Noobie from North East Texas

[MBDiagMan]

I've wanted a side by side for a long time, but now that the Keystone XL pipeline construction is in full swing I bought an XUV 825i today. I can now stay on top of what is going on and going wrong out there.

I'm a long time motor head, everything from hot rods, to go karts, to four wheeling to dirt bikes to four wheelers to tractors to airplanes. If it has an engine it can gain my interest.

Looks like a nice forum,
Doc

[Deputy347k9]

Doc, "Welcome to the Forum"!! Your were correct when saying "looks like a nice forum". I have learnt so much from other memebers, when a proble came up they were there with answers! I am sure you realize by now we like pictures! Pictures of that new machine near the big oil rigs would be something else.

Again welcome friend.

Larry in NC

[MBDiagMan]

No big oil rigs in this part of the state, but I'll try to get some pictures of it on the pipeline cut.

Doc

[MBDiagMan]

Okay, I got a few pictures. I realized when sorting them this morning, that I don't have a view looking down the length of the pipeline. I will try to get that one next time if the pipe is still above ground. That would seem to be a nice effect.

Doc

162816291630

[jakerator]

Your rig looks good Doc. What is the pipe, 36" or 48" or???

[MBDiagMan]

The pipe is 36". It's the Keystone XL crude line. 1/2" wall thickness transporting a highly corrosive tar sands crude from Canada. Wonder how long it will take to corrode its way through the pipe?

Doc

[jakerator]

I would certainly hope that the engineers have done their due diligence. I read your other post soon after I asked you the diameter of the line.
Take care,
Jake

[MBDiagMan]

I'm sure the engineers have done their work, but when it comes to predicting things 20, 30, 40 or more years out, there could easily be some unknowns. The pipe is not running through those guys little piece of Gods Green Earth, it's running through mine. Even if it were nothing but a hunk of iron that would never have ANYTHING running through it, it's a horrible thing to watch the place that you've put yourself into taking care of for 25 years be torn all to heck.

I like to think that I have no enemies, but if I did, I wouldn't wish a pipeline on the worst of them.

[jakerator]

Amen to that Doc. We have something like 400,000 kms. of pipelines in Alberta which do not include the National ones.
Jake

[jcummins]

I'm sure the engineers have done their work, but when it comes to predicting things 20, 30, 40 or more years out, there could easily be some unknowns. The pipe is not running through those guys little piece of Gods Green Earth, it's running through mine. Even if it were nothing but a hunk of iron that would never have ANYTHING running through it, it's a horrible thing to watch the place that you've put yourself into taking care of for 25 years be torn all to heck.

I like to think that I have no enemies, but if I did, I wouldn't wish a pipeline on the worst of them.

Did they force you to agree to having it come through your property? I would hope you are getting paid good money for it to come through there.

[MBDiagMan]

Yes, the landowner has no choice whatsoever. It's especially bad when it's a FOREIGN company taking your land whether you want to give it up or not. It's a really dirty way that they acquire the land. They start down the line talking to all landowners making a very small offer to see how many suckers they can get from the start. They are not supposed to the threaten them, but they do and lots of people cave in and end up with no protection in their contract.

After that trip and getting as much low hanging fruit as they can, they go down the line again with more threats and upping the ante a little bit. Once they finally get to the real holdouts they take you to a kangaroo commissioners court that is supposed to be three landowners on the commission, sort of like a court of your peers. These are handpicked with lots of input from the pipeline company. It is common for the pipeline company to spend time behind closed doors with these "landowners" before having the hearing in the courtroom. BTW, the "landowners" always consist of people with postage stamp size lots in town. Not what I consider a landowner that understands the caretaking and emotion involved with larger parcels of land.

When it's all said and done, if somewhere in this process you do not accept what they offer, they simply condemn the land they need and give you less than if you had taken the first suckers offer that they made.

I'm sure that there are a few decent people that work as pipeline agents. Unfortunately I've never met one of them. You've never met a bunch of people that will so readily lie and cheat in your entire life.

After dealing with three other pipeline companies plus dealing with the people that operate the one that was here when we bought the place I've learned to deal with them the best I can. I manage to get about as much as can be had from them which is not anything close enough to being worth it.

Are we getting paid good money for it? On the surface some people might think so. But show me someone who thinks that the amount of money that I've gotten is worth it, and I'm quite sure I'll show you someone who has never dealt with a pipeline company strong arming them and ram rodding their way across their land.

Keep in mind that the money paid is a one time payment. They make money on their pipeline as long as they run it, but the landowner has to deal with the headaches of having it under their place all that time and gets nothing more.

As I think I said earlier in this thread, if I had any enemies, I would NOT wish a pipeline on them.

