Unusual Creatures -- Thurs., May 24

Cotulla, Texas:

Looks like our gate is about to get busy again. One of the job foreman told me to expect a bunch of semis tonight to haul away the big water tanks. Then in the morning, we will see a line of tanker trucks come in. Our days of one-to-three log pages are over.

Bob is up in San Antonio this afternoon and evening. He is doing a Costco and Office Max run. I took over for him about 1:30 p.m., but the gate hasn't been too busy up to this point. We are just finishing up page two on the log.

The temperature is 102 today and a hot breeze is blowing which alleviates the black biting flies. We've had dust devils come ripping through our site (and believe me there's plenty of dust and wind). I try not to be outside in the path of one.

Last night one of the Springbok antelope was visible on the ranch across the road. 

Springbok Antelope

kaybruce.wordpress.com

The springbok is a medium-sized brown and white gazelle that stands about 70 to 90 cm high. Springbok males weigh between 33 and 50 kg and the females between 25 and 40 kg. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Antidorcas marsupialis

I am a nature girl. Love to be out in it, exploring, discovering, communing with benevolent wildlife. For some reason the wildlife like to live with us. You heard about the Bewick's wren we had to dissuade from nesting under our slide out. ( A Little Bird and A Little Bird, Part 2 )

Today we had a walking stick living with us on our entry door. Isn't it cool! I love walking sticks. They're designed to camouflage in bushes by looking exactly like a twig. Bob pointed out that this one wasn't doing a very good job. Our fifth wheel trailer door is white.

In the photo, I put my hand next to it so you can see how big it is. I would have picked it up and put it on my arm, but I didn't want to disturb it. (Again, my apologies for all the dust inside my camera. I don't know how to get it out. Compressed air says not to use it on camera mirrors.)

That is the biggest walking stick I have seen. We had walking sticks and praying mantis at our house in Hawaii, but nothing like this. (Everything's bigger in Texas, right?)

Other unusual creatures: 

• Bob and one of the workers spotted what looked like a scorpion without a tail. They didn't know what it was so they squashed it...said it was real juicy. (Just like a man to say that.) Looking on Google it may have been a vinegaroon (alt. spelling vinegarone), sunspider [also called wind scorpion] or a whip scorpion, none of which are harmful to people.
• I saw quite a few 2" long, shiny black, wasp-like flying insects. One of them had picked up a cricket as big as it was and carried it away. Sounds kind of like the new "warrior wasps" from Indonesia.
• Numerous types of beetles

The trailer is shakin' like a leaf on a tree as the winds are picking up. Weather forecast says gusts as high as 21 mph. I think the gusts may be a bit stronger than that. We have massive clouds of blowing dust. The dust sets off the motion detector at the gate and rings the bell in our trailer. Think of a continuously dinging doorbell.  It's making me a little ringy dingy.  : (


Darkness is descending. According to our log, there are still two people at Pad A. I wonder if they're still back there or if they exited through the "cow gate." Hmmmm.


All for now. I'm going to attempt to latch the front gate (in the wind, no less.)


Got the gate closed. While I was out closing the gate, I saw four deer crossing by Pad A.

A Little Bird, Part 2 -- Sat., May 19

Cotulla, Texas:

Happy birthday to Randy (our now 37 year old). Time flies. We hope your job in New York is going well.

Our wren friend is persistent! Even though Bob hung up foil on string and put duct tape where she wanted to build her nest, she found a way in and kept trying. We removed all her nesting material.

This morning, Bob found a nest which was almost finished under the slide on the back side of our trailer. He took it out and laid it on the ground. When I went out to see the nest on the ground, I found a new nest being built in the same site where he had removed the previous one. I took it down.

We are so conflicted. We love the little wren and would enjoy watching her lay eggs and raise her family, but we don't know how long we'll be here. We do not wish to crush her eggs or her babies if we have to move.

