Sometimes I Wonder.....

Sometimes I wonder if the bucks in the forest spend as much time thinking about me as I do about them?

Sometimes I wonder, why do the fish pick Barb's jig when mine is just feet away?

Sometimes I wonder, what the dogs dream about?

Sometimes I wonder, does Dino really need his scooter? Or is it just a ploy for sympathy?

Sometimes I wonder how much wood could a woodchuck chuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

These, and others, are they mysteries of life that keep me up at night. 

Deer hunting has been going good. The bucks are not chasing does yet, but they will be soon! I still enjoy just sitting there and watching Mother Natures wonders. The squirrels, the birds and of course the deer. Oh, I forgot the turkeys. Out flock is over 50 birds right now and are just obnoxious! There is one hen in the flock that we call "Hop a long" as she only has one leg. What happened to her is one of the mysteries I mentioned above. She is always the last one in the flock, sometimes 50 yards or better behind; hopping on her one leg trying to keep up. 

While all the other turkey's stand on one foot to scratch the ground, she scratches and hops at the same time. To turn, she has to completely stop and turn in one place, she cannot turn while moving forward. I thought about making a video to show you, but it is just too sad. I have thought about putting her out of her misery, but she is getting along these past few weeks and who am I to say she is in misery? I saw her jump up on the water tank the other day and drink so she seems to be getting along well, just a little slower than the rest. Which, I am afraid, will make her easy prey for a coyote. 

Every time I look at a picture from that camera, I am reminded that I need to fix the time and date on it. It is a month and 10 hours off. 

I wrote the above earlier in the week before I got the news that our good friend Mike had passed away. Many of you know Mike from our Florida adventures. We first met Mike and Liz in 2016 during our first Alaska adventure. Guess where? A brewery of course!

Subsequently, we got together with them each time we went to Florida. We have stayed in their driveway several times, happy hours in their garage, numerous breweries and distilleries visited. 

This is the same Mike who treated us to a guided fishing trip on the Withlacoochee River. This is the same Mike who had these wine bottles made for us for our 38th anniversary. 

Even when we weren't in Florida, Mike and I would talk on an almost weekly basis keeping up with each other's lives. I could go on and on, but what's the point, he is gone and his passing leaves a hole in our hearts. Saying our thoughts and prayers go out to Liz rings hollow as they were each other's worlds and adored each other like none other. 

I thought about rewriting the beginning of this post as it seemed too lighthearted for such a somber week, but Mike had such a great sense of humor, he would have not wanted me to change a thing. 

The rest of the week was somber as we continued to work on the camper and garage. Barb got the stairs done in the camper; a slow and tedious job but they turned out great!

For my part, I got the steel installed on the front of the garage and got the lights installed! I just have the east side of the trailer port. Then I am about as far as I can get on the outside for a while. Here is the goofy/frustrating part of where I bought the steel from. I bought the side steel some J trim in red, the roof, some J trim and the facia in charcoal. A few weeks later when I went to order the soffit, they said that that company does not make soffit in charcoal! So, now Barb is looking for F channel and soffit from somewhere else that either exactly matches the charcoal or compliments the two other colors. 

We don't get a lot of time to work; getting up at 4:30 each morning to go deer hunting then going out to the stand each afternoon really limits the time I get to work. It is my daily therapy where I relax and reflect on how lucky we are to live and love the way we do. 

We had neighbors Jim and Carmen over one night for a bourbon tasting. It was all fun and games until Jim hit the wall and laid his head down and went night night. 

Bingo night with Dan and Bonnie was also fun, but alas, we were not winners.

The "fun" continued with a morning of concrete work with Kevin in Pringle where we poured an apron at the Fire Hall and a couple of sidewalks at the Community Center. Nothing like pouring concrete when the temps are in the 20's!

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Forrest and Lily made the 6-hour drive from Tennessee to visit Jessica and family. Lily and Kendall went trick or treating and Dylan had a special birthday as he turned 16 and got his first car!

My first car looked nothing like that! I believe mine was an early 70's Ford Galaxy 500. 

