Weather

Boy have we run the gambit of weather.  One day it is beautiful, sunny and we run the a/c.  Next three days it’s overcast or raining with 20 MPH winds and I have to bundle up. 

It rained hard enough for me to break out the rain boots Linda and I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond in Yuma.  They are pretty slick.  Here I am all dolled up in my rain gear.

And here is a better look at my boots.  I got a lot of fun comments from the truck drivers about them. Hay, if you are going to be in mud you might as well be stylish!

Oh, my nightly meals sure have been tasty.  Here’s a photo of Juan and his assistant, Josh, bringing me my “dinner” as they left last night.

 

Here’s a photo of one of their meals. That’s the pork loin wrapped in bacon with broccoli with cheese sauce and roasted potatoes.  Yummy!

Tonight Josh said he brought fried chicken with mashed potatoes.  I sure hope he has some left over for me.

This afternoon Jim was working the gate and one of the trucks stopped and asked Jim if he was hungry and when he said he was the driver reached in the back seat and handed him a pizza box.  When Jim offered to give him some money the driver said “No, I had 40 pizzas in the back seat and the guys can get along with 39”.  The various companies who work on the rigs are very generous with us.

One of the land owners again brought us New York strip steaks yesterday along with two pounds of homemade sausage.  We had one today and the steak was so tender and flavorful…we are blessed. At this rate I can put off going grocery shopping for another week.

They finished fracking well #3 and tonight are dismantling it and moving the rigging over to #4 and they will start fracking it tomorrow.  So tonight it is pretty quiet because I don’t have all the sand trucks in and out.  The sand is mixed with water and some chemicals to do the fracking.

Usually there is something to watch on TV up till midnight.  I record some of the daytime TV shows and watch them after midnight. They usually last me till 4 a.m. when the early network news shows come on.

So I’m off to watch Jimmy Fallon…see you later.

Remember, you are loved!

Seeing a Friend

Oh, what a wonderful time I had actually seeing my buddy, Linda Mossman last Sunday.  We both drove from our respective gate into Kenedy for lunch.  Luckily Pizza Hut wasn’t busy as we spent a good 2 hours there chatting.  Then we had to shop together at Walmart, of course.  It was so good to get off the ranch and talk to a female for a change.  There has been one female truck driver, but except for that I haven’t talked with a female in weeks.

I don’t take good self photos with my camera but at least it is a photo.

 

After I left Linda I stopped by and saw Rita and Jerry…I was storing up my female meetings.  I rely on them for answers to my many questions, which voice recorder did they buy, which phone and data booster did they have?  Rita and Jerry are such sweet people and so generous with information and advice.  We’ve been so fortunate to have met so many lasting friends from our time working at amazon.com

I didn’t get back to our gate until 6:30 p.m. Jim was such a doll to hold down the fort so long so I could visit with my female friends.  I’m going to make sure Jim gets away to visit Jim Mossman shortly.

Today I drove through Whitsett to the Gate Guard Services yard to pick up our monthly mail.  I was so excited to find I had full bars on my phone so I called one of our daughters, Beth, and talked with my BFF, Lory, who is battling cancer again. Luckily I brought along our laptop and was able to get 4 bars on my aircard so I surfed away!!!!! I forgot how fast the internet can be when you have a good signal.

Driving back I took this photo of “downtown” Whitsett which consists of a single stop light, a tiny post office, a church and a very small bar. 

Here’s the stop light and bar.

 

 

 

The road from Whitsett to the gate is getting pretty pitted with all the trucks driving on it all day and night.  Here are some of the large 3 and 4 foot potholes.

Well, it’s 9:30 p.m. and the next batch of sand trucks are going to be leaving pretty soon, so I best close and go stand by the opened gate to log them out.  With this fracing operation going on I’m pretty busy all night long….keeps me from falling asleep at 3 a.m.

Remember, you are loved.

Catered Meals

Ahh, I don’t have to cook for a week!!! The frac company is providing catered meals all week for their workers.  When the caterer came in to “audition” with sample meals I joked with him that if he got the contract he’d have to remember to bring in a couple meals for Jim and I.  Well he did. 

Last night was the first night and he delivered a two meals with two smoked pull pork sandwiches, grilled corn cut off the cob and potato salad.  His catering kitchen is in from San Antonio and he got here about 11 p.m. and served 65 meals.  Juan brought our meals when he left at 1:30 a.m. so it was right at my “lunch” time, so it worked out very good, and the meal was very tasty.

