Life at Cobb Creek Farm - Hoop Coops

Hey all!

Today I want to write about the last 4-6 weeks of our Cornish Cross Chickens after they come out of the brooder houses.

Typically we catch the 3 week old chicks the night before putting them out on pasture as it is much easier to catch them at night in the dark. We just flip our head lamps on to the red light and they don't become disturbed or frantic like they do when you catch them during daylights hours. After catching them we leave them in crates in the brooders til morning. Then after chores the next morning we load them on a trailer and drive them out to the "hoop coop" where they will stay until they are ready to go to slaughter.

"What on earth is a 'hoop-coop'?" Glad you asked.

Think of a portable chicken coop in a hoop house/greenhouse type structure that is 20'x36', rests on skids, and is moved daily with a pick-up or tractor. Or better yet, check out the photos below.

The Hoop Coop (I also like the name, Chicken Schooner but this ship only has one sail)  in the rather pitiful looking pasture. These chickens are doing the most good by fertilizing as this soil is in pretty bad shape and needs some TLC. Come on perennial warm and cool season grasses!  

Every morning we pull the hoop coop forward a spot. The structure is mounted on skids that we can pull with a chain. When
we get to the end of the field we just pull it back in the other direction on new ground. From hooking up to the chain to pulling away after feeding and setting everything up, we spend 10 minutes per coop.
Also, as you can see in the photo, we have
the side walls rolled up to regulate airflow and temperature. This time of year in the cool season we have the end wall plastic on to help keep the heat in and keep the chickens out of too much direct wind.  

Around the base is our hot wire that we jumper (black cord with the white handle) over to the portable electric fence (the yellow stake). The garden hose is plugged for water. If the weather report is calling for near freezing temperatures, we bring the hoses into the barn over night and put them back out in the morning.

6 week old Cornish Cross Chickens in the hoop coop. Waters down the center with the pvc water pipe running down the middle in the rafters. Feeders running down each side with two white grit dispensers as well. 

The tally sheet. From right to left: Date, daily feed, total cumulative feed, daily casualties, cumulative casualties, total live birds, feed conversion which we tally up after they have gone to the processing facility. 

Pretty neat system, huh?

Right now we have 2 hoop coops, with the 3rd in construction and 2 more on the way. Each coop has 12 feeders at 30lbs of feed each, 6 automatic water dishes, 2 grit dispensers, and a tally sheet that we keep track of daily and per batch. On the front and back walls we have plug ins for the water so we can plug it into the farm water lines and/or daisy chain the coops together. Around the perimeter we run a hot fence that is attached to a portable fence run from the permanent hot fence. Thus far there have been no casualties due to predators, and the coyotes are around. The side walls roll up and down to provide climate control; plus the end wall plastic can be taken off during the hot time of the year and put back on during the cold season here in Texas. (I am from Alaska. It is hard to call it winter when there is no snow sticking to the ground. Sorry ya'll.) During the summers we will put shade clothe over the top of the hoop-coop to limit the green house effect and to run a misting system down the length of the coop tied into the same water system to keep the chickens from over heating - there is good water pressure and supply to the entire farm.

"What does all this mean in a nutshell?"

We can raise broiler chickens on pasture year around in Texas, cover a lot of ground with a lot of chicken fertilizer, and raise a superior tasting industrial bird then the industrial system.

Is this the perfect picture of a sustainable farm?

No, but the Cornish Cross bird is what we, food citizens, all have come to associate with the taste of chicken from the store and the industrial food system; we, farmers, can improve the soil with the bird; and we, farmers again, can make money quickly with their fast ROI and ready available market.

Is there a better way?

Absolutely. Up next in our discussion, the Heritage Delaware Chicken.

Every morning I make my way to the back of the coop to shew the chickens forward as Grady slowly pulls the structure forward. I snapped this photo before calling out to pull ahead. 

Life at Cobb Creek Farm - Brooder huts and chicks

Hello Family and Friends!

I have been remiss on writing but never worry, I haven't forgotten and have been taking some photos to illuminate my lack of description and creativity. Since I am mainly working with chickens and chicken related projects I figured that I would start there. (More on chickens, cattle, and sheep to come)

The chicks (Cornish Cross)  arrive in the mail and we pick them up first thing in the morning from the post office. To start out there life with us we keep them in a brooder house for the first three weeks where they can stay dry and warm out of the weather. After their three week stay they then head out to the field shelters or "hoop coops" where we raise them until they are ready to be processed at about 7-9 weeks of age. These broilers grow fast. Below is the process that we went through building the brooders and some of the elements of our chicken process. Starting this week we will be raising 600+ broiler chickens a week - we were doing 600+ every other week. To meet the increase in numbers we had to build two more brooder houses for a total of six houses.

Each of the brooders are 12'x12' inside dimensions and the peak is at about 7'. We framed the brooders in up in the barn out of the elements and painted them there with a cheep primer. After the primer dried we loaded them onto a trailer and drove them down to brooder alley as I have taken to calling it.

