After a few days off near Crystal City, we headed for our new gate near Los Angeles, Texas.  On this particular gate we were taking over for another couple who had to leave for a funeral and had to coordinate times with them.  Changing out with gate guards can be very hectic, because the traffic doesn’t stop coming.  Moving one rig out of the spot and another one in is bad enough, but add multiple vehicles coming and going and it can get crazy.  Thankfully this gate is still pretty slow and the couple we were taking over for did a great job of helping out during the transition.  They were both really nice and I really enjoyed talking to both of them.

By the time we were settled it was around 3pm and I was really tired.  Thankfully we had a strong enough cell signal to watch the super bowl pregame and we both settled in for the rest of the evening.  I was worried about how Jack would handle the move, but he did great.  The pad itself we are on is pretty small, but thankfully there are long strips of grass that he can run around in.

We have never been on a pad this close to the road and initially we went to some trouble to be able to move back a few feet.  Unfortunately there are giant sticker bushes behind the rig and we don’t have anything to clear them out.  The sewer tank was also difficult to place, but we did find a position that worked. Ultimately, we decided to just stay where we were because it wasn’t as bad as we thought.  Don’t get me wrong it’s tight, but it also forces the trucks to go very slow which is a good thing.

 

Overall I like the location and feel much safer than I did when we were down at the border.  We are surrounded by other oilfields and gates in this area and can see them in the distance.  It’s also nice to be on a flat piece of land because we have much better views of the sunset.

The only negative so far are the cows.  We have had herds in every gate we have done, but this particular herd is pretty mean.  Both the male and female cows have horns and don’t look like they would be afraid to use them.  They are also not afraid of us at all, and get really close to the RV.  When the babies are close by one or more are always staring at us and frankly it makes me feel a little uncomfortable.  Hopefully when the traffic picks up they will move to other areas on the ranch, but for now they are pretty frequent visitors.  And yes I am keeping a close eye on Jack because they are not afraid of him at all.  They look like they would stomp him if he got too close. We have been forced to leave him inside a couple of times, which we have never had to do before.

 

 

 

Cows aside it has been nice here with weather in the 80’s and even 90’s this week.  We are due for a drastic drop in temperature in a couple of days to 45 degrees though which will hopefully drop the humidity as well.  The drilling rig should be coming on Saturday, which is nice to know, and even nicer that multiple people with the oilfield company have talked to us about schedule.  Our last gate no one communicated with us at all, and it is much easier to plan when we know what is coming.

One last thing.  As soon as we get to a new gate, we need to find out a way to get our mail.  Not all post offices accept packages and since they rarely answer the phone we usually have to make a trip and see them in person.  In this case though Lee asked the question on our Gate Guard Facebook group and learned the local ACE hardware accepts packages.  We called them and they said they were happy to take packages for us, which is great since I need to have our mail shipped to us from our mail service, and start working on our taxes.  And speaking of shipping, I have been using our AmEX points and sending small presents to my daughter Kyrston who is expecting. Nothing major, just little things so she knows I am thinking of her and that has been really fun.

 

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