Drilling permits double from April to May

- Flare on Emilys -

That means there were two for the month. See how easy it is to misconstrue the truth? Oh, don't mind me, I've got a shed full of old axes to grind.

It seems to me that since the news got our attention with the virus, they're eager to tell us what to do and what to think.

Also, what's with all the pandering to donate here and there? We're broke, non-profits! Quit asking us for a handout, we can barely take care of ourselves! Whoops, sorry, now I'm telling people what to do.

It seems like the panic has also caused correct spelling to go out the window. I know I'm a mess on this here blog, although I try to be consistent with capitalization and tenses, but I'm aware I'm all over the place. Here's the thing: I don't get paid to do this and I don't influence thousands of people. It's very disappointing to start in on an article of interest and find misspellings. I lose confidence in the source and quit reading.

When I worked at the Sweetwater Reporter, we all used to read each other's articles and make corrections or tell a writer when something was awkwardly written. Then the paste up people would put their two cents in. Each article went through many readings before it went to print.

At the Snyder Daily News, the articles were printed out and put in an area where everyone would walk by and read them, then mark them up with red pencils. The writer would then apply the corrections to their article before submission. Again, everything was scanned and scrutinized by many eyes.

Okay, now I sound like the used-to-be who thinks things were perfect a long time ago. If you knew how inept I was at my job now, and running my life in general, you would have quit reading a long time ago.

Anyway, click on the permits tab at the top of the page to see the ones that were approved for May. Both are vertical wells.

Oil & onions

- Onions on strings -

Flares are starting to be lighted and traffic is picking up in this area. West Texas Intermediate is hanging around $33 and there's talk that the oil field is fixing to open back up. I'm just waiting to see.

I had a bumper crop of onions this year, for me anyway. I have way more than one person would need. I was despairing that they would all go to ruin when someone suggested I tie them up. A little help from the interweb made me look like a mad genius ready for the farmer's market. It was surprisingly easy and entertaining to weave the onions onto a piece of rope. They look so pretty! That just might be in the eye of the beholder, though. I didn't wash them off, I thought I'd let the rain do that.

I've been spending a lot of time in the cellar, lately. It seems like hail comes with every bit of rain. You know, a couple of years of windshield- and window-breaking hail have made me paranoid for life, even if it did happen fifteen years ago. The storms are really fierce out here, they just growl and grind and blow. So frightening.

It looks like it's going to be a wet week. I've been running around planting seeds everywhere, taking advantage of the moisture. I'm determined not to let the stickers take over my yard, to have pretty flowers and plants pushing them out. The problem is my perseverance falters when summer comes. I don't want to stand in the heat watering and have to pay a big bill. Eventually I'll just have a bunch of dried out stems and vines with stickers poking out between. It happens every year.

April 2020 drilling permit, singular

Well, we only had one permit for Fisher County this month. I'm surprised there was even one. It was for W. B. Unit 1H, down on US 180.

I have to tell you, I haven't really been too freaked out through all this that's been going on, until I saw West Texas Intermediate fall into the negatives a couple of weeks ago. I had to go outside and smoke a few cigarettes in a row.

Out here, the oilfield traffic has slowed down dramatically. Poor little Ashley's looking forlorn, with the orange fencing where they were going to spike the well having fallen over and the water pits starting to dry up. Yesterday there were guys rolling up tubing.

The Mojave and Two Emilys flares went dark this past week.

Prices are hovering around $19 today. The Rail Road Commission is supposed to meet again on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. There are 190 items on the agenda. It looks like they'll probably go into executive session to discuss proration. Commissioner Wayne Christian is absolutely against it, Commissioner Ryan Sitton is for it, so it'll be up to Commissioner Christi Craddock to break the tie.

Rolling down memory lane

- Templeton pic picks -

I went into the vault of family paraphernalia today, looking for a scrap of paper that had the handwritten word "Quarantine" on it to use for my picture today. I remember asking Dad about it and he told me it was from when he had measles, probably during the 1940's.

I combed through everything, but I couldn't find that paper. It took hours to go through the farm records, letters, photos, documents, and decorations. I can now say that it is all sorted and in order. I've had all this stuff for so long that I can't remember when I didn't have it, and every time I've wanted to find something, I've had to go through it all. My dad's graduation cards were mixed in with sympathy cards from my grandpa's funeral, papers went back and forth from 1918 to 1974, with a mass of photos mixed throughout. It was a hot mess.

The photos I chose to showcase are, starting upper left, going clockwise: my grandma, Ollie Daisy Patrick, at the time; unknown ladies in hats; my cousin Jimmy Don Stapleton, being sassy in his cowboy boots; and unknown girls in rubber boots.

Every once in a while I think about scanning all the photos onto a website for the family, but I think I'm doing pretty good just to sort them into a box by themselves. We'll put a pin in that scanning idea.