Once we got the upper roofs attached and the seams caulked and flashed we put up chicken wire over the lower roof portion as the lower part of the roof opens up to let air flow in during the hot summer days. This time of year we have them sealed down with some fiberglass along the edges to block the cold north wind. Also the two windows next to the door and the back wall open up for added ventilation and day light.

The upper roof over hangs by several inches to make sure the drip edge doesn't flow in and soak the chicks.

  

Everything up but the doors. It is almost good enough to be the new apprentice housing! Time for me to move in!
















The "Ohio" brooder box. This is a 4'x6' box that sits several inches off the floor. We then have two red heat lamps, one at each end where you see the light fixtures. On top of the box we spread a bag of peat moss to act as a bit of insulation on the top that we can then scoop off as needed in wet spots. The temperature with the heat lamps combined with the body heat coming off 330+ chicks can easily exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Even when we were having ambient temperatures in the low 20s here, the temp under their brooder box was in the 90s.

One thing that I failed to take a picture of was that we ran a sub power feed from the main breaker panel to the back of the first brooder house in the row of six and then ran power to each of the other houses. We are able to plug in several lights or fans as needed.

The water system is pretty straight forward. It is all gravity feed. Outside we have a 5 gallon bucket sitting on a pedestal with a hose running into the hut feeding a 2"x10' PVC tube that we taped with water nipples every couple of inches. Then we attach the water system to an adjustable hanger. As the peat moss bedding gets deeper after each batch of chicks and as the chicks grow we can raise and lower the water system. The area just under the water pipe gets wet more then any other place in the brooder. Additionally, the chicks lay a good amount of their nutrient load here. Hence why we have extra peat on the brooder box to spread and help lock in the nutrients and "absorb" the smell. When well managed these brooders don't smell repugnant at all. If they smell bad, we are doing something wrong.

Grady's pick-up loaded down with a ton of sphagnum moss, literally. We use
a lot of it around here. "Is that strapped down?" you ask. Nope. However,
the pallet was well shrink wrapped and we still drove safely home from Lowe's. 

Which brings me to sphagnum peat moss. We use peat moss as our bedding material for the chickens. It absorbs water and holds nutrients well keeping the chicks dry and warm. After each batch of chicks we till up the bedding to mix in their manure load and then add more bags of moss. As the bedding gets deeper it actually starts to compost in place somewhat making the bedding warm to the touch. Once we get to the point that we need to clean out the brooders, which hasn't happened yet, this peat moss will make some amazing garden soil building material. I am excited to see how it does come spring time.

These little guys venture out from the comfort of the mass under the brooder
box to get a drink, eat, and explore their new home.

Once the chicks arrive we count out 330+ into each brooder - I say plus as there is a certain percent the hatchery sends extra that they expect to die out of each batch - and we monitor the chicks as they drink out of the bell waters and run around checking out their new digs. They will drink out of these for the first day or so before going over to the PVC water system. Also after the first week we put the tubes back on the feed trays to accommodate the increased daily food needs and provide starter and grower grit in a separate dispenser depending on their age.

That is the brooders and a little on the first three weeks of our meat birds. Until next time,

Ciao!

Little Farmer thinks this brooder house is ready for chicks!

Latin Mass on All Saints Day

Today I went to a Latin Mass Parish outside of Dallas for Church. It was exquisite. The music and choir was uplifting, the homily challenging, and God was present. My heart was beating so hard with anticipation; pounding rapidly and loudly in my chest and ears as I prepared to receive the Eucharist. That never happened before becoming Catholic when I had communion in other churches. Our God is an awesome God. He is the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God.

Selah.

I doubt I will go weekly since it is over an hour drive one way, but I hope to go about once a month while I am down here in Texas. I came back singing a hymn we sung this morning that I first learned in the Lutheran Church. The classic hymns can really be timeless, much like the Latin Mass. (No, I don't speak Latin, but fortunately there is an English translation of the Liturgy with which to follow along.)

Yeah, by God's grace I am finally home in the Catholic Church. Now the journey begins in earnest.

"Further up and further in!"

New Beginnings Take Shape

Greetings friends and family,

Over a month ago I wrote about my resignation from working in Central West Africa. Well, things have progress apace. Almost immediately after returning to Alaska I was on a flight to

Endings and New Beginings

Hey folks!

I have been rather silent these last few months and do I have some updates for you.

Ready?

...

I quit my job.

...

Yup, I pulled the trigger and turned in my letter of resignation with my two week notice on the 2nd of September, making the 16th, my last day. I was asked return to EQG for my last few weeks to do some tool calibrations and to go through my exit interview process. When asked what the best part of the job was, my first response without a doubt was the people. Tuesday evening after having a going way dinner I flew from Malabo to Frankfurt via Madrid. On Saturday I will fly with Condor over the top on a direct flight from Germany to Alaska. In all honesty, there are some aspects of the adventure of living and working in EQG that, for all its faults and blemishes, I will miss the place and its people.

