Geronimo !

[Boaz]

Geronimo was a famous Apache Indian leader that evaded the United States cavalry for years . Apaches were considered some of the most dreaded warriors by most plains Indians and .......................Well heck , I'm not here to talk about him .

I posted another 'oilfield story' yesterday . I'm here to present a rather abstract comparison to a piece of drilling rig equipment and eternal salvation . That ought to create some interest/curiosity ?

I stated I like working the derrick the most , here is a derrick man on the job running 4 1/2 drill pipe back in the hole . His driller has faith in him because he is running fast . If he misses a stand the driller might not get stopped and "crown out" meaning hitting the crown sheaves which could cause the whole she bang to crater , falling to the floor . .....It's not a good deal , with the line whipping through the blocks the derrick man ain't looking good and no place to go .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS8ZVk-i77k

Always an amazing view from up in a derrick , use to climb up there and eat lunch , you can lay down on the finger rack and watch the clouds moving . Feels like the rig is moving instead of the clouds !

[Boaz]

This is how fast a blowout can happen .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYTO_0_0ReQ

This is just a workover rig blowing out (small rig) . The cable looking twisting stuff blowing out is the pipe that was downhole .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqpEXy0frE

When you have a blowout the derrick man can't get down by climbing the ladder down or riding the blocks down . There ain't NO way out except the Geronimo way .

[Boaz]

This is a Geronimo . They make it look easy . All the ones I had in the derrick were beat up , rusty pieces of junk . lol , there were no 'safety' laws to speak of back then.

http://roughneckcity.com/roughneck-city/youtube/91/Geronimo%20Training%20Video

[Boaz]

They are not that easy to use . One small wicker in the line will stop it dead , you can't hold on . This guy didn't make it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWF6n5BbZaE

[Boaz]

The derrick men kept up the Geromino, we really didn't want the 'floor' hands maintaining it . 2 grease zerks , a bar of soft lead was attached inside to the brake handle . One bar of lead for one ride down , only one ride per bar . During rig up the lazy hands would guy it to a tree or stump that was handy ...... you might think about that a couple of seconds . It's like a really fast zip line into the ground . I rode a few down for fun but even perfect circumstances require caution . lol , when your young there ain't much caution .
It was your only escape when the end was inevitable , it was the only thing between you and death . You got one chance ....no more . If you didn't keep it up it would fail you when needed , you would die in a tower of fire .

[Boaz]

So . How is your relationship with GOD these days ? GOD and a Geronimo are kind of alike .GOD provides a way to save yourself , he requires little in return . For faith and belief in the one true living GOD you get one free ride to salvation and eternal life with none other than Jesus Christ himself . Requirements and maintenance are minimal .......reward is beyond anything you could compare it to in this life .

[Blackwater]

Wow! Thanks, Boaz. Most have no clue what you guys who keep our gas and fuel oil tanks filled do for us. Or our firemen, linemen, and many other unsung folks. They don't pay the wages they do for nothing! It'd be impossible to find folks who'll do what you guys did now, but offer enough money, and like you say, some of the more adventurous WILL give it a try, just to see if they can pull it off. It's said a young man sleeps with his dreams, and an old man with his conscience. Lot of truth in that. It's good that we have such great guys as you and Derryl and so many others who have done these mighty things for us and for themselves. God bless you and all the rest.

I've only done some water well drilling, but that's a LOT smaller scale, but I know enough to know at least a few of the dangers, mostly due to scale. It's really interesting work, too. One of the things that always fascinated me was drilling down 4-500' and STILL catching bits of shark's teeth even at that depth! If we live on a "young earth," how'd it get THAT deep? And Roger, my FIL's only real helper, was a man of little real education, but my FIL took the time to teach him some of what he knew, and Roger became a very interesting and knowledgeable fellow to talk to while the drill was spinning and there wasn't much to do but keep an eye on everything. He was mostly quiet, unless and until he got to know and trust you, but he was truly an amazing fellow. And possessed of one of the biggest hearts I've ever known. He and my FIL had a relationship like few will ever know or even see. My FIL is the only man Roger ever worked for in his whole life, from the time he was 13 when my FIL took him under his wing, because he insisted he could do the job. And he always did, too. They're both gone now, and I suspect, having a great time keeping the water flowing up in Heaven? That's the way I like to think of them, anyway.

And now, if we don't keep the oil flowing, as so many seem to be determined to do, we WILL, most certainly, fall as a nation. It takes energy to create and maintain what we do, and what we need to stay safe in our high tech world.

Does anyone else pine for the "bad old days" when life and people were so much simpler and tasty?

[Preacher Jim]

Great message Boaz

[w5pv]

A little humorous antidote,When in jump school at Fort Bragg I jumped out of the mock tower and hollered Geronimo the DI had me to run several times around the area and holler Geronimo at every corner. No one else made an udder coming out of the tower.

