Out west and around the county

- Trencher, west of Hobbs -

Work on the City of Rotan water project is continuing out in the Hobbs area. It's pretty busy west of the Hobbs School, in eastern Scurry and western Fisher counties. Equipment and vehicles hauling pipes can be seen going up and down the state and county roads.

The commissioners court is going to be interesting next week, in light of the outcome of the Fisher County election. Simon Wade, former sheriff, who resigned last March, won the race by an overwhelming margin. Tom Pohlman, a sheriff's department employee at the time of Wade's resignation, was appointed as sheriff after Wade's departure. There's an article in the Double Mountain Chronicle this week that explains the situation. 

The commissioners court regular meeting is set for November 12. A special meeting to conduct the local canvass is slated for the following week, November 18.

Three and half inches or so of rain was measured in the Hobbs area last week. More rain is expected today and tomorrow, spurred by an upper level low coming through. Severe weather is predicted.

Sources:

• Double Mountain Chronicle
• Fisher County
• National Weather Service

Newspaper launches podcast

The Double Mountain Chronicle has a new podcast, called The ShortCut, an audio digest of their latest headlines.

DMC primarily reports Fisher County news, for the cities of Rotan and Roby. They also write about Stonewall County events, where Aspermont is the county seat.

Get The Shortcut wherever you listen to podcasts.

A little news and a bunch of bugs

- Night flight bugs -

There was a pretty good rain around Hobbs yesterday, a little over an inch, but rain doesn't come without consequence around here. This time it was thousands and thousands of bugs. They looked like termites with wings and they all wanted in my house. I put in earplugs to keep them out of my ears, and got out the vacuum. The only good thing I can say about them is that they didn't bite or sting.

You can follow the progress of the new hardware store on facebook. Fisher Ace Hardware & Farm Supply in Rotan has a page with a lot of interesting photos and videos. They documented pouring the store foundation, reporting that it took 27 trucks to get the job done.

The land deal has gone through for the Dollar General store in Rotan. Expect to see groundwork being laid on the southern edge of town. Dollar General in Roby is in construction now.

Stoney LaRue will be playing at the Taylor County Coliseum Friday, September 5, during the West Texas Fair and Rodeo in Abilene. Table, floor and balcony seats are available. Performance begins at 9 p.m.

Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone is coming back November 10, and Tulsa King will return September 15. I swore I would never watch another Sheridan production until he showed us the last episodes of season five of Yellowstone, but Tulsa King is coming on first, so I will be breaking my vow. The shows will air on Paramount Network and Paramount+.

Enough already

Y'all, it's gettin' silly how many earthquakes there have been. I'll just say, if you are talking to someone who lives in this area, and if they are sitting, standing, breathing, feeding chickens or cows, driving down the road in a truck or tractor, you can take it for granted that there is an ongoing earthquake, one that has just happened, or one that is about to happen. 

Oh, man, if only earthquakes were rain, they'd be calling us Seattle right now.

RRC response to earthquakes

"The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) has been investigating the earthquakes that have occurred this week in the Camp Springs area along the Fisher/Scurry County line in West Texas.
 
In efforts to reduce seismicity possibly caused by underground injection of produced water, several operators in the area have converted deep saltwater disposal wells to shallow saltwater disposal wells within the last year. (Disposal wells are used to dispose of produced water, which is water that comes out from wells during oil and gas production.)
 
RRC inspectors are out inspecting saltwater disposal wells within two and a half miles of the cluster of earthquakes this week and the RRC will evaluate next steps that can be taken to mitigate earthquakes.

We’ll continue to take measures necessary to protect the environment and residents in the area."

-This was in response to an email I sent them this morning. My original inquiry is posted below:

We had another big quake like the one on Monday. I'm in Fisher County in Texas. We've had multiple quakes between now and then. It is becoming very alarming. If saltwater injection is inducing the quaking, can you help in any way? It is frightening to feel like the house may be destroyed with me in it.

Another big one

About 9:28 a.m., there was another strong quake. USGS graded it as a 4.8, but it felt stronger than the one on Monday. I was outside in the chicken coop and ran into the open because the ceiling in that old upside-down cotton trailer is rusty and could easily fall. The barbed wire on the fence was jumping up and down, and that stuff is pretty tight, normally. There was a long rumble after the shaking subsided, loud enough to override the sound of distant planes and vehicles.

I went inside and the cabinets were open, items had fallen off shelves, one little doll broken, and books were knocked over, pictures askew.  I'm going to have to give up straightening them, in light of present circumstances.

Update: USGS had upgraded the quake to a 5. 

Update: upgraded to 5.1. There was a 3.2 right after that one.

The shakes keep on coming

There was another hard earthquake about five minutes ago (9:58 p.m.). There have been at least 15-20 of varying degree since the 4.9 one Monday night. Paranoia has set in and the sound of a big truck driving by has me grabbing onto furniture to steady myself. There are some weeks, lately, where I've counted as many as 15 tremors, but nothing as jolting as what is now being experienced, with cabinets flying open and pictures on the wall jarred askew. Is this the new normal?

Update: USGS graded this quake as a 4.0.

Fisher County Commissioners to meet Tues Oct 12

Commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning in the county courtroom at the courthouse in Roby. 

Common items on the agenda are departmental reports, county auditor accounting, and the burn ban. 

Other items of interest to be discussed are a curfew ordinance, the Community Development Block Grant, an estimate approval for improvements at the Fisher County Museum, approval of tax forfeiture bids, and appraisal district nominations.

Weekend wandering to Wichita

- Royal Theater, Archer City-

The Spur Hotel in Archer City had no rooms to let, so I stayed on in Wichita Falls Saturday night. It's not too far of a drive.

The to-do was pretty interesting, with a lot of people who did and didn't personally know Larry speaking. It was a good way to study the different facets of a persona, a mix of perception and personal knowledge.

It was surreal to be in that area, in that town, in that building. Watching the movie, I kept thinking, "We are there now". I could turn my head a little and see where a scene had taken place. Then, driving home from Wichita Falls, I kept musing that cyclists driving along the highway were Duane, on the way to see his therapist. 

Driving from the North Plains to the Rolling Plains, with a big sky, endless horizon and little traffic, gave me a couple of hours for rumination. Deep thinking on a Sunday morning, what luxury.

I'd like to make a correction on an earlier article. Booked Up, McMurtry's bookstore, is on South Center Street, just south of the courthouse. There are faded letters on a building on the square, and another ghost of a sign next to the current location, that indicate the business has been in a couple of different places. The current store is housed in a few buildings, on both sides of the street.