Tonight Juan is bringing in grilled pork loin wrapped in bacon….mmmmmmm…can’t wait!

Weather really changed today, windy, humid, clammy and it is raining to boot.  Paperwork west from mist so I took a clear report cover and put it over the sheets of paper to protect them.  I’m thinking of buying a digital voice recorder to use outside when it rains; many gate guards have recommended them.  I did get to use my new leopard print vinyl boots and they worked well.  These caliche roads are oozing mud when it rains.  Hope it clears up soon as we are so tired of this lousy weather.

Remember, you are loved

Changes

Weather and traffic changes happened this week.  Earlier in the week we’d been having great weather, I even put on a sleeveless tee and ran the a/c during the day as we had temps up to 88* with high humidity. Then I had to  wake Jim at 3:30 a.m. to bring in the awning before it snapped because of the wind. Next day on came the long sleeve tee and windbreaker because of 25 MPH winds with gusts of 45 MPH. Again today it is cold with nighttime temps down to the 40s. I’m wearing my cap and ear muffs (you all know I hate having cold ears) staying in my windbreaker with security vest on top all night.  One day we’re outside barbecuing and the next we’re eating green chili and stew.

They started fracing today, so yesterday all the needed equipment arrived.  Jim said at 6 a.m. he went outside to start his day and looked up and all he could see were headlights for the whole mile of the approaching road.  There were 18 vehicles coming in together!!! That set the tone for the rest of the day as it was the busiest day of our time here.  By midnight we had logged in 151 vehicles with most of them leaving as well so.  Luckily the land owner allowed us to keep the gate opened as long we were sitting outside, so we didn’t have to open and close the gate all day.  It was very windy so part of the time we sat in the truck we had moved by the gate to stay out of the wind.  It was a long, long day and night.

I slept for nine straight hours today to recovery.  Today seems quieter but still busier than last week.  We’ll see how this goes.

I’m excited about tomorrow as I’m meeting my buddy, Linda Mossman, for lunch.  I haven’t been off the ranch for a week but Linda hasn’t been off her gate for three weeks!!! Jim’s going to get up early so I can go to sleep and get up earlier and make it to have lunch with Linda…he’s good like that…I’m lucky.

Remember, you are loved.

 

Quiet Time

Things have sure been quiet here the last three days…day and night. But I think it is the quiet before the storm, as we hear they are going to start fracing (pronounced fracking) this week.  That will definitely keep us racing around as other ate keepers have told us.  The trucks will be lining up to deliver sand a water for the fracing operation.

Our big tower lights went off again last night about midnight, so I had to rely on the smaller stand lights to see outside.  I didn’t have any traffic last night so it didn’t really matter.  But tonight the mechanic came out and fixed the problem, so we’re back in business.

Jim has to shut off the big generator once a day to check the oil level and we started just leaving the generator off for half an hour or so.  Boy is it quiet without that 15,000 watt generator running.  We actually heard birds chirping and singing…that was awesome.  Hearing birds sing is one of my most favorite things to do!!! We have started to sit outside after I wake up and have a cup of coffee and just enjoy the silence in the afternoon before we go inside and fix dinner. 

Yes, I eat dinner as my first meal; sometime around midnight I snack on a piece of fruit or cheese and crackers, and then end my day by having breakfast…yes, it’s pretty much backwards to everyone else.

Our weather has been pretty nice lately, so off came the raincoat and back on with our tee shirts.  We have to keep several different weights of coats available as the weather changes so often.  One day we started the day off with the heater on and late in the afternoon had to put the air conditioner.  Radical temps in one day.

It’s 1 a.m. and time for yogurt and fruit for my mid-day meal. 

Remember, you are loved.

Asking you a favor

My sister, Evi, moved with her husband, Macho, to Costa Rica some 12 years ago.  Her social security goes further there than in Florida.

Evi is an accomplished artist.  Here are a couple of her watercolors.

So here is my favor.  Macho’s birthday is February 23rd and he has been pretty down because his Costa Rica family won’t remember his birthday or celebrate it with him.  My sister wants to cheer him up and asked if I could get some of my friends to send him a cheery birthday greeting via her email account that she can show him.  So here is Evi’s email address and I’d really appreciate it if you’d send her an email with your greeting for Macho.  Evi will go to a internet cafe near her home in San Ramon and get the greetings.  Please don’t send e-cards as they take too long to download with the limited internet service in Costa Rica and Evi has to pay to use the internet in the cafe.

                  evistone@yahoo.com

You might mention you are a friends of ours and maybe tell them were you are located so they can see how far this lifestyle brings people. 