[rancher1913]

never worked that spot, but one crew we would help sometimes could do that and when the derrick man missed he would get razzed to no end. the driller always stopped or the kick out would engage before it ever hit the top. I worked the motor for assembling and disassembling when I would help them and that was enough, when the driller whipped that back from coupling a section it took all I had to stop it from bouncing of the side of the tower.

always found the snubber to be interesting to watch and I always thought that was the most dangerous job, one wrong move and drill stems go shooting all over. when ever we were on a job with a snubber in operation our super always kept a careful watch on us and would tell stories of the pipe shooting out of the casing like spaghetti and falling all over a job site.

did see a crane holding a coil tubing motor unit almost flip over. normally the crane just supports the motor unit which pushes and pulls the pipe, the pipe was stuck in the hole and the motor unit could not budge it. crane operator was at max pull when the pipe came unstuck and the whole motor unit jumped up and almost hit the end of the stick on the crane, the pressure release caused the stick to act like a whip. when mitch got down from the operator platform he was white as a ghost.

[Boaz]

In my country , in my day the rigs were hobbled up junk . Late 60's oil was cheaper bought in the Mideast . Domestic production was down , drilling was down . lot of dead time between wells . Good money when you had a job , starve in between . You went from rig to rig trying to stay working . You gained a lot of experience quickly with different equipment and crews . You had to move the rig , drive the rig up trucks , learn to weld , work on equipment . Everything was done on the cheap . No casing crews , no nipple up service , 3 to 4 man crews , 7 days a week , take off and you were fired . I worked with drillers and old hands that had broke in on steam rigs . No 'safety' laws or company rules , most didn't own a hardhat . We wore cowboy boots and welding caps (you could wash the welding caps). Open chain guards , no safety devices , everything done by hand and eye . If you were tripping pipe you didn't even stop for lunch . We hand layed water line , 23/8 upset tubing for up to 3 miles using a lazy stick , 2 24's and crooked handle chain tongs , when it got freezing you broke it in the low spots to drain it . You burned cottonseed hulls soaked in diesel to keep the shale shaker or water lines on the rig from freezing . Kept a fire burning in a 55 gal barrel under the draw works to keep the hydromantic and drum breaks thawed . Saw a lot of men hurt , a few killed .

[rancher1913]

now a days they have lifts on the stem trailers that lift and push the stems up to the platform for hook up, what ever is the world comming too.[smilie=l:

[Boaz]

Last rig I worked derricks on I hired out to a young driller that had spent about a year in the patch . He had never been in the derrick , went to 'drillers school' in OK City . They were bit trippin the second day I worked , was a Wilson double scope up portable . I walked out on the floor and told him to lower the blocks so he could take me up on the elevators . He said that was forbidden , Just told him I WAS NOT going to climb it .....too stupid ! He kept saying it was too dangerous . Had to tell and show him what to do , he did it .....we all survived . LOL
Finished that hole bout 2 weeks later and moved location . Daylights had spudded in and evening tire set surface . We were working mourning tire , suppost to slip the drilling line and hook up the flow line and shaker . Get the collars ready to drill out from under surface when the cement set. The pusher was there when we came on tire and he lined the driller out . Everything the pusher said do my driller said ...WE"LL GETER BOSS !! I was putting my work clothes and boots on . After the pusher left the driller turned around to me and said ...Do you know how to slip the drilling line . I just stared at him and said ....You don't know how ? He smiled and said ..NO ! But I knew you would ! I laughed a long time over that .

[rancher1913]

we were on standby at a 12 well pad that was being fracked and they were having all kinds of problems with sanding out and losing guns so they wanted us to be there instead of waiting for a rig. we had to be ready to rig up and drill within 3 hours and we knew we had about 6 hours from the time they said they might need us to when they really did, so we spent the better part of a month goofing off on the clock with full bonuses. we went bowling, shooting, played pool, you name it. the shift opposite us had to rig up 3 or 4 times but we only rigged up once in over a month and that one time we were so bored that we took it as a challenge to see how quick we could rigup, from moving equipment into place to drilling was 45 minutes, that was a company record. we cheated a little because the opposite shift was just coming on so we had 2 crews on one unit which made hauling iron a lot easier. if it was not for the BOP we could have been quicker, had a heck of a time getting it to mate to the well head and unlike your rigs were the BOP is below you and easy to get to our went on top of the well and set about 15 feet in the air, so it was hard to work on.

[Boaz]

It has changed . It has changed . I see the digital consoles , safety devices , fail safe systems . We flew by the seat of our pants . Only 'high tech' instrument was a weight indicator on the bit/drill string . Experience was key , no tech . Seems experience takes a back seat now , reliance on tech is the norm . ?

