Returning to the Black Hills!

Back Home in the Hills!

I don’t know if it is possible to be sad, happy and excited all at the same time but that is how we felt as we pulled out of the Finken farm on Sunday the 20^th. Although we were there 3 weeks it seemed like it was just a couple of days.

From Douglas we went on a quest, a manhunt so to speak. We had heard that our elusive friends Dino and Lisa were in the area of our travel route through Minnesota. The problem was that we did not know exactly where they were. You see, Dino and Lisa are in the witness protection program and are always in an “undisclosed location” so we had absolutely had no idea where to start. Just for the heck of it Barb plugged in “undisclosed location” into our Garmin GPS to see what popped up. The little dial on the display spun and spun and spun, pretty soon the unit shook and smoke started coming out of the top and then the unit displayed coordinates! Could it be? Could our reclusive friends really be within 300 miles of us?

With anticipation levels high we followed the directions on the GPS right into the city of Fergus Falls. Then things really started to get crazy…..right here, left there, another right clockwise around a roundabout three times, counterclockwise once…. Next thing we knew we were winding our way through a remote campground where way, way in the back corner we could see the front of a Cardinal 5^th wheel! As we approached there was no one around but we did see movement on one of the shades inside the rig like someone was peeking out. Pretty soon Lisa bursts out the door like she is all excited to see us. It was a good act as we knew they did not want to be found. On the other hand it was as though they knew we were coming as they had Tri-tips and cold beer waiting for us!

Lisa’s mom stopped by as well and we all spent the night sitting around the fire catching up and making plans to get together this winter in Florida.

Side by side Cardinals!

Barb, Beverly, Lisa and Dino ready to rip into some tri-tips!

Barb and Lisa enjoying a beverage

The next morning we were off to spend the evening with my brother Bob and his wife Greta in Taylors Falls. We had not seen them in almost a year and again spent the night getting caught up.

The next morning we had a couple of hours before Barb’s doctor appointment so we visited Kevin at one of his job sites and surprised our old neighbor Chelle and got a tour of their new house that Kevin and his crew built. You can see come pictures of their awesome work here.

The doctor appointment went well and Barb was sent off with instructions to return in July so we were off to our place in South Dakota. Although it was only a month, it seemed like we had been gone much longer. We were worried about keeping the prairie dogs from invading from the neighboring property but the Jordan’s came to the rescue and kept them at bay while we were gone. Thank you Jim and Brenda!

They had also taken care of our mail and one of the packages awaiting us was Barb’s new camera! Yes, she got a camera. In fact she ordered it within minutes of proof reading the last blog post. Just to make sure that we had no money left for a spotting scope, she not only bought one camera, she bought two!

The first camera she bought was the Panasonic Lumix ZS-70. It was a step up from her old ZS-50. The other camera she ordered was actually for me. Over the past few months my camera had started to act up. The shutter button no longer worked, the only way it would take pictures was with the remote shutter release and more recently it would continuously turn on and off every 10 seconds. I could take pictures but I had to time them between these cycles. She got me the FZ-300 which was a step up from the FZ-200 I had. Wait it just dawned on me that if she got me a camera for Mother’s Day….does that mean she thinks I am a mother …..? Nah, I must have just deserved it!

After playing with hers for a little bit she decided that she did not like it. It was heavier and bigger than she wanted. Me?  I love mine and cannot wait to get out there and take some pictures. Before doing that though I ordered and am reading Grahm Houghton’s guide book for this specific camera so I know all the ins and outs. Barb ended up returning hers so it was a win/win for me, I got a new camera and since she returned hers, maybe we have enough money for that spotting scope!

Thanks to the Jordan who kept the prairie dogs in check the grass is really growing. Both bluebirds and swallows were inhabiting our birdhouses when we got back and it is time to get back to work. Our major project for this week is installing the cistern pump so we can finally get water out of our tank. We ordered it over a month ago and had it shipped to the farm and now that we are back I can install it. I was so intent on the installation I did not take one picture!

Bluebird hanging out on a fence post

Couple of swallows outside their home

The grass is really growing from all the recent rain!

Swallow peeking outside its house

This skinny young buck was checking out the trail camera

Life is good in the hills, happy to be back and looking forward to spending the next few weeks continuing to work on the property and exploring the surrounding area…..