Where is Everybody?!?!?!

As we wrap up our final week here in North Dakota I look out our window with a view of snow and mud.  

Rain and snow made for some muddy ground!

The songbirds have gone south, most of the ducks have gone south, and according to Facebook RVillage and blog posts, it seems our fellow fulltimer friends have migrated south as well.  They seem to be posting pictures of warm weather, happy hours, hikes in the desert and relaxing in a chair while fishing on a beach. Where are all these people? Well they certainly aren’t in North Dakota!

Out of curiosity I went through to see where each of them were and this is what I came up with. It appears we are the only star in North Dakota. In fact, there does not seem to be anyone within a 1,000 miles of us! We were not able to indicate where everyone is as some of our friends post there locations in arrears while others are running from the law and we are sworn to secrecy. Dino and Lisa go from “undisclosed location” to another “undisclosed location”. Although we know where they are and listed them on the map below we feel it is okay as the reader will never know which one of the stars is theirs. I will tell you however, we are GREEN with envy that they are enjoying warmer weather than us! 

Meanwhile back at the farm the field work has come to a standstill as it is just too wet to do anything. Instead we have been busy with deer hunting and other projects. Barb continues to be crafty with her projects. In fact she has graduated from crafter to woodworker when she took an old barnwood door and made it into two tables; one for the top of the dog crate and another one to replace our existing dining room table. 

The tables started out as a door much like this one

Starting with an old cellar door of an abandoned house Barb got to work with a belt sander. She sanded and sanded and sanded, cut to size, conditioned the wood, put on 6 coats of varnish and came out with this.....

The old nails were left in place, she used  3/4" black pipe for the legs of the table and ordered some stools from Wayfair to replace the existing chairs. We left the old table and chairs in a storage loft here at the farm. In fact the Finken's probably don't even know we left them there so mums the word!

She also finish the picture frame she has been working on. We have a picture of a horse that is a twin to a buckskin she used to have. We had it hanging in the bedroom but the old frame broke a month ago so she wanted to make a new one. 

It too turned out great!

Barb also got out to another cooking class with Jeanie. This one was an eggroll class and is even better then the lefse class she went to a couple weeks ago!

We also got out to dinner to Ebeneezer's in Minot with Bob and DeAnne. It was good but not as good as DeAnne's homemade Fleischkuechle she made a couple days later!

Meanwhile I have been trying to fill my hunting for a wily whitetail trying to fill my bow tag.

Patiently waiting for a big buck!

We have quite a few cameras scattered throughout the area trying to find the big guys and although we are seeing some nice bucks I thought I would share some of the more interesting pictures that we captured over the past couple weeks. 

This yearling buck has just little nubs for antlers

That's a lot of birds!

A robin chill'in in front of the camera

Some bucks just don't know how to take a selfie!

With single digit lows forecasted for tomorrow night it is time for us to move on.

One good thing about the freezing temps is that it hardens the mud and water. One bad thing about the freezing temps is that it hardens the mud and water....

Looks like I need to do a little chipping around the jack pads!

Despite my best efforts the big bucks eluded me in North Dakota for the 2nd straight year but with luck there will be other opportunities on our travels this winter. It is always hard to leave the farm, we will miss Bob, DeAnne, Chris, Holly and Dylan (as well as Gavin and Chase) but it is always easier when we are forced to leave due to weather.

It is now time to head to warmer climates as we are headed to Florida! By way of Indiana and Pennsylvania.....Wait, what?!? Yes we are headed more horizontally across the country for now rather than south. We are heading to Elkhart for an appointment then on to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving with our daughter and family. We should make it to Florida sometime in late December/early January and by then I am guessing we will be welcoming the warm weather!