Friday Friday ...

Story of my life.
The simplest, but least favorite part of my job.
Following the rig to and from the job site.
No one likes having to go five under the speed limit
And I don't like cars riding my tail...
Just an ounce of patience, people!
On Wednesday, we were stopped.
The car behind me didn't like being stopped and
went to zoom around me then suddenly slammed on his brakes.
I guess he saw what we were waiting for
when the small children crossed the street
just where he would have been flying through
had he not realized why the traffic in front of him was at a standstill.
Waiting for the children to get off their school bus.
Just because you can't see what you're stopping for,
doesn't mean there's not a reason...

It's Friday Friday! Enjoy the weekend, but be safe!!!

Date Night Adventures

Otherwise known as - "Let's move the well driller!"

I am not kidding when I say that there is rarely a time when Jim and I go out that does not involve the business in one way or another. It could be something as insignificant as picking up some oddball fitting at Lowe's to...you guessed it - moving the well driller (rig).

Recently we had a job about an hour from home. A little further than we like to travel...but it happens. The rig was moved out there, the well was drilled, and it was time to bring 'er home.

Date night!

We left late in the afternoon and headed out. As we drove along, Jim spotted an antique store that we had not seen before. But then this antique-ing thing is fairly new to me so Jim may have seen it before, just never bothered to suggest a stop, thinking that it wouldn't interest me. Now it does. And boy does it! This was a nice shop with lots of fairly priced interesting items. And we both picked out a couple of things and didn't spend a whole lot of money.

One of the treasures that we found. It's very old and hand-made. And it cost $1.50!

We continued on our way. It does get more and more rural as we get further out. The farmers are all working in the fields making up for all of the planting time that they lost because of our incredibly wet and rainy spring. I really love this area.

We decided to stop for dinner in the town that is nearest by where our rig is waiting for us. I've always liked this little town and I tell Jim, "If I were to pick a place to move to, I would like to live in Croswell." Locals might think I'm crazy because there isn't much in Croswell, but that's why I like it. We pass a little local restaurant and decide to turn around to have dinner there (shout out to the Riverside Family Restaurant). It's pretty much the only place to eat, although Croswell does have a McDonald's, so there's that. We enjoy these little local places though. They're some of the best places to eat and, if you see the locals hanging out there, you can usually bet that the food's pretty good.

But...just before we turn around to head back to the little restaurant we see this:

Okay...we didn't actually see KISS. It was a group of about six or so teenagers and all but one had black and white goth make-up on.

And I said to Jim, "Um...I changed my mind about wanting to live here."

We turned around and pulled into the parking lot next to the restaurant and, well frankly, I was afraid to get out of the car! Other people didn't seem to take notice of this group of kids. A police car drove by and didn't even slow down. So, either they're a common sight and quite harmless or there's some event going on that requires the wearing of gothic black and white make-up. Anyhow, these kids stopped in front of a nearby church, posed while the non-made-up member of the group took pictures, and were on their way.

We went into the restaurant, which had friendly waitresses, groups of locals having dinner, and a pretty darn good fish sandwich and fries. Please! If you know the area and know any bad things about this place - don't tell me!

It was time to get the rig, which was just a few miles outside of town. We left the job with the satisfaction of having provided this customer with a good supply of water for the house that they will be building on their beautiful piece of property.

The ride home couldn't have been more pleasant, as far as "following the rig" rides go. There was hardly any traffic for the whole way home. The cars that did come upon us didn't ride my rear. The route we took was one of the more scenic ways to come back home. It was just simply a good ride!

We dropped the rig at the next job and headed home.

Another enjoyable "date night"!

Simple Sunday (with a little extra)

We recently drilled a well for a couple who are in the 80's. When Jim and I dropped the rig off, the wife (Mr.S) was telling me about their dog, Tina, and she had to go get Tina so that I could meet her. As I admired Tina, I told her about our dogs and she wanted to see them. I ended having to go out there a few times to run things to Jim and a couple of times I brought our dogs. Mrs. S was so thrilled to meet Duke and Sosha. Sosha put her head out of the car window and this woman closed her eyes as she gave Sosha a little hug. I could tell that she just loved dogs. You could see it in her face.