[rancher1913]

we did a cement job for a rig like you talk about, held together by bailing wire and duct tape litterly. everything creaked and groaned and they used sledge hammers to get things to move, could not tell what color the rig was because it had 3 inches of dirt and oil all over it.

our coil tubing rigs had computer screens out the wazoo, we could see the fluid pressure, weight of the drill stem, travel of bit, well pressure, flow back pressure, fluid temp, and a few others all in real time. and if we were cought working over 3 foot off the ground, we had to have safety rails or a fall lanyard. sometimes I think we are being so safe as to be unsafe. if we were grinding we had to have safety glasses as well as a face shield and it was next to impossible to see what you were doing.

got to be some more oil patch stories out there, anybody else got one. did you ever encounter any poison gas while drilling boaz?

[Pine Baron]

It's changed all over now, way too much reliance on the readout and programming the chip. Sad, us old timers could just look, listen and "feel" what to do. Lost art.

[Blackwater]

It's probably HAD to change. Think about it. Who among the young do you see these days who really appreciates and knows the value of "experience?" Not many! They've long been taught that everything should be easy and "safe." PC has penetrated so deeply into so many parts of our lives, and weakened us as a people, that it's a wonder they still drill at all! And warfare? We have some really awesome folks volunteering for the military now, but our "militia?" It hardly exists at all any more, with exceptions here and there, of course.

The Japs refused to invade our mainland mostly because Yamamoto told them if they invaded, "there'd be a sniper behind every blade of grass." Obviously he'd seen some good ol' boys at practice, and been impressed by their shooting. And what do we have now that is improved, that hasn't been "improved" by technology and an obsession with "safety?" Good, brave and competent men are, I think, MUCH harder to find nowadays than even when I was coming up.

I think the reason is, that the easier you make things, and the safer it is, the more we take it all for granted. But this nation wasn't built by that sort of thinking. It was built by men who knew the risks, and took the option anyway, and just learned the ropes and HOW to "be careful." Those are the same folks who gave us the old adage that "the price of Freedom is Eternal vigilance." Now, folks scoff at that, and seem to think that because it's called a "right" on a piece of paper, it's "guaranteed." What a wishful thought THAT is!!!

Good men have always looked danger squarely in the eye, and just handled it, and become its master. Then, when they've made it safe for all the "good people," those last flow in like water from a flowing spring! But NOT until the REAL earners of our country have "made it safe" for them. And once they do, they like to bring their illusions and pretensions with them, and try to institute their version of "civilization." And it's always contrived and pretentious. I think that's why I like the river and the woods and the wilderness so much. No pretentiousness out there! If you run into something that can kill or eat you, you'd BETTER have prepared for that eventuality ahead of time, or you just might not get back to that "safe" civilization like you thought, or certainly not in the condition you had planned on! A man can actually hear God out there. Always has been that way. I really believe that's what the old Mountain Men of so long ago went looking for - just God, and some peace. And even they had their problems with the land, weather and hostiles of all sorts. But they loved it, and those who knew the life, always longed for it again when they got too old and infirm to handle its rigors.

The roughnecks I've known have been VERY self-reliant, and if they have been able to humble themselves enough, have made really great Christians. It's not very "natural" for self-reliant men to do that, but it's still very much human to do so. I think we're all born with an innate sense that there's something a lot bigger than us "out there." Some just get tired of looking and make up their own way. Once folks like that come to Light, though, they can make some of our very best Christians. Just like C. S. Lewis, once an atheist intent on proving Christianity false, became one of its greatest defenders, and Saul became Paul, etc., etc. The list may never end.

In my experience, it's the guys who know whereof they speak from PERSONAL experience, that are the most believable and poignant representatives of the Grace of God. One of the best sermons I ever heard as a young believer was preached by an ex-moonshiner in overalls at a revival we had. I was anxious to go every night, and that was really kind'a unusual for me back then, when most sermons were just rehashes of the same ol' same ol'. This was back when most Baptist preachers in the area weren't very well educated, NOR trained in real seminaries, at least in this locale. There were exceptions, but even when we found a great one, we stuck with our little country church because of the folks there. It was a really loving group.

I miss the kind of folks that made up the roughnecks, drillers, etc. who have meant so very much to the country and ALL of us. They're getting rarer and rarer, as the "smart" folks choose the easier, safer routes, and think they've been "wise." Only a tough people can hold onto their freedoms and religion! We need to remember that!

[Boaz]

Self-reliant and independent ?

[Blackwater]

Yep. To a fault! And I love guys like that. It's always been fascinating to me how folks who've worked in dangerous professions for a time always look back on those days with great joy, and the kind of honest pride that's tempered well by a strong sense of humility, that's due someone who challenges danger, and has the Lord take care of them and keep them whole. One is never quite so close to God as when he's in the presence of danger! I think it's a simply acknowledgement and appreciation of what God did to help them survive the dangers. They have a heavy tendency to be some of the finest men I know. How could anyone not respect and honor men like this?