Who knows what fun is in store for us this week, more project work I suppose. It reminds me of those Progressive Insurance commercials about not turning into your parents where the guy says something like "Raking leaves is something you have to do not get to do. we kinda look forward to working on our projects, which apparently, we are not supposed to do!

Winter Travel Plans Revealed!

So many places to visit so little time! For years (12 now), we have been somewhere down south for the winter. Even after building and moving into our home, we have made an annual pilgrimage somewhere down warm.  One of these years we will spend an entire winter here, this is not the year. 

But where to go? For the past few years we have been going to Florida by way of Kentucky, Pennsylvania and then heading south along the coast to Florida. We absolutely love everything Florida has to offer (except the bugs); the fishing, the food, not to mention the friends and family we have down there. Sadly, we are not going there this year. In fact, we are not going East/Southeast at all. 

For years we have been wanting to explore the Texas coast from Port Arthur to Port Isabel. While that is still on our short list, this is not the year for that either.  

That leaves the Southwest where we have spent several years basking in the desert outside Quartzsite Arizona, but again, not this year. Well, at least not Q. We ARE however going to Arizona! Why, you ask? Several reasons. One, we have several friends who spend the winter down there. Two, it is warm. We need warmth! And lastly, we need to go to the dentist. For those of you who are RV'ers or former RV'ers, you know that Los Algodones Mexico is the place to go for affordable dental work. Both Barb and I have broken a tooth over the past couple of months and need some work. Luckily, neither one of us are in pain, nor are the broken teeth up front, but we do need to get them taken care of. So, it is off to Arizona we go!

We have plans to spend a few days in Yuma while crossing back and forth into Mexico. Once that is done, we plan to spend a few days in the Tucson area visiting friends who are wintering down there and we have a few days planned in the Prescott area, again visiting friends. 

Not a long trip, maybe a month, but it will be nice to get away for a few weeks in the heart of the cold season in South Dakota. And bonus, we found someone to stay at the house while we are gone! We are not leaving until late January, which will allow us to have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years at home. Heck, we may even get some ice fishing in!

Speaking of ice fishing, we had our first hard freeze on Wednesday morning. Mother Nature did not mess around. While we have been below freezing a time or two, this was our first hard freeze when it got down to 17°f. The good news is that it did away with all those darn stink bugs! Which reminds me, the other night, at like 2am, I feel something crawling across my head. I swatted at it and "crunch", I smashed a stink bug on my forehead! 

While that was the lowlight of the week, the highlight was getting the new generator installed! What a pain, I can see why no one wanted to work on it. Barb and I built a system using boards, milk crates and a jack to get it back up into its housing. We got it almost all the way up and started hooking things back up; the gas and three wiring harnesses. Once that was done, I went into the camper to test the remote start button and....it started! Loud, as it still did not have the muffler on, but at least it was running! But now the true test; did the remote shut off stich work....Nope. 

From previous troubleshooting I knew it was not the switch, it must be the wire somewhere between the switch and the generator. To confirm this, I removed the switch and was going to splice it in at the generator. I set about removing the wire nuts at the generator to splice in the switch. As I removed the first wire nut, I noticed something, do you see it?

Look closely at that white wire, see the greenish discoloration on the end? Corrosion! Meaning it was not making a connection. I cleaned all those wires up, restripped them, added a wire nut and viola, the remote shut off worked! After months of dealing with this issue, I basically tripped upon the cause. 

Barb and I were able to then lift the generator back into place using the jack, reinstall all the mounting brackets and it was back in!

So glad to have that project behind us!

Meanwhile, Barb is still going crazy inside the camper. And when I use the word "crazy" I mean it quite literally. After removing the toilet last week and installing LVP, I expected to see a completed bathroom. But no, she went ahead and ripped out the sink and countertop! 

But wait, she is not done. She then went about ripping out the carpet under the dinette. You know, the spot where Dakota spends all her time? Barb said it was disgusting. The carpet was both glued and stapled so she had to remove each of the staples one by one (right picture) after she got the carpet removed. 

