AI

 Have you dabbled in AI? Artificial Intelligence seems to be the buzz word of the year. The search engine on my phone has been taken over by AI, much to my chagrin. Why can't they leave things well enough alone? I just want text about what I am looking for not some minutes long voice description telling me everything I didn't want to know about a given subject. And half the time it does not hear you correctly and gives you a description of something totally different than what you wanted. 

Then there are the pictures. Some of them are hilarious, others are so real that you cannot tell AI from real. You can put just about any picture in, make a request and it pops out a picture. Like this likeness of Zoey, Chloe and Jack. 

Forrest put in a picture of Barb and a request of having her riding a French Bulldog and this is what it returned. At first glance 

While the dog looks a lot like Zoey, the picture of Barb was super distorted putting 30 pounds on her and giving her buck teeth. Or maybe that is actually what he put in!

From what I am told, AI can actually write a blog for you by just putting in a few key words and pushing a button to have it generated. I have never tried that, that would just take the fun out of it for me. I do think I have one commenter that uses AI for her responses. Actually, many of you have the same commenter, if you read her comments, they include such detail on almost everything in the blog, it just does not sound natural and it always include a link. I might be wrong, but I do not think so. 

All of this makes you wonder, what is real, what photo was actually taken? What essay was actually written? I, for one, have to get better at determining if something is generated with AI or is real. A friend recently sent me a picture of his living room asking me if I liked how he painted it. At first I focused on the whole picture noticing the newly painted walls. I did notice some other subtle differences but never guessed that it was an AI generated photo until he told me he hadn't actually painted his walls at all!

What have we been up to the last 10 days? Work continues on the garage. We got as much of the roof done as we can for right now, the full 36' of the garage area in fact. This allowed us to move the boat out of the house garage and put it in the new garage! One of the struggles of working on a steel roof in the summer is the heat. With temps in the 80's and 90's, you only have a few hours in the morning before the steel starts getting too hot to work on. 

We are now getting ready to start phase II of this project which will be to add a 12' covered shed or lean to on the end. This will require us to drill some holes for posts, put beams across the 12' span, put more trusses up and cover it. This area will be for our covered trailer and protect it from the hail. 

We ordered the siding which arrived on Friday, but the temps were in the 90's Friday, Saturday and Sunday so we opted for other tasks. 

Like tackling the last that damn grout! I am sure you are as tired of reading about grouting the stone as I am writing about it. We did another bag yesterday completing about 20 more feet. One more session like this and we will be done!

But, it has not been all work, work, work, we had several fun days too! The first was when Forrest and I went to an archery shoot at Custer State Park. This was a free event put on by the park and what a blast! There were 60 life size 3D targets ranging from 15-100 yards throughout the course, and we bet $1 per target a potential $60 win if one of us were to win every target. The first target was at the check-in station. a 35-yard shot at an antelope with several observers and if you hit the bullseye, you won a prize. Both Forrest and I had been practicing a lot at home and either of us should be able to put it in or very close to the bullseye at that range. 

I approached the station, lined up my shot and let the arrow loose only to watch it slam into the rocks under the target. What the ?!?! I heard Forrest (and someone else) laughing behind me. On top of the humiliation, that arrow broke so I was down the $15 cost of the arrow on top of the $1 loss to Forrest because he hit closer to the bullseye than me. In fact, he took the next 5 as well, so I was down $6 in the first 6 stations! It was then I realized that my sight was in the wrong position! I had moved it when I was back at home and not put it back in it's "home" position!!!!!

After that I started doing much better and over the next three hours, up and down the hills we shot the remaining of the 60 targets. I won some stations; he won some stations. We were hot, sweaty and thirsty. Neither of us had any idea of who won overall, but we decided that the loser buys Dairy Queen instead of paying the net of our $1/target. After tallying up the score (twice mind you) we were tied! How did we tie after 60 targets?!?! You know what that means right? Dad buys Dairy Queen of course. 