So, what comes next? Great question.

Short answer: Economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable farming and the lifestyle it entails.

The process up to this point: Two things happened in the spring of 2013. The end of March I heard Allan Savory's TED talk on Holistic Management. Later that spring in May I had lunch with long time family friends J&B about the oilfield lifestyle which they have lived for most of their married life. Coming away from these two events I knew that I did not want to work on a oilfield rotation long term and that my childhood and adolescent interest and passion in farming had been rekindled.

That spring and summer I started reading about farming, a lot, mixed in with a few theology books. I first started with Savory and then read books by Joel Salatin, J. Russel Smith, Andre Voisin, Wendell Berry, and Wes Jackson, to name a few. On the theology front I have been reading essays by Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, whom wrote a fair amount on the topic of land and rural farming as it turns out. The thing that was blindingly obvious though is that no matter how much reading I did on the how and why of farming, actually working on a farm with my own two hands is still the best way to learn and love farming.

To give some basic insight to my interest in the farming lifestyle, I grew up helping my family garden and raise a few animals so this interest isn't entirely out of the blue. There were several summers where we took a hiatus from animals and gardening due certain life events, but some of my earliest memories are working in the garden digging for potatoes, picking tomatoes in the green house, or weeding our garden as well as helping out in what I thought as a kid was a massive garden for an elderly couple at church. In addition to that, I grew up a couple of hundred yards from a hay field and would bike down the road and watch the farmers make hay every summer. When I was 12, one of the guys (who turned out to be Dr. MD, a friend from the church we had recently started attending) stopped his tractor near to where I was watching and asked if I wanted to learn a little about farming and how to drive a tractor. I enthusiastically said yes, and under his recommendation peddled home as fast as I could to ask my mom's permission. Starting in 2001, I worked for Dr. MD every summer until I was 19. The last few summers working for him, I was taking point on much of the hay making under his supervision. I loved the work, the responsibility I was given, and the challenges that we faced.

Back to the almost present. By the end of August last year, I knew that I wanted to quit my job and go intern on a sustainable farm to get much needed experience and know-how. However, I had a couple of financial commitments that I wanted to make and so decided that I would stick it out until such a time as both goals were met, and I could live modestly for at least a year or two on my savings. Good thing I had a high paying job to accomplish these goals. .

So, for the last few weeks and in the weeks ahead I will be applying to various farm internship and apprenticeship openings across the country. This fall I hope be selected for a couple of on-farm work evaluations for placement in an apprenticeship. Once securing a position, I would start either this fall/winter or in the spring depending on which farm I will be working. I would like to intern/apprentice for a year or two and go from there. What life looks like or where it will take me after interning I do not know. (I certainly hope on to more faring!) However, I will let God direct my steps when it comes time figure out those plans.

Finally, I do have another major life update for you that is in the works. However, to share that now before it actually occurs is just not my style. Therefore, I shall leave you all in suspense.

For now, I will finish up by saying, I'm going roamin'!

and...

Geronimo!!!

Morning Report - Day 48 - Tuesday, April 22nd

The Moring Report with AK Andy - April 22nd 2014 ~ 3:00 (UTC +1:00) WCA

Howdy Gang!

As of posting this, I will be leaving the rig today!!!! I have been offshore now for 40 days and in country for 48. I am ready to fly this coop!

Up and at it! Time to work under the hot afternoon sun.

Thankfully the days and weeks have all blurred at this point and whether something happened yesterday or last week, I am not sure. This well has been eventful and particular this last run in which we had several tool issues and set backs which delayed the rig. Not what you want to have happen, but some things are out of your control so I try to not let it stress me out too much. Also, some of our operations over the last few days required the 3 of us MWDs to work for about 18 hours, so you work, shower, and a sleep. (Most of the job there were 2 of us MWDs guys working 12 hour shifts with the DDs) It was good to have help and the extra company for 6 hours. We may not work the long crazy hours of wire line, but D&M work hitches can be long in there own right.


Once again, I want to make it clear that not all of those 12-18 hours are full of work related activities. There are periods of down time where I monitor measurements in real time and need to be available to respond to questions or events. During these slower times I pass the time with messaging people on facebook and microsoft lync, or just shoot the breeze with whoever is around. I also read online blogs, articles, and books as a form of distraction from boredom. The bursts of work activity and intervening distractions cause the days to pass quickly.

However, we have finished drilling the well and the tools are set to go back to town. The rig will be going into well completions for about the next five weeks and it is my time to head home. Today's flight, I will be taking a helicopter from the rig to the mainland. From there I will be probably taking another helicopter flight to Bioko Island where the SLB base is located. I will try to keep on my night shift sleep schedule by sleeping some this afternoon and then going into the base in the early evening. There I will work on printing out the final deliverable prints into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Once this is done, just about everything will be set on the MWD side for final data delivery to the client. The rest of the paper work has already been down the last few days on the rig. 

