Colorado Drilling

Well, the Wyoming work is done for a while. The company grew too fast and now is struggling. I am now doing some drilling in Colorado north of Grand Junction. In fact, it is about 15-20 miles due north of Mark and Dani's house. The picture of the country side, terrain, and the rig is below. The trailer is next to my pickup; it was a 36 foot trailer. It is designed to carry two four wheelers, it has a bedroom, shower, bathroom, and a of course a kitchen. The four wheeler bay has been converted to be an office with a sink for washing samples. One problem though, the sink has no water nor is it hooked up to drain. So I have to wash samples in the kitchen sink. This is where I live my life away from home.

The Derrick is a triple, meaning that it can stand three lengths of 30 foot pipe on the floor. When we trip for a bit, there will be 5,000-10,000 feet of pipe standing on end. Now on to other thing that may be more interesting.

I went to Colorado to help finish Grandma Thomas' estate. There is 80 acres of land that was hers and Grandpa Thomas'. His dad surveyed for the US government in the early 1900s and late 1800s and as part of payment, the government deeded him some land in southern Colorado in the San Juan Mountains. I, my dad, and Kelly went up to find the survey corners and place fence post at the corners so that the children of Harold and Bertha Thomas would now know where their land is and what it looks like. The picture of the cadastrel survey post was placed in 1987 before Joseph F. Thomas surveyed the property, but I did find a tree that may have been used in the original survey as a corner tree for section 1 and 2 of T32 N, 4 E. It was fun working with Kelly and Dad, although at times it was hard to determine who was the boss.

We found the SE corner to tract 5 of the property. This marker is the one shown and it is the center corner of Section 1. The eastern property line goes from this marker north for 1/2 mile to the North Center corner, which is the NE corner of tract 1.

The elevation of the property is 10,000 feet above sea level. The air was thin and walking with steel posts was difficult for one who is not in shape, boy how I miss being 20. The property had been logged and was very healthy. New growth was occurring and the remaining trees were free from beetle damage and very healthy. The days, both Thursday and Friday were warm and sunny with threats of rain by large dark thunder clouds during brief periods of the afternoon on Thursday.