It is Official, Our Rig is for Sale!

Our first full week back in South Dakota and we jumped into the projects with both feet! First up was to frame in the upstairs bathroom as we now have our shower/tub unit in place. Since it is a one piece unit, it would not have fit through the door if I had built the wall first.

Next up was to carry on with the final touches on the electrical. With that upstairs bathroom wall up I could finish the electrical in that bathroom as well. I am happy to report that all the electrical is done upstairs! We hope to get it inspected in the next couple of weeks so I want to get everything buttoned up before we schedule that. Of course I keep changing my mind on how a couple things operate. The latest is installing a switch in the bedroom that will turn on all the outside lights around the house at once. Barb asked if we could put that circuit on a motion sensor but with all the deer around that would not be feasible. Once the electrical is inspected and signed off on we can start insulating! Update....since I wrote the above earlier this week, we had our inspection, passed and are ready to insulate!

Speaking of insulation that was our big purchase for the week. 27 rolls of R19 and  22 rolls of R38 throw in a couple rolls of poly and some air shoots to go between the trusses and we have everything we need to insulate the house for a little over $1,700. This was about 1/2 what I had in the budget!

That is a lot of insulation!

With luck we hope to be here well into December. Weather will be the big factor. Since the rig is inside the garage I think we can handle a little colder weather than we did in years past. Last year low 20’s were no problem but once it hit the teens we started to freeze up. I am hoping that being protected by the wind we will be able to withstand a little colder weather. Then there is the snow. A little snow is no problem but if we are going to get dumped on we need to head south as we would not be able to navigate our ¼ mile long driveway with any kind of accumulation. Being in the garage is not horrible but it is not great either. We are out of the elements but we have no sunlight so it is very dark in the rig all the time requiring us to have lots of lights on.

Last year the  temperatures in November were anywhere from 70 to 21with only 3" of snow. December last year were anywhere from 50 degrees to 3 degrees with only 5 days that did not get above freezing and less than 2" of snow so there is hope. But this year seems cooler and wetter than last year so it is anyone's guess. We are praying for warmer temps and little to no snow for the next 10 weeks. That said, this is what we had Sunday along with 40 mph winds with gusts up to 80 that took down part of a building and the buffalo statues in Custer!

Too soon!

It is like a buffalo graveyard!

 We have a number of projects that we want to get done. The biggest getting the soffit and facia up to get the bugs, birds and snow from passing through the eves. We have hundreds if not thousands of flies in the house on warm days as they seek shelter from the cooler weather. Then the birds who are after the flies sneak through the eves to get them. Wind, snow and equipment issues have prevented me from getting up there and getting this project done so hopefully next week.

Archery season is open and I am itching to get out hunting but so far I don’t have anything on camera that I want to go after. There are a few smaller bucks……

A magpie flew by one of my cameras......

And a deer giving me the eye!

….and a first for our property, our first elk!

And the turkeys come by almost everyday for a visit.

Caught this guy on camera a couple miles from our place!

Look closely on the left side of the video, our first mountain lion!

We also had busy week catching up with several friends. We met Dan and Bonnie for drinks at the Pringle bar, went to dinner with our neighbors Doug and Lisa as well. They are selling their house and property so if you know anyone looking send them on up!

Friday night we met Phil and Rudee at the Custer VFW for steak night. They also had a band so we boogied it up all night long! No really, I think Barb drug me out to the dance floor at least a dozen times. Barb paid for having such a good time later that night and most of the next day......

We also had our first visitors of the fall when friends Jo and Ben stopped by for a one night visit with their dogs Payton and Sammy. They were all on their way up to Rapid to do some exploring and we had not seen them since we crossed paths in Chicken Alaska in 2016. We of course took them to the Pringle Bar for burgers!

The freakiest thing of the week happened yesterday morning. I woke up with this song in my brain that I could not stop playing in my head. A totally random song that just kept bouncing around my head! 30 minutes later Barb is in the living room and starts humming what sounds like the exact same song! I stop what I am doing and almost yell at her "What song are you humming!?!?" "Why?" she responds. "Just tell me!" When she responds "I got a Tiger by the Tail" I almost freak out! That is the exact same song I cannot get out of my head! How does that happen?! Neither one of us have sung, hummed or even heard that song in like...., forever. I seriously think she can get into my head and explains the dirty looks she randomly gives me throughout the day.

The big news for the week is that we have officially decided to sell our 5^th wheel and have listed it on several ad sites. With us going to Alaska in the summer of '20 and hopefully traveling through the Maritimes in '21, the 5th wheel would just sit for the next two years. That and the fact that with the house I am sure we will not be traveling for as long periods so the smaller camper will work just fine. It is totally the wrong time of year to try and sell it but we listed it in RV Trader (click link to see ad), IRV2, and several Facebook groups for the next 8 weeks and see what happens.

It has been a great rig for us with no serious issues whatsoever. Someone is going to get a great 5th wheel!

More visitors arriving soon so it looks like it will be another busy week!