Jim and Barb Build a House!

Boy, what a difference a week can make! It was less than a week ago we were in Texas walking the trails of Palo Duro Canyon. Two days and 700 miles later we found ourselves in the frigid snow country of South Dakota.

I thought this blog post was aptly named since our last one was titled Jim and Barb Go on a Hike. But before I get into the house building I want to take you back a couple years, 5+ years actually when Barb and I were both working and living in western Wisconsin. We long had a dream of moving out to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We also have a good friend Kevin who had the same dream so two years ago we both started looking for property out here.

The Black Hills area, containing Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park and Devils Tower, is actually a lot bigger than most people think. Stretching over 100 miles north to south from Spearfish to Hot Springs and east to west almost 80 miles from Rapid City to near Sundance Wyoming.  So what were the odds that we would find property near each other? Pretty good actually since being within ½ hour of Kevin was part of our search criteria. In the end we ended up within 15 minutes of each other when Kevin found 22 acres just east of Pringle and we found 45 acres just south of Pringle.

We both decided to build what some call a Shouse (Shed/House) and others call a Barndominium defined as a type of house that includes living space attached to either a workshop or a large garage. Some are constructed with large poles like pole buildings and others are stick-built like conventional houses. We both decided on the stick-built option.  So maybe I should have titled this post Jim and Barb Build a Barndominium. 

But since Kevin builds houses for a living perhaps it should be titled Kevin Builds another House. But I think a more appropriate title is Kevin Builds a House while Jim and Barb do What Kevin Tells Them to do. Kevin’s wife, Cheryl will of course be part of the crew as well but could not make it out this trip. Whatever you call it, the four of us (and anyone who makes the mistake of stopping by) will be building two houses this spring and summer.

Day one included clearing the snow off the concrete foundation we poured last fall. Then it was on to snapping lines to square and layout the building. After two days several of the outside walls were up. Progress appears to go fast when constructing walls as it goes from nothing to a partial building.

A good start but a long way to go!

View out the kitchen window

There are challenges to building in the winter that one does not really think about. A lot of the boards have ice or snow on them and need to be dried off before adhering them to the concrete.

We used a propane torch to dry off the boards

Barb attaching sill seal to the bottom plate

Then there is the snow, when we pulled in thanks to our neighbor, our place looked like this....

Two days later after getting 5 "s of snow it looked like this.....

But the work must continue. The three of us spend 2 hours shoveling his foundation after this storm so we could continue. Kevin is here for 3 weeks so we need to get as much done as possible. We are working from about 10am to 6pm each day. Most of the days the temps have been in the 20's, one day it only it 17 and one day it actually hit the mid 30's!

Bathroom wall going up

Bathroom all done!

The building itself has an 18' center living area with outside sidewalls at 9'. The "shed" part of the building is actually 1/2 horse stalls and 1/2 garage with the same heights as the house.

18' gable end going up

Standing up in place

Then it was onto the mudroom and kitchen walls....

Mudroom closet

We cannot complete all the outside walls yet as we need the skid loader to lift the upstairs walls and a few beams in place. For the smaller posts and beams we are hand carrying these 200# beasts up scaffolding and ladders. 

Setting the first post in place

The first 8x8 beam 

The 2nd 8x8 beam

First set of beams in place!

Barb and I are learning a lot. Kevin will layout a wall, I will build it, he will inspect it and we put it up. I am learning a lot about building headers, wall partitions and corners. All of this will definitely come in handy in a few weeks when we start our place!

It is hard to visualize from these pictures but in the coming weeks I will continue to post pictures of our progress and it will all make sense.

Speaking of our place, Barb picked up the building permit yesterday. A whole $350, a fraction of the price we would have paid in Wisconsin. Plus the clerk helped her fill out the paperwork and handed her the permit right over the counter. Gotta love small towns with no red tape!

Jim and Barb Go on a Hike!

Palo Duro Canyon. In the flat lands of Texas it is the last thing you would expect to see is a 120 mile 800 foot deep canyon filled with deer, turkey and other wildlife. “Palo Duro” is Spanish for “hard wood” in reference to the Juniper trees throughout the park.  There are several campgrounds within the park. Last year we stayed in the Mesquite Campground, this year we opted for the Juniper Campground. Site 108 and 107 to be exact.

Site 108

Site 107

With our Texas Parks Pass we paid $26/night for 3 nights and $13/night for 2 nights. Forget internet or cell once you are in the canyon. You will have to drive up to the top to check voicemails and emails.

Cloudy day in the canyon

We were anxious to hit the trails and do some hiking so we hit the trails shortly after we got set up. We started out in the lowlands with a nice easy hike and since all the trails here are dog friendly we decided to bring them along. The Juniper Riverside Trail winds along the bottom in the middle of Park Road 5 loop.

Headed down Juniper Trail

They even did some rock climbing!

We followed that for about a mile then cut across the road to the Juniper Cliffside Trail back to our campsite.  The dogs were panting like crazy when we got back, guess we need to break them in a little slower!0058 0078

So glad to be home!

We saw lots of Roadrunners!

The next morning Barb and I started out on the Lighthouse Trail full of energy.

