Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Fall Round Up
Monday, August 15, 2011
August Update and a newTestimonial
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Early Summer ? Update
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
AB and then BC
Monday, May 9, 2011
May 9th Update
Saturday, April 23, 2011
2010 Testimonial Nanton, AB
Subject: Re: Water Wells
2010 Madden, AB Testimonial
Jens Stemo
Spring ? Update
Monday, April 4, 2011
Spring Post (Late)
No Question we have been neglecting our blog for the last bit as we have been moving and organizing for the last couple of months as we consolidate to one place from
We had received a new testimonial from “drill-behinds” for 2011 which we wanted up then but have included now. A few more have come since but computer time and connection to the Internet was limited till now but we will get them up in the next week or so. Here’s the first from our season opener last year.
Needless to say there is nothing we like more than a satisfied client and we really appreciate when they take the time to provide us with a brief note to let us know. We take pride in sharing but don't post the personal info for the clients privacy. For more details just give us a call on our toll-free.
Book early and avoid mileage surcharges as we already have loops that will be planned for Edmonton North, the Okanagan,
Enjoy the Spring !
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
With the fall ending up with a bit of a rush on fall bookings it was a great end to the year and they were mostly completed before the snow hit. We would have liked to complete one more follow up survey, and one more late booking, but the snow and cold came and then pretty much stayed leaving 2 sites undone. Though we were hoping to get them done if it warmed enough, that just didn’t happen this year.
Though the surveys stopped, the “Busy” didn’t. We still had some items and equipment to get from MB after the sale of our property there so that kept us running for a bit with moving it here, and getting it into temporary storage. That was followed by an offer on our place in Calgary which meant we could now go looking for the place we wanted in the country. The looking was and is well underway and in the meantime we need to get packing things here as the buyer wants a pretty quick possession. The “Busy” will remain a few more weeks but we feel pretty confident we can be fully settled before the start of next survey season.
Though we haven’t completed a full review of the year we already know this is the best year ever with a better than a 90% success rate for hitting water on the drill behinds we know of in Alberta for 2010. We will be working on the results on the later drill behinds thru the winter and will post the results of on the blog sometime before spring along with new “blogged” testimonials. In the meantime if you need references we have lots of happy clients. Just give us a call.
Bookings for 2011 spring and summer are already higher now then they were last year in March. It appears the rural property development is picking up again as well as some of the spring work booked so far is for acreage sub divisions. Work on new acreages was almost non existent last year. All in all we are pretty excited for the new year as the water well drillers referrals continued to grow significantly this last year particularly from the “tough to find water” areas where they have followed dry holes on a property with success after our surveys. They continue to come. All good, Great really, as to us there is nothing better then getting our clients the water they need and we know the drillers feel the same.
On the pricing side? Our accountants are far enough along on our last year that they are already suggesting we may need to adjust our fees on surveys further away from home, particularly warning of the impact gas prices may have if they go where the experts say they might. We went thru that a couple of years ago when diesel went well over a dollar and stayed there for some time. It hurt to say the least. On their advice even if fuel remains the same we will need to adjust the way we charge on some of the more distant surveys particularly after the spring surveys, even more so if fuel prices rocket.
At this point it would be our intent to stay with prices as they were thru the first round of spring bookings when we have enough surveys in most areas that we can plan out initial routes economically thru each of the provinces. After that, likely by the end of May or early June it will just depend on the amount of bookings in a given area and the advance notice we receive on whether or not we need to add surcharges. Best to book way early. When we can cross a province and do 6-8 jobs on a loop the economy is just way better. BC clients have become pretty aware of this and will often book 6 months in advance. We already have a spring loop there that will let us hold 2010 price for those clients. It helps us and will help you a lot. We encourage you all to book as early as possible.
We will be posting thru the winter so keep checking in.
Happy New Year !