I "think" she is done tearing apart, but I have thought that before. Time to start putting things back together. 

Tuesday, we rented a trencher to trench a path from the power pole to the shed and then the shed to the garage so we could have power out there. This was my first time trenching. Not too bad, but the rocky terrain did make it challenging. 

Over the next few days I laid the wire, installed a couple of breaker boxes, wired some outlets and I now have power in both the shed and the garage! I just need to wire in the rest of the outlets to call that project complete, but no more extension cords running across the driveway!

That was not the only electrical work I did this week. Neighbor Jim had a couple of breakers and a GFCI he needed installed and Dan had a couple of breakers and a three-way switch that needed wiring. I also helped Jim install a butcherblock countertop in his laundry room. 

A day or two later he sent me this picture of the completed project. He had installed trim, a sink, backsplash and shelving. It turned out great!

That pretty much wraps up the work for the week. We did get out three times for fun; lunch with Dan and Bonnie, we had Kevin out one night for walleye supper and friends Allen and Elizabeth invited us over for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, salad and a pecan dump cake for dessert. Something about us being the guina pigs for their real Thanksgiving dinner. So good! So full! Of course, no pictures were taken in any of these outings. 

Deer hunting has been going well. I got out almost every morning and night, even when it was in the teens. I am seeing lots of deer but have my eye on one specific deer. I have him on camera, yet to see him in person. Hopefully soon! 

While I am out hunting Barb has been in a baking mood making both pumpkin bars and apple crisp! You are going to need to roll me out to the blind if I keep eating like I did this week! Barb peeled, cut up, vac sealed and froze 10 gallons of apples that we brought back from the farm. Enough to keep us in apple desserts for most of the winter!

Barb and I did make a run over to Buffalo Gap to get some bulk whole corn to feed the deer over the winter. They have a chute that they put into my tote to fill it up. Roughly 2,500lbs of corn, cheap entertainment to watch the deer as we are huddled inside next to the fire this winter. 

No blog is complete without a dog video, right? And being it was Halloween yesterday what better video and picture than Sophie and Zoey dressed up for the holiday!

So scary, have a spooktacular weekend!

Becoming a Hypochondriac

 Little known fact. The excellent advertising by the drug manufacturers has turned me into a hypochondriac. Believe it or not, despite our busy work schedule, I do find time to watch a little TV. Barb, not so much. She is too wired to sit down for more than a few minutes and is usually in the kitchen doing something while I watch TV. This usually occurs in the morning before we get active, again at lunch and something to end the day as we wind down. 

My venue of choice is usually YouTube where I catch up on the news of the day or find out what the latest "have to have" bourbon is. Of course, this means I have to sit through in-video ads. Threequarters of the ads seem to be of some new medication. As I am watching the ad, I will shout, "Barb, can you come here"? When she walks into the room, I will turn to her and say, "I think I have Vitiligo", or "I think I have psoriasis", or whatever the ailment of the day is on YouTube. Other times I will just yell out, "Barb, I need Rinvoq!" Barb, I need Mounjaro!" Sometimes when I am in the deer blind I will randomly text her I think I have (fill in the blank).

Of course, when you become of a certain age (60 I think) you have to add the word "The" in front of the main word you are going to say. So instead of saying, " I think I have eczema", I say, "I think I have THE eczema".  Half the time I don't even know what the ailment or medication is, Barb is just roll her eyes and say something like "No, honey, you do not need The Numlivia". She has agreed with me twice however, once when I told her I needed The Cialis, and again when I said that I think I have cognitive decline. For some reason Barb she agreed with me on both of those! 

The side effects might scare some away, but I am a fan of high blood sugar, weight gain, high cholesterol, comas, strokes, suicidal thoughts, diarrhea, tremors, uncontrolled body movements. sleepiness, vomiting, indigestion, nausea and even death. Sadly, I am not sure if I am pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant, so I better just stay away from some of these medications. 

Such is the life of a hypochondriac. It was actually a pretty slow week on the J-B. After leaving the farm, we stopped in Dickenson and spent the night at Phat Fish Brewery again. 