She wanted to exchange pictures of the dogs. The next time Jim had to head out there I made sure that I had a photo of Duke and Sosha for Mrs. S. Jim had to stop there on Friday and Mrs. S showed him the place of honor she had given Duke and Sosha right on her fridge. She had a picture of Tina for us and even offered Jim a magnet so that we could hang it on our fridge.

I decided that before Tina gets her place on our fridge that she deserves to be admired by all of you!

Tina S. -- one dog who is very well loved!

A Ride in the Country

A couple of nights ago, Jim had to go check on a well and asked if I wanted to go to keep him company. I said, "Sure!" and grabbed a book so that I'd have something to do while he worked.

These things never quite work out that way.

We found the place, a vacant piece of land save a pole barn that's seen better days. There had been a house there at one time, but it was long gone, the only evidence of its existence being a dip in the ground a little ways back from where we found the well.

Since there was no house and no electricity, Jim needed to hook his generator up to the pump and get it pumping because the customer wanted to see if the well was still usable. It's an older well with steel casing which meant that there would be a build up of rust and that, in turn, meant that it would be difficult to pull the pipe (inside the well that leads to the pump that is down in the well) up the five or so feet that he needed. Don't want to bore you with details, but let's just say that pulling up, by hand, even five feet of 100' of pipe that has been sitting in a well for a good many years is made very difficult by the build up of rust.

I started getting out of the truck about the time Jim was motioning me to come help him. He said, "I'll probably have to come back with the service truck to pull it up." The service truck has a hoist which makes pulling pipe and pump out of a well much easier than using your brute strength. We're getting older and using our brute strength is getting a little more difficult. ☺ We decided to give it a go though, the two of us working together. And we did it. With each of us manning a pipe wrench holding onto that inside pipe in the well, we pulled it up a little at a time. Then Jim would hold it up while I moved my wrench down and then he would grab that then I would put the upper wrench that he had below it and we would pull again. Confused yet? We did this over a few times until we pulled up five feet of this 100' feet of pipe. We then hooked it up to the generator and got it pumping and then we watched it until the water ran clear. Then, working together again, we lowered the pipe back down and put the cap back on the well. Success! Jim could now call his customer and let him know that he had a working well on his property, which would save him a good chunk of change!

I love working in partnership!

I had taken notice of this beautiful rosebush which, I'm sure, had once been the pride of the lady of the house that no longer exists. It sits at the end of what had once been their driveway. With no special care all these years, it continues to thrive. On our way out Jim cut me off a few blooms and put them in a vase after we got home. They smell glorious!

I love the way my husband thanks me for helping!

All In A Day's Work

I've talked a little bit, here and there, about our business. We drill water wells and do service work related to water wells. My husband does all of the hard physical work. And, believe me, the work is so physical that every single time that I work with Jim I gain a new appreciation for the work that he does. Jim works alone almost all of the time. I don't know how he does it. He's exhausted most nights. He used to hire someone (with muscles) to help during the summer, but since the economy tanked the business really can't afford to anymore. It sure would be nice for Jim to have at least a part-time helper to take some of the load off. I just don't cut it in the muscles department, but occasionally he will ask me to help so that he has another set of hands. 

The bulk of what I do is desk work - billing, logging, bookwork - you get the picture, but I also have to, at the drop of a hat, run a part to Jim, or pick him up from a job site, or move the well drilling rig to a drilling site:

We generally try to move the rig in low traffic times. We usually only go about 5 miles below speed limit, but some drivers lack the patience to deal with a tad bit of a slow down. Jim likes me to stay a ways behind him to give drivers enough room to get in between us while they're passing us. They usually just pass us in one swoop pass anyhow. And quite often come from behind a couple more cars behind me.

Often when we get to where we're going, Jim has to back in. That always makes me nervous because of the traffic. Besides lacking patience, some drivers just aren't paying attention and they can seemingly come from nowhere. Thankfully, even though this is a paved road, it was not busy at this time.

This is simple backing up for Jim. I've seen this man maneuver that thing between trees, shrubs, and buildings with just enough room for the rig to get through. Don't know how he does it.

Sometimes he's drilling to replace an existing well so there's a house already there (this one was vacant at the time). Other times he's drilling on a vacant property for customers who will be building a house...that doesn't happen all that much in the last couple of years.

