Sunday, July 25, 2021

The Call of the Wild

 We have run into a lot of wild creatures here at home and on the road. By now we have seen pretty much every creature there is to see and many we can recognize just by sight. Some are cute, some ugly, some are harmless, some are scary. But this last month, Barb started hearing a creature that she had never heard before. It started in Oregon shortly after she went shopping and bought a crepe pan. Strange right? Well, after buying it we would be laying in the camper after waking up and we would hear this creature make it’s call. Some days it would sound like an 34 year old adult male creature, sometimes it sounded like a 9 year old (almost 10) female. It was a soft melodic sounds that started out soft and got louder and louder as the morning went on, repeating every few minutes. It sounded like the creature was in or near Forrest’s house and went something like this….. “🎝Crepe…..crepe….crepe🎝”.

 The longer Barb heard this call the stronger her urge to make crepes. Well, it appears as though these creatures reside in South Dakota as well, as upon our return she started hearing that familiar call again. Although the creature here was not nearly as melodic or cute, she eventually made crepes just to shut the damn thing up!

They have officially replaced waffles as my go to breakfast and this is what they look like each and every time, she did not make these pretty for the photo op. Life is good!

For those of you who did not really understand the beginning of last week’s post, it was kind of an inside joke between us and our infamous friends Dino and Lisa. We are always harassing each other in a lighthearted manner. Even Lisa read the post with a puzzled expression on her face until Dino pointed out that “Asil” was her name spelled backwards! And true to form Onid even sent me this picture of his grotesquely disfigured right foot with a dandelion between his toes just to show my description was fairly accurate.

Oh, I am sure there will be retaliation at some point!

This week we had some special guest stop by for a day. Our friends Judy and Larry from Minnesota were in the area with their horses and took a day off of trail riding to spend an afternoon with us. 

We had not seen them since.... I actually don't know but it has been a few years. Judy even brought the mak'ins for Root Beer Floats! But know us like she does she brought the variety that is all alcohol and no ice cream. It consists of Not Your Fathers Rootbeer and Rum Chata!

We spent a few hours catching up and telling tales. Before we knew it, it was time for them to head back and take care of their horses. 

Thursday night was the annual summer fund raiser for the Pringle Fire Department and since Kevin is now a member we of course had to attend. Kevin wore the new shirt that Cheryl bought for him. Special K  is one of our many nicknames for Kevin......because he is so special to us, or at least that is what we tell him!

Friday was a fun day when Kevin and I went to our friends Richard and Cheryl's place in Rapid City to pour some concrete. Nothing like doing concrete in 90 degree weather! What was supposed to be an easy pour with the truck backing up and dumping right in the form turned into a sh#t show with us having to wheel barrel it in as the truck could not fit in the gate to get to the form. Richard and I would take turns on the wheel barrel as we would start to get dizzy after doing our 3rd or 4th in a row.  It took an extra hour or so but we got it done!  

Somethings you just cannot unsee!

On the home front, now that the floors are all in, we could get the trim in! We focused on door trim getting the trim on the bathroom, bedroom, entry and sliding doors all in. We just keep pecking away at it and one day.... we will look around and have nothing to do. Well, at least that is the day I dream about anyway!
Front Door

Bedroom/Bathroom Doors

Kitchen Window

As exciting as it was to get some of the finishing touches done inside, what we did outside was doubly as exciting as we started our porch! This work is way over my paid grade and thank God for Kevin. The porch will run over 140' on three sides of the house. Using 8x8 rough cut logs for both the posts and beams using mortise and tenon construction. Between the meticulous cutting, the heat and the weight of the posts and beams this is killer work.
 
This is what the east side looked like before we got started .......
The east side is 96' x 8'

First two posts!2
65+

First Beam!

By the end of the day we had 4 posts and 3 beams up...... 
4 posts, 3 beams at the end of day #1

This will be quite the project but when it is done it is going to look amazing!

It has been raining almost every day sometime in the evening. I think it has something to do with the hills and the cooling of the evening air but it does leave some incredible light shows and this rainbow. Maybe, just maybe if we find the end of the rainbow we will find our house all finished with nothing left for us to do but relax and enjoy......someday......

21 comments:

  1. Love to see all the progress you make...can't wait until it is done, if I can live until the year 2035! lol

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    1. Just think in 2035 you can be RV'ing in your totally electric/solar powered RV! As long as you don't mind stopping every 100 miles for a couple of hours to recharge!

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  2. That porch is going to be a showpiece! Everything looks great!

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    1. We have been looking forward to this point for a long time, it is really going to add to the overall look of the house!

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  3. Those crepes look amazing! Yum. Your porch will be fabulous. Sort of like how our house is built.

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    1. The detail in timber framing is incredible and so cool how they put things together in a full timber frame house!

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  4. The trim around the doors and window looks great! Can't wait to see that finished porch.

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    1. It looks like we can get the timber frame done in about 3-4 days, then I can put up the rafters and purlins myself. The roof tin is about 8 weeks out from ordering so that will have to wait until October.

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  5. My thought was just what are you going to do when you get it finished? It is definitely gorgeous!! As for the concrete ... looks like concrete butt to me (similar in nature to plumbers) ... well, you know! As for crepes, I tend towards waffles swimming in a large pool of maple syrup!!!

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    1. We hope to relax, do more sightseeing and hiking locally. But knowing us we will probably start some other project to prevent us from really relaxing and enjoying the area!

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  6. I am going to start calling your place the "Taj Mahall". It looks fabulous. Keep up the good work.

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    1. If you guys come and visit, leave your hammer at home. It will give us a chance to relax for a few days and do some touristy things!

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  7. I haven’t heard the crêpe creature in Oregon for a while you must have took it with you to SD. I like the furs hanging by the door!

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    1. From what we have learned they are quite migratory and once finding a "host" that will provide crepes they are difficult, if not impossible to get rid of them!

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  8. Seafood crepes are my favourite. 😋 Your place sure looks great!
    Cheers!

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    1. Hmmm, seafood crepes! We will have to look into those. I wonder if those require a different call!

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  9. It's all beautiful! The trim just really finishes off the "look". Gotta admit, I'm really partial to the kitchen! :) The porch is going to be amazing! The crepes look really yummy to me!

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    1. We REALLY like the way the kitchen is running out. We just have the backsplash to finish up and then that area is done!

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  10. OK, the house looks great and the crepes looks delicious, but what I NEED is that Special K shirt for my own Special K Kevin! Hahahaha. Love it!!

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  11. Looks so nice. I like how all the wood tones work harmoniously together. The porch will be gorgeous! Hope you get it finished in time to enjoy some summer sttiin’ and sippin’.

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    1. The porch will help keep some of the heat out in the afternoon as it will cover the lower half of our south side. We could really use a little cooler weather right now!

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