Oh, What a Week it Was!

Have you ever had Trigger Finger? No, I am not talking about the approach of fall when hunters like me get itchy to get out in the woods. I am talking about the medical condition where your finger gets stuck bent in one place and then snaps straight like a rubber band. I have had trigger pinky for about two weeks now, so weird. Not painful, just weird. What concerns me most is what I read about this condition on the internet. This condition is most common in women over 50. What the hell? I am now a woman over 50? Does this mean I have to change my driver's license to Jamie instead of James?  Does it mean I can now compete in the "Women over 50" category in my next marathon? Who am I kidding? This old guy (or gal?) ain't running any marathon!

At any rate I sit here typing this, my right pinky bent 1/2 the time then uncontrollably snapping straight. 

Several of you have asked how Barb's doctor appointments went. She had bloodwork done and an ultrasound. Both were sources of great news and stress relief. For the first time in several tests her white blood cell count was in the "normal" range. Which, if I were to be honest, is probably maybe the only thing "normal" about her. Her ultrasound showed "Nothing concerning". Good news all around, AND, she is feeling much better!

So well in fact that she tackled a couple of big projects around the house. The first was staining the doors on the shed. A project that she had not planned on doing, but Dan (of Dan and Bonnie) had stained their shed doors, and they looked so nice that Barb just had to do it to keep up with the Jones's.

Although it sounds somewhat simple, this was a 10-hour endeavor over 2 days starting with her sanding the doors and then staining them. That wood was so dry, it really soaked up the stain!

A day after that we started on a shelf and table project that she wants to get done while I am gone. Remember these slabs of redwood and pine Barb bought at an auction a few months ago? Well, she thought of a few projects to use them on. 

My job was just to cut them to length and width, then she went to sanding them. What a mess. We have never worked with redwood before and that is one messy, dry wood. The table she is making is on the left below, the shelves on the right. 

What else did we get done? Well, we grouted a section of the stone on the outside. 

It was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Just tedious, making sure you get grout in every crack and crevice. You use what I refer to as an icing bag but made for grout. We add a dye to the mortar giving it more of a chocolate color. Then mix the mortar to a consistency that allows it to flow easily through the bag. 

Even with the right consistency, your hands cramp up. Once the grout is applied, you need to let it partially dry and then scrape it to the right depth and get the sheen off the grout. 

I disced up a couple of acres for a food plot for the deer. Well, first I mowed it then I disced it, then I seeded it with a yummy clover mix that the deer and turkeys will love, then I dragged it, then I prayed for rain which we never got. That was all a two-day process. Then there were two concrete projects this week. One for Neighbor Jim who is getting a new shed installed in a few weeks. He needed 40x40 footings poured for it. We formed it up this week, augered some holes. Luckily, I mean sadly, I will be gone next week when he pours it.  

Then Kevin had a pour on Friday for a job he is doing. It was Barb, Kevin and I and his son Ryan who is visiting for the weekend. 

About 1/2 of the pour had to be done with wheelbarrows. Barb's job was to fill the wheelbarrows, Ryan and I wheeled and dumped, Kevin smoothed. It made for a much longer pour, but overall, everything went well. Kevin even found a unique way of reaching a spot that needed a little touching up!

Oh! I almost forgot about my niece Alana and Ryan came by last Saturday with their fur babies Sophie and Loki. Loki once again just off a fresh surgery to fix his broken leg. This is surgery 3 or 4, I forget. More pins, they are hopeful this one will do the trick. Loki has a pretty gnarly contraption on his leg and the accompanying cone, so he does not lick it all the time.

Sophie and Zoey had not seen each other all summer so it was pretty chaotic. Impossible to take pictures or videos. They just ran and ran and ran. I was able to take one short video of dogs being dogs. That cone of Loki's must really be a scent collector!

It's not until later when they are all tuckered out that I am able to get some decent pictures. 

Friday night was Queen of Hearts again at the VFW. It was over $16,000 this week. I was in line for our tickets, $10 each, when the guy in front of my buys 1,000 tickets to the tune of $1,000. Now, I get it, it is for a good cause, but $1,000?!? We waited in eager anticipation for our number to be called and when the first few numbers were called, we knew this was not going to be our week. Nor was it Mr. 1,000 Ticketman's week. The woman whose ticket was selected promptly went up to the board and pick.... the 6 of Clubs. Cheers went up everywhere, the game continues!

Our little Lily turned 13 this week! I guess once they are teenagers, we probably should stop calling her little Lily. Forrest, Somer and Lily are still in Tennessee for a few more weeks before they hit the road in search of their next destination. They celebrated her birthday with ziplining and sushi. 

I got a couple of texts a week from Farmer Bob and Chris with harvest updates. They are in full harvesting mode at the farm. I think they are about done with the peas and have moved on to wheat.

Chris texted the other day asking when if I was still on schedule to come up next week and if I was in full relaxation mode in anticipation of all the work up there. My response? I told him that I am "in full getting as much as I can get done around here before heading up to the farm mode". Speaking of which, the next post will be from the farm as I head up there in a few days!

I will leave you with this picture of Zoey standing (sitting) guard. You can find her like this most evenings when we sit outside. She just sits on the edge of the concrete, taking it all in and watching over her domain. 

Zoey the Destroyer!

I wonder if dog toy companies ever hire dogs to test their new line of toys. If they do, Zoey would be one of the best toy testers ever, for she can destroy any toy in record time.  If she were born in the early time of Greece, she would be known as Zoey the Destroyer. If it has a squeaker and stuffing, it will not last a day in our household. Perhaps I should video her destroying a supposedly indestructible toy and send it to them. Then again, they probably do not want such destruction on record! 

