RIG LIFE

So I'm on a rig north of Meeker CO, I just got up early(up at 12:30 pm is early- I work from 4pm to 4am), and I am currently doing laundry. That sounds like a P-Day. The rig is called Grey Wolf 520 and we are drilling for natural gas other then my own. So the first big mistake I made was on last saturday. My job is two fold. Monitor gas and every 30 feet get a sample of the mud(then clean the mud; then identify the tiny rock fragments that are left over from the mud).


I check gas and wash mud. Last Saturday the gas chromatagraph just froze up at a certain amount and stayed there so I tryed to fix it. What I ended up doing was accidentally clearing the presets that allowed the machine to know which gas was which, I.E. butane, ethane, propane, methane, and CO2. I went to my lead who was sleeping and knocked on the door 3 times and he was fast asleep. I didn't want to make him mad so I went back and restarted the machine and still couldn't fix it. During this time we are losing data. I ran back and tried to wake him up by knocking and still no effect on his slumber. Finally 2 hours later when his shift starts he comes in and I am till franticly trying to fix the machine. I could tell he was upset. He told me that this was one of the situations were you your lead up or loose your job.


He was able to recalibrate the machine another hour later. So I lost 3.5 hours of data or about 100 feet. Luckily they did no flares(they pump the excess "anes" to a pit and light it on fire) and no one died of CO2 poisoning.


Three days later I'm talking with the company man and he asks who didn't know the bathroom wasn't hooked up in the trailer. That was me, good thing I only number 2'ed once. You see we have a trailer that holds all of our equipment and office. We sleep in a camp that is made up of four single wides all connected together. It has a cafeteria, bathrooms, showers, a day room with satellite tv, and laundry facilities. The work/office has a bunk bed in it and a bathroom with a shower. No one said anything about it and I ran a practice flush to see if it worked. Lo and behold it flushed, obviously it works. So I've been using the bathroom for 3 days and my stuff has just been landing in the dirt next to the trailer. Luck for me last night had 3 big heavy rain showers and all the evidence of my indiscresions had been washed away.


So becuase we have this special gas chromatagraph we have to stay on site after the drilling, so my two fold job is now one fold, stare at a computer monitor watching the gas readings. We have to wait for them to log the well, wipe the well and case the well. The company Schlumburger(pronounced schlum - bur - jay, not schlum - burger) came to log the well. They attach a string of sensors to the drill pipe and run it back down the hole to test for abunch of things such as; resistivity and radioactivity, among others I don't understand. They started their tests this morning at 4 am, then their pump broke, now they are waiting on a replacement from Vernal, Ut. This pushes back the hole wiping(that was a great pun I had to add it) which is just them sending the pipe all the way back down the hole and circulating the mud to condition and clean the hole, which in turn pushes back casing the hole(which is where they put cement and a heavy permenant pipe into the hole to channel the gas to the surface). This job was supposed to finish last Wensday but may go till Sunday at the best of circumstances.


So thats life at the rig. Last note the cafateria ladies are so nice and always make sure I get extra prime rib and mashed potatoes. Thats just my way of saying that the food is great here.



I tryed to find a picture of the Lunch Lady Land Farley so this is the next best thing.

This week was pretty fun. I got put in charge of a Super Saturday craft activity. I had fun preping for it. I made some hooded towels and had fun making up some cute designs. My favorites are this king, the duck (the bill opens up) the lady bug, and the Superman of course!

I got REALLY hot this week and couldn't stand my long hair so I chopped it off! It is actually the first time in a long time I am excited about a haircut. The layers in the back go all the way up to the crown of my head. I love it.
Jensen has been getting good at hugs.

Another Week In Camp

Another 5 days in camp, well its been more like 7. We started this week of field camp on the 25th of June and finished on the 29th but because of the 4th of July we only did the next week for 2 days, so a total of 7 days. This picture is a view of some of the more green parts of my particular area. Have I mentioned that its dry around here?

TREE KILLING DRY!