Oh, on Bob's bike ride yesterday evening, he saw a beautiful tom turkey. In the past couple of days, he has also seen a couple of dead animals on the road--a snake (not a rattler), and a tortoise. We're surprised he hasn't seen more given the number of semis on the roads.

Gate guarding: It has been very quiet for the past two days. Our log sheets, which had been 7-9 pages, have now dropped to 2-3 pages.

Pad A wells: Cold tubing--Everything is moved out and they're removing the water pipe. We don't know when flowback will start on Pad A.

Pad B wells: Fracking is done and the pad is almost completely cleared of all big equipment. Our Chesapeake company man and office/living trailer moved out this morning.

This afternoon I had two gentlemen from FTS walk through the gate. They showed me a piece of metal painted red and asked me if I knew of any equipment moved out today that was the color of the red piece of metal they had in their hands. They said it would have had to have been pretty big. I looked at the log and remembered Bob told me about a huge company office/living trailer they took out of here this morning. I told the men about it.

They said, "Yep, that's got to be it. It hit our equipment [that was parked on the side of the road] and broke the conveyor belt. We can't move it." I gave them the name of the driver, company and license plate of the truck that was towing the trailer that hit their equipment.

From what we know, which isn't that much, Pad B will get a new Chesapeake company man for the next phase of this well--cold tubing. Our first semi-load of pipe just arrived which may be the beginning of a new round of busy-ness.

My shift starts in ten minutes, so I better get ready (just in case it gets busy). Bob just got busy (four pick-ups in two minutes).


Ta-ta for now.

Update: That seems to be the end of the busy-ness for this evening. It's 8:30 p.m. and everyone is gone. Bob and I closed the gate because too many of these "cowboys" have been running it. One guy who was checking out told Bob today that he came in an alternate gate (which is why we didn't have a record of him). Bob asked him to sign the log sheet and he refused. He also refused to give his name.

We reported the company that's been using the alternate gate and running the main gate to the company man. He is going to call their company and explain to them why they need to sign in and out.

Anyway, enough on that rant, once we closed the gate, we took a walk on the inside road down to Pad A (about 1/4 to 1/2 mile). Bob went back to watch the main gate and I walked around a little to see what they had done. There are control valves, porta potties, forklifts, backhoes, generators, tanks and pipes out there, but not much else.

I saw a quail, who immediately screeched a warning and flew off. Being the worrywart that I am, I also carefully searched all bushes and the roadway for illegal aliens, snakes, tarantulas and javelinas (didn't see any). Bob says the only rattlers out there are the ones in my brain. LOL.

I did see a red-winged blackbird today pecking around on a black-eyed Susan flower.

Another Update: Wouldn't you know as soon as I said "end of busy-ness" above, a semi came to the gate. He's on site now unloading forklifts/Skytraks. That means we may have more deliveries tonight.

I'll keep you posted.

TravelBug out.

A Little Bird... Thurs., May 17

Cotulla, Texas:

First off, we have a new internet booster so we have 4G internet now instead of 1-2 G's. Yay, Bob, for buying it and setting it up!

We have been gate guarding two weeks. It's hard to believe. The time has gone by fast with day after day of trucks coming and going; no weekends, no holidays, just 24/7 two of us splitting shifts and guarding the gate. But we're doing it and loving the adventure of a new place, different climate, and a totally different job than we've ever done before.

Remember the little Bewick's wren I've been telling you about? The one who got cozy with my arm yesterday? 

She has decided that we are safe and she wants to live with us. Today Bob found her building her nest under our fifth wheel slider, right next to our front door. She is very industrious but we don't want her to nest there (even though it's a great compliment to be chosen by said bird). 

Our fear is, she will lay eggs in her cozy nest, have adorable hatchlings she will need to feed, then we will have to close the slide and move; thereby crunching up her little bird family. Bye bye birdie.

All day today Bob and the wren were working against each other. And let me tell you that little bird is industrious. She had twigs and nesting material coming together into a nice nesting place. Bob kept tearing it down. She built it again. Bob tore it down. On and on. 