I think a storm is coming...

Today I should also be getting tickets for heading out on days off. At this point I expect to be flying out Wednesday evening! :-) 

My first stop will be Texas. There I will visit with friends in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio as their schedules allow. There are sure to be some Texas adventures. I already have plans to attend an Opera performance! (I have been to the Houston Symphony before, now is time to go to an opera!)

From Texas I will be flying back to Alaska. I have lots of things planned to fill my time back in AK, but I am reminded to get some rest and relaxation in these weeks ahead. - Yeah, like that is going to happen. - Besides doing some enjoyable pursuits in Alaska, I also want to work on some local farms to get some hands on experience. I have been reading plenty of farming books. It is time to get my hands dirty. 

That is about all I have to share for now. I will post some stories and photos from the upcoming time off as time permits. 

Ciao!

Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean - Working the night shift ensures catching the best sunsets and sunrises.

Reflections on the Ascension

On Sunday I was reflecting and mediating on the glorious supernatural event of Jesus ascending bodily into heaven. I haven't done much mediating prayer before and decided to read the 5 passages in the Bible that record these events prior to doing so. They are as follows:

Matthew 28:16-29: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Mark 16:14-20: Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table, and He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

[Note: different versions may have slightly different text here depending on what early texts they are translating from.]

Luke 24:50-53: Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (Emphasis added for effect, I think that Luke includes that detail for a reason, but that topic will be for another post about them being in the House of the Lord.)

[Note: Earlier in Luke 24 there is loads of great stuff concerning the last acts, institutions, and teachings of Jesus, including twice opening up their minds to understand the scripture concerning Himself. Highly recommend reading that chapter]

John 21: While John doesn't record the specific ascension event, he does include a good deal about Jesus and His last interactions. Both almost humorous, and also very critical to understanding the early church and the Christian Tradition. Topic for another blog post.

Acts 1:6-11: So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

...

Hmm...
You still with me?
Okay, good. 

Let's just say my mind was reeling.
"There is so much here! I could meditate on this stuff for days!" - hence deciding to blog this stuff out. Here are a few quick thoughts.

Do these passages seem a little chaotic to you? They do for me. You can almost sense what these guys were feeling when writing this stuff down.
Excited
Passionate
Purposeful
Exuberant
Urgent

Imagine with me for a moment all the thoughts as they wrote.

He was died, but now He is alive, and we are saw Him leave!
He showed up and taught us so much!
He said, "meet me here." We went there!
He met us on the road out of town, in the upper room, by the sea, on the mountain. 
We almost didn't recognize Him at one point! (Luke 24)
We are seeing things in a whole new way!

Feel the excitement as they are writing this stuff down?

This guy Jesus, whom they had followed, ate, slept, and studied under for three years; whom they had seen crucified in a Roman execution; whom they witnessed being raised to life, victorious over death and the grave; with whom they then interacted with in so many varied encounters in the day the days that followed. Now He is leaving them. He is going to heaven. To be "seated at the right hand of God." Where He is seated as our great high priest. (See Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10) 

Can you begin to feel their doubt?

I can picture them saying to each other on the way to Bethany,

"If we are to be like our rabbi and risen Lord, that means we could be killed!" (See John 21)
"How can we deny what we have seen?
"Will others see what He has shown us in scripture?"

Can you feel the emotion that these authors are sharing? Now they're men on a mission. They are focused on Christ who is now in heaven. Their desires are now heavenly focused.

I look forward to meditating more on these passages, and the event of Christ being taken up into heaven. What a marvelous mystery and I have much to learn from these passages.

Come, let's follow Jesus together.

Moring Report with AK Andy - Day 31? - Sunday, April 6th

Good morning gang!

It has been over a week since my last post. Thought about writing on Thursday, at the four week mark, but was not in the best frame of mind for writing. I have been on the rig now for 24 days and after 3 weeks out here, there are a couple days there were it is best I limit what I say. We have just finished a very long 12.25" diameter section of well. The rig will now be running a steel tube (casing) inside that hole we drilled and then in a few days we will begin drilling the last section of the well, a several hundred meter long 8.5" hole. While I would like to be down in 2 weeks time to be able to have Easter off, that is unlikely. Oh well, such is life in the oil patch. I haven't gotten used to it, but I have... That didn't make much sense, but you get used to planing for not having a set plan. You go with what you get and make the best. The trick is to learn how to thrive in uncertainty.

I am rambling. Sunday was a great day and I enjoyed it.  It is now early hours Monday morning, and I have some tools to tend too here shortly.

Until next time, goodnight!


--
Veritas Numquam Perit!

Morning Report - Day 21 - Thursday, March 27th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 28th 2014 ~ 04:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning! I may be going to go to a weekly report. There is not much going on day to day and my thoughts are scattered.