On one particular day my classmate and I decided to hike about 7 miles, what a great decision. We got a ride from Bro. Little, you remember him he had a flat tire, up an old mining road. Partway up the road smoke began to fill the car. We stopped and dropped off two other students for their "date"(more on that subject available upon request) and investigated the problem. The hood was popped and the engine was inspect to find nothing wrong there. Smoke was beginning to accumulate in the back seat now that the car was stopped. The professor and I flipped up the back seat to find that it was on FIRE! The body plating above the exhaust had weathered away and the interior was now finally exposed to the full burning fury of the muffler. So we did what any self respecting geologist would do, we put a rock under the seat and drove on.

Further along the same "trail"(there are no trails only old game paths) my classmate and I hiked we stopped at a ridge to take pictures. Behind me is Copper Mountain and apparently the bane of the other students, at least that's what they always tell me.

"Your area is too easy, you don't have to climb Copper Mountain."

Well the picture describes the how wrong they are(Note that I am 1800 feet below Copper Mountain in this picture the angle was just too good to pass up).

This is a photograph of some folded rock in the area. Now its time for a geologic lesson. Sediments are originally deposited horizontally, but over time certain pressures can cause them to fold or buckle. This particular unit is 30 feet tall and 50-75 feet wide.

This picture is of a chert bed in the Snakey Limestone. Really its the last good photo of my rock hammer. Remember that long hike? I left the hammer up there some where. Tears are wetting my keyboard as I think of that hammer. Its all about the memories.

This photo is in Goddard Canyon and was the midpoint of our 7 mile hike. It is a slot canyon where at some points it is less then 20 feet wide. The scary part was that its filled with a ton of caves that reminded me of the movie "Congo". I figured that if albino killer guerrillas showed up I sign 'Ugly Guerrillas', push my classmate down and run.

Just Another Day in Paradise

This is my first post in this blog, I hope I do this right. I am currently in the Beaverhead Mountain Range mapping a 3 mile long 1 mile wide portion of the Copper Mountain Quadrangle. I am home right now for the weekend but will be back there Monday and Tuesday. The following stories and pictures are from last week's adventure in the area around the Horseshoe Cirque in the Lemhi Mountains.

http://geology.com/satellite/idaho-satellite-image.shtml

On this map if you look slightly north west of where Rexburg would be you will see three skinny mountain ranges, the Lemhis' are the middle range, the Beaverheads' are on the east.

This area at this time of year is home to some beautiful desert flowers, wonderful wildlife, and HORDES OF FLIES. Everywhere we hiked we were swarmed by flies of every sort; big ones, little ones, ones that looked like bees, ones that bit, ones that stung, ones with wings like moths, and finally ones that looked like ants(maybe a little Dr. Seuss-ish, but it makes the point).

How many faults do you see? The main exercises we worked on this week was correctly identifying faults and lithologic(rock) units. Each spot we stopped to look at was supposed to take about 30 minutes but at every stop the professors would argue about what they see for an extra 30 to 45 minutes. Got lots of sleep, well catnaps between fly bites.

This was the main project Tuesday, you know what it is right? Exactly, Devonian Channel Fill! What we did was repelled down the surface measuring and identifying the layers. Well, that's what we should have done but for insurance purposes we just slide and fell down the surface while measuring and identifying the rock. Here is another photo to put things in better perspective:

We, as a class, broke into three groups and did the assignment with William Hasler and myself tackling the far right side. What made this assignment fun was that the identification of the rock unit as Devonian Channel Fill may not have been correct.

This right here is a fish. Well a special fish that is. This fish is boneless. The carbon residue found in these limestones are bony plates, a type of exoskeleton for fish. This area abounds with these fossils.

This cabin is just one example of the mining structures in the area. This area is south of the mining ghost town of Gilmore. The miners in this area worked hard and the owners mismanaged some money and went out of business. The miners left a legacy though, lots of great rough roads for my lazy butt to avoid hiking. The miners also left a few mines in the area for us to explore.

This is one of the mines in Gilmore. I was in the back of the group and worried that dark elves would kidnap me and take me to Menzoberranzan to sacrifice me to the dark goddess Lloth. My only defense would be my purple eyes, You know what I'm talking about.

That's right a glacial filled lake. Temperature around 25 degrees Fahrenheit. These hobbit feet of mine feel no pain. This is Meadow Lake, just a couple of canyons from where we camped.

