Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate Apr 2

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 60 degrees and cloudy misty rain to 91 degrees and mostly sunny.

Well the pipe crew was back to finish up this morning in the picture the pipe (casing) is laid out to the left and the threads are shining (standing out in the picture) then pressure washing all the pipe. On the right is drill pipe awaiting to go into the ground.

Bonnie and I had an e-mail from our daughter Chris asking if this gate is better than the last gate. My answer is different, as this is the first gate where we are right there at the pad area where all the action is taking place. Viewing all the activity out Buster’s left side windows. Buster is parked twenty-five feet from the county road (dirt) that is not as good as the last gate where we were 200 plus feet off the paves TX 99 road. Here all day there are water trucks running the county road and when it is dry the dust cloud drifts over to our side most times.  The big difference is the water and fuel services provided by this company is better (larger capacity tanks) than the company we worked for last year. This is our second gate where actual well drilling is taking place. The rig here is smaller (the size of the platform) so there are fewer men working and fewer contractors supporting the operation.

The drill pipe is coming out again tonight, and they do not tell us what is happening, we just can see the double section stacked there on the platform.

Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 31 - Apr 1

Monday, March 31, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 64 degrees and mostly cloudy, to 80 degrees and mostly sunny.

You can tell it is a Monday with the mount of vehicles coming and going today.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 75 degrees and cloudy, to 90 degrees and mostly sunny.

This morning I went to Pearsall for our weekly shopping as Bonnie had a nap last night and was able to stay up for a while as I would need three hours to Get R Done. Post office gasoline shopping and wash the car. I tried going out the other way, it is shorter mileage drive but it does take more time as the dirt road portion of the trip is three times as long, as compared to the way we first came into the site.

where we get our cooking and drinking water

While I was shopping four truck loads of pipe came in and setup on pipe racks where the threaded ends were worked on by a pipe cleaning crew that came in just for that job until after dark.

Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate Mar 29 - 31

Saturday, March 29, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 60 degrees and partly sunny,  to 88 degrees and mostly sunny.

Smaller rig Saturday equals a low gate traffic day, and every thing is right with Buster’s service equipment (water and electric generator). If there is no rain in Martinsville, Virginia there will by two NASCAR races today as yesterday’s truck race was rained out.

Sunday, March 30, 2014
Dilly, Texas - Buster’s Gate 54 degrees and sunny, to 84 degrees and sunny with a good wind today.

No rain in Martinsville, Virginia Sunday there was two NASCAR races today as yesterday's truck race was rained out., 750 laps of racing. Gate wise it was a relaxed day with the rig working all day. In the morning they pulled out the drill pipe then put it back in during the afternoon and continuing to adding more pipe (going deeper).

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.