The rig weighs 22 tons so he will more than likely leave tire ruts, depending on the time of year and how wet and muddy the ground is. This is why, during the spring and autumn weather, we can virtually be at a standstill. When the ground is wet, the rig will sink and become hopelessly stuck. We just can't drill. People will tell us that their piece of land is dry since they can drive their car on it without getting stuck. There's a big difference between their car and this rig! It was somewhat dry on this day and he didn't have far to go off the driveway.

And now we set up the rig. Errr...by we I mean Jim. I do help...if I'm not wearing good clothes or taking pictures. :)

Lowering the mud tank.

See that block Jim is carrying? I can barely drag it to where it needs to be. He's a strong hunka man!

The blocks go under the outriggers. The outriggers level the whole rig so that Jim drills a straight hole.

Setting up the mud tank and I remember specifically that we were distracted by  a strange sounding bird and trying to figure out what it was.

Raising the derrick.

Levers and gauges to me mean mass confusion. I know which ones I need to know about. The others...not so much.

Jim knows what they all mean though.

The derrick holds the drill pipe. Each length of drill pipe is 20 feet long and that is what he uses (with a drill bit attached to the bottom) to drill the hole.

The derrick is about 35 feet high.

Attaching hoses. I would actually be doing this if I wasn't taking pictures.

Jim would probably have preferred me helping the process along a little faster, but I've never photographed the setting-up process before.

See how those outriggers work? The rig has to sit level meaning that sometimes the tires have to sit that far off the ground, which, quite frankly, has always made me nervous.

This is the very first vehicle that the business has had that we hired someone to paint our business name on the doors. We found a very good artist, who is one of the few who still hand paints trucks. She has a large shop to paint trucks in but it wasn't big enough for our rig, so she came to our place to do the painting. She insisted to Jim that my name should appear somewhere on the truck. My middle name is above the other headlight. I wasn't thrilled at first, but I like it now.

All set! I take Jim back home and he'll drive back out with his water truck and get to work.

Sometime this summer I will have to take pictures of the actual drilling process...except that I'm usually too muddy to take pictures. Even when I go to help with something simple and clean, for some reason I always end up with mud on me. Someday I'll learn...maybe.

Simple Sunday

Jon enjoying a job with a view, helping his Dad drill geothermal holes for a house being built on the St. Clair River in 2006.

Y-ellow truck

When my son was just a little guy, his world revolved around trucks, tractors, backhoes...but most of all the well driller and it's friend - Yellow Truck.

I could not find a picture of the original Yellow Truck so here's it successor - Mostly Yellow Truck. (sorry for the repeat pic posting...)

Jon was quiet when you took him out of his comfort zone (home). And he was very shy. We thought it was important that he attend pre-school, otherwise we were very afraid that kindergarten would be an absolutely heart-breaking scene (for Jon and his mom ☺).

So, Jon went to pre-school for the two years before kindergarten. A very lovely co-op pre-school where the parents took turns working, which I loved. It would be a gradual separation process.

For the entire first year, when Jon was three years old, he never spoke at school. I'm serious. At the end of the year, the parents were presenting a book to the very wonderful teacher. They were collecting quotes from each student. The quote that I submitted from Jon looked like this:

     "                                                                       "

empty quotes

His teacher totally got it! She was a saint.

We were really hoping that he would come out of his shell a little bit during the second year. And he did.

A little bit, he would talk. And he made friends. And he kinda liked pre-school. He was quiet, still, but he said what needed to be said.

Toward the end of the year, the teacher was testing each student to gauge their readiness for kindergarten. Now, we knew Jon was ready. He was a smart kid (still is), but how would he do while he was testing one on one with the teacher?

I found out a couple of days later, when his teacher had a question for me.

She was testing his knowledge of colors. When she got to this color:

Jon was right on the money. He answered, "Yellow truck."

She just had to ask me where that came from though!

Jon loved that yellow truck!

W-ater

Water is very important in our life. We are second generation water well drillers so, not only do we firmly believe that water is the most valuable resource, but it's also what sustains us!

