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.