Tuesday, December 06, 2005
The three bits
img025
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is the picture of the three bits I mentioned a few weeks ago. The bit on the left is the new bit, the one in the middle is a used bit, and the one on the right is the one whose cones are still in the well. After a week of trying to get them out with magnets, they gave up.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Things go wrong...
I've been in Cloverdale for just about 2 weeks now, and not a single
thing has gone as planned for this well since I got here. When I first
got here, the cones had come off the bit, they spent a week trying to
get them out of the hole before giving up. Then, they needed to cement
the very top of the casing in place in the well, but it was too hot and
the cement expanded too much and kept blowing back out of the well. They
spent a few days messing around with that. And just a few days ago, we
were pretty much done, they just had to go in the hole to the bottom and
come back out to be sure it's all cleaned out. They got everything stuck
about 2 miles down. So for the past 2 days they've been running charges
of dynamite down the hole to try and break the pipe so they can get out.
Hasn't worked yet. And the latest development is that the flow line that
comes out of the well and goes into a big muffler/seperator thing for
the steam has broken. At first I didn't know what had happened but when
I tried to go outside to see, my eyes and nose started to burn and I
couldn't breath very good. Turns out all the chemicals we pump to break
down hydrogen sulfide coming out of the well were also spraying out of
the broken flow line. Yikes, no wonder it burned. The chemicals we use
are extremely strong and dangerous. So right now there is absolutely
nothing for me to do at work. From the way I see it, they've got a big
problem right now, they can't fix the flowline without closing the well,
and they can't close the well with the drill pipe stuck in it. And now
we aren't meeting any of the air emission regulations because we can't
pump and chemicals. I'm so glad I'm not in charge of this.
Whenever we finish here, hopefully in the next few days, I'll be heading
down to the Imperial Valley. I'm actually looking forward to it. The job
won't be very fun, they drill really fast, but I'm looking forward to
some time in the desert and seeing the huge sand dunes down there. And
if we have a day or two off at all, I'll probably head down to Mexico.
I backed my boss into a corner and got him to agree to let me book a
plane ticket to fly home on the 18th. He was reluctant, but Isaak will
just be back from Costa Rica and will come relieve me. My boss said
something like I may need to fly back on Christmas Eve or something for
work possibly, and said, "yeah... ok...". Really, even if he needs me
to, I don't think I'll be able to get a ticket at that point. The way I
see it, once I'm home I'll be good until possibly after New Year's.
I've taken a bunch of pictures lately but they're all film (I forgot my
digital in Tahoe and didn't bring my scanner with me). But I'll be
heading back to Tahoe for a night before going to Imperial Valley and
I'm going to bring my scanner with me. So there'll be some new pictures
up soon, I hope.
That's all for now, back to "work" for me!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Back to Work
The vacation is over and I've come back to work again, with a completly unexpected raise! My vacation was extended by a few days because of some more car trouble, this time it was partially my own fault. I lost some fluid out of the clutch slave cylinder and had topped it off and was going to bleed the air out of the line and accidentally snapped off the bleeder valve. It took a few days to get the part and get a shop to fit me in, so I just enjoyed the extended vacation. Tahoe has been fun, it's nice to be hanging out with friends on my time off. We've been playing a lot of guitar, going out to some bars, free bowling on the weekend (our friend works at the bowling alley and has free reign of the place on the weekend and lets us bowl for next to nothing... and makes us drinks...). I almost need a vacation to rest after hanging out in Tahoe for the past 2 weeks.
Now I'm back in the Geysers, but this time I'm staying in Cloverdale at a Best Western and not in Cobb. It's way nicer in Cloverdale, the motel is nice and the weather here is beautiful. It's like summer, yesterday was in the 80's and sunny. I haven't taken any pictures yet but it's pretty nice here, palm trees and what-not. I'll only be here for a week and then it's either straight down to the Imperial Valley near Mexico or a day or two off and then down there. I'd like a day or two off, I forgot a few things in Tahoe that I'd like to have brought with me. I could almost go there on the way down, in fact if we finished here on say next Monday early enough it's only 3 or 4 hours to Tahoe and I could go there for Monday night and be in the Imperial Valley the next day. I don't think I'll need to be down there until Wednesday, I just don't know exactly when we'll be done here. This job is going slow, the bit they had been using fell apart in the hole and the three cones are in the hole somewhere. Right now they are using magnets to try and get them out, it's slow and who knows whether it will work. I'm going to get a picture of the bit without cones next to a few with cones, in fact I'd do it right now, but it's 1am and I've got no flash. Oh-well, I think I'll go take a nap now!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
My new place in Tahoe
My new place in Tahoe
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
I'm all set here in Tahoe now. My parents were out here to help with the move from Portland. They've left, it was really great to see them again though.
