Dave & Sue

Dave & Sue
On The Job

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Still Livin The Life!

Welcome back to our Blog!  A lot has happened since last we met here on our little Blog. We worked on that job Near Bossier City, LA for, just a day shy of 3 months, so we spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years alone but not really alone.  We didn’t get to spend the Holidays with our own Families but rather with our Oil Field Family.  We had no lack of food during these Holidays either.  Between the drilling Crew bringing everything from Louisiana Gumbo to Smoked Turkey and Ham and the other Gate Guard Crew bringing cookies and the land owners furnishing a complete Christmas Dinner with all the fixings, we were definitely over eaters.  Then there were all the sales people bringing different offerings of food and little gifts.  This all helped us get through the Holidays with a little less loneliness but we still missed our families!
On December 30th I made a trip to Waco TX for a couple Dr. appointments which I had scheduled for the 31st.  Had I known we would be moving so soon and to be in Alvarado in a couple weeks, I would have waited a bit and saved driving a couple hundred miles.
We left Bossier City on January 8th and immediately headed for our next assignment near Pointblank Texas.  We spent only 10 days there while they did their clean up of the well area then we were released and sent to the Gate Guard Services storage lot near Buffalo TX.  Shortly after arriving there, our Boss offered us a position for a drilling site near Mansfield TX.  It was a temporary job actually filling in for another GG Couple that was on vacation in California until the first week of March.  The catch was they wouldn’t start drilling for about 10 days so we would have a little time off.  We agreed it would be nice to have a little R&R, so on Sunday the 11th we moved up to the GGS (Gate Guard Services) lot near Alvarado, TX to wait. 

On Monday we got together with a few of our friends in the Lake Whitney area and had a wonderful meal at Johnie and Janet Barefield’s Motor home.  Janet made a new dish called Peach and Whiskey Chicken.  She didn’t have any whiskey so she substituted water but it was still very good.
On Tuesday the 14th we drove to Bossier City to get all of our stuff out of the storage building.  We rented a U-Haul trailer so we didn’t have to try to get everything in the back of the pick-up. The scooters are especially difficult to get in there and pack everything around them without damage. 

When we returned to Alvarado we decided to purchase a small trailer to use for storage and easier transporting of our extra stuff.  Wednesday we bought a 6’ X 10’trailer with a side door and a Ramp door in the rear.  We need to install a couple of shelves or something in there yet but it works a lot better than packing everything in the back of the pick-up.
We spent the next 2 days installing wheel chocks and tie down hooks for the scooters and loading every thing else into the trailer. 

Thursday Noon we met a bunch of our friends in Cleburne TX, for lunch at the Grand Buffett.  Another day of over indulgence.  Then Friday afternoon we found out we were requested, by the drilling company we had worked for down by Pointblank, to come back.  We decided as long as they requested us to come back we would accept that rather than waiting for this other job to start up.  So, Saturday morning we pulled up stakes and moved back to Pointblank and got set up and ready to start work right away Sunday morning. 

It turned out to be a smart decision as the other job didn’t start until February 5th which would have been another extra 9 days off.  Another good thing is we found out this job could last another 60 or 90 days, which could be perfect for our plans to take a couple months off for the summer to go visiting in Minnesota.  If it only lasts the 60 days we can still accept a short term assignment somewhere, just so we can get further north before the real heat of summer sets in down here. 


So far we’ve only had 2 sunny days all the while on this job site and the forecast doesn’t look very bright.  We had a 2 inch deep puddle of mud in front of our steps so the well crew sent a grader in and scooped the mud out and scraped some of the road base into the same spot. it’s not perfect but it should be better, although we haven’t had enough rain the past couple days to test it out. We did have a little snow a couple days back, but no accumulation to speak of.
That’s everything in a nut shell up to now.  Thanks for Stopping by!
Dave & Sue with the Dachshund Security Team  Winking smile