We didn't know what to do to dissuade her. Bob put pieces of foil on strings and hung them around where she was building. That stopped her. We're hoping she found a nice nest site in some of the desert scrub.

I forgot to mention that we have two gray cottontails who come out in the evening across the road from us. We can see them out our dining room window.

Another wildlife sighting here that is pretty cool is the scissor-tailed flycatcher. This bird sits on the telephone wires and has a long, scissor-shaped tail. It's very distinctive in flight.

Work was busy all through the night. One well site finished up coil tubing, so last night and all day today they moved big equipment out. The other well site has finished fracking and they will start coil tubing in a few days (not sure exactly when). All that equipment moved out today as well. Since almost everything is gone except for some super-large equipment, we will most likely have a quiet night. I'm going to catch some zzz's.

G'night all.

Internet, Bugs, Birds -- Wed., May 16

Cotulla, Texas:

Our internet connection is so lousy here, we bought a booster to strengthen our signal. Bob plans to install it tomorrow.

 

We have been super busy. I had trucks through the night last night.

 

I was thrilled there were no mosquitoes here. Mosquitoes think I am their buffet line.  That changed after the rains. Now we have gazillions of them: big, nasty, bite-y, Texas-sized mosquitoes. Today, I put on Deep Woods Off to keep the mosquitoes and gnats away. The little annoying gnats fly into your nose. ICK! I keep a piece of paper to fan my face when I'm sitting outside during the afternoon. I have mosquito bites on my legs even with the Off. I think it wore off so I'll have to put some more on.

 

I hate to open the door at night, because about 10 mosquitoes come in if the door is  open a few seconds. Bob, the cats and I hunt them and kill them. 

I love sitting outside in the late afternoon/evening (except for the bugs). Birds come to the generator because it attracts bugs. Today, while I was sitting there reading, I felt something on my side almost under my arm. My mind freaked out thinking it was a tarantula or something. It wasn't. It was my cute little Bewick's wren friend. She must have been trying to catch a bug by my side. I think we startled each other.

The mockingbirds come within a foot or two of my feet and the cardinals come within about six feet. I got some great pics today! 

Peek a boo, I see you.

Smile for the camera.

"Wait a minute! Who the heck are you?"

Mockingbird

Not too afraid of me.

Mockingbird checking me out.

"I guess you're okay."

Sometimes in the evening, right before it gets dark, we see beautiful birds flying up in the sky. I couldn't figure out what they were. I thought they were owls, but no owls looked like that. I found out they're common nighthawks. Love them!

 

When we were in Big Bend National Park at night, again birds we thought were owls flew in our headlights trying to catch bugs. I found out in the Audubon book that those were lesser nighthawks. They have beautiful patterns under their wings when they fly.

 

We definitely want to spend more time in the San Antonio/Austin Hill Country. There is so much to see and do here, plus it's beautiful country with terrific bird-watching! And there's swimming holes galore for hot summer days. (Bob is into that more than I am, unless the water is super warm.) Apparently winters are mild here as well. Supposedly it rarely goes to freezing in the winter.

 

My faithful readers, I leave you with this. I do not know the source, it came to me via email (thanks, Mom):

Forgetter Be Forgotten

My forgetter's getting better,
But my rememberer is broke
To you that may seem funny
But, to me, that is no joke

For when I'm 'here' I'm wondering
If I really should be 'there'
And, when I try to think it through,
I haven't got a prayer!

Ofttimes I walk into a room,
Say 'What am I here for?'
I rack my brain, but all in vain!
A zero, is my score.

At times I put something away
where it is safe, but, Gee
The person it is safest from
Is, generally, me!

When shopping I may see someone,
Say 'Hi' and have a chat,
Then, when the person walks away
I ask myself, 'who the heck was that?'

Yes, my forgetter's getting better
While my rememberer is broke,
And it's driving me plumb crazy
And that isn't any joke.

