| Soon, drilling and fracking rigs were running | | | | |
| up and down the newly cut-in roads, popping | | | | One day I looked at the creek that ran |
| in wells every couple of acres. Janet and I | | | | through the property and noticed that |
| helped where we could, but were more | | | | everything in it, all the frogs and fish and |
| interested in digging up a large plot of | | | | water spiders, were dead. The salt water had |
| ground by the trailer for the one hundred | | | | leaked out of the holding pond and |
| tomato plants we were nursing in their little | | | | contaminated the ground water, coloring it a |
| boxes. We gathered red mulch from inside | | | | telltale red. The land was beginning to erode |
| rotting logs in the forest, loaded it on our | | | | as well, with many of the trees now gone, and |
| little three-wheeler's trailer, and used it | | | | the pump jacks were rusting away. Our little |
| as fertilizer. | | | | hill was not the same. |
| | | | |
| The first three wells went in within one | | | | Janet and I became disheartened. Things that |
| hundred yards of each other close to the | | | | initially endeared us to the property were |
| mobile home. Only later did we learn that | | | | changing, as all things do, and sadness was |
| pump jacks are giant lightening rods! And we | | | | creeping in. I found myself becoming |
| were in for it since we lived on a hill! | | | | emotional quite often, feeling as if I was |
| Although lightening never hit the trailer, it | | | | standing on a tarmac tearfully waving goodbye |
| regularly hit the pump jacks next to it, | | | | to a dear friend that I knew I would never |
| which made the severe storms that frequent | | | | see again. Perhaps this was a sign that my |
| Northwest Pennsylvania interesting to say the | | | | practice was deepening. I wasn't sure, and |
| least. | | | | although the pain was melancholy, it was |
| | | | painful nonetheless. Now I understood why I |
| Once a well was drilled, steel pipe casing | | | | had always been afraid to attach to things |
| was run down the hole and then pressure was | | | | too tightly; it just hurts too much to let |
| introduced by the huge fracking rigs, | | | | them go. But go they must, as all things seem |
| shattering the rock strata below, and | | | | to do in time. |
| allowing the oil mixed with salt water to | | | | |
| seep from the formations where it would be | | | | Whenever Janet and I surrendered supports |
| subsequently pumped to the surface. Rods with | | | | that we relied upon, we usually found |
| seals were lowered into the casing to act as | | | | ourselves navigating through turbulent |
| a pump, and pump jacks were built above the | | | | waters. Giving up both the heaven we had |
| well (looking like giant grasshoppers), to | | | | counted on so desperately, and the world as |
| move the rods up and down. | | | | well, was difficult without feeling a |
| | | | crushing loss. This always left us no |
| After a well was outfitted, underground | | | | foothold, but maybe this spiritual poverty |
| plastic piping and electrical lines were run. | | | | was exactly what we needed in order to slide |
| The piping ran from the wells to large | | | | down that mountain we had created and have |
| storage tanks in the middle of the property | | | | been struggling to climb. If need be, we were |
| where the oil and salt water was separated. | | | | more than willing to live in both the |
| The oil was stored in the tanks until a local | | | | poverties - material and spiritual. |
| distributor picked it up, while next to the | | | | |
| tanks a large, deep pit was dug and sealed | | | | This was a dark time for me. I was restless |
| with plastic sheeting to hold the salt water | | | | and began to doubt myself; perhaps my whole |
| until it could evaporate. | | | | life had been for naught. Life had lost its |
| | | | appeal and I was depressed, and even though I |
| The salt water was produced at a greater | | | | always had Janet, I began to feel alone and |
| volume than I expected, however, and I had a | | | | abandoned. It was if I was waiting for |
| bad feeling about it. As the wells were | | | | something . . . and there was nothing I could |
| completed, my job was to pump them making | | | | do, except wait. |
| sure that each well was pumping twice a day | | | | |
| for the appropriate amount of time so that it | | | | A shot rings out, a deer falls, the universe |
| wouldn't pump dry. This involved all kinds of | | | | is diminished. After being exposed to two |
| electrical and mechanical maintenance and | | | | hunting seasons on the hill, it was time to |
| repairs on pump jacks that were regularly | | | | leave, and like two rivulets of rain running |
| damaged by lightening. | | | | into a stream that is happily returning to |
| | | | its Source, we ended up at the Zen Center in |
| Janets brother-in-law was already in the | | | | San Francisco. I thought that I had conquered |
| process of drilling more wells in other | | | | any meditation related illnesses that |
| fields, but when the price of oil dropped and | | | | developed at the Abbey, and threw myself into |
| legislators ended the cozy tax shelters | | | | the practice, but I was about to learn that |
| connected to oil wells, it wasn't long before | | | | what I thought was of little consequence. |
| the oil boom . . . went bust. | | | | |