This place is a lot smaller than my place was in Portland, but we somehow managed to fit all my stuff in. I'm planning on going back to work in a week, but I think I may need a vacation after hanging out here in Tahoe! I'm having a good time.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
October 16th update
The last few days have been interesting. I finished in Mammoth early this week and planned on driving as far as Tahoe the first day of my trip back to the Geysers. I've been having some problems with my clutch and worried about how far I'd actually get before it gives out entirely. I made it to Tahoe and that was about when it started sort of screeching at me, so I was shifting from like 1st to 3rd or skipping 1st and starting in 2nd and going to 4th. I spent the night in Tahoe with some friends and had a good time, kept my mind off work and my car. I left the next morning and drove the last 4 hours to Cobb. Between Truckee and Williams California I managed to not shift gears once, that's through a bunch of roadwork and switching highways from I-80 to I-5, not a single shift. I made it to Cobb that afternoon and was greeted by Pat, one of the other geologists I work with, and we found out about half an hour later that we were on standby. That means we can go off and do whatever we want for 3 days while getting paid half our regular rate. So the rest of that day was a right-off, and then the next day was spent sort of sitting around Cobb and making plans for our last day before working again. We decided we'd go deep-sea fishing out of Fort Bragg, CA which is about 3.5hrs from Cobb. No big deal because we had the whole day. We were about to leave to head to Fort Bragg on Saturday morning when the phone rang and we found out the fishing trip had been cancled because of anticipated 20ft swell. We figured we'd head out to the coast and drive up CA-1 anyway and do some sightseeing. It's a really nice drive and took us most of the day. Now it's Sunday and I'll be going in to work at noon. This is like the first time I'll be working the noon to midnight shift, should be a nice change of pace. Oh, and I'm dropping my car off tomorrow morning at some transmission shop in Lakeport to have to clutch fixed, I'm hoping it won't take too many days to fix!!
That's all for now, I'm planning on heading back to Portland in a week or so to pack up all my stuff and head down to Tahoe with my parents' help, looking forward to that!!
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
busted
I made it for quite a while here in California, but my luck finally ran out today. I was heading out of town after getting out of work early and flew past a CHP truck inspection. There weren't many trucks and one of the officers was standing out in the road in the opposite lane and watched me go flying by. I thought for sure he'd come after me, but he didn't. So I was out taking pictures for a little while and came back about 45 minutes later. I was making sure not to draw any undue attention to myself as I passed the truck inspection, but again there was pretty much nothing going on there and the officer watched me drive by again. I watched in my rear view as he got into his car and caught up to me. At first, I thought I was ok because he pulled up next to me, but then he dropped back and pulled in right behind me and threw the lights on. The CHP come around to the passenger side window rather than the driver's side and so I had to open the door to talk to because the passenger side windows don't go down. So I made up a story about being here on vacation for a few weeks which he for some reason bought even though I couldn't even remember the name of our condo when he asked where I was staying, and my hardhat and work stuff was all on the passenger side seat. I told him I was "visiting" the geothermal project here. He said he had noticed me driving around and in and out of town for the past few weeks and I told him I'd be leaving California in another week or so. I plan to push my luck until I get pulled over again for being in California too long without registering my car here. I figure this wasn't even a warning so I'm ok.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
September 14
I had a few days off in Portland after leaving the Geysers last week. It was good to have some time off, six weeks straight is a long time without any time off. And two months is a long time to go without seeing your apartment. I made the best of my brief visit and look forward to the next!
I ended up coming back a few days early to the next well in Mammoth because I was led to believe that I'd be getting there after everything was rigged up and just in time to begin logging. As it turns out, we were sort of rigged up and no where near logging. It was nice to get here and have time to adjust to the altitude and sort of adust to my hours, but I don't know if it was worth it. I left Portland to get to Mammoth 9pm on Sunday night. It's supposed to be a 14 hour drive so I figured that if I stopped to take a nap or two I'd get here 1 in the afternoon. I ended up napping along the way for like 2 and a half hours but still made it here by noon. I think I took a pretty scenic route, but since it was dark the whole way I really couldn't say for sure. I plan on going back the same way, and making it a two day trip so I should know for sure who scenic it is then.... whenever that is.
Mammoth managed to get a lot colder over the week I was gone, it's already dropping below freezing overnight. I may need to buy chains to get out of here by the time we're done. But I'm hoping this won't take more than 3 weeks and that I'll have time off afterwards, like a full week maybe.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Back at the Geysers
I thought I was going to be heading back to Portland after the well in Mammoth but instead I had to go to the Geysers for a few days. It's been two months since I've seen my apartment, but I'll be back soon enough. Getting sent here just means I'll have a few less days off before the next well in Mammoth starts up in a week.
I took a more scenic route back here though rather than just heading north to Reno and then west on I-80, I went across Monitor Pass up through the Sierra Nevadas and along Lake Tahoe. It was a really nice drive but took me about 2 hours longer, so I only ended up getting like 3 hours of sleep last night before I had to come in for my shift at midnight. It was definitly worth it though, I think I got some good pictures.
Cobb is just like it was the last time I was here, boring! There still isn't a whole lot to do around here. Today I'm not feeling like doing anything but sleep so I'm glad I won't feel like I'm missing out on doing anything.
A Jeffrey Pine
Pictures from Mammoth
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
The bark of these trees smells like vanilla, really nice.
