The Barefoot Mason

 On my knees, with sweat dripping off my brow and the sun sweltering overhead, I continued to work on stone this week while Barb stood over me, broom in hand, swatting me on my back demanding I work faster. "Is this what Dino feels like in the soup trailer day after day after day?" I thought to myself. This is no way for a man to live. My knees, exposed and bloody, were aching for relief, the denim on my jeans having worn through days before.  With luck, I would be done by weeks end when I might get a few days of respite before Barb hits me with my next task.  

Stone by stone we continued on south along the side of the building until one day, I think it was Friday, I hit the end! I looked back north, along the 88-foot span and a single tear rolled down my face before hitting the concrete and sizzling into oblivion. "Please Ma'am, may I have a drink of water?"  Swat! "Go back and fill those holes you left!"

The next two days were filled with me chipping and grinding stone to fit in the holes to finish out the wall. When there were no more holes to fill, I collapsed to the ground in shear exhaustion. I was done!

Barb, with the broom she beats me with

That might not be exactly the way the week went but somedays I certainly felt that way. We continued on with our "Bag a day" goal. The day would start out with Barb and I heading out to the porch just after breakfast spending 30-45 minutes finding stones to fit the next layer of the wall. I would then mix a 1/2 bag of mortar and put the stones on the wall. Once that wheelbarrow full of mud was done, we would take a break for lunch and do the same thing in the afternoon. 

The title of this post? That came about when Kevin and I were working last Sunday and he turned to me and said "Nelson, I have known a lot of masons, but I have to say, you are the first barefooted mason I have ever met!"

But this week we got a little help in the form of a friend of ours who stopped by for a few days! Jeanie came to visit! Here is my convoluted way of describing who Jeanie is and how we came to be friends. Jeanie is the aunt-in-law of Chris at the farm whose dad was my best friend in high school, who has a brother named Dan who married a woman named Jeanie. Got it? She is also the Jeanie of Jeanie and Dan who used to own Prairie Smoke Ranch in north central North Dakota and also the Jeanie who we visited in early June up near Long Prairie, MN. AND the Jeanie whose name will be forever cursed by me for getting Barb into accordions. And now, she will also be known as Jeanie the Mason. 

        Jeanie searching for a home for a stone.       Me, mudding a stone with Jeanie in the background.

The weather this week was actually perfect for working outside. We did not have one day that hit over 70°, two days it only the mid 50's. We started out the week by working inside where we emptied out our workshop. 

We are going to get the floors epoxied! We thought about doing it ourselves, but with everything else we had going on and the fact that we had never epoxied a floor before and wanted it done right, we decided to hire it out. 

In hindsight, I am glad we did not attempt it. Austin arrived bright and early Monday morning where he spent a few hours sanding the floor with a big scrubber to rough up the surface. 

By the end of that day the floor was all scuffed up and the sides masked off. He came back the next day, laid down a layer of epoxy and the flakes. He wore some shoes very similar to golf shoes but with extra-long spikes, so they did not leave footprints in the epoxy. He then laid down a thick layer of flakes on top of the wet epoxy and worked them in with a huge trowel type tool.

He came back the next day with a huge scraper and scraped off the flakes exposed above the dried epoxy, vacuumed up the residue and put another layer of epoxy on top of that. Then he returned the next day for the final coat of epoxy. We love it!

We also had a frustrating day when our truck dash displayed a warning sign "Service DEF System, Contact Dealer". Well, that cannot be good. Barb contacted the Dodge Service Manager in Rapid City who said their first opening was August 24th. What?!?! He went on to ask Barb when we filled the DEF tank last. A couple days before. He then asked how old was the DEF? We had stocked up on DEF a while back and we figured this DEF was a little over a year old. He said, that was the problem, he would not use DEF over 6 months old. 

Barb asked if there was a way we could drain it and he said no, the best bet was to put a heavy load on the truck and try to burn through it. During lunch that day I googled if it was possible to drain the DEF tank on a '22 Ram 3500 and found a video with a pretty easy method so into the garage I went!

I was able to drain almost all of it out and put a new jug in. I took the truck out and put the hammer down up and down the road for 20 minutes, reset the code with my code reader and it was fixed! So far, so good, hopefully crisis averted. We did keep our August 24th appointment, just in case. 

But the week was not all work, we had something going on almost every day. Wednesday found us in our side-by-side driving through Wind Cave National Park, a short 15-minute drive down the road. 

That night found us in Custer meeting up with Dan and Bonnie for our regular Wednesday night out.

Thursday, we had our neighbors Jim and Carmen over for a supper of Canadian walleye! Friday, we were off to Custer State Park with Dale and Ruth who are still in town for a week. We hiked the Sylvan Lake loop, a beautiful 1.1-mile loop around the lake. It was crowded but not horrible.

That afternoon Jeanie arrived, and we spent the afternoon on the patio catching up. 

