Sunday Phunnies

Thank you Facebook, I can now farm without going outside, cook without being in my kitchen, feed fish I don’t have & waste an entire day without having a life.
 Unknown

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say “I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER.”.
 William S. Burroughs

Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts, while others come into our lives and make us wanna leave footprints on their face.
 Unknown

Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s hard to get it back in.

May I be excused? My brain is full.

Why go to college? There’s Google.
This girl rang me up one time, she says “come over, nobody is home”, I went over, no one was home!

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
 Robert Frost

When I was born … the doctor came out to the waiting room and said to my father … I’m very sorry. We did everything we could … but he pulled through.
 Rodney Dangerfield

Nothing improves the memory more than trying to forget.
 Unknown

Sunday Phunnies

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working with one.
 Bill Gates

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.
 Peter F. Drucker

Did you ever walk in a room and forget why you walked in? I think that’s how dogs spend their lives.
 Sue Murphy

If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
 Yogi Berra

If it’s sent by ship then it’s a cargo, if it’s sent by road then it’s a shipment.
 Dave Allen

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.
 Carl Gustav Jung

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
 Unknown

Arguing about whether the glass is half full or half empty misses the point, which is this: the bartender cheated you.
 Unknown

Surprise, Surprise

It was a dreary, rainy Friday and we were not very excited about going to work.  Almost no one was expected to be in the office today and most of the field workers were off.  We were looking forward to a long boring day.

Driving in to work we were talking about how slow it would be and all the things we were waiting on from others who would not be in to work until next week.  Then we saw what, at first, appeared to be a horse or a cow in the field.

It is not unusual to see horses or cows up here but it is very unusual to see one alone in the midst of a planted field.  He was walking slowly so as we got a little closer we were able to see him better.  It was a male moose, antlers and all.  

This was my first moose and I was just a bit excited.  All of a sudden our long, dreary day looked brighter.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo (we knew better than to try to get that close) but at least I can now say I have seen a moose in the wild.

Sunday Phunnies

Girls have an unfair advantage over men: If they can’t get what they want by being smart, they can get it by being dumb.
Yul Brynner

I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbor said ‘Are you going to help?’ I said, ‘No, Six should be enough.
Les Dawson

What would men be without women? Scarce, sir … mighty scarce.
Mark Twain

They’ve finally come up with the perfect office computer. If it makes a mistake, it blames another computer.
Milton Berle

A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.
George Carlin

The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.
Yogi Berra

It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road.

If it weren’t for electricity we’d all be watching television by candlelight.
George Globol

4th of July in North Dakota

We had the 4th off of work and decided to travel to Bismarck for the day.  We had some shopping to do and wanted to eat at Famous Dave's (a great barbque restaurant).

The day started off a bit overcast but quickly cleared up and we had beautiful weather.  The drive takes about 90 minutes and halfway to Bismarck is the city of Washburn.  Washburn is situated on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River.  This is our favorite view on the trip down.

The canola is flowering beautifully all along the way.

We spent the day shopping and I found some shoes which is absolutely amazing.  I hate shoe shopping because I always have such a difficult time finding comfortable shoes but today was the exception.  I found 3 pair of shoes and they are all very comfortable.

We finished our shopping and headed to Famous Dave's for lunch.  We have eaten at this restaurant in Duluth, Fargo and Bismarck and have never been disappointed.  It is always great.

Time to head home and see the gorgeous countryside.  You can see the canola in the background and the wheat in the front.

The Falkirk Mining Company is located on the road to Bismarck.  They produce about 7 million tons of coal a year.  In the distance you can see the heavy equipment the mine uses.

Farming above ground and mining below makes the best use of the land.

Here you can see the coal mining operation in the far background and the canola in the front.

This conveyor carries the coal across the highway to the rail cars.

A little closer look.

Canola has been blooming and I have been anxiously waiting for the flax.  Today my wait was rewarded.

Beautiful blue flowers that look like water from a distance.





And then we arrived home in time to wash a couple loads of clothes before bedtime.  We had a fun and profitable day.  Hope yours was the same.





Visiting the Job Sites

Since we were not at work for the last week we had not visited the job sites so we decided to use Saturday to make the trip west.  This is the canola field right across from our offices and there is quite a difference in the ripeness of this field and the ones we saw just south of here on our way home early in the week.

We were heading out into the real oil patch of our country and housing is a big problem.  Most of the towns out this way are small and do not have available facilities or infrastructure to handle the influx of workers.  These man camps have sprung up to handle the workers.

Each site will be a bit different but they all offer very basic housing for the workers.

There are quite a few of these camps along the main highway.

Another thing that is abundant on the prairie are oil wells.

The oil companies harvest oil from beneath the ground and the farmers grow crops on top.

The first stop was at our Beaver Lodge location.  This site is always precarious in wet weather.  This road is steep, bumpy and gets muddy and slick when wet. Big rigs have been known to slide backwards on it.

 The site itself if not bad as long as it is not wet, then everything turns to slop-known as gumbo.

 We dropped off some paperwork and drove around the new tank they are building.

Then we headed back east and stopped at the next site in Stanley, ND.

The roads around all the sites were nice and hard since we had not had rain in a few days.  The guys were working on a new tank at this site also.

This is a lab building, used for taking and testing samples.

This is a utility building for the maintenance crew on the pipeline.

This is what the finished tanks will look like.

And that is a day in the life of us when we visit the job sites.

Sunday Phunnies

God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Now that I'm 'older' (but refuse to grow up), here's what I've discovered:
I started out with nothing, and still have most of it.

My wild oats have turned into prunes and All Bran.

Finally got my head together; now my body is falling apart.

Funny, I don't remember being absent minded.

All reports are in; life is now officially unfair.

If all is not lost, where is it?

It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.

Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.

I wish the buck stopped here; I sure could use a few.

Kids in the back seat cause accidents. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.

The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you're in the bathroom.

If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.

When I'm finally holding all the cards, why does everyone decide to play chess?

It's not hard to meet expenses ... they're everywhere.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth

These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter. I go somewhere to get something and then wonder what I'm here after.