Work:
Days on Rig:14
Current Rig Ops: Drilling
Current D&M Ops: Same
Current Weather: Thunder and lightening storm at night, day was mostly clear and hot.

Personal:
Current Music selection: Andrea Bocelli
Current Books:  
Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin (This book is slow going. It is definitely on the nerdy/technical side of grass based agriculture.)
The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Books read: 3 + parts (parts = I am in several books right now, okay half a dozen)

Summary: 
No news. One day to the next is all the same now. The blur is really setting in and I am losing track of the days, which is a good thing. Haha, even the food is all tasting the same. I can't really call it dining, it is more akin to re-fueling. I do enjoy having meals with some of the guys from the other units, though even now our conversations are getting shorter and more work related.

C'est La Vie!

Morning Report - Day 18 - Monday, March 24th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 25th 2014 ~ 04:30 (UTC +1:00) 

Bonjour!

Work:
Days on Rig: 11
Current Rig Ops: Drilling ahead. We will be drilling for neigh on 2 weeks.
Current D&M Ops: Same. We drilled close to 400 meters yesterday!
Current Weather: Cool evening with calm seas, day was mostly clear and hot, night some rain.

Personal:
Current Music selection: The Chieftains
Current Books:  
Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin - Frenchmen, blunt and scathing in their assessment of the USA.
The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum
Books read: 3 + parts 
Distance Ran Friday: 2.5 miles
Time walking on Heli-deck: 0.5 hrs


Summary: 
This is a long section that we are drilling. There won't be much changing for the next almost two weeks and I am looking forward to the flow of the work routine that helps the time pass.

To offer an explanation about my comment about Voisin, he writes in the 1959 book, "American farmers have exploited the soil like a mine and have forgotten to respect the demands of the grass. They have made it work like a slave: they have worn it out with work, neglecting the periods of rest it required. After the grass had died from overwork it was the soil itself that succumbed. Washed away by erosion in the rivers, it went on to sleep its last sleep in the Gulf of Mexico."

Another quote that struck me in the first chapter of Life and Teaching of Hillel  has to do with how we ought to understand who it is we quote. Something that struck me and makes me nervous to go on spouting "so and so says." The quote, "The rabbis tell us that when someone utters a traditional saying in the name of a teacher, he should see that teacher as if he were standing before him." As a Christian, how do I see Jesus before I go and use His words? 

Who is Hillel anyway?

Hillel the Elder is one of the greatest Jewish religious leaders of the 1st century BC. He was a contemporary of Herod the Great (The Herod of the nativity narrative) and grandsire to Gamaliel, Paul's first rabbi and instructor. His teaching and understanding of the Torah shaped the Pharisee movement and the set the tone of the Jewish religious landscape that Jesus came to with all the other various sects: Sadducees, Essenes, and Herodians. (Pharisees have gotten a terrible rap over the years in Christian teaching which I have discovered is an uneducated and unfortunate disparaging of a fascinating tradition. A tradition that shapes the earliest teachers of the Church, including Paul who never stopped being one if you look at Acts 23:6 & 26:5, and can give much depth even to the teachings of Christ. End soap box.)

I love the chance to read so much when I have my 12 hours off tour, but I should get more sleep.

Veritas Numquam Perit!

Morning Report - Day 17 - Sunday, March 23rd

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 24th 2014 ~ 05:55 (UTC +1:00) 

Good morning all!

Work:
Days on Rig: 10
Current Rig Ops: Drilling ahead
Current D&M Ops: Completed various morning reports and monitoring until next connection
Current Weather: During the day it was bright sunshine with high clouds, this evening it rained

Personal:
Current Music selection: Mumford & Sons
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin (I am not making much progress right now)
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: 3.25 miles
Strength workout: 30 minutes
Time walking on Heli-deck: 1.5 hrs


Summary: 
I need to write this sooner in the evening!


"Glory is fleeting, obscurity is eternal." ~ Thomas More

Morning Report - Day 16 - Saturday, March 22nd

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 23rd 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Good morning!

Work:
Days on Rig: 9
Current Rig Ops: Making up the BHA (Bottom hole assembly)
Current D&M Ops: Making up our tools in the BHA
Current Weather: Light winds from the south, Nearly clear skies Saturday afternoon

Personal:
Current Music selection: None
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: Need to find conservative running plan to avoid injury
Time walking on Heli-deck: 1.5 hrs

Summary:
Life is good in the MWD D&M world on the West Es.

Morning Report - Day 15 - Friday, March 21st

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 22nd 2014 ~ 04:30 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning!
Changing up the format.