Sunday, October 3, 2010
October 3, 2010 Survey Update
As the fall set in the last couple of years we used to get bookings often just after we left an BC or AB while still in SK on the way back to MB trying to complete the last ones there before it got really cold. The fall loop’s would often take 2-3 weeks. With more bookings on the way back we would then try and get back west though with some surveys we ended up simply not getting back to an area needing to push the survey till spring.
That was then. Now with being in AB full time we are much more centralized and no question, its making for better logistics giving us much quicker response times then when we were based in MB. The rush is not what it was or at least seemed because we are closer to home with the bulk of our work.
Fall looked like it was nearing the end there for a bit a couple of weeks ago though as we drove through snow coming out of Williams Lake, BC. Thankfully it was just a warning shot from Old Man winter. However it did make us get the winter tires ordered so they were in stock. The snow is not so bad for us till it gets deep (and it can be moved) but it’s the frost getting deeper that creates the problems making it more difficult or finally when it gets to deep just hard to work in particularly if it freezes up wet. Pending weather we could easily be working till late November in some areas.
We are also already taking bookings for 2011. It’s never to early to give us a head’s up of interest in a survey particularly in more distant locations like Fort St. John, Williams lake or Vancouver Island. Once on the list in an area we simply call and check if we are heading your way if you are ready and you avoid the extra charges which can at times add 20-30% to the cost of the survey if you are the only one in the area. The first loops of the year we get to most areas in western Canada avoiding surcharges with the number of bookings we have at that time, but after the initial rounds in May and June we do occasionally find we need to add mileage surcharges for more remote areas just because of the cost and time to travel for single surveys. Early is better..
Monday, September 13, 2010
On the way to BC
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Mid- August Update
As you can tell by our less than frequent entry’s in the blog, life has been a little busy keeping up with surveys and with the decision early this year to centralize in Alberta. Having sold our MB property we moved most everything to Alberta these last weeks and are now preparing for one more move from the city house to a country home south of Calgary in the months ahead. Thankfully that’s mostly done for now and we will have a bit of a lull on that side letting us focus on finding water in the weeks ahead as the fall rush gets underway. That said it will all be worth it as we are already experiencing better logistics getting back home a little more frequently with the loops starting from and returning to Calgary.
We have been to BC, to MB and SK twice, and now back in Alberta since our last entry. We will work here the next couple of weeks and then start another loop to SK, and then to BC. For BC clients anyone interested in a survey this year should book soon so we can schedule. We expect to be in BC well over a week, maybe 2 once we leave for there and it could well be the last loop this fall pending the arrival of freeze-up. We expect to head there about the 2nd week of September. For SK we expect we will be doing 2 and maybe 3 loops, likely 2 in the south and one to the N and NW with a jump into MB on both the south and North loops before the end of the season.
Maximize your investment return with higher yield and avoid dry holes! Call us Before You drill!
Monday, July 12, 2010
With all the flooding in SK "Drought still the enemy"
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Real+enemy+drought/3249401/story.html
Friday, July 2, 2010
July 1 Update -
It is just really great when you get a call and a driller calls and says “Did you hear the good news?” followed by “Don’t know how you did it, but it worked! This guy has tried for years for a decent well and finally he’s got one” and then “You can expect us to send you some clients that are in this area and hope you do the same for them”. This was a call last week from another site surveyed in late spring that has that turned out better than we estimated, resulting in over 6 gpm where most wells were somewhat less than half of that. The record for the year is looking great.
We are now thru all but a couple of the early bookings except those that were delayed by our clients, and onto the 2nd and 3rd round in some areas. Being close to home in most of southern AB we can keep pretty current here. We expect to head east into SK/MB next week, back to AB and than into BC about the 3rd or forth week. August tends to be not quite as busy though we expect we will need another week at least in S.BC later in the month and another one into N. BC likely late August or early September. Though we hope not, by that time it can become the last loops in BC as with harvest coming off by this time and the surveys pre-booked for after the crop is off it usually makes for a busy September and October. All the rain in the east may complicate things and slow them somewhat but at some point getting everything done will just depend on when winter sets in. Its just July …did I say Winter?