CAN YOU RELATE???
Please send this to everyone you know because
I DON 'T REMEMBER
WHO I SENT THIS TO!

Never a Dull Moment -- Fri., May 11

 Cotulla, Texas:

Compared to rainy yesterday, today was gorgeous and about 84 degrees, 70% humidity (tolerable).

Bob's shift was pretty routine. Normal amount of traffic. Oh, except there was a big mud hole just past where they had been grading and putting rock down into the caliche. Trucks were nosediving into it. A grader came out and many truckloads of gravel were put down which the grader then smoothed into the roadbed of caliche dust.

I came on duty at 3:00 p.m. Bob went to the post office to pick up our mail. On the way back he stopped to visit Kit and Jerry. He had a wonderful time picking their brains about internet reception, gate guarding, past history...just a good, old-fashioned visit.

About 45 minutes after Bob left for town, I witnessed an accident inside our gate between two sand trucks. I won't bother you with the details. I did get some pictures of the damage, though.

Tire removed already. Damaged wheel.

Crunched license plate, damaged grill, hood crunched upward.

Assessing the damage.

That was the first incident on my shift. 

Next thing I know, trucks that had exited the gate onto Harvey Smith Rd south were all backing up into our gate to turn around, even the rock trucks that were supposed to put more rock down. When the grader guy got off shift around 10:40 p.m., he brought the grader in and parked it across from our rig (which is where he left his pick-up truck). I asked him what was going on down the road. 

He replied, "An inexperienced trucker got stuck in the hole, broke the axle and ruined the transmission. I tried to pull him out, but couldn't. Two other trucks combined tried to pull him out, but couldn't. The road is blocked. I've been sending everyone I can around another way. There's nothing more we can do tonight. A semi tow truck will be here in the morning. I'll be back first thing."

While the second incident wasn't exactly at our gate, it impacted where our truckers had to go to get here. And some who left had to back up 1/2 mile to turn around at our gate.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we have an excellent bird feeder. Our night lights attract all manner of moths, beetles, termites, lightning bugs, and who knows what else. There are no bats! During the day, all kinds of birds come to the generator/light stand and have easy pickin's of whatever ever bug buffet suits them. We have Bewick's wrens, mockingbirds, a male and female cardinal, and other birds I haven't identified yet. Today the Bewick's wren came within a few inches of my shoe. My nature moment for the day.

Kitty story: We have discovered what floats our cats' boats...flying insects--moths to be exact. (Beetles are exciting too, but just not as much fun.) A moth enters the 5er, intense hunter cat mode ensues. Both Sunnie and Bowie go nuts, leaping tall furniture in a single bound, climbing upholstered valances, staring down moths on the ceiling as if they can entrance them to fly around some more.

Yesterday Sunnie caught a good-sized moth. He proudly carried it around in his mouth, would let it go and catch it again. If Bowie got too close, Sunnie hissed and growled.

This evening there were plenty of moths to go around and both cats had their own playthings. They don't eat them (probably too fuzzy), just play with them and carry them around.  Apparently Sunnie does eat beetles.

"I see a moth. Yum!"

Two cats hunting.

As I'm sitting here typing the two cats just finished hunting some bug under the dining chairs and I can hear Sunnie's bug crunching noises from where I sit...sounds like a crunchy beetle, not a soft moth.

They wore themselves out. Some moths live on, but the cats are sleeping. By morning, we'll probably discover more dead moths.

More random pictures from the last few days:

These cats love playing in and around boxes! See those little holes...they make good spots for Bowie's paws to attack Sunnie.

Bewick's wren. It's there, really!

Equipment move

Bob doing his job.

Pad B before the flood.

Bowie

Springbok antelope running away from me again.

Grackle

Grackle.

Trailing edge of the front--May 10, 2012.

Trailing edge of the front -- May 10, 2012

Trailing edge of the front.

The storm that passed over us, leaving for the day.

Kitties playing.