Did Someone Say Cake?

 Well, Christmas 2021 has come and gone. Our 2nd Christmas in our new home. We spent it home alone, just the 4 of us. It was actually a great day. The Pringle 6 Pack were supposed to go over to Kevin and Cheryl's for supper on Christmas, but they were not feeling well so Dan and Bonnie went up to Spearfish to spend the day with her brother while Barb and just spent a quiet day at home.  

Barb even got a special cake. The dogs were just as interested in it as I was!

Did someone say cake?!?!

Santa was good to all of us. The girls each got a stocking of their own and really enjoyed opening their presents. Here is a short (2 minutes) video of them playing with their new toys. 

Plus, we got to FaceTime with each of the kids which was a bonus!

Somer, Lily, Forrest and Jack

Kendall and Dylan
(Apparently Jessica and Shane were camera shy)

It has been a few weeks since I have shown any projects here at home. Somedays are more productive than others but we try to make a little progress every day. Barb's big project was making a couple of barn doors. We need a total of 4; one for the laundry room, 2 for the closets in our bedroom and one for the opening leading under the stairs. 

She wanted to make them out of some leftover bug wood we saved. First, she varnished the individual boards, then she put them together and put another couple of coats on......

                              

Next up was staining and varnishing some 1x4's for the edges and center.... and the last touch was to put the rollers on the top and hang it!

                             

Meanwhile I worked on the windbreak and siding outside in the grill area. When the north wind is blowing it whips right down the side of the house and chills Barb as she is grilling my steaks...and we cannot have that! I also got the siding done on that west wall so now all the lower siding is done! I need the skidsteer over to finish the upper siding.

                               

Not to be out done Barb got to working on the wall behind the toilet in the bathroom. She wanted to use the old fence boards from the horse corral to build a 1/2 wall behind the toilet. Actually, it was a joint effort as I had to cut the edges straight and plane the boards to a consistent width.

Barb had to then painted the wall black so no white would show through any holes put several coats of varnish on and put up the boards with glue and finish nails. Top it off with an L shaped cap and it is done!  

                         

I pulled all my trail cameras except one. After butchering the deer, I left the carcass out in the woods for the meat-eating critters out there to pick away at it. Then I put a camera on it to see what came in. I was expecting coyotes and crows for sure, with luck maybe that bobcat would show up again. 

Well, a coyote did show up, but it just sniffed around and left without eating anything. I guess they are a little more cautious than I gave them credit for. 

There were a ton of crow as well. We could see and hear them from the house as they cawed and circled the trees above the carcass. What we did not expect was the number of Magpies that showed up and..... a couple of bald eagles. How cool is that?!?!?

Had I left more cameras out I might have gotten some shots of the 70+ elk that visited our property for a couple days last week. Instead, I got this one picture that Dan took and several broken strands of fencing. When there are that many animals, they seem to just go right through the fence instead of over it. 

All those little specks are elk!

Last but not least, any of you who take pictures of your fur babies know how hard it is to get them to behave so you can get halfway decent pictures like the ones we posted in our last blog. Well, here are a few that did not make the cut..... We had experimented with ears in, ears out... We tried to get Dakota to sit instead of lay but she wanted nothing to do with that!