Lets try this again.

As I was saying sometimes it seems like if we werent busy I would be bored but once in a while it seems like it might be worth a try. We are getting alot of work done and things reflect our long hours of work.

We are in the middle of a project. We are remodeling our cattle feedlot. After a trial run with a small scale layout we are going forward with the full plan.


The feedbunks came from Iowa Concrete products. I would recomend these folks in a second.


There are 200ft of bunks in this line. It is two truck loads and they really look nice set in place.


I had the local concrete contractor build this. It is 15ft x 56ft and we will store wet gluten, processed corn stalk and hay in here.


Since we were rebuilding the feedlot we thought it was a good time to build a sorting pen. Its three pens really. The first is 30x56. The next is 30x40. The final one is 16x30. They funnel into a set of pens that allready exist that are 20x30.



This was part of the feedlot originally but now will be our bull pen. Its 72x90 with its own waterer and building access. We are hoping the guardrail will hold up well to the abuse bulls inflict on everything.



This showed up about noon on friday. They are all set to drill and will be here in the morning. They are hoping at 5-6 hundred feet they should hit a virtually endless water supply. I am hoping they hit oil instead. A guy can hope right?



This thing looks expensive and complicated. Anybody know how it works?



When we havent been busy here we still have cattle in 4 different pastures to keep track of.



Yesterday we took time to replace a coupld of washed out culverts in on of the pastures. Nick ran the hoe and wrigley and myself supervised. Well mostly me. Wrigley was busy playing in the creek about half the time.



If you are wondering wrigley has partial driving priviledges restored. Nothing bigger than the 4 wheeler so far but if he does well...

So thats what is going on here. We have been busy and truley enjoying seeing this project come together. Its time to get ready to work cattle, chop silage and then start harvest in earnest in the next 4-5 weeks. Around here we usually joke that we can sleep when its winter, untill then we work! Actually today we had a very nice day at a very comfortable pace and we quit working right after chores at 5pm.

I'll get some pics of the well drilling tomorrow. Heck, if your in the neighborhood, just stop in and pull up a lawn chair!

bill

Is that a Can Am badged for Deere?

Nice setup you got going there. How many cattle you run at a time?

--->Paul

That tank with the water in it is so as the well it drilling it will stay full of water. A hole full of water wont cave in. Most likly they will have a crew there around the clock and wont stop the drill until its drilled all the way. Then they will put the casing in before they pump the water out. I have watched several wells drilled!!

The operator will stand on that left side pedastal & run the rig, his helper will stand on the right side when it's time to make a connection & add a joint of pipe. he will have a "spanner" looking wrench that will fit a groove nothched in his pipe, slip the spanner on & set the drillstring down on top of his bushings that will be installed in the table. Then will "break" his quill off the downhole string, run the top head up & pick another piece of pipe up out of the storage rack on the right side with his winch line. Helper will either guide the top of the joint under the quill & operator will spin the quill to make them up or the helper will stab it in the piece setting on the table, make it up & use the winch to lower the string, then make the quill up & drill the new joint down...I cant really tell for sure wich way he will do it, but I suspect the latter of the two because that looks like a kelly bar that he already has made up.
He will circulate mud through the "trough" set up at the rear there, solids will settle in the first two sections, & the cleanest mud will be recyled back to his pump, then up the standpipe, through the kelly hose & down through the drill pipe to cool the bit, clean the hole, & hold the hole open!!
As Dell would say....simple ehh?
Helper(s) will work their backsides off if they are any good.....

Bill

Always enjoy the pics, wish I lived closer, would love to see operation. I've been kicking around idea of using guardrail for a corral for the bull. Your looks very nice.
Gregg

have a guy 15 miles from me raises buffalo, his sorting pen is gaurdrail, says buffalo is harder then cattle to keep in, his pen is holding up real good

If you post these on tales, Rusted nuts should tell you all about the drill rig. A permanent 600 feet sounds lucky lately. Good luck, and good job!

Tony,

I'm sitting on one right now...4586' deep, drilling ahead.
Been working on the rig since I was 18, 46 now.
Broke out in worms corner, worked my way up to driller over the years. Went to mud school & ran mud for six years, been a company hand for almost 7 years now.....

Should have said I broke out when I was 18 roughnecked a couple years...went in the navy for 8 years & came back to the rigs after I got out, so only 20 years of experince vs 28 the way I made it sound...oops!!

Bombardier. Before they were with Can-am I think. We have one with the box on the back. I still like Honda's better...

(quoted from post at 19:21:33 08/14/11) The operator will stand on that left side pedastal & run the rig, his helper will stand on the right side when it's time to make a connection & add a joint of pipe. he will have a "spanner" looking wrench that will fit a groove nothched in his pipe, slip the spanner on & set the drillstring down on top of his bushings that will be installed in the table. Then will "break" his quill off the downhole string, run the top head up & pick another piece of pipe up out of the storage rack on the right side with his winch line. Helper will either guide the top of the joint under the quill & operator will spin the quill to make them up or the helper will stab it in the piece setting on the table, make it up & use the winch to lower the string, then make the quill up & drill the new joint down...I cant really tell for sure wich way he will do it, but I suspect the latter of the two because that looks like a kelly bar that he already has made up.
He will circulate mud through the "trough" set up at the rear there, solids will settle in the first two sections, & the cleanest mud will be recyled back to his pump, then up the standpipe, through the kelly hose & down through the drill pipe to cool the bit, clean the hole, & hold the hole open!!
As Dell would say....simple ehh?
Helper(s) will work their backsides off if they are any good.....

Click to expand...

I had a well drilled about 10 years ago but I wasn't around to see anything, so when my neighbor had one drilled a couple weeks later by the same company I stopped in to watch a little. One brother operated the rig while the other read the paper. We could see the pipe going down, so we could see that they would have to add a length soon and we were interested in seeing the procedure. Well, the operator stopped the rotation, reversed, and threaded the top off, raised the top way up, swung the magazine in lowered cap on a length of pipe, restarted rotation, swung magazine back out of the way. His brother never looked up from his paper. They had to go down over 400 ft. so it cost my friend most of his savings. But that was OK because a few months later he hit megabucks for 52 million

Sounds like somone was getting "Tom Sawyered" pretty good there!

52 mill is a heck of a payday!!!