Thursday, July 19, 2018

Goodbye South Dakota, Hello Ontario!



This week found us driving in North Dakota reminiscing about the past 6 weeks in the Black Hills; about everything we got done, about all our visitors and talking about what is yet to come.  We have so many goals of things to do in South Dakota it is mindboggling; bike the entire Michelson Trail, hit every brewery in the hills, hike all 9 trails in Custer State Park….. Not to mention the personal work; get our build site ready for concrete, fencing projects...... So many things so little time…..
But that is part of what continues to drive us; reaching for and achieving goals. This past week we accomplished a couple of these goals and made steps towards others. Kevin and Cheryl arrived for a few days and we went to work on our build site by putting in concrete forms, putting in water lines, electrical conduit, frost foam and rebar. We are officially ready for concrete!



We also knocked off one more brewery by visiting the newly opened Firehouse Brewery in Hill City. This makes 5 out of 10.  Barb had a flight of 6 brews (her favorite being the Smoke Jumper), Cheryl did a wine tasting that included 5 wines (she bought a bottle of Mythical Beast) while Kevin and I had a pint of Bell Tower Lager, their lightest beer. Since Cheryl had never been to Prairie Berry Winery we hit that as well where she bought a bottle of Red Ass Rhubarb.
Cheryl and Barb at Firehouse Brewery
The night before we headed north Rudee and Phil invited us to another play at the Black Hills Playhouse. This time we saw “Oklahoma!” We are not really play people so for us to go to two plays in a month is quite a feat and both Barb and I agreed that this was the best one we have ever been to and the Spelling Bee we saw last month was the 2nd best play we have been to. Never mind the fact these are the only two we have ever seen.

One last check of thee trail cameras showed that the fawns are finally starting to show themselves!
Follow the leader.....

This one looks very young!

Do I have something in my teeth?

Jumping for joy!
For this road trip our first destination was “The Farm” in North Dakota where we planned a one night stay to see Bob and DeAnne for the night. We try to take different routes whenever we travel to the farm, this time we came across “The Enchanted Highway” so we took a little detour to see what it was all about. It is a 32 mile stretch of highway where they constructed scrap metal sculptures to entice travelers in the area. 







Besides seeing Bob and DeAnne, we were especially looking forward to this trip as it was the first time we have been here in the summer.
Barb was a little camera shy
All of our other trips were in the spring before the crops were up and in the fall when the crops are harvested. This is the first time we have been here when the crops were in their full growing cycle. One of the main things we were looking forward to was seeing the Canola in full bloom and we were not disappointed! 
The field with the blue on the right is flax

The cows kept staring at the drone
Soon after arriving and saying hello Bob and I hit the field to take a look at a gopher problem he has in one of  his fields. Since I am the self-proclaimed rodent expert of the Dakota’s, I wanted to see what he was dealing with. I have seen the damage prairie dogs could do but we have no financial impact. These gophers on the other hand can devastate a field and take money out of their pockets.

The bare spots in the photo below show some of the damage caused by the gophers....
Each of those bare spots a gopher damage
A close up of one of the area


Then there are the geese.... this is what they do to a pea field.
All that brown were peas until the geese moved in and ate them to the ground. So what do you do? You can't shoot them this time of year, you cannot be there constantly to shoo them away, instead he put up a coyote decoy which so far is working like a charm!

Farmer Bob and his coyote decoy
The next day we drove the area so I could get a look at all the fields we planted in May. It was really cool to see where they were just 6 weeks later.
Field Peas
Chick Peas
Flax
Barley
Wheat
We left the next day and started our 16 hour journey northeast towards our ultimate goal; Pasha Lake Cabins. We chose a route that took us east just below the Canadian border. As we passed through Rugby we saw a monument saying that we were in the geological center of North America!

We eventually crossed into Minnesota and made our way to Baudette where we crossed the border into Ontario. This is where we met Willie Walleye, a 40' statue just before we crossed the border.

As soon as we crossed the border Barb kept chiding me that she was going to catch the biggest walleye and rub it in my face. She kept doing this annoying “walleye dance” saying “I am going to catch the biggest fish, I am going to catch the biggest fish” To be honest she looked more like a beached manatee than a walleye. She went on so much I don’t know if I should pull over and roll her into the water or roll her in some bread crumbs and into a frying pan!

After 10 hours of driving that day, we spent the night in a boat launch at a remote lake on highway 11 about 1 ½ hours east of Thunder Bay. 

Four hours later we were pulling into Pasha Lake Cabins and set up our home for the next 5 weeks! 

Not a bad view for the next few weeks!

So who will catch the biggest fish? Well, you will just have to stay tuned to find out! 

21 comments:

  1. I will await the news on the "biggest fish". Maybe a bet between you. If you win Jim .... maybe that spotting scope you want! lol Can't wait for the outcome. Ha Ha. Sounds like you are prepared for a wonderful time at Pasha Lake Cabins.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have a great time and I am sure we will here all about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey welcome to Canada eh!! Have a beer and some maple syrup fer sure eh. Ok enough already. Cool drone shots over the fields, gophers and geese just clearing out big pieces of crop! Unreal. Did "Willie the walleye" get Barb started on the big fish rant? There are so many things I could say but lots of people read your blog lol ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that I think of it, the rant did start shortly after we saw Willie. I thought maybe the Canadian air was making her delusional!

      Delete
  4. I’ll bet you dinner at the Hitchrail that Barb catches the biggest fish! 🐋 I love the pictures from the Enchanted Highway, we’re going to have to drive that sometime. Safe travels!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are on! I cannot wait until September when you have to buy that meal!

      Delete
  5. The fawns are so cute! Darn those gophers, clever fix though. I think I know who will catch the biggest Walleye, but I won't say her name ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be interesting to see how long that works or if they will wise up and figure out the coyote never moves.....

      Delete
  6. Great trail cam shots of the deer. The Enchanted Highway looks pretty cool. I think with Barb’s previous luck with catching fish you may be in trouble Jim. 😜 Look forward to your fishing pics. Too bad our timing was off by just a few days...would have been great to meet up. Have fun and welcome to Canada!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, we were watching your travels hoping we would meet up but it looks like we were about a week too late!

      Delete
  7. Wow...you are really coming along on the foundation. Don't forget to write my initials in the concrete!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you come out and help you can even put your handprint in it!

      Delete
  8. Wow, you guys have been crazy busy!! Oh, our Red Ass Rhubarb wine stock has depleted, dang that's good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like you two need to head east to replenish your stock!

      Delete
  9. Always fun taking different routes and see interesting stuff. Enjoy your time at the cabins and hope the mosquitoes aren't too bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So far the mosquitoes have been tolerable but luckily the fish are biting as much as they are!

      Delete
  10. You two work so hard. I get tired just reading about it:) Love all the iron sculptures. We've seen a few on our travels. Thanks for the photos of the various crops. I wish farmers would put markers along the road. I am always curious about what is growing. Good luck to Barb! Can't wait to see her HUGE catch!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think we've driven the Enchanted Highway before, or one very similar. If you ever are in Dunseith ND check out W'eel the giant turtle made of wheel rims. You two certainly keep busy. We always like seeing the fields with crops growing, like Pam we wish farmers put signs up with the crop names. Good luck Barb!!

    ReplyDelete