Pad Construction - Day 2

Unlike yesterday, today started out cold and damp with some snow.

Additional big equipment arrived on site toady.



The access road construction continues to work toward pad site. A solid base of big rock is added to the current driveway to the cabin.






Pipe installed where the new section of the access road turns right off the driveway and crosses the current diversion ditch.



The new access road now crosses the small stream and enters the back field where the well pad will be constructed. Clearing of the brush at the well pad site has started.



Open wide and this won't hurt too much.

Well Pad Construction Begins

The equipment for the JOYCE ROAD well pad construction has started to arrive on site.



The first order of business is to upgrade the cabin driveway to handle the heavy equipment for the well pad construction. An access road will be constructed just uphill from the current diversion ditch that crosses the driveway to the cabin and head southeast to the well pad.



Tree stumps don't stand a chance with this piece of equipment.

What Happened to Spring?

It was only a couple of days ago that the ground was bare and I posted a picture of crocus in bloom... This year's weather continues to follow a pattern of, warm weather, bare ground and then a snow storm. The first full day of Spring arrived on Monday and this morning the ground was covered with fresh snow. With the temperature in the low 30's the snow started melting at daybreak and Mary shoveled the driveway ASAP.


This storm dumped 6 to 8 inches of wet snow over night and more is forecast for the next 24 hours.



The township road crew was out early today and plowed Joyce Road before daybreak so people could get to work.

Spring is just around the corner

The crocus are starting to bloom at Jason and Mary Abell's.

Seismic Survey Pickup

Geokinetics has finished the seismic survey in our area and was picking up their equipment with a helicopter. The following photo shows the helicopter lifting a bag of equipment past Brian and Tish's house.


Another bag of equipment was removed from Harley and Barb's lawn.




As the bags of equipment were collected from around the neighborhood the helicopter delivered them to a staging area at the end of the driveway to our cabin. (Note the overhead power lines)



Bags of equipment in the staging area waiting to be hauled away by trucks.

Another Snow Storm

When will this winter weather end? This Winter we have gotten into a cycle of warm weather followed by a snow storm and the snow is deeper with each storm. Two days ago the ground was almost bare and then , overnight, we get 15 inches of new snow.


The fresh snow looked very nice at Gordon and Barb's...



but it was just more cleanup at Jason's.



I was plowing snow with the front bumper of the Bronco as I made my way to the barn to get the tractor and start moving the white stuff.

Seismic Survey Blast

Geokinetics was in our neighborhood today setting off some explosives in the "shot holes". We had heard some muffled "thuds" in the morning but didn't relate it to the seismic testing until later in the day. While driving past our farm property I noticed two people walking through our field and they set off a charge while I was watching. I should have had the camera ready, the explosion blew dirt 30 feet in the air. I continued to watch several more "shot hole" explosions but most were just little puffs and not much noise. I did get a video of a bigger blast from one explosion. The video was taken from at least 400 yards away with a hand held camera. The video quality isn't great but you can see two people moving in the woods just before the blast.

Water Pipeline

A crew from RETTEW Surveying Services was in the neighborhood today doing survey work for a water pipeline to supply water to the well sites. A GPS base station was set up along Joyce Road near the driveway to our cabin property.

Preparing for the Seismic Survey

Geokinetics Inc. was in the neighborhood again this year preparing for the seismic survey. A helicopter was used to deliver packages of cables to the different locations on our hill. The following photo was taken from Steve's driveway as a package was delivered in his lawn next to Miner's pond.


After the delivery to Steve's lawn, the next package was delivered within 50 feet of where I was standing.



Photo of the cable package.

Drilling Permits

We received copies of the drilling permit applications from Chesapeake today. In the stack of paper were maps showing the different well drilling locations. I was able to get the latitude/longitude for each of the wells and plot them on Google Map.


Here's the link to the Google Map of the JOYCE ROAD well locations.

I have also scanned maps for each of the six well permits and placed the maps on my web site.

• NE 1H map
• NW 4H map
• NW 5H map
• SE 1H map
• SW 4H map
• SW 5H map

I have obtained a copy of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) water permit for the JOYCE ROAD pad and Chesapeake states they are currently only permitting the JOYCE ROAD NW 5H well.

Well Site Construction

Steven Clarke of Chesapeake was at the cabin property this morning with representatives from construction companies bidding on the construction of the JOYCE ROAD well pad and access road. I arrived on site as at least 15 trucks prepared to leave.



I asked Steve on a proposed schedule for the start of construction and he said it would depend on permits but his best guess is sometime in April.

The stake is in the ground

With the cold weather there hasn't been too much to report from the Joyce Road neighborhood until today. While Mary was doing her daily walk to the cabin she met a team from Greenway Engineering leaving the property. The team from Greenway had just completed the surveying for the well pad on our property. As mentioned in an earlier blog posting, we had requested a different location for the well pad on our property and today the new location was staked out.

FYI - The well site name has been changed from EASTHILL to JOYCE ROAD (easier to find on a map).


The well location will be near the center of the property and farther from Joyce Road and neighborhood homes than the earlier location. The following image shows the placement of the well on our property (GPS = 41.845294, -76.330909) with the shaded area showing the well pad placement.



Google Map link

Double Rainbow

Got this picture of a double rainbow from the farm property.

On the road again

We have been out of town for the past couple of weeks on vacation. Check our travel blog for details.

Greek Isles: Venice to Rome

Archaeological Survey

A team from Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc. was on the cabin property today conducting an archaeological survey.


This archaeological survey was conducted along the planned route of the Wilmot pipeline in the areas where the pipeline crosses wetlands.