Work:
Days on Rig: 8 (It is good to be on the rig)
Current Rig Ops: Cementing casing
Current D&M Ops: Waiting on rig
Current Weather: Thunder storm with heavy rain

Personal:
Current Music selection: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Current Book: Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin
Books read: 3 + parts
Distance Ran Friday: 3 miles - straight run
Distance Biked Friday: 5 miles - interval training


Summary:
Thursday and Friday morning I and my day back-to-back got everything ready for the next section of the well on our end of things. That means tonight was a quite evening in the unit reading, chatting with friends online (I do both those things a lot, just some days more than others), and working on some paperwork stuff for the end of well. That is several weeks away. It is good to be prepared. Ha!

Carpe Diem!

Morning Report - Day 14 - Thursday, March 20th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 20th 2014 ~ 05:55 (UTC +1:00) 

Good Morning! Today was productive and I am pleasantly tired. Didn't get any reading in as work kept me mostly busy all night long. On top of that my tour is quickly coming to a close which means internet is going away. Ciao!

Rig life is blurring.

Daily Report - Day 13 - Wednesday, March 19th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 20th 2014 ~ 04:45 (UTC +1:00)

Good morning to you all. Not much to report. We reached section total depth in the afternoon, and my work shift has been pleasantly quiet as we circulated the hole clear of cuttings for several hours and then the crew has been tripping pipe out of the hole.

I finished a book by Wendell Berry entitled Bringin it to the Table on farming and food. It is a wonderful book with loads of wit and humor as well as depth in his insights, and philosophy that challenges accepted notions. The deeper I wade into these kinds of books the more I am finding common themes like currents. I discover more authors yet to read. New ways of looking at the world, society, and nature. Ideas about looking at the world as a whole, not in parts. A call to abandon specialization in favor of holistic understanding...

Anyway...

Oh, there was a one-sided fight on the rig Wednesday morning. Both men are out a job. The events around the lashing out attack, more of an adapt word, are messy. "A tale through too many mouths grows feathers."  I wasn't there and there are conflicting tales.  You would think in this small a population the story wouldn't diverge so much. I could say more, but it is better to be silent when prudent.

Veritas Numquam Perit! 

Morning Report - Day 12 - Tuesday, March 18th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 19th 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning Gang! Today, yesterday, whatever, was a really cool day. In the morning before going to bed I like to run, workout, and take a walk around the helicopter deck. This morning as I started walking around the deck I noticed a large storm to our east blowing in from the continent and marveled at its beauty. It soon arrived and the winds were really picking up strong. three of us guys who were up walking decided that we should get off when they made an announcement that all lifting operations were to stop as the winds were getting stronger. Then it hit....

Several guys who have worked here for years all commented on how unusually this storm was. The winds were the strongest I have seen here. I heard that the rig clocked the winds at over 60 knots (70+mph). Then the rain started coming sideways and made for a really cool affect on the top of the waves as they mixed with the spray coming off the white cap waves.


The photo is from the back deck protected from the winds and rain. The waves here have been attenuated some from the leg of the tender, but the rain is still really cool.

On the drilling front we are plowing thought this section quickly with a stead rate of penetration of over 30 meter an hour. We should reach the section total depth sometime Wednesday. Then we pull all this pipe out of hole and we get ready for the next section of the well, while the rig crew puts the casing in place.

Rig life is rolling right along.

Morning Report - Day 11 - Monday, March 17th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 18th 2014 ~ 05:15 (UTC +1:00)  

   Top of the Morning! My how time flies and crawls. Even with keeping this daily report up working nights causes the days to blur together. I am in good spirits though. Work is going well and we are making good progress on drilling this section of the well.

   It is strange work though. Seldom do I feel a sense of accomplishment. What did I do today/week/month? What did I accomplish on this project? Who will it affect? Was it meaningful? The answers to these questions on a large scale are to vague and abstract for my liking.  Digging deeper I still am left pondering. On the smaller scale I can answer for myself, family, and friends. Daily I have a routine of asking my self a series of questions. Daily I have to answer. Sometimes I can be ironic or sarcastic towards myself, but in the end I know why I am doing this, and I do find value in my work.

   What is it exactly I do?  At work I fulfill my job duties and responsibilities as best I can in order to do what is best and improve my life and the lives of those around me. That is a common answer and is my answer for today.

Morning Report - Day 10 - Sunday, March 16th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 17th 2014 ~ 04:15 (UTC +1:00) 

   Dobré ráno!The weekly marking of time passing occurred today. At 10am we had the weekly fire drill which for us night tour guys means it wakes most of us from our slumber. Oh well.
   As I got the unit this evening we were just shallow hole testing our tools. All our tools checked out here at surface and the rig crew proceeded with making up the rest of the bottom hole assembly. (It feels weird to be writing out all these words when we use acronyms in their place so much) While we are tripping pipe in hole, I complete several paperwork items and get set for once we get to the bottom of the hole several hundreds of meters away. About 3:00 we tag the top of the cement from the last casing job and get going with operations. Shortly after that I QC and send out my work morning report which has all sorts of technical and tracking data in it. Currently we are about to start drilling! Oh yeah!