Saturday, we hit the stone pretty hard. With both Barb and Jeanie placing stones for me to mud, we went through a bag in short order. Those two then jumped in the side-by-side leaving orders for me to continue with the stone while they were gone. They hit both Wind Cave NP and the Wildlife Loop in Custer SP.

                       Two wild and crazy gals!                                  Jeanie sneaking up on an antelope.

Here is a very short video that Jeanie took while passing through a buffalo herd.

That night, Jeanie went to a party at a friend's house while Barb and I went over to our friends Doug and Lisa's for supper. We had not seen them in several months, so it was great to see them and catch up. 

Sunday found me filling the last of the holes in stone while Barb and Jeanie were inside serenading me with their accordion skills. It sounded like a couple of cats having a back ally fight making me glad that I was outside. Actually, they sounded pretty good, and will be ready for the circuit soon! That night we had a grilled trout that either Barb or I (probably Barb) had caught out of Pactola earlier in the year. 

Monday, Jeanie's last day here, found us at Ditch Creek seeking the ever-elusive rainbow trout!  The trout lived up to their title and did prove to be elusive, but we had a great time!

Jeanie is also training for a 2.1-mile swim in Lake Superior in early August where she will be swimming from Bayfield Wisconsin to Madeline Island. We chose Deerfield Lake for her swim because it is the coldest lake in the area at a chilly 58 degrees, close the 52 degrees she will be experiencing in Superior. 

Luckily, she has this wetsuit, which not only helps keep her warm but also helps with buoyancy! 

What better way to finish off the day and her visit than a visit to The Lost Cabin Brewing Co. which just opened a branch in Hill City!

So there goes another week, sore, tired scarred with broom marks but I survived. Now perhaps I can rest, that is, until she comes up with another project to make me tackle!

Getting Stoned

Oh, how I wish I was..... If I am being honest, I did try it once...okay, maybe twice but I never inhaled, I swear!

Just one major project to be completed before we can call the house done. The stone on the outside. I have no idea how long that project will take. I am thinking a couple weeks. With almost 100' of stone to be laid it is overwhelming just looking down the porch. 

Barb has been helping by laying out stone along the edge of the porch. This is saving a bunch of time for me as it is very time consuming going through the pallets of stone to find the ones that fit along the bottom and next to each other. 

Day 1 went well. I got 30 or so stones up. The next day sucked. I don't know what was different, but I only got about a dozen up and those were a struggle as they just wouldn't stick. I guess I did not mix my mud right. 

I will go about 2-3 hours in the morning, take a break and go again after lunch. Barb is a huge help, picking and laying out stones and finding where they fit the best. By the end of day 3 we have about 1/2 of the largest section done. This is the 50' the length of the garage....

Today (Sunday), Kevin came over and we hit it really hard. He gets stoned a hell of a lot more than I do, so much so, he could do it in his sleep. He can get more done in a day than I can in 3-4 days. 

Kevin was the main stoner, Barb struck the excess mortar, I made mud and worked on the base stone layer on the south end of the house. 

Not only did we get 95% of the 50' garage section done, but we also got a good jump on the south end of the house as well!

North end almost done!

South end has a great start!

We had two rain days where we could not work on stone. Well, it wasn't raining but the stone was still wet from overnight rains. I worked on the lights outside the garage. I had to cut out a 7x17" section of the steel to fit in the wood panel. Not exactly easy since the steel is already up. Once that was cut out, I cut and fitted some J-Channel around the opening, then drill holes to run the wire though and then finally, install the lights. 

Light are up and working!

That same day I climbed up on the roof to clean the chimney. I do this once a year to prepare the upcoming fire season.

With all the rain, our pond went from totally dry to this in just a few days.....

The frogs and other pond creatures are making so much noise, it was hard to sleep the first few nights. Now, it is just background noise and we are used to it. 

Last, but not least, we got out a couple sections of the grain bin to see exactly where we wanted the gazebo. I told myself I am not going to work on this until the stonework is all done but we had a couple of down minutes, and we just couldn't help ourselves. This week instead of having a picture of "Find the Frenchie" I have a picture of "Find the Barbie". You may have to zoom in but there is a Barbie in that picture on the right somewhere!

Zoey found a new favorite spot to spy on the bunnies and squirrels. She now jumps up on the hearth and watches the little critters from an elevated perch. 

I will leave you with this picture, this rainbow made an appearance one evening. The rainbow led right to the base of our windmill, I ran down there looking for a pot of gold or perhaps a glimpse of a leprechaun. All I found a lot cow poop. If you look really closely, you can see another rainbow just to the right of the bright one. 

This coming week will more than likely be a repeat of last week, getting stoned each and every day!

So Good to be Home!

 While last week may have been all about family and friends, this week was all about work, work, work. You know how it is, when you are home working like crazy, you want to get away, but after you are away for a few weeks, you cannot wait to get home and back to work! So, we worked while our motivation level was high. 

