Psithurism

Ever since I read that word in another blog it has stuck with me. I never knew that the word existed, and I still do not know how to pronounce it. I had to go to The YouTube to listen how to pronounce it.....Seeth U Rizum. But, what does it mean? In its most basic definition, it means the sound of the wind through the trees. One of my most favorite sounds. 

 Nothing relaxes me more than the peaceful sound as the wind creates a gentle rustling through the pines or a grove of aspens. A sound we hear often as we sit in the hot tub at the end of a busy day. Man, how I miss those moments when we are on the road. 

It can also be one of the most terrifying sounds as any of you who have experienced a tornado or hurricane know all too well. This week we had a mix of both as Thursday brought another windstorm with gusts over 70mph, and a couple up to 90! This of course toppled trees, some of which fell on powerlines which started fires throughout the area. 

One fire went from 120 acres to over 5,000 in a couple hours as the wind pushed the fire through the forest. Fortunately, none were within miles of us. Unfortunately, this big fire was near Dan and Bonnie's house, and they had to evacuate for a few hours. The firefighters did not even attempt to fight the fires at night with those high winds, and several houses were swallowed up immediately. By the morning the fire had reached 7,000 acres and was a mile from Dan and Bonnie's. I was over there helping him hook up some heating units as we watched the smoke on the other side of a large hill. We could not see the actual fire, but we could tell it was getting closer. 

A bulldozer showed up around noon and cut a perimeter about 150 yards from their house. Hopefully that would stop the fire should it crest the hill. They pull trucks and personnel from the surrounding communities as there are not enough resources locally to a fight a fire of this size. Even with these additional personnel they can only fight the edges and their main priorities are trying to save homes, so they try and direct the fire and place personnel around the houses. 

About 2:00 the fire crested over the hill behind their house and started coming down. Now it was time to panic. They gathered what valuables they could and a few days' worth of clothes and put them in the car. We then helplessly watched the fire creep towards their house. 

There is really nothing you can do. We hosed down the house with water, probably didn't help but it kept us busy. 

Finally, a half a dozen trucks showed up. The smoke was so bad we decided to get out of there for a while and went to supper. 

This is what it looked like when we got back.....

They had started a back burn at the road and along that dozer path to keep the raging fire away from their house. Wildland firefighters have to be one of the most underappreciated jobs in the area. They work their asses off in hot, tiring and dangerous situation. While there are some fulltime fire fighters with the Forest Service, most are volunteers. This includes Kevin who spent several days and night driving a Tender Truck bringing water to the front lines. 

We saw fire trucks from not on dozens of areas in South Dakota, we saw trucks from throughout Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. We looks up several of the names and the furthest one we saw was from White Sulfur Springs Montana, over 8 hours away. 

Fire fighters checked on them that night and told them that they had over 20 personnel surrounding their house along that bull dozer line who would be there day and night for several days to make sure their house was safe and the fire did not flare up again and jump that line. 

While their view and landscape has changed, their house is safe. The good part is the back burn is a low fire, only burning the grass and debris on the ground, not the whole tree itself. 

That was definitely enough excitement for this week. The fire is still going, over 7,000 acres, still 0% contained, the firefighters are still out there trying to save homes and other structures, but at least Dan and Bonnie are sleeping in their smoky house ever thankful for hard working men and women out there. 

6-7

If you know, you know, and those of you with grandchildren in the 10–15-year-old range probably know. 

6, 7, what does it mean? All three of our grandchildren say it randomly ,"6, 7" they would say it for absolutely no reason. When asked when it means, they say they cannot tell me. In actuality, they don't know either. So, I looked it up and it means absolutely nothing. Kids just like saying it to leave adults confused. In my opinion, they don't need to say a thing to leave adults confused. One time when Lily was here, I said "Lily, 6 7." She was like, "Adults can't say that".

According to The Google the term originated from the 2024 rap song Doot Doot by the rapper Skrilla. I am sure all of you could recite that rap by heart. One of my favorites for sure. 

Whatever it means, we were not confused when on last Tuesday at 6:30am Barb received the following text from our youngest granddaughter, "6 7, 6 7, 6 7!" That was Kendall's way to wish Barb a happy birthday! I will not tell you how old she turned, but those numbers may give you a clue. 

So, what did I get Barb for her birthday? Being the best husband in the world of husbands I took her to Menards and had her pick out a few woodworking items for her shop; a couple of clamps, some safety glasses, a box of 1 1/4" screws, (7) 6' cedar boards, and wait for it.... a 500-piece bit and drill set! Is she not the luckiest woman in the world?

On her special day we went out to her workshop and made a couple of bird houses using everything above. This was her first project using her new table saw and table. 

We figured out a few things that she needs, but the overall project went well resulting in two bluebird houses which we promptly put out. Just in time too as the bluebirds are back!

We then went over to Dan and Bonnie's who we were picking up for supper. Upon arriving we saw balloons at the entrance of their driveway and garage. They had party favors which included silly string, a bubble maker and of course shots of Fireball!

I think everyone is glad to be home. The girls are back to their favorite places around the house.

I think even the wildlife is happy that we are home as they showed up in droves when I refilled the feeder. One morning we had 17 deer at one time! And the turkeys are showing up by the dozens!

The deer even left us a few presents scattered around the property. So far, we have only found two shed antlers, but I know there are more out there!