Thank you, dear friends, I really appreciate your doing this for me.

Remember, you are loved.

Day in the Big City

That’s the big city of Pleasanton, Texas, population of about 10,000 which is about the same size of our home town of Alamosa, Colorado.  One of our friends commented on yesterday’s blog calling me the pioneer woman hitching up the wagon and going into town to go shopping.  Well, I kinda felt that way today as it had been 12 days since I’ve left our gate guarding ranch and I was going a little crazy.

I usually sleep from 6 a.m. to 2-3 p.m. which doesn’t give me much time to go shopping, etc., so Jim volunteered to go to sleep early and wake up at 3:30 a.m. so I could go to sleep early and get up by noon.  Of course, as fate would have it, I didn’t sleep well and got up at 10:30 so off I went.

First I drove to the Gate Guard Services’ yard in Whitsett to pick up our first paycheck.  Oh, that was nice….that was very nice!!! Being independent contractors, we don’t have the option of having direct deposit, so I needed to get the check sent to our bank. 

Off I went for the 35 mile trip to Pleasanton with a stop at the post office first.  Then it was to the laundromat.  The washing isn’t expensive at $1.75 for a top loader and $2.25 for front loaders.  I use the double loaders for $4.00.  The expense is in the !*&% driers…..25 cents for FIVE minutes.  Those jeans and towels are costing me a mint!

Off to Walgreens to buy vitamins on sale for “buy one get one free” and to pick up one of those Orgreenic 10” sauté pans you see advertised on TV.  I “killed” ours so it was time to replace it.

Then to Walmart to buy a rug to use on the steps outside.  We are getting frequent rains and I need to keep as much of the muck outside as I can.

Then off to H.E.B. (I love that place) to refill 8 water jugs one at a time at their outside water dispenser... in a light drizzle….chasing the nickel change from my quarters that jumps out of the return change slot each time…am I getting any pity here folks?

Inside H.E.B. I go to do the grocery shopping mostly fill ins of bread, milk, eggs and my Fage Greek yogurt. They had some good sales on apples, large Haas avocadoes, tangelos and asparagus also.  I run out of fresh veggies shopping only every two weeks, so it was nice to replenish our supply today.

Last stop was to fill up the truck with diesel at $3.779 which is 11 cents cheaper than diesel in Whitsett.  By then I was worn out.  I left the RV at 11 a.m. and got home at 5:20 p.m.  Too much to do in one day, so we decided I’d break it up and do the laundry in Three Rivers (15 miles away) one week and the grocery shopping the next week.  Plus that will get me out of here once a week which will be nice.  Jim’s “get away” time is his once or twice a week trip to the gas station by Highway 37 for ice cream.

Well, it’s 12:20 a.m. and I’m getting tired already.  The last three nights I haven’t had any body come through after 8 p.m.  That makes for a long night for me.  I’ve become very familiar with all the late night TV talk shows.  Any I’m knitting a lot.  Finished up a hat and bootie set for one of the ranch owners who just became a grandfather for the first time.  I knitted a shawl for myself and am finishing up a wool cap for me too.

So good night to you.  I’m going to download and read Arline Chandler’s latest book The Heart of Branson.

Remember, you are loved.

 

First Week Gate Guarding Done

Well, we’ve finished our first week as gate guards on a deer breeding ranch that has oil wells.  It sure has been a new experience for us as we’ve never done anything like this type of work before.  But we’re happy about it.

Everyone connected to this operation has been extremely friendly, helpful and welcoming.  We have several ranch owners all on the same large ranch, and they all take the time to talk to us as they go in and out of the gate. Very nice.

We’ve gotten busy the last couple of days with new operations taken place. New machinery coming in - strange looking contraptions. Jim has been very busy during the day and has taken to staying outside all day under the awning ready to answer the ding-ding of the rope bell.

Friday is our first pay day so Jim is going to get up early to relieve me so I can go to bed earlier and get up around noon.  That way I can drive to the Whitsett yard, get our check then drive into Pleasanton and mail it off to our bank, do the laundry and do a little grocery shopping…not food, mostly sundries, vitamins and such.  Plus I’ll refill our empty water jugs with fresh drinking water.  I’m hoping to be home by 5 p.m. in time to eat dinner and start my 12 hour shift at 6 p.m.