C&L Drill Rig #2
Pictures from Mammoth
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is the rig I was working on in Mammoth.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Days Off
I got another 2 days off while they ran more casing in the well at work. The first day I spent fishing down on the Owens River, and the second day we went up to Devils Postpile National Monument. Devils Postpile was pretty nice, you have to take a shuttle to the trailhead and then it's an easy half mile hike. We went on the interpretive walk with a forest ranger to the Postpile. I probably wouldn't have gone on the interpretive walk, but Dick came along with me and wanted to so I figured whatever, I have all day and I'm getting paid for this. I am glad we did the interpretive walk though, it was nice. After the Postpile, we hiked another mile to Rainbow Falls which is on the San Jaoquin River. It's pretty nice there too. After getting some pictures there we went back to Devils Postpile where I did some fly fishing on the San Jaoquin. I was really off that day, I missed about 8 strikes. I ended up not catching a single fish. I'd go back again, but you have to pay $7 just to get in the park and I'd rather fish for free somewhere else. The San Jaoquin is classified as a wild trout stream and hasn't been stocked in like 20 years. It has a rather healthy population of trout from 4 different species - rainbow, brown, brook and golden. I think golden are the only native species though.
Yesterday I lost about $16 worth of flies while I tried to fish a narrow rather overgrown gorge like section of the Owens River, I didn't catch anything and I've decided to take a day or two off from fishing, all the flies I've been losing are starting to add up.
We're back to work tonight and I'm really tired, on those days off I sort of switched back to being up during the day. It's going really slow though and I was lucky enough to be able to get a little nap in from about 2am-4am before anything really started to happen. We should be here for another 10 to 14 days, and that's just fine with me. People pay good money to come here and go fly fishing and hiking and what not, and I'm getting paid for it.
There's a new guy here being trained with our company which means one thing for me - I'm not the new guy anymore. It also means that we have someone to take the garbage out for us and do other stuff like that, it's not a bad deal.
I'll be putting some pictures up from the Devils Postpile and maybe some other random pictures soon. That's all for now though!
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Looking towards Mammoth from the Owens River
Looking towards Mammoth from the Owens River
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
August 14
Last night at work was very slow, they put steel casing in the well and cemented it in place. So basically all last night we sat around waiting for the cement to set. Around 8 this morning the well site geologist told me that I really didn't need to be there and that I could leave as long as they could get a hold of me if they needed to, so I got a few extra hours off this morning and we don't actually have to be back until tomorrow at noon, which is when I'd be finishing my shift tomorrow. So I get tomorrow off too, but I still get paid for it. They are essentially paying me to go fly fishing is the way I see it!
Today's fishing was alright, not bad for my first time fly fishing this year. I caught a few rainbow trout, none very big (and the only one I got a picture of is down-right tiny) but I had a good time. The river is pretty open, no trees or anything. It just snakes across a high desert plateau. I wasted a bunch of time on a couple of fish that I could see, they were feeding but didn't want anything I threw at them. They were feeding on the surface and on the bottom but nothing worked! I tried terrestrials and dries and nymphs, the only things I didn't try were my wet flies and bass flies.
I got a little sunburned because I completely forgot to put my sunscreen. As I was pulling up to park I saw a mountain lion. Not a very big one, but a wild cat none-the-less. My mind must've been focused on where the cat might have gone after it saw my car because I didn't think of my sunscreen again until I was heading back to the car. I'm glad to say that where-ever that mountain lion went, I didn't see it again. I enjoy seeing wildlife from my car, but have little interest is seeing it while I'm on foot. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was kind of far away for my camera.
Tomorrow I'll be back out on the river. I like working here at Mammoth.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Mammoth Lakes
I've been in Mammoth Lakes since Tuesday night. It's pretty nice here. The drive here was also pretty nice. Once you're in Nevada and heading South on I-395 it's really scenic. The highway goes along the Eastern Sierra Nevadas and has some really spectacular views. Mammoth Lakes is up pretty high, about 8000'. I'm still not quite adjusted to the elevation, so I get out of breath running up the stairs still... or maybe I'm just out of shape!
We got here about 3 days earlier than we needed to, but had no way of knowing that when we got here. The job has been slow to get going. So we've had 3 days to get all set up instead of 1 which is really nice. Our boss took us out to lunch and dinner the first night, that's a big deal for him because he's usually pretty cheap. It was probably the best dinner I've had since I was home in July! Any, it looks like they'll be drilling tonight so I came home early to try and get some sleep before my shift that starts at midnight. I'm going to be tired tonight though because I could only sleep for about 3 hours. I'll sleep good tomorrow for sure!
The drill site here is right near town in the Inyo National Forest. It's like a 5 minute drive from the condo we're staying at. The town is pretty nice too, lots of restaurants and some outlet shops. Tons of people around here too, apparantly this is a pretty popular place to visit. I plan on doing some fishing here as I've heard there's some pretty good fly fishing around here, there's a couple of cool looking fly shops around town too that I'll need to check out.
That's all for now, I should try to get some more sleep!!
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