start of the third month of the year already. I worked overnight with the last few hours being tough staying awake as I did not get enough sleep. It was nice having hot water ready when arriving home to Buster and getting shower, not having to wait for the water to heat up. We never kept the water hot with propane gas to conserve the gas, only turning on the propane gas when we wanted hot water giving it fifteen minutes to heat the water in the tank.

Unloaded sand truck leaving the site

The sand trucks were slow for the first three hours then they started coming in better. This resulted in a no waiting time for them as soon as they parked the “sand man” came and brought them up the hill for the unloading process. The “sand man” is a guy in a pickup truck would come down the hill from the unloading area and getting some trucks to follow him up the hill to unload.

After we got some sleep we had to go into San Antonio and switch rental cars. We can only get a month rental no month to month leases are allowed??? So monthly we need to turn in and replace the car on a new rental agreement. Actually I had to extend a day as I could not make the trip to San Antonio Monday and go to work last night. I got up latter today as I was really tired when I went to bed not sleeping well the past night.

The trip into San Antonio from Buster is eighty-four miles northwest one-way. The trip went well arriving there about four o’clock and then went to RV part store Texas RV Supply to get a new water pressure regulator (different type). The small one we had, I really do not like because it regulates pressure and water flow. I had this type before but, forgot to remove at a camp ground thus lost it as we were one hundred or more miles from the site when discovering the regulator not there in the compartment.

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Feb 27 - 29

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Saturday, February 27, 2016
Morning 39 Degrees, Wind North calm, Humidity 89%, light fog.
Afternoon 69 Degrees, Wind SSW 8 & gusting to 12 Mph, Humidity 54%, partly cloudy.
 
More traffic today, sand trucks plenty of sand trucks coming and going during the night. It does help the night pass and not just sitting waiting for someone to come or go. Last night some trucks spent most of the night there in the staging area waiting (sleeping in the truck) to be called up the hill to the work area.

Sand truck going to unload into the cylinders that are on the left of the truck and the white shack

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Sunday, February 28, 2016
Morning 57 Degrees, Wind SSE 3 & gusting to 5 Mph, Humidity %, overcast.
Afternoon 74 Degrees, Wind SSE 12 & gusting to 22 Mph, Humidity 67%, mostly sunny.

Empty sand truck on his way out

This afternoon we received a call to work the same gate one more night and for my wife to work a different gate tonight. My wife’s gate was slow but my gate continued to be sand trucks throughout the night.

Sand trucks parked waiting to unload

We got a call mid afternoon from the mobile RV repair saying he could be at Buster late to install the “hot rod” in Busters hot water tank. We set that up until a few minutes later the call came for my wife to work tonight. I had to call and turn off that work until tomorrow.

Water draining out the drain 

Iron Horse RV Ranch - Yorktown, TX - Monday, February 29, 2016
Morning 61 Degrees, Wind SE 3 & gusting to 4 Mph, Humidity 94%, light fog.
Afternoon 75 Degrees, Wind SE 9 & gusting to 13 Mph, Humidity 67%, overcast.
 

Hot rod installed in drain port, brass 

We were up too early, after working all night, and feeling like we really need a shower. So I tried the propane gas and it worked. I did have to cycle the switch a few times but was able to get the water hot enough for showers. Mobile RV called and came installing the hot rod in Busters hot water tank. The rod is in the drain port and a thermostat is inside at the top of the tank. Then a wire is plugged into a receptacle. That receptacle
is on a separate circuit so we do not overload heating devices on a circuit causing a circuit breaker to pop.

Black electric connected to hot rod

Thermostat on tank

Plugged into receptacle