We did buy one of those big surge protectors for the 15,000 watt generator the company provides, as we were told it was advisable because if the generator throws a belt it could send a large surge to our RV.  Better to be safe than sorry, so we spent the $400.  Probably something we should have had all along, but we don’t spend much time connected to full hookups so we didn’t see the need before.  But it only takes one power surge to fry the electrical system of the rig so it’s for the best.

I’m almost giddy in anticipation of “going into town”.  Being so far out of town makes it a treat when you do get to go in every two weeks.  Just a little change of scenery will be nice.  Maybe I’ll pick up something a little special for dinner so we don’t have to cook when I get back.  Fried chicken sounds good.

Remember, you are loved.

Gate Guarding Work

The work you do as a gate guard is basically filling out a form by writing down the person’s name, their company, vehicle license number, where they are going and the time.

We use a “cheat sheet” where we quickly write down the information on notebook paper on a clipboard then come inside and more neatly transfer that information onto the form.  Here’s Jim transferring the info.

Here is a look at the cheat sheet. Notice we’ve put a loopy piece of Velcro on the clip and the fuzzy piece of Velcro on a Pilot pen. This keeps us from hunting for the pen all the time. Thanks Debbie for that hint.

 

And here is the form we fill out. We keep the forms for as long as we are here, then turn them in. Note the pen attached to the clip.

 

At this gate we have to keep the gate closed at all times because they have breeding deer on this ranch, so we open and close the gate for every vehicle.  As you can see below, our rig is about 30-40 feet from the gate so we do a bit of walking each day, not mentioning up and down the stairs.  On nice days we just sit outside all day, then in the evening I stay inside and go out when the bell rope signals me of an approaching vehicle.  You can see the septic system trailer and the water, 15,000 watt generator and diesel fuel for it on another trailer behind our rig.  These photos are all from inside the ranch looking out.

Those four mercury lights sure light up the area at night as the next photos shows. It has it’s own generator enclosed and but is pretty noisy.  We also have two smaller road lights we can aim on the road as we need.

When The Two Lindas visited us yesterday they were kind enough to take photos of us in our “uniforms”.

We have had so many types of weather this last week so we keep handy a light-weight jacket, heavier coat and rain gear ready to use. Usually I wear a sweat shirt also.

Best piece of equipment I have are the ear plugs I bought at Walmart.  With these inserted in my ears I don’t hear the generator or the bell rope going off at all.  They really block out everything and I’d recommend them.

So that’s the job; pretty easy, open a gate and write down vehicle information and it’s good money. The cons are that you are usually in remote, rural areas far away from shopping of any kind and it is a 24/7 commitment.  Jim got a hankering for ice cream tonight so he made a 45 minute round trip to the gas station by Highway 37. But we are saving money because we can’t go out to dinner together. 

Hope this gives the information so many of you have asked me to share.  If there is anything else, just let me know.

Remember, you are loved (yes, I do say that also to the truck drivers and the land owners gets a kick out of me saying it to him)….makes everyone smile. 

Week-ends Gate Guarding

We were told weekends were slower in general than week days, and we’ve found that to be true.  Saturdays are about half the activity of during the week.  But Sundays are really quiet with only 27 entries.  So it gives us a little ‘down’ time.

Jim and I are playing around with our shifts.  We’ve kind of decided to establish “free time” for both of us.  So when he’s “on” from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. I can have some “me” time and read uninterrupted or knit a complex pattern without stopping.  And when I’m “on” Jim can take off his orange vest and have a drink and relax.  I haven’t thought of a way to have a cocktail yet, because when I get off work it’s 6 in the morning a brandy Manhattan doesn’t seem so appealing.  I haven’t had a drink in a week now.

Several folks have asked how noisy the big 15,000 watt generator is.  Actually it isn’t really noisy…more like a medium level hum. It’s more like a ‘white noise’.  That can’t be said about the generator that operates the four huge mercury lights that light up the road in front of our rig at night.  That is noisy, but like most things you get use to it and then don’t notice much.

There is another oil company drilling oil on property to the side of our front gate.  The other day they put in a cattle guard and brought in a crane to lift up cement supports and steel rails.  They hoisted them up and over our fence real close to our RV.  Things are fixing to get real busy around here with this other oil company starting up their oil drilling crew.  We had to move our bell rope because it rang every time one of their trucks came close to go into their gate.

