Now On a Lighter note...

So back to the drilling.

Part of the reason I’m so sick of dave is also because both of the drill rigs are not drilling right now. In Justin’s rig, they dropped a piece of well pipe (40 feet long and 8 inches wide) 1,643 feet down the hole they’ve drilled, and they had to get a tool from Denver to get it out. kinda crazy...the tool they use to get it out is basically a 15,000 lb carbide tipped spear. they ram that down the hole and shove it right through the fucking piece of steel thats down there.

On the other, rig, they “twisted off”, which means the drill pipe in the hole came apart, so at the bottom of the hole there is about 850 feet of drill pipe with the drill bit on the end of it sitting at the bottom. They have to go back down with another type of tool to reconnect and get it out. crazy.

When the rigs aren’t drilling, we don’t have anything to do. Neither do the drillers.

Here’s what I’ve been doing on a typical day:

1. Arrive on site
2. Sit here and think about posting on this blog
3. Wait for the sun to come up
4. Listen to dave tell me about why his kids are dead inside and why life is so black
5. When the sun comes up, I take the truck and drive out to the hills around here and hike around until about 11 am.
6. come back and eat some lunch, and update the map I’m making on my computer (work shit)
7. Go out to the rigs to see what Gorge or Justin are doing - either cooking huge pieces of beef and eggs or shooting small mammals.
8. come back to the doghouse and sit around.
9. leave the site.

Yesterday Jasper was telling me about work they were doing in Meeker, Colorado. Apparently the locals in Meeker don’t like Mexican workers in their town, and he started a barfight with some drunk locals because after 2 beers the bar refused to serve Jasper and Rosilio (Rosilio is the other drill hand, he’s like 25, another Mexican immigrant). I can't imagine. I'm a pretty white guy, even act pretty white, but man...it would suck to get off a 12 hour shift, head down for a cold beer to chill out, and the bartender all the sudden doesn't like you. fuck that shit.

He also told me about this other driller that used to be able to chain up drill pipe by himself without the winch. Each pipe is 900 lbs, I guess he could lift up one side, and slip a chain underneath without a winch. he must be HUGE. I guess his name is Joe too.

That’s about it, its pretty slow here right now, I wish I had more interesting shit to say, but I don’t...today has been really quiet, except for the wind which blows constantly at about 35 mph and rips your face clean off if you stand facing it.

I have been taking some good pictures, and this blog should be nice and jazzy once I can post some of those. I like this blogging thing. fuckin' a.