Well Site EAW-37 update

After conducting an environmental evaluation of the Minyon property on Joyce Road, Chesapeake has decided to move the proposed EAW-37 well site south to our property. Jim Irre and Tom Meeks of Greenway Engineering were on our property today marking wetland areas on the property prior to a survey of the proposed well site. The proposed name for this well site is "EASTHILL" ("BEEBE" was taken by the Clark Beebe site). Along with the "EASTHILL" (EAW-37) well site, Chesapeake is also looking at a proposed well site, EAW-40, on our West Hill property. The proposed site name for EAW-40 is "WESTHILL". If both sites are selected we will have well sites "EASTHILL" and "WESTHILL".

After 21 years, Iowans get their pen pal

The Omaha World-Herald newspaper ran the following story of our son Chuck on the front page of the paper today.

Twenty one years ago two sisters, 11 and 15, from Halbur, Iowa were looking for a friend from a far-off land. So the sisters dropped the bottle into the West Nishnabotna River, figuring that it might wind its way to the Missouri River, then the Mississippi River and finally the ocean.

This spring, our son Chuck Beebe of Mineola, Iowa, and a friend spotted a bottle in a pile of debris on his property along the West Nishnabotna river in Iowa. The bottle had only traveled 80 miles in 21 years.

Chuck deciphered what he could of the weathered message, boxed it up and sent it back to Jody (Mescher) Geest and Kelly Mescher. Now, after 21 years, they finally have their pen pal.

Check out the full story at: http://www.omaha.com/article/20100625/NEWS01/706259901#after-21-years-iowans-get-their-pen-pal

Turkey Nest

Since we travel back and forth on Joyce Road a lot to our different properties we've been asked several times this spring if we've seen any young turkey poults (chicks). Last Sunday I saw a half dozen hen turkeys in Jason's fields, but no poults. I may have the answer now. The hens are still sitting on their nests.

While I was mowing the small fields behind our house yesterday, I kicked a hen off her nest and missed the nest by inches with the tractor tire. I returned this morning to check on the nest and found the hen had returned. In the following picture, the nest is at the base of the tree on the right and the hen turkey is on the left, just taking off, wings raised.


The following photo shows the nest with 14 eggs in it.

Skunks

Within the past week several skunks have been seen near our barn and cabin. The following photo was taken this evening in the hay field near our barn and a mother skunk with 5 little ones crossed the cabin road a couple of days ago.

EAW-37 Environmental Evaluation

A team from Greenway Engineering was in the neighborhood today conducting an environmental evaluation of Chesapeake's proposed drill site EAW-37.


The Greenway Engineering team (Stephen White on left and Tom Meeks in photo) was checking soil samples and looking for environmental issues, such as wetlands, on the proposed gas well site.

Making Hay

With warm. dry weather, Jason was able to start making hay at our farm property.


So far the weather has been much dryer this year compared to last year.

Feeding Time

We have been doing some work on our barn for the past couple of weeks and have a House Wren family (Troglodytes aedon) nesting in one of the barn supports.


As we worked on the barn both of the parents were contently supplying food to the young birds. If we were working near the nest, the birds would chirp until we moved away from the nest.



Once the food was delivered, the adult was off for another meal.

Claverack Mapping Project

Charlie West (Davey Resource Group) was in the neighborhood gathering data for Claverack's GPS mapping project. This project will map every pole, transformer and related pieces of electrical equipment on Claverack's electric system. For more information on Claverack's GPS mapping project, click here.

EAW-37

Mark Reimers and a team from Chesapeake Energy were in the neighborhood on Monday to look at sites for a new gas well. This is one of the first steps in the well site selection process and additional reviews of the site will follow. The Chesapeake well ID is EAW37 and is located on the Richard Minyon property, on the east side of Joyce Road, across from Gordon and Barb Secor.



Click here to check out a Google Map of other gas well sites in the Rome area.

Out and About in the Neighborhood

It was a busy photo day in the neighborhood. Early in the morning I checked the Killdeer nest at the cabin and found a new, fourth egg in the nest. The little nest is looking crowded.



We worked on the gardens most of the day and around 6:00PM headed to the cabin to sit by the pond and relax. Within 20 feet of the park bench at the pond, a turtle was laying eggs in the rock hard dirt.



The many frogs at the pond are always fun to watch and listen to and a couple of the frogs were kind enough to pose for a picture.





After listening to the frogs and watching a few deer we headed to the barn to pickup some supplies for the gardens at the house. As we drove by Steve and Jan's driveway we could see a doe and a small fawn in the hay field. The doe ran across the field and headed for our field on the other side of Joyce Road. The fawn also ran but was unable to keep sight of the doe in the high grass. The fawn ran back to Steve's driveway and walked to Joyce Road where it stood near Steve's mailbox and looked for mom.


After a couple of minutes the fawn headed north on Joyce Road toward Brian's garage and into the field.



We continued on to the driveway for the barn where the lupins were in full bloom.



At the barn we loaded our supplies and watched a double rainbow.