Fall in North Dakota!

The crisp cool mornings, frost on the ground, changing of the leaves, harvest time and hunting season. Without a doubt fall is our favorite season of the year and there are two places that really speak to our hearts and bring all this together for us; the woods of northern Wisconsin and the farmlands of North Dakota. What is interesting about this is that Barb and I were both raised in suburban or city settings but soon after we married we moved out to the country and have never looked back.

Although we have not gotten back to Wisconsin during the fall since being on the road fulltime, we have been lucky enough to spend several weeks at our friend’s farm in North Dakota each of the last few years.

With anticipation levels high, we left Salt Lake City, spent one night in Casper, WY, and two nights at our favorite campground; Ditch Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is a great little campground we have a knack of hitting in the off season. Which incidentally is free after Labor Day. We arrived to find only two other campers in the campground. Perfect!

This little guy was just down the road from the campground

We spent two days driving around the area getting to know it better as this area is on our short list for our future home if and when we decide to get off the road. We are looking for 5-50 acres bordering National Forest property and are open to vacant property or a fixer upper and if we find the perfect place we would probably buy and slowly get it ready for that someday when we RV part time rather than full time.  We are prepared to buy if we find the perfect property. Although we saw some great property, saw some elk, sheep, turkeys and other wildlife, we did not find the perfect property this time around.

Moving on we spent one night in Medora before we arrived at our final destination for the next several weeks at the Finken/Sobieck Farm in Douglas, North Dakota. In addition to getting to spend time with our good friends Bob, Deanne, Chris and Holly, we get to pursue a couple of other passions; hunting and helping out on the farm.

The day arrived I was able to jump right in a tractor and help out while Barb got the rig ready for our long stay.

Our home for the next few weeks

They were in the middle of harvesting soy beans and I was able to “Cart”, something I have never done before. Carting involves driving a tractor and a grain cart alongside the combine when it gets full so the combine driver can dump the beans into the cart. It was a little intimidating at first as you need to drive within a foot or two of the combine lining up the chute of the combine with the middle of the cart, otherwise it was be a costly mess. Once the cart is full I dump the beans into a semi truck. They then go either to the grain elevator in town or a grain bin like one behind our rig in the picture above.

My farm toy this week!

Chris unloading into the cart when we were stopped

Going to get some more beans!

Over the past week the weather has not cooperated with farming, the lows have been in the upper 20’s and high’s in the 40’s the last couple days. This has made for some frosty mornings in the rig! We can see our breath when we wake up and turn up the furnace. We have come to realize that the perfect temperature is one where the dormant flies hiding in the rig can walk around but are not warm enough to fly. Combine this with 20-30 mph winds and it makes for some bone chilling cold that we are not used to!

We were able to get out duck hunting a few days with varying success but it was great to get out in the field.

Opening morning on a North Dakota Pothole!

Could she look any hotter?

A beautiful morning of field hunting

Although the bow deer season is open, I am going to wait a week or two longer before hitting the field as the bucks become more active in late October and early November. Deer sign looks promising however and the cameras are showing some nice bucks in the area. With luck we will be able to but some venison in the freezer this fall!

What's Barb up to you ask? Well, she has been making herself busy with a crocheting project she started in Alaska. (Ask me in 3 years how this project is going). She has also been baking all sorts of apple desserts using the fruit from a couple trees in the yard and last but not least she ahs been taking walks working on her photography. I must say I am very impressed with some of her pictures!

If you look REALLY close you can see a coyote howling on top of the round bale

Here's a closer look

As much fun as all that sounds, our biggest discovery came when we saw a new appliance in Holly's kitchen. We were telling her how hard it is properly cook a pizza in our oven and she pulls out this appliance that she says not only cooks the perfect pizza every time but will also cook toll house cookies and....wait for it......Tater Tots, another thing we have a hard time with in our oven! I was like an instant infomercial in Holly's kitchen!

I am happy to report that we are now the proud owners of our very own Pizza Pizzazz Plus!

Until next time.........