Closet Extremist

Weekly Update with Johnny - Oh

When we left last friday, the driller's were planning on working through the weekend. The plan was for them to sink the hole, and then pull their rig out either on Sunday or Monday. after starting my day at 4:00AM, meeting Ford at his house, and then driving the two hours to Chattanooga, we arrived to find the rig still sitting in the hole. Come to find out, they had a problem with their compressor, and had to drive all day Sunday to get another one. They took all day Monday just finishing the drilling.

Tuesday came, and there was much feet-dragging by the drillers. They managed to get the pit shovelled out, but that was about it. I'm sure you're starting to see a pattern forming here. Wednesday, they broke the damn drill rig when they were trying to remove one of the sections of pipe that are used to extend the reach of the drill bit. They managed to completely break the gearbox away from its frame. Thursday and friday were spent with them welding new steel in place to fix the rig. When we left Friday afternoon, the rig was still hanging off our rails. We are now a week behind on this job. Due Date: December 15th. It's gonna be a long, hard slog to get this beast in there on time.

Here's some pictures:

One Busted Drill Rig. You can see the rails that it is hanging off of there on the left.

Another view. You can see all the stuff siting on the landing there behind the rig. another piece of good news: when they poured the concrete, they left a 2 inch ledge that juts out into my hoistway. That's going to have to be removed...all 6'6" tall by 18'9" wide of it. I'm glad I don't have to do that job.

There's the little Jack that will make the elevator raise and lower. It was black before the drill threw mud all over it.

One of the nice things about getting up early in the morning for work is that you get to see some really pretty things, Like Mist on the river:

and one of the most beautiful sunrises

I've seen in a long time.

I know, I know. What about the boat? I've talked to the financier, and we are in the process of working things out. I'm hoping to get things resolved sometime next week, but with the holiday coming up, it may take even longer than that. :^( Ah well. As long as there is forward progress, that's all I need. Things are looking good, but it'll take a little time. Trying to track down financial paperwork when you are 100 miles from home is a real bitch.

So far, things are good, and the prognosis is favorable for things to get better. I'm still trying to come up with a good way to get to the web while I'm out of town, but it'll take awhile to get enough scratch together for the equipment. I hope you all can put up with only weekend posts for awhile. Sorry about that.

Posted by Johnny - Oh at November 20, 2004 09:16 PM