The next "fun" event came when Barb and I loaded up the boat and camper and headed west into Wyoming. Destination Glendo Lake Reservoir! For you travelers out that, I am sure you have seen those check stations along the interstate with signs saying, "All watercraft must stop". The state of Wyoming requires that all watercraft be inspected prior to being launched into Wyoming waters. Why? They do not have invasive zebra mussels in that state yet and they are trying to avoid them. This is the first time we have had to stop at one of these stations and we had no idea what to expect. Pulling in, we were greeted by a 20 something kid with an iPad and he started asking questions. "Where was the boat in the water last?" "How long ago was that?". He then tells me that the lake the boat was last in was "on their list" and I needed to be decontaminated. Well, the boat, not actually me. 

He filled the livewell with 130-degree water and let it sit. He then hooked up a hose to the motor and ran 130-degree water through the motor. The idea is that it is going to kill anything that should not be there. Once everything was "decontaminated" he put a metal seal on the winch of the boat and gave me a slip to give to the guy at the boat ramp. 

2 hours later, we arrived at the Glendo Lake boat ramp, gave this inspection guy our paperwork, he inspects the seal, removes it and allows us to launch. They take their invasive species very serious in Wyoming!

What happened once we were on the water? Of course there is a competition on the water as well. They came in the form of first, most and biggest fish. This was our first fishing outing of the year so we had a lot riding on it for whoever wins gets bragging rights for the next few weeks!

First fish went to Barbie when she landed a nice 16" walleye. Into the livewell it went! Then I caught one, a 18"er that gave me the lead on the biggest fish! Fishing a new lake is tough. You do not know where the fish are, what they like or how to catch them. But we did okay. For the next two days we battled back and forth with the most and biggest fish, and wouldn't you know it when it was all said and done, we tied for the most fish!

That just leaves the biggest. Who do you think has bragging rights to begin the year? I am not going to say, but I will leave you with this picture. 

But wait, is it real or is it AI? Only I know for now, I may reveal the real answer in our next post!

The hardest part of this entire trip was the fact that we left the girls at home. This is the first time in 4 years that Barb has spent a night without Zoey and visa versa. Barb was a nervous wreck leaving "her baby". She required "proof of life" pictures several times throughout the day each day. Here are a few that she received, the first one is the best!

Before I go, I have a question for all you arborists out there. The apple trees seem to be doing well. I am watering them regularly and they seem healthy, except in the last week or so something has started eating the leaves. Is this something I should worry about? Any advice?

Perseverance

"Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure or opposition; the action or condition of an instance or preserving; steadfastness"

That one word sums up the last two weeks of our life. I feel as though it has been almost two weeks since we last posted. Oh wait, it has!

Garage progress has been slow. I shouldn't say slow, maybe just tedious and not real noticeable. After getting the trusses all on one would think it is just a simple matter of putting on the steel roof. But first there is the purlins to put up. From top to bottom every two feet. Barb was my helper for this project. 

Roof work sucks. Standing on ladders and trusses. Lifting things over your head, leaning over, walking over between trusses. Barb would hand me a couple boards, I would take the next 5-10 minutes to nail them in, she would hand me a couple more....... Between handing me boards Barb would tidy up the area or sometimes just lay back and enjoy the sun. 

We ran out of lumber which brought a couple day delay in the finish of that portion, but there was plenty of other things to do.  Barb went around the inside and pounded out all the nails that missed the studs while I was putting the sheathing up.  I went around the outside, pulled the nails she pounded out and pound them back in in their proper home. 

I think I have mentioned that the trusses I got were from a remodel that Kevin did last fall. These "free" trusses are costing me about $15,000. So far we have about $3,000 in concrete, $5,000 in lumber, and $9,000 in steel. Doing it ourselves is saving well over $5,000, but I am ready for it to be done!

The tails on the trusses were only 1', which is not the look we are going for, so I extended each of them by one foot. This is done by taking a 3' 2x4 and attaching it to the end of each truss then snapping a line at the desired length and cutting them all. 

It's not quite that simple though as each cut has to be perfectly level so you can attach your sub facia to it. This means getting up and down the ladder at each truss, using a small level to draw your cut line and then cutting it with the circular saw. 

