We Didn't See It

 I was driving to North Dakota, Barb was at home in the house. Both our skies were filled with cloud cover. Oh well, we will catch the next one. Leading up to the big event, I was so glad that every news station in the country was warning us not to look directly at the sun because that is exactly what I would have done. Seriously? We need to be told not to look at the sun? Apparently so, as after the eclipse, Google searches of "My eyes hurt" skyrocketed. 

Watching the news afterwards, I again shook my head as they interviewed person after person crying saying that it was a life-changing event. I mean, it was cool, but life-changing?

In other TV news, we did watch parts of the NCAA women's final. Something I would have bet money that I would never do. Not because it is women's basketball, we just do not care for basketball. But the storyline on this game was pretty amazing. 

My Monday morning drive to North Dakota was brutal. The first two hours at least. Saturday and Sunday at home consisted of much needed rain. We were thankful it was rain and not show. What I did not realize was that just a few miles away, it was snow. 

I was not surprised to see snow in the higher hills. 

Leaving Custer, I saw a little more snow, but no big deal. 

The stretch between Hill City and Deadwood was brutal!

Luckily, we have a 4WD truck, but there were still a few white-knuckle moments. This stretch has lots of ups, downs and curves. When driving in slippery conditions like this, the key is to go slow and keep your foot off the brake which can cause the vehicle to start sliding. And once a slide starts....good luck, especially if you are going downhill! 

At one point I was going down an incline at 35 mph when by truck downshifted. Next thing I knew the truck is sliding sideways down the hill. Luckily, I was able to correct it fairly quickly and got all the wheels pointed in the right direction and I made it into Deadwood itself which was still snowed in. 

Finally making it to Interstate 90 I thought I was in the clear. Nope, interstate's is where all the idiots drive and there was car after car in the ditch. 

The roads slowly got better until I was out of the snow and into rain. 

8 hours later, I was finally pulling into my destination for the next few weeks!

Upon arrival, Farmer Bob and I jumped into the truck and headed to town for a celebratory supper. It is good to see him and the entire gang up here. In addition to the regular crew, Chris's dad (and my good friend) Bob is up here, and they hired a new employee; Ty, Ty is a nephew of DeAnne and Farmer and used to live just down the road. He is back now and is starting his career in farming.  

The Sunday before I left Barb and I spent the day at home together, packing and getting things ready in the camper. The afternoon, we just spent on the couch watching TV. When happy hours arrived (which is really any time Sunday) Barb made me an Old Fashioned. 

I would think most of you know what is in an Old Fashioned, but if you do not here is the perfect short video to get you on the right track. Credit to my neighbor Jim for showing us the video. The only difference between the guy making one on the video Barb is that Barb made it with whiskey, so she must be from Illi-noise.

Up here at the farm, we have yet to get a seed in the ground. Still a little early. as the soil temps are not quite where they want them. There are a couple of crops they can put in the ground when it is still cold (peas/wheat), but there is plenty to do while waiting for things to warm up. 

Concrete for one. Actually, concrete for 2 and 3 as well, as that took the majority of my time this week. They are putting in a concrete pad for 10 more bins. Two pads; one 18'x10' and the other 18'x178'. That's right, 178'!

First, the dirt work. The first pad was pretty easy and only took an hour or two. The second pad took days and multiple truckloads of gravel to get the base all set.

We've poured the small pad, (left above and below) I did not take any action shots of the pour, but it went well, and we are happy with the results. The bigger pad needs a lot more prep work. We have the grade set and have started the form boards. Here is the thing about pad for grain bins; they are not your standard 4" slab, these slabs are 14"! As a result, you need lot taller form boards and a lot of bracing as you can see the start of on the right side, below. 

While I was busy with that, Chris, Dylan and Farmer Bob were busy doing other things. Chris and Dylan were cleaning seed for both themselves and customers. Cleaning the seed, takes out the impurities (rocks, weed seeds, broken seeds) so, what they are left with is just clean, plantable seeds. 

Although the picture above looks like a convoluted mess, there is definitely a method to their madness. Starting in the upper right, you see the red grain cart. The blue conveyor takes the seed from the cart and dumps it into the first cleaner which takes out the other weed seeds and anything else that might have been scooped up during harvest. The impurities go into the semitruck in the back left side, the good seed then go into another conveyor and dumped into another cleaner which sorts the seed by width, straining out any undesirable seed and dumping them into the smaller truck dead center. The final product goes into the semitruck closest to you and is either planted here on the farm or sold to another farmer. All the rejects either go to the elevator or sold to locals for chicken feed. 

Confused by that picture? Me too!

Meanwhile, Farmer Bob was busy scraping off the topsoil for a new driveway for their next project. (After the grain bins) This scraper is pretty dang cool, it is laser operated so you are scraping of just what you want leaving a perfectly level driveway, or banking it, if so desired. 