Today we were happy to enjoy the company of our friends The Two Lindas.  They are working up above San Antonio and made the trip down for a visit.  They were kind enough to bring us a “care” package of fresh veggies and strawberries.  They also brought hummus, multi-grain crackers, smoked sausage and a red pepper pesto gouda cheese that was very unusual; it tasted like a pizza in a cheese! Oh, they also brought over a scrumptious chocolate pie made with silken tofu; it was so decadent.  We so, so enjoyed having them with us again, as it will be summer before we see them again in Colorado.  Thanks for the goodies, Ladies!!!

     

More next time about our day to day routine and what the job entails. 

Remember, you are loved.

Verizon Air Card -vs- MiFi

While in Yuma the Mossmans upgraded from the aircard to MiFi so they could have hot spot for an Acer Tablet.  I got caught up in the euphoria and upgraded also - I’m hoping for a tablet in my future sometime.

Instead of switching completely to the MiFi I asked if I could use the AirCard SIM card in the MiFi so I could go back to the AirCard if chose to.  Sure, I was told.

So I have been using the MiFi, not really enjoying the fact that you have to recharge the MiFi about every 6-8 hours…it’s annoying. Most times we boondock and recharging requires us to start the generator or plug it into the invertor.

Then when we got to our gate guarding gig, we found we only got one bar on the MiFi and the majority of the time that wasn’t enough to get on the Internet.  I was not happy.  If you listen to my DH I’m addicted to the Internet.  If you listen to me you know I just like to know what’s going on and I like to search a lot of things.

My last post was published by the side of a bar in the tiny town, more like a hamlet, of Whitsett.  It isn’t the most comfortable way to surf the net sitting on the passenger side of the truck trying to angle the laptop screen to reduce some of the glare so you can see what you are typing.

Jim, bless his heart, suggested we change the SIM card from the MiFi back to the AirCard, as we could get on the internet with one bar on the AirCard.  We did that and low and behold we got two bars and CAN get on!!!  Yes, I’m using my little, inexpensive Radio Shake antenna, but I can get out.

Now we can use the Internet from our RV and my nights will go by more quickly and I’ll stay awake more easily.  I can surf all I want - Yippppeeeee!!!!!

So my opinion is to stay with the AirCard and not switch to the MiFi unless you need the hotspot it provides.  If you stay around good-sized towns you can probably use the MiFi reliably.  But we stay in out of way places and it doesn’t fulfill our needs.  I’ll keep it, but will probably go back to using the AirCard; at least I don’t have to recharge IT.

Remember, you are loved.

First Night of Gate Guarding

We had gone to sleep Monday night, so when we got notice that we were going to our first gate by 9 a.m., I knew it was going to be a long, long night for me.

I went back to the Whitsett yard to get some more forms and learned The Mossmans were also getting their own gate.

I stopped by the Chevron station that also has a barbecue cafe inside.  They make the best beef brisket, so I bought a pound of it for only $8.50 as I had no idea how we’d find time to eat.  Jim and I stood over the sink dipping brisket into barbecue sauce and eating it with our fingers.  No, not very elegant, but it satisfied the hunger and tasted real good--we hadn’t eaten any breakfast or lunch by this time. 

I tried to take a bit of a nap but never could sleep and ended up only resting.  Jim turned in about 10 p.m. and I did OK until about 1 a.m. but then I hit the wall. From 1 to 3 a.m. it was a struggle to stay awake, especially since I didn’t have any traffic after 11 p.m.  (Oh, how I wish we had good internet service because I could pass the time so easily by surfing the net, so I busied myself playing Mahjong Titans and Spider Solitaire.  Texas is AT&T country and even with a booster and antenna you can’t get but one bar with Verizon MiFi.  I’ll have to drive about five miles to get better service to post this blog, check email and facebook.)  Jim woke up at 4:30 a.m. and we waited until 7 a.m. to see if we’d have a rush of arrivals, but we didn’t so I went to sleep.  Unfortunately, I woke up at 11 a.m. wide awake.  So I helped Jim work the gate until 2 p.m. than I crashed for 3 hours. Hopefully, this will get me into my night shift sleep cycle.

I don’t have any problem sleep during the day because of the noise.  I got some ear plugs and they really shut out even the clanging rope bell. I use a cloth over my eyes so I don’t see any daylight.

So here are some photos of our gate.  The land owner was kind enough to offer a set of steps he had.  It really makes it so much easier to go in and out of the RV.  The land owner breeds a special strain of deer, so each of the three gates on this ranch have gates that have to be opened and closed for each vehicle.  We had about 50-60 vehicles the first day/night, but nothing after 11 p.m., but I still have to stay awake “just in case” as we are hired for 24/7.

