MEMORIES OF SNAKE CREEK

Bobby and Rosie.  I became Ms. B. to everyone on the job.  We had to wear FRs, hard hats, safety vests, safety glasses and steel toes boots (mine are pink and too big for me).  We started the job in September, when the weather was nice and warm, and went on through the winter.  I forgot what the country looked like because we went to work in the dark and went home in the dark.  This was a totally new experience for me, since I have always been in education or some type, but I am glad I did it and it was especially fun working with Bobby, who I have been married to for 42 years.

Troy had three new job sites--Snake Creek, Kane Road, and North East.  Ms. Kelly Portillo was the clerk at North East.  She is originally from Denver, Colorado.

Ms. Karen Morrison is from Ohio, and she was the clerk at Kane Road.

Here the boys are carrying rebar through the sloppy mud at Snake Creek.  Jesus Carillo and Elvin Guardado are in the lead.

The original Snake Creek Crew. Left to Right--Felipe Gonzalez, Jesus Carillo, Miguel Moreno, Luis Mondragon, Dario Alfaro, Raul Alfaro, Fernando Lopez, Alvaro Gonzalez, Gaspar Tejeda, Antioco Lopez, Francisco Bermea, Steven Rychlicki.

Bobby Stanaland, superintendent, with Luis Rosas and Josh Berlingeri.

Shane Gordon, operator.  He is from Texas, and is a great operator.

Tying rebar. Gaspar Tejeda, Josh Belingeri, and Luis Rosas.

Jesus Carillo, crane operator, talking to inspector Rob.

Pedro Lopez, inspector for Exterran.

Left to right is Francisco Vega, Raul Alfaro, Flavio Roman.  This is the first concrete form to be poured at Snake.

 Flavio Roman and Juan Rayas getting things lined up.

Bobby Stanaland and Jesus Carillo out in the mud.

Sidia Cruz took care of the tool trailer and kept the offices as clean as is possible on a construction site.

Dario Alfaro fixing the orange safety fence. 

Tommy Doyal, safety, Thomas Cleveland,  general foreman, Bobby Stanaland, super., Bruce Forward, inspector for Exterran,  Wayne Pierce, superintendent,  making plans.

Building shelves in the conex.  Luis Mondragon, Elvin Guardado, Dario Alfaro (back to us), Mr. Otinez way in the back. 

 Miguel Cazarin, Bobby Stanaland and Dario Alfaro guiding the hooch.

Dario and Alvaro Gonzalez.  Lots of pick and shovel work since this site has live gas lines.

 Gaspar Tejeda hand digging to daylight a live gas line--no trac-hoes allowed here!

 The Lopez boys--Antioco with the shovel and Fernando with the pick.

 Bobby Stanland, Ed Villalobos, Polo Hernandez.

 Bobby Stanaland, Craige Chesser and Wayne Pierce at a Bar -B- Q in the shop.

 Felipe Jimenez, Fernando Lopez, Mr. Ortinez, Thomas Cleveland day-lighting a live line.

 Miguel Cazarin, and Luis Rosas tying rebar.

 Alberto Galvan, Gaspar Tejeda, Don Sibley, Miguel Moreno Cazarin (in background).

Hand digging by orders of Williams.

 Forms that are ready for rebar.

 Building forms at the shop.  This is the beginning of the jobs.

Jack Ussery's Red Dragon.

Jack Ussery from Jayton, Texas.  He ran the shop and did Bar-B-Qs, also made good BBQ sauce.

Alvaro Gonzalez building forms.

Hand digging (required by Williams) to day light lines.  This took at total of 157 man hours to do and a lot of muscle.

The weather was starting to get cool (we thought), so Luis Rosas has his face covered.

Jose Alfaro using the packer.

Setting the forms for the concrete pour.

Luis Mondragon with his back to us, and Luis Rosas in the back directing the operator.

Antioco Lopez giving directions to the trac-hoe operator.

Setting the forms with the trac-hoe.

Getting the forms set before sundown; concrete will arrive in the morning.

Mr. Ortinez, Franisco Bermea and Jeremiah Raub working the rebar.

We uncovered some lines with a hydro-vac truck.  These Badgers are really noisy.

The operator has a hand held device to run the suction.

High pressure water digs the hole while the vacuum sucks the mud out.

This is really dirty work when it rains or the snow melts.

Putting the rebar in the forms.

Bobby Stanaland looking at the progress.

Using a pump truck to pour concrete into the forms.  The guy on the bank has the remote control for the pump.

Bob Bovard bossing and giving directions.

Lil' Wayne Ussery, our runner and truck driver.

Wes Ussery, truck driver.

 Josh Evans entertainer extraordinaire!

 Miss Danielle Arnold--expert at tracking down invoices with $ on them.

 Whitey does the weld mapping, and left us to go to the job South of Big Springs, TX.

 Ms. Wendy Shaffer helped with hydro packages (what ever they are).

 Jesus Carillo, crane operator, and general foreman.

 Tommy Doyal, safety man from Alabama.

 Caught you by surprise, Chuck.  Meet Chuck Rohan, one of the many superintendents.