We stopped outside of Rapid the next day where we met friends and former neighbors, Doug and Lisa for lunch at JR's BBQ in Summerset. Little did we know we would be seeing them in just a few days!

The first 24-hours after getting back from the farm we did not do too much. It was cold and windy with sustained winds at 20+ and temps ranging from 28-48F. No one wants to be outside in that. So instead, we worked in the garage and processing room. I organized and put away my duck hunting stuff, cleaned my shotguns and worked on the generator in the camper. 

If you recall, we bought a new generator a few weeks ago to replace the one that is not working in the camper. What a pain! You have to drop the old one down through the bottom of the camper, disconnecting all the wiring and each of the mounting bolts then dropping it to the ground. "Dropping" it being the key word as this thing weighs over 100lbs. While I did not drop it, it was not a gentle lowering of the generator either. It's still a work in progress as I needed a wire splice kit which went on our list for the next trip to Rapid. 

Meanwhile, Barb worked inside the camper where she tore out the carpet around the toilet. Who puts carpet around a toilet?!?!  She said it was absolutely disgusting. She had to remove the toilet itself as the carpet was actually underneath it. Once that was done, she set about replacing the carpet with vinyl planking as she did the rest of the floor. A little while later, when I went inside, I found her on her knees at the dog wash scrubbing the toilet while making gagging noises. 

As fun as that sounds, the next day it was time for some real fun when we went up to visit our niece Alana up in Spearfish to watch a few football games. One game led to two, which led to three which led to us spending the night before sneaking out at 5am the next morning and heading home. We had kind of planned on it and had packed accordingly. 

What a good time! This was our first football get together in their new home with their new tv room. Talk about a big screen TV! To give you an idea on just how big the TV is, we had Alana stand next to it for perspective. 

It was actually dizzying at first until your brain adjusted to it. But what a great place to watch The Sports Ball! We spent the day watching the Vikings lose, Denver win and the 49'er win the night game. Alana and Ryan actually had a bet riding on the 9'ers game and since they won, Alana now has to wear 49'ers gear every day they play through the rest of the season. 

The dogs played and played and played. Well, Zoey, Sophie and Loki. Dakota just laid on her bed and watched. 

When they were not playing, Zoey was tormenting their cat, Ollie. She was just obsessed with it! I am not sure if she wanted to play with it or kill it. 

They have a pet door built into their slider (to the right of Zoey in the picture above). Each of the pets, would come and go through that door throughout the day, except Zoey, she just could not figure that thing out. So anytime Ollie wanted to get away from Zoey he would just run out that door, all Zoey could do was stare through the window. 

The dogs eventually settled down and just chilled on the bed, blankets and couch. 

Of course, the floors were lava to Dakota so the only way to get her into the bedroom was to use two dog beds and have her play leapfrog on alternating beds until she was finally in the bedroom. Same thing on the way out in the morning, she just would not walk across those floors!

Tuesday it was back to work. This time for Kevin who was pouring concrete for a new project. He was pouring the slab for Doug and Lisa's son, Sam just north of Rapid City! 

4 hours and 4 trucks later, we had it all laid out. Barb picked me up and we headed home while Kevin spent the next 5 hours doing the finishing work. 

On the deer front I have been out hunting a few times, one night having 5 different bucks in front of me, but I have my eye on one guy who has yet to make an appearance in person. Here are a few shots I got this week with either my trail camera or handheld. 

It's almost like these guys posed for the trail camera!

Then there was this one who looks like she is standing up looking for someone.

These are three of the 5 bucks I saw while out the other day....

I took these with my Lumix

A few more trail cam pictures.

A bluejay dive-bombing the water tank

Playing follow the leader

A squirrel greeting a fawn!

This fawn was standing in the empty water tank while we were at the farm

I filled it when we got back

A coyote strolled by one morning

I saw this guy hanging out on our bathroom window!

I gotta go as I think I have a UTI, early on set dementia or maybe early menopause, I need to look it up on The Google to know for sure!