Hoots and hollers

- Strange pumpkin -

One of the kids used a stencil to carve a pumpkin, and while it's well done, I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. I bet it looks pretty when it's lit up, whatever it is.

I was driving by the old Lance Theater in Rotan yesterday and noticed a bunch of junk sitting out front, like it was being cleaned out. The explanation came to me when I saw a notice for a Haunted House to be held there on Halloween night. It's $5.00 per person and starts at 7 p.m. There will also be a pumpkin carving contest and treats handed out in the foyer of the theater, separate from the haunted house.

I was at Joe's Circle C when a lady walked in and straight back to the deli saying "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, Pepsi!". That tickles me even to think about it. Joe's has daily lunch specials, ya oughta check 'em out.

Oil & wind

- Energy resources -

I always thought it was just the sound of the wind that drove people crazy, but I have found that the constant need for dusting is almost as irksome. There's not enough Pledge in the world to keep my tables clean when the wind gets up.

Speaking of wind, the bottom photo is of the Mesquite Star wind main site. This is at the curve just south of the Claytonville gas plant, on FM 611. Driving back to the west, on FM 608, there are yards full of giant blades and other parts for the windmills. Blattner is doing the construction for this project.

The top four photos, clockwise starting from the top left, are of the following oil drilling sites: Emilys 1H, 2H, horizontals & SWD 1D, a disposal well; Cochran 1, an exploratory/re-plug drill; Sahara 9, a horizontal; Yellowstone 28 1H, a horizontal on US 180 in Scurry County. The first three are in Fisher County on FM 1614.

A country crawl

- Fisher & Nolan County stops -

I started out Saturday by stopping in at the Hobbs School to see how the reunion was going, and took a photo of Pat Porter and Peggy Vernon talking to Beth Martin during registration. I talked to Wally Shipp, who said it was the first reunion he had attended, and said Hello to Terry Porter, who was getting something out of his pick-up. I don't know Wally or Terry, but I thought I'd do a little name-dropping for the Hobbs readers. I wanted a photo of Howard and Judy Gordon, but they looked a little busy, what with trying to get things set up and all.

I went to Roscoe to attend the Wind Festival and say Hi to Edwin Duncan at the Roscoe Historical Museum, but the activities had not started and Edwin, aka Snake, aka Bitsy, wasn't there, yet.

I drove on over to Sweetwater and picked up one of my kiddos, and we had breakfast at Nerveria Chiquis on Pecan Street. Then we headed back to Roscoe, but the Mud Bog had started and things were quiet on the bricks, where the festival was taking place. We stopped in at the going-out-of-business sale at Main Street Antiques, and chatted awhile with Kay Aiken. I still couldn't locate Edwin.

We decided to head on out to Lake Sweetwater, where we stopped off at the amphitheater, down below the dam. The place was full of orb weavers, and I got a great photo of a black and yellow garden spider, known for its zig-zag web weave. We milled around the beach for a few minutes, then went home to take naps and revitalize for the evening.

We headed back to Roscoe around dusk to see Johnny Rodriguez and his band play for the street dance. I finally caught up with Edwin as he was coming out of the museum. He was carrying a jar a homemade sauerkraut and a lightbulb and was in good spirits. I saw a few Loraine people over there.

Finally, I dropped the baby (haha!) off and headed home. When I turned the corner at the Hobbs School, I thought there were a whole bunch of vehicles with headlights on parked just over the hill, but it turned out to be heavy night-shift activity at the Sahara lease, as well as the lit-up tower on the double Emily site.

There's a lot to be done around here if you're willing to put some mileage on the car.

Hobbs School Reunion reminder

The Hobbs reunion will be this Saturday, starting at 9 a.m. with registration. The October 9 RSVP date has passed, but I bet they'd be happy to see folks at the last minute. There's plenty of room in the auditorium for everyone. Let 'em know you're coming! Call 735-3337.

A whole lotta rumblin' goin' on

For the past few weeks there's been a low grade rumble in the house as the nearby leases for the horizontal wells get their frac on. It's not continuous, it comes and goes. Right now I can somewhat mildly feel it. It's not really disturbing, other than none of the wells are mine.