Doc

[MBDiagMan]

Since I got started on my pipeline rant, I'll post a few more Gator pictures that I took last night from different locations on the pipeline:

These show some of the uglier areas of construction. Yes, the place will look like this only temporarily. What pictures can NOT show you is how long it takes to get grass to grow after they're done. The first of these pictures is looking across a county road with an XRay trailer in the background. Where that trailer sets begins what USED TO BE the most beautiful stand of Coastal Bermuda that you could ever imagine. If EVERYTHING goes perfectly with the right weather and conditions, it will take a MINIMUM of five years to see Coastal back in there like it was. You can't seed Coastal. It makes no seed. You have to sprig it. The pipeline company will NOT pay to sprig. They'll scatter a little Rye grass seed and say that they're done.

The pictures also don't show the devastation. In this pipeline project, we lost over 180 trees. Among them were two treasured Burr Oaks that were at LEAST 250 years old and still healthy. In a previous pipeline project they took out what we called "The Pretty Pond." We raised our kids around that pond. My son and I gigged frogs and caught Catfish there. The trees and landscape around it were fabulous. They went through it with no remorse whatsoever and gave us a pittance for it.

What makes the cut a LOT worse is the fact that they are supposed to double ditch. That means taking the top soil out and putting it on one side of the ditch and the clay on the other side. THEN put the clay in the ditch first and the top soil on top. This ain't my first pipeline rodeo and have YET to see them do that.

The first pipeline that came through since we came here was in 1990. It was such a mess that I fed the cattle on the pipeline cut in the Winter time so they could "fertilize" it and stomp around in the hay. I had a mineral trough that I started at one end of the cut and moved a little every day so that it was at the end of the cut by Winters end. I did that for FIVE years before I got it growing grass, THEN sprigged with Coastal. Just about the time I got that going really good, here came another pipeline making their idle promises.

I could go on and on, but I suppose I should stop the rant.

I do want to be clear about pipeline people though. My beef is with the pipeline agents and the people that deal with the landowners. These are the people that are typically SNAKES. The vast majority of the welders and machine operators on these crews are top notch guys that you'd love to have as a friend or neighbor. Too bad that they have to work for snakes.

End of rant.

Doc

[jakerator]

Thanks for the pics Doc. That is too bad, back in the mid ninetys I lost my job and was able to get on with a small pipeline crew running excavator putting in small gas lines. We had to lay out the topsoil on one side of the ditch, then the sub-soil next to it, and then the clay went on the other side.
It is never the same, and how do you ever replace 250 year old trees,... quite simply, you don't.
Take care,
Jake

[MBDiagMan]

I flew about 20 miles of the pipeline Saturday before heading off to my 45th. High School Reunion.

I live about 4 miles South of the Red River. I was told that they have yet to get Oklahoma permits for the Keystone XL. The Transcanada people must be darn confident that they will get all the permits, because they are spending the money to put in the Texas portion now. There is a lady North of me, very near the river who has been a serious hold out. She has been covered in National news quite a bit.

I had not been able to tell until I flew over the pipeline that it goes only about two miles North of my place and no clearing or ANY work of any kind is taking place on her land. Hers is a ranch that has been in her family over 150 years. I hope for her sake they end up going around her, but it's a 99.9999999% shot that they will go through her place. It's really sad to see these people confiscating peoples property and they aren't even a US company.

My Grand Dad, a life long rancher used to say that no one "owned" land. They just buy the right from someone else to use it until the government wants it. I now know just how smart and correct he was.

[MBDiagMan]

1847Latest picture of the dogs and myself. My wife put the housedog in my lap for the picture, but other than that it's a good depiction of life on our place.:BG:

Hairy, the special dog is in the bed. His favorite place.:Ysnd:

[jakerator]

Thanks for the update and pic Doc. Hairy looks quite "at home" back there. I am so envious of you in the short sleeved shirt.
It was -35C. here on Saturday night, the gator won't be getting fired up for a few days. It is supposed to warm up dramatically, even yesterday was only half as cold as Saturday night, but it just does not want to stop snowing.

[jcummins]

Thanks for the update and pic Doc. Hairy looks quite "at home" back there. I am so envious of you in the short sleeved shirt.
It was -35C. here on Saturday night, the gator won't be getting fired up for a few days. It is supposed to warm up dramatically, even yesterday was only half as cold as Saturday night, but it just does not want to stop snowing.

You just sent a shiver up my back.

[MBDiagMan]

We finally got a little cooler weather here last night. There were some REALLY SLIGHT snow flurrys when I was driving in this morning.

Yesterday morning I rolled over to see if the Sun was starting to come up and there was a Grasshopper on the window screen. That's way off even for here in December.