Thursday, May 27, 2010
SNOW IN CALGARY
Bunch of Snow in Calgary today and in a way thankful for the weather as it provided some unexpected office time. We have been working steady, and had 5 successful drill behinds already this spring 4 out of 5 turning out better than expected and one on the mark. May has taken us East to MB, back thru SK to AB for a bit , into southern BC, Edmonton this week and the west side of SK and right now back in Calgary getting caught up on reports. The next day or 2 (if we can drive the roads) we’ll pull out for Manitoba and be there into June. The route will be SK to get back, a couple in AB, into Northern AB and BC and than likely a loop back thru southern BC again near the end of June.
As far as scheduling we are pretty current completing more than we thought we could get done by this time with the early April start and that includes some pick-up surveys on our routes. We had hoped to get a trip to Northern AB and BC but a few rain outs held us up getting back to AB and than one BC job delayed which meant additional mileage charges for the other surveys to get done there so we delayed to do them all together in June keeping it cheaper for everyone. Otherwise the balance of bookings across the West weren’t expecting us much before the end of June so all working out pretty decent and right on time
We keep advising everyone in distant areas to give us as much advance notice as they can to avoid the extra charges. On the past BC loop we did 6 jobs and 4 had booked for this spring last fall which gave us plenty of notice. We hadn’t even left there and we already had 3 booked for the next BC loop. The main areas in the south are no problem and most of the time we are less than 2-3 weeks out in most areas though at times we can be there in days if we happen to be going right by. In more remote areas it is tougher though and there are areas we will only get too once a year where we can group enough jobs to avoid the extra charges. After that on remote and rush jobs we have no option but to surcharge as when we have to drive a day in, and a day back, its hard to cover that cost with just 1 or 2 surveys. Book early ..it helps us both.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
April 29th Wet is Good
One could complain about the snow in AB but than we look back at the start of the 2009 season at the beginning of May and are just happy to have started as early as we did this year. We are pretty much where we would have been at the end of May in completed surveys and even have results from a successful drill behind for one of the first clients this year that turned out much better than expected. We also know the moisture is needed badly in a lot of the West and will be great for the farmers.
We worked into MB last week and were to complete one more survey here and than head into SK this week. With the amount of rain in the forecast we were looking at the radar map early this morning, and after checking with our scheduled clients in MB and SK we made the decision to hole up for a day or 2. As a big part of our work is off-site we decided to get caught up on paperwork, pretty sure it would be more productive than waiting on sites for rain to stop the next couple of days. The radar track looks like all the sites we are headed to will be in rain from MB thru SK and SNOW in AB for the next 2-3 days so it’s pretty hard to skirt around it and try and get any work done. Hopefully we can get started over the weekend and get into SK early next week. This may put the BC loop a couple of weeks away yet but still when we thought we would get there earlier in the year before getting the early start we did.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Alberta “GROWING FORWARD”- Water Management Program
In a quick review of the application process for water development assistance, there are sure to be a few comments of “looks like too much paperwork” but in my opinion the program and application process is a step in the right direction. It will in some cases be the catalyst for producers to complete an assessment of what may be their operations most important resource. Alberta’s Water Management Program shows solid effort by the ARD (AB Agriculture and Rural Development) to target funding not just to establish a new water source, but to also incorporate the development of a Water Management Plan that will help assure long term sustainability of the new and existing water sources, the environment, and help facilitate plans for future growth and development of the farming operation. We feel that through the application process, farmers and agri-business, will get a more accurate understanding, or at the very least, additional insight as to the part water resources play in their farming operation and it’s future sustainability.
The link to Alberta’s Growing Forward Water Management Program is below. The blue column on the right of the web page provides the links to other Growing Forward Programs currently available.
http://www.growingforward.alberta.ca/growingforward/program_WaterManagement.htm
