WorldWide Drilling Resource

26 JANUARY 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Through the Back Door! by Jim Kuebelbeck Chicken Barn Part 3 I told him to call me that evening, which he did. When I saw his number register on the caller ID, I almost didn’t want to answer. “Jim,” he said, “We don’t have any water.” This time they hit bedrock at less than 50 feet. “What am I going to do? The barn is up and everything is ready for the chickens to be delivered. What can I do?” Once again, I asked if the drilling contractors were absolutely sure they hit bedrock, because in our previous work in the area, bedrock had never been encountered at such a shallow depth. He asked how he should know since he wasn’t a well drilling contractor! I asked if the crew was still on-site, and he told me the drilling rig was still set up over the third hole, and they were asking him what they should do next. A situation like this had never hap- pened to us before. Not really knowing what to say, I told him as long as the drilling rig was still set up over the third site, to tell the drill crew to keep drilling. He said he had asked them to do that, but they told him it would be a waste of time and money because they hit the same kind of bedrock as in the previous holes, and it made no sense to continue drilling. I told him in his present situation he had nothing to lose by drilling some feet into the bedrock to see if it might be the type of rock that might contain enough fractures which might possibly produce a sufficient amount of water. He told me he would go out and tell the crew to continue drilling, but because it was getting dark, he was sure they wouldn’t drill again until the next morn- ing. Trying not to lose any sleep that night was truly an effort in futility. The dreaded call came later the next afternoon. The first words were, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” They had a well! The drill went through what they thought was bedrock, and after drilling only a few feet of rock ledge, they en- countered the nicest sand and gravel which continued on down for the next 40 or 50 feet. They test pumped it, and said the well will produce at least 50 or more gallons per minute. The owner was excited. He said, “This is awesome! I don’t know how to thank you. With that kind of a water supply, we’re now going to trench it back to our house also, because we’ve always had to ration water usage in the house ever since we’ve lived here! Now we wish we would have continued drilling on the first site, which you thought might be the best, but we now have more water than we’ll ever need anyway, so we couldn’t be happier. Thanks again for everything, and you can bet we’ll be telling all of our neighbors about how you helped us.” The statements and comments in this article are my own and are based on information and references believed to be true and factual. If you have any questions or comments, please forward them to me in care of WWDR . Jim michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Focus on ISEE The 41 st Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique, presented by the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE), is February 1-4, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The 2015 program will showcase exhibits of the latest products and serv- ices, and explain advances in explosives during the many technical sessions, plus there is a fact-filled poster session and other educational workshops. Prior to the conference, the Blasters Training Seminar and the 13 th Annual Sporting Clays Shoot are both set for Saturday, January 31. The blasting conference registra- tion opens Sunday at 7:30 a.m., and the Blasters R Us Video Roundup is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The exhibits open at 1:00, with a gala welcome reception in the hall at 3:30. Look for WWDR . Monday has technical sessions, trade show displays, lunch in the exhibit hall, then the Blaster Forum Poster Session and reception at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday includes section and mem- bership meetings, technical sessions, and exhibits with lunch, followed by the annual banquet starting at 6:00 p.m. Be prepared, there are great items and industry memorabilia up for auction to benefit the education foundation! The once-a-year event concludes at noon on Wednesday. For the full schedule, visit www.isee.org The WWDR camera caught the Sandvik Team during last year’s ISEE Conference.