But first, we had one more adventure even before we even got home. We were driving west on I-90 just east of Rapid City when I saw a sign for Badland Distilling Co in Kadoka. We have been wanting to stop by here for a couple months. Even though it was 7pm and we were tired and anxious to get home, we stopped to check it out. 

We got a flight of 6 of their spirits. I am glad we stopped, we had a good conversation with one of the owners and learned a few things about how they make certain spirits.

We had two traumatic events this week, both involving woodticks. The mosquitoes were so bad on our summer adventure that we barely mentioned the ticks. Something we did not even consider before leaving home as we have no ticks on our oasis. Oh, they are in the area, but for some reason our area does not have any. So, we did not apply any tick guard to the dogs before we left. Both Minnesota and Wisconsin were thick with ticks. It would be nothing to pull 20 off the dogs and us after a walk. Most of them we were able to remove before they imbedded themselves but all of us had at least a dozen imbedded by the end of our trip.   

The first incident occurred after we got home, and we noticed that Dakota was not feeling well. She was panting all the time and was very lethargic and would not get up to eat or drink. We had to bring her food and water to her bed. 

When it did not get better after a day, we took her to the vet. She had a fever of 103 and yep, lymes and another tick related illness. She is now on Doxycycline for the next 30 days. The fever has broken and she is back to her usual self with no apparent aftereffects. 

The next incident was traumatic for Zoey, Barb and me. If you are having breakfast, you may want to finish it before you read the rest of this. It all started when we were in the camper and Barb "Zoey has a woodtick on her butt". She then asked me to hold Zoey as she tried to remove it. Now, to get an idea how traumatic this was for Zoey, she does not like her nails done or thing picked off her. As a matter of fact, the last time she was at the vet to get her nails done, they said "Don't bring her back for nail trims anymore". 

So, I grabbed Zoey and pointed her backside to Barb. Zoey immediately knew something was up as I had her front side and Barb was holding her backside. She started squirming not liking whatever was about to happen. It was quite the scene, Barb was trying to grab the tick as Zoey was squirming and trying to bite behind her. But here is the problem.... The tick was so close to her you-know-what that when Zoey puckered the tick would disappear entirely! Now that I think about it, it was probably traumatic for the tick as well!

Barb kept yelling at me to hold her still as her fingers tried to hone in on the moving target. But as soon as she got close to grabbing it, Zoey would pucker, and it would disappear. This went on for 5 or 6 attempts, but the results were the same as the tick play peek-a-boo with Barb. I was able to get her to stop squirming but how to get the tick from disappearing? I wondered if I blew on her nose, if that would do it. Then a moment of genius struck me and I told Barb to get ready. With fingers poised on the target, I gave Zoey a quick squeeze, Barb said "Got it!" I am pretty sure Barb went two knuckles deep but, she got that little bugger. Zoey jumped down, ran a few steps away, and gave us both a look at I am pretty sure meant "What the hell?!?!"

If only I would have taken pictures, I know many of you wanted to see a close up of the action. Had I taken a picture, Zoey's face would have looked something like this.....

We also caught up with several of our friends four days this week. First with Kevin who came over for supper on Tuesday night. Cheryl was away in Minnesota, so we had to wait to catch up with her. Wednesday night we got together with Dan and Bonnie at our house for burger night, Friday night we went out to Rushmore Brewing Co. with Jim and Carmen and then Saturday our RV friends, Dale and Ruth came over for Taco Saturday. 

Dale tested a few of our varieties of Moonshine!

Dale and Ruth are in the area for another few weeks so hopefully we can get together with them again before they carry on with their summer adventures. 

In the work department we had (and still have) a lot to do. The first order of business was to jump on the old Ford and cut the grass in the front of the house. It was over 2' tall and poor Zoey could not see anything. 

Then it was time to tackle the rest of the sofit and facia. 4 straight days measuring, cutting and stapling up sofit. I used a circular saw with a metal blade which worked well but resulted in more than one of the hot metal shards landing somewhere on my body burning me. 

Before

I finally got done on Saturday right before Dale and Ruth arrive. Sooooo good to have that project behind us!

Barb has also been busy cleaning and dusting the house after being gone as well as getting the camper clean. So many dead mosquito bodies everywhere! She has been trying to find the right solution to get the body spots off the shades. 

The weather has been wet, wet and more wet with intermittent picture-perfect days in the upper 60's, low 70's. We had two hailstorms last week, nothing too serious but one morning we woke up to piles of pea sized hail outside. 

The cattle are still wandering around our property (and Jim and Carmen's). They have a bull mixed in with the herd, but he seems pretty mellow. We have driven within feet of him in the 4-wheeler and seems more interested in the cows than he does us.

Thats a big bull!

And no post is complete without a picture of Zoey (right Harry?). So, if you can find her, here she is. And before you ask, that is not a fawn pelt, that is an axis deer from Texas. About every non-hunter that comes over asks if I shot a fawn. My answer depends on the person. It is fun to see the horrified looks on some people's faces!