My husband, my father-in-law, and my son

My father-in-law started this water well drilling business in 1940, before he went off to serve his country in World War II. When he came back, he picked up where he left off and went on to build a successful small business. It was a family affair. My mother-in-law worked hard to help him make the business the success that it is. There was a lot of hard work and many sacrifices along the way. Pa's (my father-in-law) reputation was all the advertising that was needed. Everyone in the area knew what a good, honest, fair, and hard-working man he was. He was greatly respected and greatly mourned when he died suddenly almost seven years ago, leaving a vast hole, not only in the family, but in the business as well. You see, although he had mostly retired from the business and he and my mother-in-law built a new house to retire in, he was still here every day. Sometimes he did his own thing like wood-turning and chainsaw carving and sometimes he went out on the job with my husband. He helped Jim the very day before he passed away peacefully in his sleep. We still miss him...



He left some big shoes to fill and no one could fill them better than my husband. Although Jim went to school to learn another trade, he could not or maybe did not want to escape the pull of "the business". He probably started working for Pa as soon as he was old enough and it's been full-time since he graduated from high school over 30 years ago. About the time Jim and I met, he was in the process of buying the business from his parents. I knew from the get-go that if Jim and I had a future together, the business would be a huge part of our lives. And it has been. It's been almost twenty years since we bought the house that my husband grew up in that sits on the same property that has housed the business for over 50 years. Obviously that means that we are always "at work". The business is our life and our life is the business. We have learned that time away is precious and we cherish any escapes that we have been able to steal away. We pride ourselves in keeping up the good reputation that Jim's parents worked so hard to build. We have worked hard and stand behind every job. When our business completes a job, we have put our all into it. Hard work and dedication: those are the two most important building blocks in a successful business. We may never be rich, but we are proud to be known as honest, hard-working, and generous.

Jim and I by the drilling rig and our kids by the water truck. Yes, it is indeed...a family photo with our work trucks!

And we would consider our role as parents to be successful if we have passed those traits on to our children. I think that we have. Both of our kids have worked in the business at some point in their lives. I think it encouraged our daughter to stay in college! ☺ Our son has chosen a different career, but we know he could jump back in if he decided to come back. I sure have gone out on my share of jobs with Jim, but my main job is to tackle all of the office work.

Jim - setting up the rig.

Business is slower in the last couple of years. Jim mostly works by himself these days...I'm here to lend a hand when he needs me. We hope that, as the economy improves, things will pick up. I have grown to love this business. We have some of the most wonderful customers. We have met some awesome well drillers whom we consider great friends.

Water is life. Well Water is naturally better!

Our life...honestly...

Just about anyone who owns their own business will tell you that it pretty much rules your life. Ain't that the truth?! We have really made an effort, over the years, to try to balance family and business. I hope we've succeeded...

Our groundwater association has been after Jim for years to become more active. Jim has always turned them down. Any time outside of work (which wasn't much) was dedicated to whatever the kids were involved in: Girl, Cub, Boy Scouts, band, sports, etc. That was what was important to us. Wouldn't that be the case for everyone?

Okay, so fast forward several years. The kids are grown and sloooowly moving away from the nest. And coming back. And moving away again.

It's time to fulfill our duty to the groundwater industry!

Jim is now one of the directors. The state is divided into districts and Jim represents our district at the state association level. I'm a member of the auxiliary which means that, automatically, I have the same position at the auxiliary level. That probably sounds sexist doesn't it? Well, if I were to become a licensed well driller I could join the association. I don't wanna. I'm happy where I'm at!

Last spring, at the convention, Jim had to take over for the current director so we had to be at the convention for the entire time. We also attended the spring meeting, unofficially. Tomorrow, though, tomorrow is officially our first meeting! I'm a little nervous, actually, and I don't know why. I guess if allowed, I would become a hermit and never leave the house again. I force myself to do these things because, in the end, I know I will enjoy it and it's really not good to be a hermit! So, onward we go, putting forth our best effort! And hoping that they like us! Okay, Jim doesn't worry about that. I do.

Today we will make the trek toward the west (side of the state!). We learned our lesson, this past spring, about leaving early in the morning of the meeting/convention. It's too early! After all, tomorrow evening we have to go to a wedding back here. Tomorrow will be a very long day...

So, I must finish packing and getting ready. There are plans to be made, money to be raised, scholarships to be awarded!