It's Saturday And Location Doesn't Know It. Neither Do You.

You lost track of what day it was somewhere around day 9 of the hitch.

Somebody's phone lit up in the doghouse with a picture from the lake. Boat. Cooler. Kids on a tube. You looked at it for about 2 seconds and went back to work.

Because the well doesn't know it's Saturday. The pumps don't know. The crude sitting in the tanks that has to move before Monday sure doesn't know.

What Saturday Looks Like Out Here

Same alarm. Same boots, still wet from yesterday. Same drive in with the sun coming up over pastures where everybody else's Saturday was still asleep.

Pumper on his route since before sunup with a list of wells to touch. Crude hauler on his 4th load by lunch. Frac crew on day 12 of 14 with 2 stages left before dark. Hot oil, vac truck, water haul, the roustabout crew stringing pipe, wireline sitting in the truck waiting on the call that comes at 2 in the morning.

School started back this week. Some of you watched the first day through a phone screen from a man camp. You didn't say much about it. You just got back in the truck.

The Part Nobody Sees

The guy at the lake filled up on the way there this morning. Gas for the truck. Diesel for the boat. He never once thought about the crude that got hauled at 4 a.m. on a Saturday 3 weeks ago so the refinery had something to run.

He doesn't know your name. He doesn't know you gave up this weekend, and last weekend, and most of the rest this year. He just knows the pump worked.

That's fine. You didn't do it for him.

You did it because the check clears, because the crew was counting on you, and because that's who you are when it's Saturday and the iron is still turning.

Sunday's the same. Monday too.

Still Turning Tonight

36 rigs are drilling in North Dakota right now, and not one of them shut down because it was the weekend. The live count and who is running them is on the North Dakota rig count.

Field Report

Right now a hand is pulling into a truck stop with a coffee, a fuel receipt, and a hitch that isn't over yet. He's not asking for a thank you.

But he's earned one.