    Rig life is good and I am getting in the groove of things.

Morning Report - Day 9 - Saturday, March 15th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 16th 2014 ~ 05:20 (UTC +1:00)

Dobré ráno!

Rig life is good. We are ready to pick up our tools for the bottom hole assembly which should be later this morning or afternoon. Had a quiet last half of my evening. 

Morning Report - Day 8 - Friday, March 14th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 15th 2014 ~ 04:00 (UTC +1:00)

Buenos Días! Fun time is over. Back to the rig! This is the way we like work to be as a D&M Field Engineer. Today I sent out a proper morning report too. Yesterday/today several of us Drilling and Measurements guys flew over from the island to the mainland in the morning. From there we took a 25 minute helicopter flight out the rig that I hope to spend the rest of my hitch on. I have had enough shore time for this trip, thank you.  :)  From here on out, I will be posting at the end of my shift, or close to it. Some days will be more some days will be less. My days are now centered around a 12hour work day from 18:00-6:00.

   Once we go aboard around noon we went through a quick safety induction and grabbed a quick lunch. Afterward I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to take a nap in the afternoon in preparation for going onto night shift. Out here we call the shifts 'tours' (pronounced

Morning Report - Day 7 - Thursday, March 13th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 14th 2014 ~ 05:20 (UTC +1:00) 

   доброе утро! Dobroye utro! Oh, Thursday, was a quite day for sure. Didn't really have much work to do in the morning besides trying to organize the BBQ for the Techs this weekend. In typical EG fashion nothing is easily accomplished. Talk with the catering company in the morning right before lunch. They said no problem just send them a list of the menu items we would like, approximate amounts, etcetera. By the late afternoon, they told us, "We can't do it." Right now I wish we had a Dominoes to call up and order 30 pizzas and be done with it.  

   I also was reminded in the afternoon just how awesome it is to work here. We have another field engineer filling in on loan from a different location. We were both asked to set up a tool in the calibration area so that way he could start calibrating it first thing Friday morning. No wahala, I have done this before. During the set up in the very hot afternoon sun he stated several times, "I have never done this before. We always have it set up for us. We just come and calibrate the tool. This is so different." To which I wanted to responded, "Buck up!" Instead, "Ya man, we do it ourselves here. It just comes with the territory." Which I suppose is a nicer way of saying the same thing. Don't get me wrong, he is a really great guy, knows his stuff, and is a definite help right now.
   The rest of the day was filled with web surfing, reading operations manuals, chatting with friends on Facebook (a welcome reprieve to the manuals), and Skyping the parents in the evening. I finally picked up a web cam this last days off, so I got to show them the beauty of EQG right at sun set. Granted, the sunset was on the other side of the hotel, but the early evening environment is still very pretty, and the hotel has a nice pool. :)   

Last full day being onshore for a while. Rig, here I come! Maybe... they could always delay the flight. Ha!

Morning Report - Day 6 - Wednesday, March 12th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 13th 2014 ~ 08:15 (UTC +1:00)

   Gutten Morgan! Wednesday was when I was hopeful to head offshore. Do to normal unforseen set backs, half the team will go out Thursday and the rest of us will go out Saturday. At least that was the plan as of Wednesday morning. Now it is Thursday and Friday.  Flexibility is a must in this business.
   While not having much to do at the office, my boss has asked me to help organize a BBQ for the shop techs for this upcoming Saturday evening. Our shop technicians are awesome and definitely need this BBQ to blow some steam and relax. It is just a little difficult to get things going around here sometimes. Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of the catering company this morning.
    In other news, I am now signed up for a 4 day training course in Huston at the end of April. Now to see if I will be able to make or if I have to reschedule due to work. The course will be for one of the fancy measurement tools that my company runs, and I am looking forward to getting some training on it and subsequently running the tool in the field two wells from now. Besides a couple days of training gives me a chance to visit friends in Texas. I am going to probably rent a set of wheels so that I have some mobility to boot! Ya, looking forward to it.

Onshore life is about to head offshore. Ciao!

Morning Report - Day 5 - Tuesday, March 11th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 21th 2014 ~ 08:00 (UTC +1:00) 

Morning everyone! Tuesday. I spoke to soon when I said I was feeling better. I resembled Rudolf the red noise petroleum engineer. Ha!
Work was good, but slow in the afternoon. I spent a little bit of time in the late afternoon reading a thought provoking blog post about preaching/teaching in church. (found here: http://www.esler.org/2014/01/30/is-preaching-biblical/) While I disagree with some of his conclusions ( namely his point about the disciple being uneducated somewhat misses that they were very educated like most ordinary men of the time. While passed over by the formal teachers from the temple and other rabbis, they were still selected as young men by the ultimate Rabbi and the Messiah, Jesus. - Sorry, this is a soap box of mine.)  With that clarified

Morning Report - Day 4 - Monday, March 10th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 11th 2014 ~ 06:15 (UTC +1:00)

