Winner Winner!

A comment by a reader this week reminded me of my time working at J.C.Penney's in the early 80's. The store was in Rosedale mall in Minnesota and my job was to catch shoplifters. Wild times back then, but what the commentor talked about was how Christmas music played nonstop from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Her comment brought flashbacks of not only the music, but the crowds. Oh my god, the crowds in the malls from Thanksgiving to Christmas, wall to wall people in a shopping frenzy to find gifts for their loved ones. My, how times have changed. 

There is talk that malls are on a comeback with the Gen Z'ers. I highly doubt it. I also saw another segment where malls were turned into apartments with some stores scattered among them. I think that is a more realistic use of the space. 

With Barb's elk in the freezer, we have turned our sights to filling my muzzleloader tag. We are hoping to get a mule deer to top off the freezer which means we have to look off our property. Our method is to drive the remote forest service roads trying to spot on and then put the sneak on it. 

Barb and Forrest are alternating driving while I keep a look out. We have seen some beautiful country, but not a mule deer that we want to harvest. While Barb and I were out last time something exciting did happen though. We were well into our hunt, about 40 miles from home and had just passed through the town of Dewey (population 10) when "wham!", we hit something. Barb stopped and we got out to take a look. All we heard was a hiss coming from the rear driver's side tire. We were 20 miles from the nearest town with any facilities so we booked it to see if we could make it before the tire went entirely flat. We did not. We made it about 5 miles. Not a problem, we would just change the tire. That is when we discovered that we did not have the socket necessary to remove the spare from the back of the jeep. Luckily, we had cell service and were able to get a hold of Forrest and have him start our way with the tools we needed. 

Over the next hour and a half, we sat on the side of the road and waited. Two cars went by in that time, one stopped, one did not. Unfortunately, the one who did stop, did not have the tool we needed either. When Forrest did arrive, we had the tire changed and were on our way in about 15 minutes. 

What was in the tire? I am not quite sure yet. It was obvious where the tire was punctured, but as I pulled in it, it just kept growing and I was not able to get it out. Looks like a job for the tire shop.

But that was not our only exciting event for the week! We got out ice fishing a couple of times. Once with just Forrest and I and the next time with everybody. The ice was just barely thick enough at 4-5", it was a little sketchy here and there with the ice cracking and popping. We did not fish right next to each other fearing that our combined weight might just be a little too much for the ice. We did have fun though managing to stay dry and catch a few panfish and trout!

Somer caught the most fish, no one fell, but the cracking ice did have a few people nervous. I know you southerners think we are nuts, and we just might be, but that's what we do! You know what else we do in the Midwest? Make lefsa! Some of you non-Midwesterners, or non-Scandinavians will probably have to look up exactly what lefse is so here is your definition. 

Friends Vicki and Merrell hosted a lefse making party with Vicki doing all the prep work. All we had to do was flatten, cook, drink (which is a requirement while making lefse) and of course eat them! 

Somer and Forrest joined us. Lily stayed home saying she "did not want to listen to old people yap all afternoon". Those were her exact words!

Of course there was lots of snacks, appetizers and no lefse party is complete without a Fireball keg!

Then there was Wednesday bingo which is where the title of this post came from. We had a winner at our table this week! It was the last card of the night called "Cover All" where you need to cover every dot on your card. It is also a progressive jackpot which was up to $1,200 this week if the winner wins by the 56th number called. Otherwise, they win the daily pot of $258. Somer was 2 numbers away from covering her entire card as they called the 50th number. On the 54th number they called one of her remaining numbers and she screamed stopping the entire round while the announcer asked if she had bingo. We all watched in anticipation as they called the 55th and 56th number without calling her remaining spot. So much for the progressive jackpot. On the 58th number they finally called it and she screamed again and started dancing around. 

When the announcer came over to verify her card, Barb snuck this video. Priceless!

A bit of more fun we had this week was working on the foundation for our new garage. With a couple days of warm weather (50 degrees) forecasted, we thought maybe we could get the concrete poured this week. Barb and Forrest laid out and tied rebar while I worked on building a 3' wall on one side.

Unfortunately, the weather turned, and it also snowed so we did not get to pour, but we are ready!

There was more winning on Friday morning when Barb and I attended the grand opening celebration for a new liquor store in Rapid City. Not a big deal you say? It is when they are offering some hard-to-get bourbons for your collection. We left the house at 4:30am in anticipation of this great event. When we arrived, we discovered that we were not the only ones with this in mind. 

When we arrived at 5:45am we were probably 40th in line awaiting the 7:00 opening. The 75-minute wait would not have been a big deal except for the fact that it was only 10 degrees! (-12c). But there was a food truck and a guy pouring bourbon hot chocolate to those waiting in line. 

The store had about 100 allocated (hard to get) bottles waiting for the anxious customers awaiting their opening. Barb and I created a priority list of when we wanted when it was our turn, but at number 40, would any of them still be available?!?! Talking to the other people in line, we learned that the first person got in line about 2:30am. 

We chatted with the people around us about all thing's bourbon, what we already had in our collections and what we hoped to get. We even made some new friends! (That we will probably never see again) The husband/wife couple (Jason and Kristi) behind us were a hoot providing lots of laughs. We took a selfie with Kristi. The guy behind them was a mailman who was supposed to have been at work already. He laughed and said, "I guess everyone's mail will be 40 minutes late today!"

7:00 finally came and the line started moving. As you walk into the store, the allocated bottles were on a table. You have to make your selection quick as the person behind you might reach ahead and steal your selection. Was it worth it? It was worth it for the fun factor in itself, but I was able to score the #1 bottle on my list, a Knob Creek 18 year! Barb went totally off script and picked a bottle "because it was pretty". It was a bottle of Caribou Crossing with a caribou figurine on top. A guy a few behind us was none too happy with Barb's selection as that was his #1 bottle. I guess he should have gotten there 10 minutes earlier!

The last bit of fun we had was last night when we were invited to a preholiday get together. Friends Bob and Barb hosted in their new house. Dan and Bonnie were also there as well as Alan and Elizabeth. Good food, lots of laughs and not a single picture!

I will leave you with a couple of trail cam pictures. I have taken down all my cameras except for the one on the hay bale. This first picture was unedited, it is just crazy what great pictures it takes!

The bucks are still coming around, but mostly at night.

As you can see, the guy above has part of his right antler missing. No doubt from a fight like the one below...

That's it for this week. I just realized that there is not one dog picture of video in this post at all. Sorry Harry, I will try to do better next time!