New trailer, Snow, and another Chesapeake well site!

 Well, it has been very busy here the last few weeks and I haven't been able to post.  Tonight I finally have a chance to stop and update everyone.  We had our first major snow of the winter two weeks ago which took me away from the house for a few days.  It was only five inches but for a winter with no snow that was a lot!  That put me behind for a couple of weeks and I am just now catching back up.

First things first.  We purchased a gooseneck livestock trailer last weekend for the farm.  I have wanted one for many many years and I finally had a chance to get one and jumped on it!  I found it listed on Craigslist and made  an offer and they accepted.  It had some issues with the lights and brakes.  I was able to get it for a $1000.  It is a 16' gooseneck and is in pretty good condition.  With working lights and brakes it could be worth closer to $2000.  Well, I started digging into the wiring immediately after getting it home and realized that everything was improperly connected.  I managed to get all the lights working in time to haul five more of the pigs to the butcher Monday night. 

 As you can see in the pic above I also managed to reconnect all the running lights and all are working perfectly.  I will try to get some good daylight pics of the trailer this weekend after I finish working on the brakes.  From what I can tell they simply need connected properly and I should be good to go!

Next topic is a Chesapeake well site that was started on my cousins farm.  The pad encompasses approximately 10-11 acres of ground.  He only has about 50-60 acres of crop ground to begin with so this will put him in a bind for making feed for his dairy cattle but he should be ok.  They are to begin drilling several wells on the site sometime in late April to early May.  This site is scheduled to get six wells.  The bigger pads can hold up to ten. 

 As you can see there is a dyke all the way around the pad to contain anything that may accidentally be spilled.  There are many inspectors on site throughout the construction of the pad and they tend to be quite stringent.  You can also see in the pic below there is a small 30hp tractor that the neighbor is driving around the pad that looks like a toy.  It gives you some scale of what you are seeing.

 These wells are proving to be a double edged sword to most small farms.  The royalties that come from these wells are enormous.  However, they take up a lot of space for the farmer who ends up with the pad and there is not an infrastructure in place yet to handle the flow of gas from these wells.  So they may get them drilled and ready to produce but it could be two to three years before the farmer who lost the ground will actually see income to offset the losses they incur from the installation. 

 

Another issue that needed addressed was the narrow, one lane, mostly dirt road leading up to the pad.  This is not the original road.  The original road went up the property line in the woods in the top right corner of the pic below.  However, back when my great grandfather lived there he put a driveway up through the barns to the top fields to save some travel.  Over time this became the route that everyone, including the township trucks, began to use.  Over the many many decades the old road is grown over with trees and is no longer visible.  When they bring the rig and hydraulic fracturing equipment in they need heavy use wide roads.  So, they are moving fences and widening the road to the full thirty feet.  They also installed a minimum 12" thick limestone base in to carry the heavy loads.  Once drilling starts there will be a nonstop line of trucks going in and out this road for several months.  Hopefully everyone is careful!

 I will try to be more diligent and keep everyone posted on how things play out.  This area is in need of the jobs and the income as many small farms are giving way to large scale farms in the Midwest.  This can help save many of the small farms that built this area and paved the way for many of the cities around here to become what they are today.  It will be interesting to see how this area copes with the added truck traffic and noise and light pollution for the next five to ten years till the drilling is done.

Next, on a lighter note, I see a lot of crazy and stupid things when I am out doing snow removal.  Apparently when it snows people begin to panic and forget what is sane and begin to drive horribly and do things they normally wouldn't do...like haul a cast iron bath tub in the truck of a sedan on an icy snow covered road!

I have no idea what prompted the event above but I had to take a pic and share this.  This is not the worst I have seen but this is the first time I have gotten a pic of the insanity!

 Due to the snow fall my daughter was finally able to build her snow man and we were able to do some sledding.

 This is Josh (steven's brother), Lisa (my daughter), Sylvana (our buddie's daugther), and daisy!

 Just a pic from the living room window of the beautiful morning after the snow fell.

 This is a pic of Lisa right after we got done building it.

Some quick updates on pigs and cows.  We are expecting a calf from my newest cow on the tenth.  We are also expecting three litters of piglets this month.  We have sent 8 of 9 pigs to the butcher shop and will be delivering most of the meat over the next few weeks.  I have beef going in Monday and some of it goes to Columbus with the pork so I will not be done with this round till near the end of the month.

We added another sow to the pig herd and she is already bred so in 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days we will have another litter of piglets!

Hope all is well and I will try to post again Sunday.  Now time to get some sleep!