If we had that blog space going, I would put this there. In the meantime:
Friday morning's field work was to retrace a boundary for a new 80 lot subdivision planned for the southernmost reaches of the Southern Plains. The client did not mention that the property was gated. This is a dedicated right-of-way, but I assume the gates were installed to minimize illegal dumping until the road is actually built. Most of this area was being developed in the mid-1980s. The economy here hit the skids in about 1986 and remained poor or lackluster for the next 15 years.
Acreage in oil production areas usually has at least a few lease roads and I assume most of you are familiar with the different contraptions that allow for multiple locks to be used to allow access by the various parties to the oil production process. In this case, a simple multi-segmented chain sports about 7 different locks.
I identified a distinctive Wilson Bohannan brass padlock on the chain and checked the truck box for a keyring with the corresponding WB mark.
Working for a 60+ year old company with numerous clients in the oilfield and ranching industries, we have certainly acquired a large number of keys. The fact that the client neglected to mention the locked access was not a problem as it took about 6 tries to find the right key. After the project, I cleaned out the truck box of locks and keys and came up with this assortment:
Many of the older master lock keys had the lion logo embossed on them.
The other crew's truck has as many keys as this if not more. The gate now opened, I locked the padlock back to the chain and moved the truck through.
It has been a wet year and this old cotton field is looking pretty verdant. It didn't take me long to shift into 4WD as the sandy trail asserted its lack of support.
The third (northeast) corner was literally under the end of the gate. I removed one barbed wire loop and gave the gate a good shove to get the pole onto the reinforcing bar and level. The files reveal that we set this corner in 1978.
The north adjoiner's house bobbing in a sea of grass. Somewhat new construction and probably painted stucco as opposed to adobe.
There's the northwest corner in there somewhere. Looks like prime snake hiding area. I think I leapt about 3 feet in the air when I stepped into a deep hole hidden in the weeds.
Stan Piper set this cap and reinforcing bar.
Corners recovered, equipment packed and I'm headed back downtown for a sustainable development seminar. Happy to get in and out with only a slight delay and wrap up this field work before the temperature hit 101°.
It is always great to pictures of actual surveying, thanks
I have a similar collection of keys that have been very helpful gaining access to or finding alternate routes of escaping properties that have been unlawfully locked behind you with a different lock.
A properly aged add-a-link has can in handy on other occasions.
that guy....on the fifth to the last picture looks as dumb as a post...but just so long as he holds that antenna steady and over the right point, all is well I guess.
good pictures. Thanks for sharing.
The last time I surveyed in that part of Texas, GPS was not even a dream.
lol
Randy
Cool job and nice pictures,
absolutely not familiar with the multiple locks system but it's a neat solution. We use the oposite lock system for safety reasons in the high voltage posts to secure dangerous situations, obviously each one that enters places his lock on the same unit so no one can switch it on untill everybody has left it.
thanks for sharing,
chr.
Not a bad lick there bud. I have a key ring similar to that one and can get in just about any gate in the county.
Hope you charged the snot out of them. Looks like you were through before dinner.
Once did a lot of surveying work for a small city...
The public works director gave me a copy of what he called "the key to the city"...
I took it and looked him in the eye and said "on TV they are a lot bigger than this"
It did come in quite handy when you needed a restroom or needed to get into the water plant...or sewage treatment plant...
Tom Bryant PLS
Saint Louis MO
Randy: 95% of the time, surveying with GPS is a pleasant dream.
Christ: thanks. I have used lockouts for electric switchgear, but that was a different kind of job - not surveying. I will try to get some pictures of the different multi-lock systems used around here when I get a chance.
Kris: if by dinner you mean lunch, then yes. At 11:35am I was in line for tacos at the Yucca Theater to attend a lunch seminar on sustainable development.
I'll bet you were very heartbroken to only have found a two bit rebar and plastic cap, (just kidding). Around here, we're happy to find anything...