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.

Great Blue Heron

It was a beautiful warm fall day and I found this Great Blue Heron sunning its self at the pond by the cabin.

Marking the pipeline route

A team from Larson Design Group (LDG) was in the neighborhood today placing stakes for the location of the Wilmot pipeline route. Ryan Keichner of LDG is show with one of the marker stakes.

Wesauking Pipeline

Stephen Caruana and Greg Colucci of Kleinfelder were in the neighborhood today conducting an environmental evaluation of the proposed Wesauking gas pipeline. This is a gathering pipeline for transporting gas from different Chesapeake gas wells and the current proposed route will connect to the Wilmot pipeline on our cabin property.

Seismic Survey

Workers from Geokinetics were in the neighborhood today doing survey work prior to the drilling/cable laying for a seismic survey. Last year Geokinetics did a seismic survey of the southern part of Bradford County and terminated half way up Joyce road. This year northern Bradford County will be surveyed and include an overlap of some areas surveyed last year.

Fall Fox

I went to the cabin property in the evening to watch for deer and spotted some movement in the field behind the pond. As I checked the area with my binoculars I found a fox sneaking through the grass. The fox disappeared into the woods and I continued looking for deer. After 10-15 minutes I detected movement along the edge of the lawn, it was the fox, about 50 feet away.



The fox walked into the high grass and re-appeared in the field behind the pond and hunted in the field for the next 20 minutes.