Once all the tails are installed and cut you can install your sub facia which is the 2x6 that is attached to the end of each of the tails. You have to do basically the same thing with each of the ends. But all of that does not even make you ready for the roof. Next comes the drip edge and underlayment. Ever tried to lay underlayment in South Dakota wind? Not fun. 

The pictures below show the 1' tails (before) on the left and the extended 2' tails (after) and sub facia on the right.

Finally, when all that is done you can put the steel up! Laying a couple 2x4's against the building, me and whoever my helper is at the time, set a piece of steel on the 2x4's, then I clip a vice grip to it which is attached to a rope. I then climb up the top of the trusses and pull the rope (and steel) up to me in place. My helper and I then position the steel in place before I tack it down before the wind takes it. We do the same thing 2-3 times before I tell my helper to take a break while I put all the screws in those 2-3 sheets. 

Slow and tedious work and after doing a few sheets the motivation level goes way down, and I am ready to do something else. Like dirt biking!

Forrest and Somer each have a dirt bike and one afternoon Forrest and I hit the trails. I had not been on a dirt bike in a couple of decades. What a blast! I felt like a kid again roaming the trails in the national forest. 

After a couple hours of riding, the young kid had left my body and replaced by a 60 something old man with a bad back and aching butt, but it was totally worth it!

I also managed to get out and mow the "front yard" when I was stuck on the garage and had no helper around. Or is it the backyard? An ongoing discussion between Barb and I.

Needed to get done and it was a welcome distraction. 

Forrest and I went out fishing one day as well and finally found the walleye on Angostura. Each of us boated 10+ walleye and 10+ smallies making for a great day. Below is one of the small ones we caught. We went home and cooked a few of the bigger ones up having our first walleye for the season!

Forrest and Somer went out the next day and brought back even more keeper walleye!

Then came two days of rain, which we needed, but it meant no progress on the garage. It also coincided with our next visitor's arrival. Dan and Jeanie of Florida and Minnesota arrived on Wednesday afternoon and left on Friday morning. We opted for indoor activities going to Crazy Horse where we went through each of the exhibits and read about the native American history in the area. The place was packed! Lots of tourists with many of them getting their pictures taken with a "real live Indian"! I found it kinda of strange until Jeanie mentioned that to many of the foreign tourist's buffalo and Indians are more like mythical beings that they have only read about or seen on TV. Apparently, many of the Asian cultures are fascinated with the old west culture. Interesting. 

After that, the skies had cleared up a little, so we headed to Custer State Park and drove the Wildlife Loop. Along with 9,000 other cars! It wasn't horrible, except when we got to the burros. Of course, we had to stop and feed them a few carrots. 

As a reward for all of our hard work this week we went and checked out a new bar in town. Imagine that! Well, not a bar actually, more of a taproom with 20 or so taps on the wall where you pour your own and are charged by the ounce. 

Here is our one downer of the week. This was discovered when Forrest opened the hood of the Jeep to change the oil. Something (either a chipmunk, red squirrel or a pack rat) took up residence under the hood of the Jeep tearing up the hood liner as well as part of the firewall. Luckily, no wires were damaged. I need to find this little bugger!

This coming week will likely be more of the same, we do have some fun intermixed in there as well as a couple of doctor appointments that will be the opposite of fun. But we shall continue to persevere day by day.

Storytellers

I stumbled upon a show on Netflix that I just find fascinating. Not a binge watcher, but one I find interesting if I have 20 or so minutes to kill. It is called the Appalachian Storyteller; you can check it out by clicking this link.   The channel has many interesting stories about individuals and families that lived in the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1800's when there was little law enforcement and oversight. 

There are so many people in life that I wish I could watch shows about their life stories; my grandparents, my parents or even random people I meet in life. There is a woman we met a couple of weeks ago who is (I was told), the single largest landowner in the county owning thousands of acres. In her 80's, she has an accent, and I wonder what her life story; what has she seen in life?  Hopefully these stories would be without the crime, and murder, but who knows?!?! 

