left hand, right hand

We are pretty settled into a routine here at the gate but of course that routine changes with each new process that starts. This week they have started hauling the crude oil from the original well. The trucks tend to arrive several hours apart and this usually occurs in the overnight hours which interferes with my beauty sleep. Lord knows I needs me beauty sleep! :-)
Seriously though I am starting to feel the pains of my sleeping in shifts. Seems like the longest I am asleep at any one time is 4-5 hours but usually less and it is beating me down. I'm looking forward to the time I can relax and get a good 8 hours sleep straight through.

One of the company men left this morning on his way to Houston for training on his new rig. He stopped and talked for a awhile and still wants us as his gate guards. He said his new rig should be setting up somewhere south of Cotulla on the 15th of January.
We had pretty much decided to just stay here but may keep our options open. He is going to email the new pad location to us as soon as he gets specifics and I will go and check it out. I can't see us leaving here to end up several miles down a dirt road in the middle of no where. We like our current gate but it is nice to have some options.
The ranch owners son was in today and confirmed they are moving the rig out as soon as they get done drilling. he said they will then move a new rig in and drill a 3rd well on another pad "back there". He said he hoped we would be staying put because he liked the job we were doing at the gate.
What?! That's the first we have heard of a new rig. I didn't even know there was a third pad.
Later in the day I decided to take a drive to find this mystery pad. I drove back to where they were drilling and there was no sign of another pad or even another road to reach another pad. Right now I don't know what to make of this info but one thing for sure about the oil drilling business. The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing, at least at our level anyway :-).

We are still planning on taking some R & R after the first week of February. This will give us same time to decompress before we start working our way back to Indiana in the middle to last part of March. I plan on sleeping the first 2 days straight! :-)

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous. The high today was in the low 80's and we enjoyed spending time outside sitting on the patio in short sleeves. The last of the mud is almost dried up from last Saturdays rain. We still have one low spot in the driveway in front of our 5th wheel that we have to step around but that is only a minor inconvenience and with pleasant weather predicted for the next few days, it should be dry soon. I'll keep you posted.