Sootypaws Journal

The process for drilling a gas well is relatively simple. The surface owners are contacted, a survey is done, a permit is applied for and the surface owners can comment, and then the site is cleared. Our well will be a shallow well and the site need "only" be about 100 by 200 feet, including the well pits.

Right now we're in the survey phase and we'd like to have the position of the well moved about 150 feet west. Nowhere is good to drill, but moving the well will protect the fragile area near the point where the woods is transitioning into old growth forest, nurtured by a few survivors from previous logging.

Here are a few photos taken on the sixth of September by George while Molly was in Ohio.

		The entrance to the woods from the road.
		Trees always look so small in photographs. The trees in this section of woods are quite large, some almost three feet in diameter.
		The woods turning into old growth is made up of oak and hickory trees.
		This huge white oak is one of the survivors from the ancient forest.
		A squirrel's tail can just barely be seen halfway up the left side of the pine. When George was taking these photos three squirrels were playing nearby.