As a matter of fact, I think we have a storyteller amongst our blog community. Granny Sue has talked about storytelling in the past and probably knows the Appalachian storyteller.

But on with our week. Wet and foggy are the adjectives for week. Basically, zero work done on the garage. As much as we want to make progress on it, a couple of down days with no guilt was kind of welcome. Instead, we spent the week inside cleaning and organizing. I spent several hours out in the shed trying to put that in order. Basically, moving stuff from one spot to another, but it does look more organized. 

But look what peaked out from under the hay bales while I was in there! 

Hard to see, but that there are two little bunnies! At least two of the four survived!

I swear it rained part of every day. This was our view most of the week with intermittent breaks of partly cloudy to be replaced by more fog and rain. 

Forrest and I did get out fishing for a few hours one day. We went down to Angostura to try and catch a few smallmouth. We had a great afternoon boating about 20 fish!

 

Although you see blue skies in one of those pictures, we were not able to avoid the rain entirely. In fact, if you pay very close attention to this video, you will see a bit of hail too. 

The highlight of the week occurred when Minnesota friends Tom and Shelly pulled in the driveway Thursday afternoon. I had not seen Tom in over a year and Shelly in several years. Tom and I worked together back in the 80's and have been good friends since then. One of those friendships that stand the test of time; we may only see each other every couple of years but every time it is like we saw each other yesterday. 

While the weather did not cooperate, we had a great time. The first night found us gathered around the island testing several very tasting bourbons and telling stories from some of our past adventures together. 

One such adventure that Tom reminded me of involved a deer hunting trip in northern Minnesota that ended with my truck on fire and us driving home with the windows open all the way home. Well, "smoldering" would be more accurate than "fire".  It all started with Tom and I driving up to the Little Falls area to hunt on a farm of a relative of a friend of mine. Tom and I donned our hunting gear, grabbed out bows and went out in pursuit of the wily whitetail. 

After an unsuccessful hunt I went back to the truck, arriving before Tom, to find the truck filled with toxic smoke. I can smell that smell like it was yesterday, I could not even breath as I turned the key on to open the windows and let is air out. Once the smoke cleared, it was obvious what had happened. There was a spotlight on the seat of the truck (a bench seat) and somehow it had gotten turned on as we were exiting the vehicle. Over the next several hours that spotlight burned a hole into the seat. Never catching on fire but melting a hole through the cloth and foam. I was able to replace the seat, but that stench forever permeated the entire interior.  

The next day we set out on a jeep ride of some of the forest service roads and a hike. Oh, and what a hike it was! Custer State Park has some of the most beautiful hiking in the country, pictures just do not do it justice, it is something you really have to experience for yourself to fully appreciate. 

We had an absolute blast over the two days, so much fun and laughter. They pulled out on Saturday morning and made their way east towards Minnesota. We have to do this more often! 

Saturday, we headed up to Spearfish to visiting our niece, Alana. It was a big week for them as they were moving into their new house! It was a big move, a total of 150 yards, one street over from their current place. Luckily, the moving had already been done, but I did get to help install a couple of TV's!

Our mission (besides seeing the house) was to pick up little Sophie for a 10-day sleepover.  What's life like with 5 dogs underfoot? Mostly mellow with intermittent periods of chaos and even some brief fighting, but here is what it looks like most of the time. One dog on each end of the couch and a few more scattered on the dog beds on the floor. 

What does this chaos sound like? Here is a sample of what happens anytime the vacuum cleaner comes out. The video is only 25 seconds, about 20 seconds longer than I can take. 

But when it comes to bedtime, they are all worn out and ready for bed. Ever slept with two snoring Frenchies? Me neither, I have spent the last two nights in the recliner!

On that note, it is time for me to get outside. The forecast shows rain-free skies 5 of the next 6 days, with luck we will have some progress to show you next week! But for now, I will leave you with something to sooth your nerves after that chaotic vacuum video. Here are two frequent visitors of our birdfeeders last week. Do they get much more beautiful than these two?!?!