Barb and the girls are doing okay. I talked to her multiple times a day to see how her days are going. She has been down a few days with a cold and actually said she was glad I was not there as she is so miserable. I told her that if I was there, I would take care of her. She said, "That is exactly why I am glad you are not here". I am not sure how to take that, but I think what she is saying is that she does not want to spread her miserableness to me. 

That is it for this week! The next few days will more than likely be more of the same. Getting the seeders ready for the field, prepping more concrete and generally going to bed with a aching, sore body.

A Beautiful Week in the Hills!

 Saturday, April 6th was my dad's birthday. He would have been 98. Gone now 24 years. My mom, gone 19 years, would have been 96. Barb's parents, whose mom and dad would have both been 86, gone 47 years and 12 years respectively.

They have been gone so long that it is hard to wrap our heads around the fact that in a perfectly healthy world all of them could still be around. What would that have been like? How different would our lives be if they were still alive? A lot, to be honest. 

Although Barb and I had great jobs, it was inheritance from my dad that pushed us over the edge that allowed us to retire early and live on the road all those years. The inheritance from Barb's dad helped us build this house. 

That led me to the question; how long do you want to live? For me, the answer is easy. I want to live as long as I can with Barb as long as I am happy and healthy. I do not want to live a day without Barb, nor do I want her to live a day without me. Nor do we want to be a burden on our children. Early to mid 80's would be a great run, although I have a feeling, the older I get the more that number is likely to change. 

These are the random thoughts that went through my head this week as I mentally wished my dad a happy birthday. 

This week was a pretty slow and quiet week for us. We started out the week (actually ended last week) by driving up to our niece and nephew-in-law Alana and Ryan's, house up in Spearfish to celebrate Easter. We brought the girls so they could have a play date. More for Zoey than Dakota, as Dakota hates going to other people's houses where she is not comfortable with their floors. As Ryan put it; "Our floors are lava to Dakota". He was nice enough to put down a blanket for Dakota to lay on, but she opted for Loki's kennel as her "safe space" during the visit. 

The other three dogs had a chaotic day. Have you ever tried to take pictures of three dogs that would not stop moving? Impossible, I tell you! Loki had recently had surgery and had a cast on her leg, but it did not slow her down at all!

After an hour or two, they tuckered out and I was able to get a few pictures of the girls while they were resting. 

We had stopped the dollar store on our way up there where Barb picked up 4 rabbit ears in the hopes of getting the elusive 4-dog Easter picture! Once the dogs had settled down a bit, we attempted the picture. What a sh#tshow! As soon as we started putting rabbit ears on dogs were shaking their heads to get them off. Then Loki would attack the ears trying to destroy them. After several attempts it became apparent that this was not going to happen. So, while Ryan held Loki, Barb and Alana held their respective Frenchies and finally got a picture! As you can see, Dakota only had one ear left by the time we got the picture taken!

It snowed that night and most of the next day, resulting in 5-6" of fresh snow. The nice thing about April in South Dakota, is even though it might snow, it is short-lived. The following day was 50 and the snow started melting. Melt days are hard for Dakota as the snow slides off the roof, hitting the ground in a thundering fashion, even shaking the ground in some cases. Dakota does not like this at all and hid in the bedroom. Barb went out and knocked down some of the overhanging snow alleviating a little anxiety for Dakota. This low stuff is not as big deal of a deal Dakota, it is the stuff that drops from 16' that she really does not like. 

We got out twice on two shed hunts. The first adventure we stayed in the lowlands. An open grassy area, a game production area where we know the elk hang out. A pretty area, but the only thing of interest we found was this cow elk carcass. A beautiful day, a great hike, but no antlers. Our goal is just to find one elk shed a year, sometimes that is achievable, other years, not so much. 

Getting skunked down low, we decided to hit the hills for our next adventure. When we drove up to the parking spot. I pointed to the top of the mountain and told Barb, "We are going up there". Her reaction was "Yeah, right". Little did she know, I was serious!

Starting on an overgrown logging road, away we went! Elk sign was sparce down low as we worked out way up, but the higher we got the more elk sign we saw. 

Here is the thing about shed hunting, you should not walk next to your partner, you should be at least 30 yards apart, so you are covering different ground. We kept in sight of each other for the most part and whistled to each other every minute or so when we were out of sight of each other. 

We left the logging road and started billygoating our way to the top. At over 5,000' you can feel it when you start exerting yourself. There were several points where I would pick out a tree about 10 -20 yards up hill from me and set that as a goal before I rested again. Sometimes I made it to my goal, other times not quite. The bright side of stopping to catch your breath is that you can admire the views!

We made it to the top at different places at different times and eventually met up at the highest point which was 5,555'. These pictures just do not do it justice. As beautiful as these pictures are, in person, it is twice as beautiful. 