My sweetheart, Bobby, sent me these on Valentine's Day.  I love you!

 Ms. Sharon Gionti Miller, better known as Sug.  Sug kept us up to date on purchase orders and worked hard calling vendors for invoices with $ on them.  Thanks, Sug.

 Richard Wega is originally from Florida, and he took Tommy Doyal's place as safety man.

 Linda Rohan,  our runner, who would travel far and wide to get materials we needed.

 Linda and Sandra Baker, a young mom who went to work for us during the cold winter.

 Steve Erwin and Tony D'Elia joking around, as usual.

Tony and Beaver.  Beaver is one of the supers, too.

Chris Fitzpatrick, scheduler.  Chris left us to go to work for an engineering firm in New York.

 James Nevada and Cody Arment.

 Haley Rupakus and Cody Arment.

 Mike Kochmer, operator and foremen.

 I took this from the man lift, so I could send it to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children along with the money from the "Cuss Hat."

 Looking at the back of the yard from the man lift.

 Jeff LaCoe took me up in the  lift.

 I just put my crutches in the lift and went up.  It was high and it was fun.

 Brian Arment.

 Beaver.  You can't tell it, but the Beav has a long mohawk, which sparked a new hair cut craze at the job site.

 Tony D'Elia from New York.  He grew up in Jersey right near New York City.

 Miss Danielle Roy and Richard Wega.

 Steve Erwin and Miguel Cazarin.

 Miguel Cazarin and Tyler Fisk, sporting his new blue mohawk.

 Luis Mondragon, one of the very first boys on the job.

 Beaver's cocker spaniel who also has a mohawk.

 Here is the crew that worked with Whitey, all wishing him a wonderful time in Texas.

 Covering up pipes and valves so the paint crew can go to work.

 Sug at the safety meeting.  We had one every morning and at noon, out in the freezing cold, snow, slush or mud.

 Emilio Martinez at the safety meeting one snowy morning.

All the Mexicans got together for a picture with Sug.

Sug toughing it out at the safety meeting.  I went inside after this.  Ms. B. didn't have to attend safety meetings according to all the safety men.  I was on crutches and was one of the senior members of the team--that gives a person special privileges.

Part of the EIU folks.  They did the electrical work at the site.

EIU.  The only one I can name is Ian, the tall man facing us.

Ms. Clara Wasserman, guard.  Here she is supposedly reading The Three Musketeers.  She couldn't possibly read much because she was either signing someone in or out or opening the gate.  Ms. Clarita, as the Mexican boys called her, is an intellectual guard, and is thinking about taking on the challenge of a writing exercise of 50,000 words.  I want her to write about Snake, but she says 50K won't get the job done.  Come on, Miss Clara!  It will be the beginning of a wild, drama, and probably evolve into a reality show.  Do it!

Chris Drayton, safety man.  He took over when Richard had to go to another site.

Mr. Wega writing reports--JSAs twice a day.  Lots of paper work, right.

Jose Alfaro in the middle and Miss Clara.  Can anyone tell me who is on the left? Thanks to Clara--he is Shawn Baker.

Rosie, better known as Ms. B. and Sug.

Jose Alfaro and Tony D'Elia.

Corey Kleiner from New Milford.

John Sutton.

Miss Clara, Tony D'Elia, Scott Long, Mike D'Elia and Shaun Truex.

Jessy Rogers, from Florida, and Tony D'Elia

Part of the EIU crew.

 Ted Legg from Louisiana, Jaime Alfaro, Houston Texas, Kelly Portillo, Denver, Colorado, Jose Alfaro, Houston, and Shelby Twining, Montrose, Pa.  Shelby is going to go to Texas Tech in the fall.  Guns up, girl!  This was taken after we moved from Snake Creek to the shop to finish the job.

Miss Danielle from Montrose, PA, Lauren Danos from Louisiana, Joe Paschal.  Joe is from western Montana.

Dorothy Fredette started working at the Kane Road job and then moved to the shop at Montrose after Kane was completed.  Dorothy is a native of Montrose.  She has her pink hard hat behind her just in case she has to go out on the yard.  

Joe and Melissa LeBlanc, working friends.  He works for Exterran and she works for Troy.

Ted Legg and Matt Danos, both Louisiana boys.

Ms. Danielle and Shelby ready for lunch at the famous Embers Pizzeria.

Matt and Lauren Danos.

Money from the cussing crew that is about to go to Texas Scottish Rite Children's Hospital.

Jose and Moises showing off the cash--$263.00!

Mud is the one thing I am sick of with this job.  Here I am mushing through the slop trying to find a spotter for the porta potty man so he can come inside the yard and clean.  Finally, we got Miss Clara a radio so she could call Miguel for a spotter and I didn't have to drop everything to go find one.

After 33 weeks, I laid myself off, and joined the pool of unemployed.  Good-bye Snake, and crew.  Maybe we will team up on another job someday, but until then, I have my pictures of you, and will remember each of you forever.  God bless each one of you.  I am enjoying my grand kids right now, after all there is more to life than work.