The Life and Times of Bob and Eddy Hayes - Part 5

          Spring of 1956 arrived and we were on the move again, this time to Edmonton and Bob was back working with Dowell.  We were in a small apartment in the Belgravia area in South Edmonton.  A few months later Bob went with Welex — a  company from the States that he figured would give more opportunity for advancement.  He was sent immediately to Oklahoma for training on Welex equipment.  Another crash course and back home in October and by then they had a station and office established in Edmonton.  The work piled in and in November they were transferring us to Red Deer.  We went to Red Deer and arranged for a house and bought furniture and Welex changed their minds.  Bob didn’t like that at all so he left them and the next day had a job with Maloney Crawford Tank and Steel Co.  He was hired as a purchasing agent.  He feels still that he learned a lot through purchasing.  He gave this job all he had — working hard at his day job and evenings at a Royalite Service Station.  Our social life was busy also as there was business entertainment as well as bowling two or three times a week.  Bob was a very good bowler!

            On July 4, 1957, our bouncing baby boy Kirby Warren was born.  Our family was complete!  Times were good, work was great and in the fall of 1958 we bought our first house.  We were a happy family.  We made many friends in our neighborhood as well as with Bob’s friends at Maloney Crawford.  The community league and school activities kept the children busy also. 

            I believe it was about 1960 that Bob and a friend talked of designing an agriculture rock picker.  Bob had Maloney Crawford build the first one and he went out into the country and sold it and built two more.  In the spring of 1961, he left Maloney Crawford and drove for Diamond Bus Lines for the winter and had the McCoy Brothers build rock pickers for him to sell during the summer.  He sold more than 600 Hayes Rock Pickers throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

            We were finally “making money” so we bought a new GMC truck in February of 1962 and had a hitch put on so that Bob could pull rock pickers for delivery.  There was no spare time to speak of, however, in 1963, we bought a camper for the truck and we as a family drove to Vancouver for a vacation.  Bob built a loader for lowering the camper and loading it that worked very well.

            In the summer of 1964, the oil business picked up in Lloydminster and Bob decided to build a perforating truck.  We sold our house and our beautiful truck and camper to get enough to build the perforating truck.  Build the truck he did!  We were settled in Lloydminster by September so the children could start the school year.  Bob stayed on in Edmonton until he had the truck ready.  He took it to Calgary, to Husky Oil as they had led him to believe they would use him but when he saw them they said “no” he needed the electrical and correlation works on truck.  This was a huge set back.  We were very disappointed with Husky, as they had been encouraging before Bob started to build the truck.  Little did they know that they had done us a huge favor.  Bob did manage to get the electrical and correlation equipment installed on the truck.  In June of 1965, we were given the first job perforating an oil well for Fargo Oil at Lone Rock.  Johnny Howes was the manager then and he saw the worth of the truck and all the work that had gone into it.  Bob continued to work for Fargo Oil, Murphy Oil, Pacific Petroleum, Imperial Oil and countless other oil companies.   The favor Husky did him was to set him out as a free agent!

        The work of perforating requires precision, knowledge and very high safety standards.  First, the location for perforating a well must be carefully chosen.  Various kinds of logs can be run to pinpoint locations in the formation and correlate these with the depth of the casing through collar logs. A collar log shows where the casing is joined by a collar at approximately every 30 - 40 feet.  Other logs that can be run are bond logs (using a film strip) or temperature surveys. 

         The explosive charges are placed in a length of pipe called a gun.  In the early days, Bob and his whole family would load these charges in their shop at night so as to be ready for work in the field the next day.  Anywhere from one to four shots per foot were loaded, as instructed by the consultant or engineer.  The charges were made in the United States and had to clear Customs before being allowed into Canada.  Some work involved loading and unloading radioactive material for neutron logging using long handled tongs.  Bob and the other workers had to wear a film strip so that any possible contamination could be identified.  The film strips were sent to Health and Welfare Department — Radiation Branch, every month to be checked for exposure. 

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The Wescan years ... continue