I too am happy to be home so I can get to work on a few of the many projects awaiting me. First up was dragging the pasture to break up all those cow pies out there!

Then it was to the woods to cut and split the over dozen trees knock over from our last windstorm.

Ah, yes, it is good to be home indeed!

7 State Week!

 The ruling is in and apparently the masses say that I am indeed spoiled. You will get no argument from me. I am a very lucky man and in return, I try to spoil Barb as much as I can knowing the scales will never be balanced. Let's see, where did I leave off last week? Oh yeah, we were spending the night at Camping World in Anthony Texas, but that was a lie. We were actually in Anthony New Mexico, right on the border between the two states. 

The next day we drove to Odessa Texas where we stayed in the parking lot of a Bass Pro Shop. Luckily it has been cool enough at night where we do not need to be plugged in for the air conditioning. The meet up I mentioned at the end of the last post worked out! Well kind of. 

Our friend Chad who used to own the resort in Ontario we went to all the time often comes down to Texas to do some hog hunting so I had texted him and asked if he was by chance going to be down there the same time we were and he said, "No, but he could be!". He then jumped in his vehicle and drove 1,100 miles from Wisconsin to Texas to meet us!

The ranch we stayed on is a friend of Chad's that he met up in Canada at the resort. As a matter of fact, both Barb and I met her (Kim) and her daughter up there a couple times as well. The reason I said "Well, kind of" above is due to the fact that Kim was away on a wedding, so we did not get to see her. We were able to meet her mom and dad though as they invited us to lunch in San Angelo. The restaurant was one we had heard lots about but had yet to experience it, Twin Peaks. For those of you who have heard of it, the name is self-explanatory. For those of you how haven't, you can look it up, but you have been warned. Kim's parents are both in their 80's and it is funny that they picked this restaurant for us to meet at! The food was actually very good!

Back at the ranch, Chad, Barb, Caleb (Chad's son) and I waited for sunset to go out and hunt hogs. Hogs are a big problem down there wreaking havoc on crops, fences and pretty much anything else in their way. They are way out of control and need to be culled down. They hunt them at night with the aid of thermal scopes, something I have never down before. 

Caleb breaking apart of pallet

We drove out to the hunting area and waited for sunset and when it came, so did the pigs! About 20 of them came running out of the brush at once. We ended up getting 3, which will hardly put a dent in the population, but it was a start. 

Heading out to pig hunt!

We also saw a couple of aoudad. What a weird animal. Native to North Africa, they run wild in these parts of Texas after escaping from game ranches years ago. 

We hung out one more day before heading back towards Arizona for a follow up dental visit for Barb. A lot had changed since the last time we were in Mexico. I am sure by now; everyone knows what happened in Porta Vallarta and other parts of Mexico. Well, our trip back to the dentist just happened to coincide with the unrest, we must have received a dozen text/phone calls from friends and family questioning our sanity, but that has been in question for years so, while it is a little sketchy, it was not going to stop us. 

On our way back to Yuma, we timed one of our overnight stops so we could have one more meet up! Our friends Steve and Deb, yes, the same Steve and Deb who were at our house in September, just happened to be in the Pheonix area as we were passing through, so we stopped and had supper with them! Steve also brought a bunch of bourbons with him so we sat in the camper for an hour before going to the restaurant and sampled each!

We then went to BJ's Brewhouse for supper. Very good food! Two funny things about the picture below....Near the end I got the hiccups and could not stop! These went on for most of the night. When it came time for picture time, I was trying so hard to hold my hiccups in! The second funny thing was the bag behind Barb's head makes it look like she has a hat on!

Steve and Deb sent it to us asking why Barb was wearing a Pilgrams hat, so Barb promptly created an AI picture with actual Pilgrams hats!

After spending the night at Cracker Barrel, we were off to Mexico! This area of Mexico is pretty safe, and we called ahead to see if there was any trouble in the area. While the unrest did not stop us, it did stop about 90% of the other tourists as the streets were practically empty. Even some of the vendors had closed down. We went, got done what we needed to get done and headed back to the border check station. 

Remember how I have written that in the past it has taken us up to two hours of waiting in line to get back into the U.S.? This time there was absolutely no line. I mean like no one. We were the only ones going back across. Crazy. 

We spent the night at the same campground about 1/2 mile up the road on the U.S. side of the border. We thought about dry camping, but it was almost 90 and we needed the AC. It also gave us a chance shower, dump our tanks, and do laundry. 

So, here is a quandary for you.... both times Barb went to dentist, first on 2/2 and again on the 24th, she got super sick for 24 hours and then just nauseous for the next 72 hours. No fever, just puking and then nauseous. We do not know if it was a reaction to the Novocain or something else, super weird. 

After all that fun we made a beeline for home driving 290, 395, and 658 miles on the final day getting home at 10:30pm on Friday night. Along the way we stopped by High West Distillery outside Park City. 

I did a tour while Barb rested in the camper with the girls. It was a very interesting tour that talked about the history of alcohol in Utah, which many of you know has had a tumultuous past. I already have many of their whiskeys, so I did not do a tasting, plus, we had many more miles to drive that day.

It was a long week; it was a quick week. Barb not feeling well made it long, all the windshield hours make it quick. We drove over 2,500 miles and hit seven states but now we are home!

So here we are, back in South Dakota, the weather is in the 40's and 50's during the day, 30's at night. Perfect weather to get some work done outside!