Next, I would like to tell a tale of flat tires, friendly neighbors, and guns. As we came off the mountain Thursday of last week our professor Dr. Little got a flat tire. Apparently the superstition among the students is that if you don't honk as you go over cattle guards something bad will happen. This is the product of another field trip where a professor didn't do it and right after the cattle guard a rock was flung up and bounced of off three surfaces and shattered the back window. Dr. Little refused to honk over the cattle guards and now he got a flat tire. This flat tire was on the one wheel that was changed at a profession place a week ago and they put the bolts on so tight he could not get them off with the tools he had.

For the 2 days previous we have heard gun fire in Horseshoe Cirque. With the flat tire, the professors decided to see if the mysterious gunmen had any tools. They did and with the new tools the professors were able to do..................absolutely nothing. The tools broke and Dr. Little had to head to Rexburg for more tools. While he was gone we went to visit the gunmen and ask them not to shoot while we did our assignment.

When we arrived it looked like a military camp had sprung up, camo netting shaded a makeshift firing range. A ten wheeled military truck was positioned where it looked like it had vomited guns and ammunition all over the area. The man's name was Mr. Lemont and he was a gun dealer who had lived in the area a long time and told us all about the mining in the area. Then he proceeded to let us handle and pose with some of the coolest guns ever. His 16 year old son and 17 year old grandson were in the hills in the area so he wasn't going to fire the guns. Luckily the conversation lasted long enough that his kid and grand kid came back and we got to fire a gun.

THAT'S RIGHT A BROWNING M2 50 CALIBER LIQUID COOLED MACHINE GUN!!


This gun fired so fast and the rounds were expensive. The number I was told was something like $300 dollars a minute. I cost $50. If anyone is interested in more pictures of M-14 with the SOCOM II housing, M-249 "SAW", Barrett sniper rifle, and American version of the Russian PK I may post them later.

I hope you enjoyed the adventure I will post more later.

Our neighbors got "Thing" gloves. Jensen picked up on the idea really quick, and had fun running around punching things.Tyrell our neighbor calls Jensen "Juggernaut" We think it is pretty fitting.
Jensen likes pushing his friend, Ivan, around in his Tigger plane.
Whenever the laundry basket is out it is Jensen's favorite place to hang out.

Jensen is walking very well now. He loves taking any opportunity he can to stand and walk.
Jensen and dad hanging out in their shorts.
Jensen climbs as high as he can on anything he can. This is him precariously on the highest point of his toy climbing to get the lamp.
This is my little garden on our tiny porch. I'm excited for the tomatoes, strawberries and beans.

Greetings from Idaho!
We have entered the 2nd of three phases of Summer 2007. Dave is home from his internship and doing a class called Field Camp. He is out camping all week, busy mapping and GPSing and identifing faults. It is his Geology capstone class and he is excited about it. So he gets to come home on the weekends and shower and work on some online classes.
When the semester ends he will return to his internship- to come back home a week before our little girl is due :)

Jensen's first BK Crown.
Dave's stunning facial hair. Dave really enjoys growing out a beard just for the opportunity to shave a different "style" everyday as he whittles his whiskers down.

We went to the doctor today and got "The" Ultra- sound. I had a healthy dose of mother's intuition the whole pregnancy that this little one is a girl. So I was pleased to see a certain body part missing. She looks healthy and growing well. Dave will soon come to grips that his football team of strapping boys will be delayed.
I need to start preparing myself for the color pink and girly moodiness which (most of the time) is foreign to our household.
We just got back from a great spontaneous trip to Illinois. Jensen did pretty good on the 22 hour drive. And It was very worth it to see a lot of Dave's family and Celeste, and of course "Wicked".
Jensen covered in cheese crackers

Jensen's cousins Garret and Griffin making him laugh
With Celeste and her beautiful new baby
With Dave's parents

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENSEN!

Jensen turned one yesterday and we had a little party for him. A bunch of people from the block came over and gave Jensen some cool toys and a swimming suit! I have been very guarded in giving Jensen sugar but the gloves came off on his birthday.

He was confused about what everyone was singing about and the fire on his highchair tray.
But he soon found the spirit of the occasion and found he liked his cupcake so much two handing it wasn't enough he had to go in with his face too.

He loved the cupcake and we loved the sugar buzz he was on for the rest of the day.Oh, and I let him have some cupcake batter too. I think he likes chocolate.