Dave Hill’s hobby has given him a new lease on life.

For many people, the thought of starting a hobby springs
thoughts of playing golf, reading or painting. Not Hill.

Hill’s hobby is working a cable tool drilling rig on the
100-acre lease in Corydon Township he bought a few years ago.

“Some go to the Y(MCA), I go” to the lease,” Hill said.

Nowadays, the cable rig is obsolete, replaced by a quicker
rotary rig. A rotary rig can drill 150 to 200 feet an hour. On a
good day, Hill can go 50 to 60 feet.

But Hill doesn’t mind.

“Nobody wanted to do it anymore,” Hill said. “Few people
understand the cable tool drilling rig.”

Life on a drilling rig is no stranger to Hill, who is a
fourth-generation driller. His father had worked in the office,
Hill in the field. Then, when he was given the task of both office
and field work, he felt he needed to be more active.

He decided to go back to his early days of drilling and run a
cable tool drilling rig.

“I learned from my dad,” he said. “I wanted to see if I could
still do it. It was like riding a bike … I don’t know. Maybe this
is my mid-life crisis.”

Ironically, the job he hated most as a young driller brings him
comfort now.

“It was boring. It took too long,” he said. He always wanted to
get out of the industry, but never did. Now, he finds comfort in
the rhythmic sounds of the rig. If he takes a nap during the day, a
change in the sounds of the rig immediately awakens him.

“My hobby is oil and gas,” Hill said. “I have a chance to relive
stuff I did as a kid.”

He does most of his drilling on the weekends.

“Sunday is pump day,” he said. A day away from a lease is almost
unheard of. Saturday is hot lunch day. During the week, Hill eats
cold sandwiches for lunch on his rig. But when he’s on this lease,
he will fix a lunch such as elk or whatever meat he has, and lets
it cook on the stove by his rig.

At times, Hill’s wife Alicia walks up to the rig for lunch “if
it’s something good. She will stay about three minutes and go and
leave.”

But while the pace may bore others, Hill thrives on it.

The rig Hill currently uses sat for about 20 years and had to be
refurbished.

He has drilled five wells and is currently working on his sixth.
After the well is drilled, Hill puts a pumping jack on it, pumps
the oil and sells it to American Refining Group.

The money he gets from the wells goes towards his “toys.”

“When I was a kid, I had matchbox trucks. Now I have the real
thing.”

He does all of the work himself except for the fracking. That is
done on “Appreciation Day” when guys from his rotary rig come for a
day to work.

Hill explained that the cable tool rig was a godsend after the
standard rig. The standard rig was built and moved piece by piece.
The cable tool rig was easier to move and set up.

Hill’s operation is a one-man show.

The men that work on this type of rig have to multi-task – they
have to be a blacksmith, driller and mechanic.

Hill prides himself to restoring the land.

“After I am done, you’d never know I am there,” he said. “If
it’s done right, there could be a good balance” between the
industry and nature.

The engine also runs off lease gas so the operation is “more
fuel efficient.”

At the end of the day, Hill takes a 25-pound wrench and covers
the hole to protect the well.

“When the day is done, you hang it on the wrench,” he said,
adding that was the signal it was time to leave for the day.

“I would get pretty excited. It was time to go home.”

But in Hill’s case now, he already is home.