Last week there was an all night rumble and the next morning I saw a huge flare over on the Mojave site, visible from my back porch. I noticed it wasn't burning this morning.

There have been eight new permit applications for Fisher County this month. There are a couple that seem out of the ordinary, to me.

One is CH 24 MP 16.602 Well 1, about a mile northwest of Roby. It's permitted as a cathodic protection well, only 370 feet deep. According to the Schlumberger Oil Field Glossary, a cathodic well is used for corrosion control, transferring corrosion from a protected structure to one that can be sacrificed. This permit has not been approved as of yet.

The other is Cochran Well 1, a re-entry on a plugged well, about three miles west of Hobbs. The remark on the permit says this is to properly re-plug the well, but the field restrictions says for exploratory test only, so it looks like it could be leaking, or it could be lucrative. Time will tell. This permit has not been approved to date.

PCQC contributes to RPQRF

According to an article in the Athens Daily Review, Dallas based Park Cities Quail Coalition gave a donation of over $1 million dollars to the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, which owns and runs the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch. The ranch is located west of Roby, by the blinking light at the intersection of US 180 and FM 611.

The same article also mentions Fisher County's Hawks Double Mountain Ranch. A hunt on the ranch was offered up as an auction bid item at a dinner fundraiser. Hawks encompasses the area down by the Rough Creek bridge north of Hobbs, as well as a lot more real estate.

Fisher CAD named as creditor in Sheridan Chapter 11

The Fisher County Appraisal District is named as one of many creditors that Sheridan Holding Company II, LLC, et al, are indebted to, according to a bankruptcy document filed in the Texas Southern Bankruptcy Court, Houston Division. Forty-three taxing entities are included in the creditors list, including Nolan CAD and Jones CAD, as well as the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed September 15.

County leases to Sharp Image, Cholla still interested in Gillespie

Oil leasing is going strong in Fisher County, with all the usual names in play, and a few new ones popping up along the way. Aciete Corporation, aciete being Spanish for "oil", is one of the more interesting names.

Cholla is still leasing in the Gillespie, aka Sidney P. Allen, area around Longworth (west, north and south) and along State Highway 70 south. They also did some leasing in the Blk 3 H&TC survey, northwest of Claytonville.

Scott Oils is hot in Blk 3, with leases in many different sections.

The county leased 160 acres worth of minerals, just north and west of Royston, to Sharp Image Energy in August, with the document being recorded in September. The records indicate that the county owns some minerals, not land, on this acreage.

The Fisher County records have been updated through September on TexasFile, and my breakdown for the mineral records has been added to the Fisher County Records tab at the top of the Hobbs Holler website.

Fisher County oil drilling permits September 2019

Listed by API number, district, lease, well number, permitted operator, county, status date, status number, wellbore profile, filing purpose, amend, total depth, and status.

15133141 7B EMILY 3H MORIAH OPERATING,LLC(586557) FISHER Submitted: 09/05/2019 856805 Horizontal New Drill N 6500 MAPPING
12 miles SW of Rotan

15133142 7B EMILY 4H MORIAH OPERATING,LLC(586557) FISHER Submitted: 09/05/2019 856807 Horizontal New Drill N 6500 MAPPING
12 miles SW of Rotan

15133139 7B MASON 85 1P PEREGRINE PETROLEUM PRTNR, LTD.(653271) FISHER Submitted: 09/05/2019 856554 Vertical New Drill Y 7600 DRILLING PERMIT
14.6 miles SW of Roby

15133143 7B WELCH 1 L.C.S. PRODUCTION COMPANY(479574) FISHER Submitted: 09/17/2019 Approved: 09/18/2019 857208 Vertical    New Drill N 5500 APPROVED
7 miles NE of Eskota

15133106 7B EMPIRE BUILDER 1H CHOLLA PETROLEUM, INC.(150683) FISHER Submitted: 09/20/2019 Approved: 09/26/2019 857290 Horizontal Reenter N 8999 APPROVED
9 miles NW of Roscoe

15133144 7B ZION 33 1H BROWNING OIL COMPANY, INC.(103088) FISHER Submitted: 10/01/2019 857605 Horizontal New Drill N 7500 MAPPING
10.45 SW of Rotan

All information is derived from the Railroad Commission of Texas website.