Morning everyone! Monday, Monday. It was similar to Sunday in poor quality of sleep. This hitch is lining up to be much like the last. Plenty of waking hours after work to read. I went to breakfast when the cafe opened and caught a ride to work at 6:45. At work, I got my residency card application rolling, along with tending to more miscellaneous items my manager asked me to get done and reading the drilling plan for the upcoming well. Mainly in the afternoon I worked on my online learning in order to complete various certifications and competencies. Yay! I have another one to do today that is a yearly radiation update.
Another item I spent some time on yesterday and the day before was that within my company we have a instant messaging system that connects all the personal from around the world. Pretty sweet. I use this feature often, especially to stay intouch with Mines friends working for SLB in other locations and other engineers I have met in training or on the job. 
To wrap up this post, all day yesterday I was fighting a sore throat which has thankfully mostly gone away this morning. I intended to get back early enough in the evening to go to the gym, but would have been sucking for air big time. Instead last night I drank some hot tea and finally got some decent sleep. This evening I think I will go running for sure!

Onshore life is rolling along.

Morning Report - Day 3 - Sunday, March 9th

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 10th 2014 ~ 06:00 (UTC +1:00 CWA)

Good morning! Here I thought I had gotten over jet lag but Sunday I woke fully awake despite getting hardly any sleep (sleep < 2 hours). Ah well. I had a very pleasant morning sipping on my fresh brewed coffee and reading the news at breakfast. Last days off I got french press coffee mug. I think this mug is going to spoil me to the rig drip coffee maker. At work I had the office to myself for the first hour in the morning so as I like to do, I plugged in some tunes and started singing and humming along. Fore warned, you don't want to ever hear me sing by myself. Most people liken my sing to torture. Not only that, but my selection is very random. In several songs we can cover Irish Folk, Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Christian Praise and Worship. After a late lunch I stayed at the hotel and listened to some pod cast sermons, took a nap, and read some. I have fallen out of the habit of listening to recorded sermons and need to get back in the habit. I am going through some of Ray Vander Laan's sermons that I have listened to before for a nice refresher. Not much else to report as I opted not to go to the casino "El Barco" in the evening.
Oh, the lightening storm all Sunday morning was spectacular.

Life onshore is normal for a Sunday and we will probably be heading offshore Wednesday morning. I will find out today most likely.

Morning Rerport - Day 2

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 9th 2014 ~ 06:00 (UTC +1)


Good morning! Yesterday was a bit rough after Friday evening. Not cool. Nothing to mention about work seeing as I was feeling really terrible in the morning and ended up not going. Heading in this morning to make up for that. In the afternoon I was invited to play soccer, but decided to decline. The thought of playing football in the mid to late afternoon tropical heat sounded intimidating to say the least.  While I enjoy playing football. I don't think I like it that much. Ha! One of the guys at work on Friday told be point blank in his awesome Spanish accent, "Dude, you play football in this heat you going to die!"

In the evening several other engineers arrived for the upcoming job. Two of them are with another service company. One of those two is a fellow Mines alum (2013) and former classmate! The oilfield is a small world and Mines grads are all over the place! Go Orediggers! We had an enjoyable dinner catching up on life and how his senior year went. I find it cool that he ended up being a TA for one of the classes in which the year previous I had been his TA. Now we will be going to the same job and most likely working night shift together along with the Directional Driller. Looking forward to some good times.

Expat life is full of surprises and you never know who you will work with again.     

Morning Report - Day 1

The Morning Report with AK Andy - March 8th 2014 ~ 18:00 (UTC +1)

Good Afternoon! Perhaps I should call this the afternoon or evening report given the time I am sitting down to writing this today. Goodness, I need improvement before I have even started. 

Yesterday, the 7th, was a fairly productive day at work. I took care of various odds and ends that I needed to attend to. I tried to make some progress on getting my residency card for EQG in the afternoon, but the work day ended with loading out the tools for the upcoming job. It was a good day at the base and the time flew by quickly.  

Typically I have quiet evenings at the hotel when I am onshore. Last night however was not such a night. A colleague from work invited me to join him in going to a party at the U.S. Embassy here in EQG. I had never been to the new embassy here and took up the invitation readily. Ah, U.S. soil.

Morning Reports to Follow

The Idea: While home on last days off, I was doing some cleaning and came across a kind of journal from one of my university field sessions. Every morning we were to write a morning report and turn it in. It could be as simple as a one word summary of the previous day or as detailed as you liked. Reading through the 2 week journal of my Massadona field session thoughts and events was rather entertaining. I then decided to do something similar during this next hitch. So, tomorrow morning I will write a quick post, and hopefully do the same for the upcoming weeks. If anything, I will look back on this string of post years from now and be reminded of where I was/am and hopefully take something away from it. A snapshot in time.

Travel day(s): To briefly do an entry for my getting here,