Busy, Busy, Busy, Busy

The last couple of days, I've had time to take pictures of some flying visitors to our site.  Beep-Beep, the roadrunner, was chasing around a 'friend' yesterday.  I don't know what exactly was going on, but it was fun to watch.

A crested caracara flies down the road every morning looking for breakfast.  He's really fast, and the only shot I almost got of him sitting still was missed because of a truck.  But here are some new firsts for us:



Golden Fronted Woodpecker



Pyrrhuloxia (female)



Meadowlark
 

Gary has been regularly busy at night except for last night, but he still didn't sleep between trucks.  He's afraid he'll miss one, even though we've hung the bell right by the window near the chair where he sits.  It's been unseasonably cold at night, too, so we have to keep the windows open only a crack. 

But I went on duty at 6:30 am and quit from near exhaustion at 6 tonight.  A new drilling company is laying a 'pad' which involves 300 trucks of gravel delivered.  Every minute there were trucks coming or going.  The dust was so bad with the 15 mph winds that we needed three rounds of a water truck to calm it down.  Now we have mud.  Poor Bella, she's so dirty.  And I'm so tired.  Poor Gary got no sleep because of all the racket.  He's now on night duty, but it's been very light so far.

Our regular caterer has disappeared, but we did get a plate of  delicious BBQ from the new caterer, so I haven't had to cook yet. 

Our friends, Donna and Ron finally got an assignment and they're only 15 miles away!  The site is drilling at the moment, so they could be there many weeks.  So even though it is tedious work, the days are flying by. 

Some new equipment followed behind a pilot truck.  He drove slowly so that I could snap a picture:

This little hand can stop 87,000 pounds of truck!  I just hold it up!

 The various equipment that goes past Bella is mind-boggling.  It's another whole world and language (of which I can't understand a word).  The drivers are polite, and we have many women in this business, too, as drivers and roust-a-bouts.

We have almost finished 2 weeks of work, but it feels like a lot longer.  I did get out to Walmart yesterday (whoo-hoo!) with Donna for some milk and TP.  And, yes, it was a whoo-hoo!  Since I hadn't seen anything but trees, dust and trucks for over a week, it was exciting to get in the Jeep and drive somewhere!  Well, allright, it wasn't that exciting, but still...

We are hoping that the new drilling will keep us here for a while longer, but no word yet.  Until then, cha-ching.  It's a good sound.