It was a brisk 26 degrees, the trail is rated as moderate and follows along a wash much of the way. 0084

As we were going down the trail we tried to remember the last time we were hiking. Not counting our walks on the beach, we counted back the weeks. Florida, no hikes. Pennsylvania, no hikes. North Dakota, no hikes. We found ourselves coming up with August 30^th when we hiked in Custer State Park with Dino and Lisa. A couple days short of 6 months ago!

As we walked along we started talking about past hikes. What was our favorite hike? What was our most challenging hike? What hike do we really want to do that we have not done yet?

We had a hard time picking out our favorite hike. We kept going back and forth between a handful of hikes that made the top of our list. Each one was memorable for its own reason; beauty, scariest, most challenging…… in the end we did not come up with our top hike but instead came up with our top 6. The links will take you to the blog posts of that hike with more details and pictures.

For beauty Kanarraville Falls/Spring Creek Trail in Utah is hard to beat. It is not a well-known hike but it is one we will never forget as much of it is in a narrow slot canyon that you have to hike through water. It’s okay, your feet go numb after a while and you don’t even feel the water!

Kannaraville has two ladder climbs

The second ladder climb

The first time we saw pictures of Antelope Canyon we knew we wanted to take this hike. We debated whether this was really a hike or a tour, you could argue both sides. One thing you cannot argue is its beauty.

You cannot beat the beauty in Antelope Canyon!

For daring, there are two hikes that come immediately to mind. Picacho Peak and Angels Landing in Zion. Both are considered difficult hikes with cliff edge sections where a wrong move and send you plummeting several hundred feet.

Picacho Peak from afar

What Picacho looks like up close

Angels Landing, that is the parking lot waaaay down there!

Barb headed down the Angels Landing Trail

We tend to gravitate towards these types of daring or unique hikes and are glad we did them but would probably never do them again. This is what led us to a particular hike in Lake Mead. We were turned onto this trail by our friends Steve and Joan as we had never heard of it, in fact I still don't know the name of it. Starting out we did know of what it entailed but it quickly became one of our top hikes. It had a combination of rope climb challenges and beauty that led it to make our list

Going down on of the ropes

And up another!

Our most challenging hike was surprising to us. We don’t know if it was truly this challenging or if we were just out of shape but either way Sheep’s Creek Trail in the Yukon kicked our @sses! This 5km trail ascended 1,400 feet with some very steep sections requiring us to stop for a breather every 50 to 100 yards. We wanted to turn back several times but finally made it to the end.

Views on the way up Sheep's Creek

Incredible views!

But back to the hike at hand; Lighthouse Trail in Palo Duro is the most popular hike in the park. This 6 mile round trip trail starts out near the top of the Park Road 5 loop at the bottom of the canyon. The trail guide tells you that it is 2.7 miles to the end of the trail.

We are headed to those two pinnacles

The trails in the park are well marked with both the trail name and mileage markers. 0090

What they don’t tell you is that 2.7 miles is the end of the established trail and that it actually goes on for about another ½ mile up some steep grades with some scrambling required before you actually get to the lighthouse formation.

The trail narrows and gets steeper

Almost there!

Just a few more feet!

Made it!

View from the top

Looking for handouts

The next day we chose the CCC Trail which starts out at the Visitors Center and winds 1 ½ miles down the canyon to the Amphitheater.

It was 37 degrees when we started our decent. Although the trail is rated as difficult we did not think it was that hard at all. The most difficult thing is navigating around the constant golf ball to baseball size rocks in the trail. Definite ankle rollers so you had to be careful.

You had to watch your footing most of  the way

Along the way there are several CCC built bridges and three geocaches, Barb found each of them and even left one of her precious travel bugs!

These bridges were built in the 1930's

Found it!

About a mile into the hike you have the option of carrying on to the Amphitheater or turning onto Goodnight Peak Loop. We chose the peak loop which took you to another overlook of the canyon.

Beautiful vistas throughout this park! After exploring the peak area a bit we hiked the mile and a half back up to the Visitors Center to our truck, the total trip took about 2 hours.

Barb contemplating her upcoming birthday

Saturday was moving day as someone had our site for the next few days so we move across the road to site 107. It was also winterizing day as Saturday night was forecasted for teens, Sunday was not going to get above freezing and Monday we head north to the frozen tundra.

Ready for the deep freeze!

So we are winterized for the foreseeable future. Looking at the long range forecast for Pringle, we are hoping to de-winterize about the 15^th of March, hopefully sooner.  

Although none of these hikes made our top 6 it was nice to get out on the trails. Two hikes that are at the top of our “someday” list are The Narrows in Zion and hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to floor. I am sure there are other equally as beautiful hikes but they are not on our radar at the moment. If you know of any “must hike” trails please send us a note so we can get them on our list!

Sunday was a big day is it was Barb’s birthday! I probably shouldn’t tell you exactly how old she is but I will say it was a milestone birthday! How did we celebrated? I took her to Amarillo for a day of fun!

Nothing but the best for my Barb on her birthday!

After that fun we went to The Texan Steakhouse. The weather was a bone chilling 10 degrees with a little snow. We better get used to it!

Tomorrow morning we pack up and hit the road pointing the rig towards Nebraska. It was a good decision staying the extra couple of days as the lows in Pringle are -12 and -14 last night and tonight. When we get there Tuesday we will be basking in highs in the 20’s and lows around 0. Time to break out the shorts!