The previous gate guards leaving	Nice steps and my “snake killer” hoe
View from inside the gate looking out-walk of about 30 feet from RV to gate.	Our daytime set up

During the day we sit outside and watch for traffic coming to the gate.  It’s easier than going in and out and up and down the stairs of the RV all day. Jim usually gets up early as most of you know, and now that we know we don’t get much early morning traffic, I’ll go to bed as soon as he wakes up and get up between 1-3 p.m.

With little traffic after 11 p.m. it gives me a lot of time to read (just finished Nick Russell’s Big Lake Lynching and it’s so good-even better than Big Lake IMHO) and I’m knitting.  Luckily there is pretty good TV at late night with David Letterman, Craig Ferguson or Jimmy Fallon and then Carson Daly.  Then I tune in CNN or see if there is a movie or something. 

Well, right now it is 1 a.m. on Thursday morning and I’m doing pretty good. Just had a truck delivering a big piece of equipment leave through the gate. Interestingly enough, women usually work the night shift. So if I get bored I can always call and chat with one of the other gate guard ladies I have met.  Of course, I have to go outside and point Jim’s phone to the south, put on the speaker and make my call.  Sometimes I have to put out my tongue and hop on my left foot to get a signal LOL.

The “work” isn’t hard, you meet a lot of good folks and the other gate guards we’ve met have been very welcoming and helpful.  The job consists of opening the gate and determining if the person has a need to be on the pads, then you log them in with their pertinent information. Then when they leave you log them out and open the gate for them.  It’s a large gate--about 15 feet wide--luckily it swings easily.  The RV sits about 30 feet from the gate but that is about as close as we could get and have room for the truck to hookup when we leave and not hit the fences. So we get a lot of exercise going up and down the RV stairs and walking back and forth to the gate.  Those thigh muscles are going to get strong.

Remember, you are loved.

We have a Gate!!!!

Jamie came by 8 a.m. and told us we had a gate and needed to be there in an hour and it takes 30 minutes to get there.  We were ready to head out at 8:26 a.m.  We were here 8 days from the time our paperwork was approved before we got our first gate. 

We are about 10 miles outside of Whitsett.  Very busy gate.  Received about 30 minutes of information from the previous gate guards and they left; the husband needs knee surgery bad - really had trouble walking around.

So it was baptism by fire as we were working the gate within a few minutes of arriving while Jim and the husband moved rigs out and us in.  Jim did the setting up of our rig while the service guy hooked us up to the generator, water and sewer and I stood and worked the gate.  Oh, yes, this is an actual gate that has to be opened and closed each time a vehicle approaches either coming in or going out. It’s a big 12-15 foot gate.  Luckily it swings open easily, but it is about 20-25 feet from our rig so there will be a lot of sitting outside and walking involved.  Either that our a lot of in and out  the rig and up and down stairs.  We’ll get in shape.

Our Verizon internet and phone signal is very poor. I have to drive a few miles closer to town to get anything.  Sooooo, our blog posts and facebook posts will be sporadic at best.  I’ll keep up as best I can, but this is a very busy gate with a lot going on, so we’ll see how it goes. 

Remember, you are loved.

Waiting for a gate

We are still in the Gate Guard Services (GGS) yard waiting for a gate to work.  Thought I’d share a few photos with you.

Behind our rig left with lots of cacti

To the right of the rig

We see a small herd of cows every couple of days mossing around the cacti along with quite a few feral cats.

 

This is the trash wagon. There will be one by the oil rig area where we will be able to put our trash.

Here are the “hook ups” for gate guards.  The first is of the big generator, water tank and diesel fuel tank for the generator.

And this is the septic system. I don’t understand how it works; some sort of filtration.

These two trailers will be parked one on either side of our RV and will stay there until we leave the gate.  Periodically the service guys will come by and refill the water and diesel as needed.

So we sit and wait. It seems to be first in, first out depending on the time we have to spend here and the needs of the land owner/oil company.  So we should be next with the Mossmans. (Should that be “we and the Mossmans”? or “us and the Mossmans? Someone please “comment” and tell me how to say that correctly).    We’ll toss a coin to see who goes out first.

We sit under a very large Texas flag waiting in the GGS yard. Jim says the flag is about 24’ x 60’, and can be seen 3-4 miles away. Pretty ominous.

Remember, you are loved.