In the end, it was another antler-less day and probably our year as time is running short to get back out. Oh well, we found two last year, so I guess things averaged out. 

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Somer has finished her latest travel job in Savanah, so Forrest packed up the camper and headed back up north to spend a few more weeks with Jessica, Shane and the kids. Baby K (Kendall), turned 10 this week! I suppose we are getting to the point where I have to stop calling her Baby K. 

It is so good to see Lily (left) hanging out with Kendall (right) and Dylan, they are all they have for cousins. 

We got together with Dan, Bonnie, Kevin and Cheryl three times during the week. Once for supper at Kevin and Cheryl's, and twice at the Pringle Bar for supper. The last night was more or less a goodbye party for me. No, I am not dying yet, but I am headed north for a few weeks. It is planting time in North Dakota!

Spring?

 It looks like spring has sprung up here in the north land! The birds are singing, the turkeys are gobbling, and the cows are calving. True signs of spring. 

The robin is the first sign of spring in our area. They start appearing one by one, then flocks of dozens. Next up is the bluebird with their colorful breeding plumage. We see them mostly in the open country sitting on fence lines and checking out the bluebird houses.

The last bird to show up in the area and the truest sign of spring is the meadow lark. They too are open country birds whose call can be heard from a long way away. We saw our first meadow lark earlier this week. I went out on a hunt for one with the camera, but of course they did not cooperate. 

We continue to go for "Shed Walks" but have yet to find any. We did find the last resting place of this coyote. One has to wonder how it met its demise.

Of course, when we do not take the girls the wabbits show up!

We have been reserving our past few Sundays to work with Kevin. That is the only day he takes "off" so he can work on his bunkhouse. This past Sunday was no different when Barb and I went over to help him put up some tongue & groove planking in two bedrooms. 

Kevin and I worked on the ceilings while Barb worked on putting blocking in some sidewalls. We had a system; Kevin was in the house shouting me measurements, I would cut it, bring it in and using two ladders we would get the piece in place. Kevin would then nail it in while I went and got the next piece and he would shout another number at me. I did not get any action shots as we were always running. 

6 hours later we had one room completely done and another room 1/2 done. Barb had all the blocking done. If you compare the before and after pictures you can see the blocking that Barb put between the studs on the walls. She not only did this room, but every room in the house. 

One thing I forgot to mention. See the grooves on the ends of the boards on the "after" picture? Each one of those had to be hand beveled into the boards. Not terribly difficult, but a pain and time consuming. 

Later in the week we were off to one of Kevin's job sites to get some free garage doors! This is the same site that we got the trusses from last week. To give you an idea of the scope of this job I need you to use your imagination. In the picture below imagine just a plain garage with a normal roof, nothing on either side of those garage doors; no windows anywhere at all. Kevin replaced the roof with a steeper pitch, (that's how we got our trusses) added the dormers on top, added the RV garage on the right, added a kitchen area on the left (the room with the 3 windows) and added the open patio on the far left. 

The owners want new garage doors, and they were generous enough to give us their old ones! So away we went! Although it looks like Barb is doing all the work, I did have my own impact and did my share of work too.... no really I did!

Like much of the country, we went from spring back to winter at the end of the week. It will be 4-5 days before we see temperatures above freezing again. So, what does one do on a snow day? Taxes. Ugh! But after that, I set up the tripod and took a 2-minute video of the activity at the bird feeder. Those little critters sure flock to the feeder on cold days! I did a slow motion of a little fight between two birds. It is amazing what happens in the matter of a second or so. How many different species of birds do you see in the video?

There are several other species of birds using the feeder, and I am trying to get pictures of each, but some are more elusive than others. I now have by camera close by so hopefully I will capture them in the coming weeks. 

Did you know the nuthatch is the only bird that can walk down a tree face first? Other birds have to face up and kind of bounce their way down whereas the nuthatch can actually face down and just walk.  

Of course when the snow flies, it means a fire in the fireplace. Which means Zoey gets toasty warm! I do not know how she can stand it!

Over the past couple of weeks Barb has slowly been working on some stone stairs in front of the house. We go for drives in the side by side in search of the perfect flat rocks for the stairs. They have to be at least 18"x18", preferably bigger, but not so big I cannot lift them. We have been out three times now and have brought home over a dozen rocks. It is slow and tedious work, but she is getting there!

Meanwhile, I finished hauling all the gravel for the garage. Kevin came over the other day and flattened it all out. We used his laser level to set the final grade. An hour later, it was all done, and he was off to his next job!

Now, we just need mother nature to do her thing and let it settle over the summer. With luck, we will get the slab poured this fall! 

The highlight of the week though was when the dogs got a bath in the dog wash. As you can see, both were over the top excited!

Have a great week!