Well, maybe not any toy. She cannot destroy those hard rubber ones. This is Zoey's toy box. These are the only toys that make it more than a day or two in our house. Her favorite is the little orange balls. Dakota's is the blue pretzel. Most days, the toys just lay in the basket untouched, other days, Zoey will take them out one by one, inspect them and grab the orange ball. Just like other kids, she never puts them away when she is done with them!

Since we are on the subject of dogs, how about a short dog video?!?! Several of you are cheering, Harry is groaning. But yes, here is a 50 second video of the girls playing. They do this once or twice a week....

Last Saturday was the last of the really hot days. Since then, we have been in the 80's and 70's, with lows in the 60's and 50's. In fact, when we woke up Thursday morning, the inside of the house was 62. Starting to feel like fall!

Several of you asked about why we hauled water to fill the hot tub and whether or not we had a well. The quick answer is, no, we do not have a well, but here is the long answer. When we first built, we had three options for water; try and drill a well, hook up to the rural water system or get a cistern. We researched each of those options. Talking to the well people, they say they have had limited success drilling a well in our area of the hills. Some are successful, some are not. And at the cost of $30,000+ for maybe hitting water, we just did not want to take that chance. 

The next option we researched to have the rural water brought into our house. Many, if not all roads in our area have rural water pipes running the length of the roads for residents to tap into. We could have too but there are some downsides. There is a cost of $3,000 or so just to tap into the system, then you have to pay by the foot to have it dug to your house. Since we are over a 1/4 mile off the road, that would have added up. Once it is to your house, it is $100/month for the service fee, then you are charged for every gallon you use. It all adds up, especially when we are only here 6 months of so out of the year. 

After reviewing the cost of these, we decided on a cistern. A 2,500-gallon tank buried in the ground which we have water delivered to once a month or so. The initial cost of the cistern was $2,500, this included installation and piping it to the house. We have two options for getting water; filling it ourselves or having it delivered. It is much cheaper to get it ourselves, we just need to drive to Custer with our 450-gallon tank and pay $0.02/gallon. And we do do that once in a while. The downside of that is having to keep moving the tank in and out of the truck and keep that tank very clean which is a pain. Mold is always trying to work its way into the tank. The other option is to have it delivered at $0.11/gallon. This is what we do. There is a monitor on the tank that texts the water guy whenever we hit 30%, he then puts us on his route. It is usually $200 or so to fill it, we typically go through 2,000 gallons a month when we are here. It works pretty seamlessly and was the cheapest option. It also forces us to keep an eye on our water consumption, something we were used to anyways from our years living in the RV.

So, when it comes to filling the hot tub or water tanks, we will load up the tank and head to town for the cheaper water, so we do not drain the cistern. Whew! That was a long answer for a short question!

Let's see, what happened this week? Oh, we had an overnight visitor! 3 actually. Chad, former owner of Pasha Lake Cabins, was in the area on a mission trip and stopped by for a night one after the work was complete.  With him was his 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. They were replacing a roof on an orphanage on the Pine Ridge Reservation while during 100-degree weather had to be brutal!

The first words out of his mouth upon arriving were "What do you need help with?". "How about helping me set a ladder stand for deer season?", I replied. And we were off, Cavin in the front with me, and Chad in back.

After that, we just chilled in the gazebo and chatted for a few hours before bed. They were gone when we got up, as they had a 10-hour drive ahead of them. 

Projects this week? Well, I have to admit, I squirreled on a couple of them. Meaning I got distracted by other things that were not on my list. The easy answer was to put them on my list so I can say I was staying on track, but that was not the case. Barb, true to her form, she spent more money and crossed another item off her list when she bought a new to us lawn mower. Personally, I could have gone the rest of my life without buying another mower, but she wants a groomed area for the dogs to hang out in when we are out in the gazebo. She opted for a battery powered Ego which does surprisingly well for the little area she is mowing.

On the way back from getting the lawn mower, I needed a beer, so we stopped by Lost Cabin Brewing in Hill City.

I did get several small ones done however, the most noteworthy was the 1/2 wall I built for our grill area. Now that Barb has the smoker, we needed a little more wall space in that area. Probably a 4-hour project. We just need to sand and stain the cap and it is done. 

It is Sturgis week so there are bikes EVERYWHERE! Hill City closes down Main Street to all car/truck traffic. Motorcycles only. Custer closes the two middle lanes through town for bike parking. Not the week to do much if you do not like crowds. 

We did have a busy social week, however. Kevin came over Wednesday night for halibut, Thursday, we took Neighbor Jim and Carmen out for supper for watching the house (and killing prairie dogs and chasing cattle) while we were gone. We went to The State Game Lodge in Custer State Park. And Friday night we went to the VFW in Custer with Dan and Bonnie for Queen of Hearts which was up over $15,000. The Queen of Hearts game is one where you buy tickets and if your ticket gets drawn, you pick a card (face down) from a board of 52 cards. If you draw the queen of hearts, you win the pot. You can buy as many tickets as you want, but only one person drawn each week and if the QOH's is not drawn the pot is carried over each week until someone wins. Of all those events, we only took one picture of us our night out with Dan and Bonnie. 

The smoker has been busy with two batches going through. The first was some smoked salmon. Brining them overnight, we then put them in the smoker for a few hours. 

They are delicious. We devoured one in short order, the other three are vacuum sealed and in the freezer. 

Next up was venison sticks. With deer season around the corner, it is time to use up our remaining venison. I only took two pictures of the process. The grinding/stuffing and the final product.

The critter cams provided no bucks at all, but lots of other critters! The local bluebirds are enjoying the big tank. 

The deer, squirrels and turkeys drank so much out of the smaller tank that we had to refill it already. If you look closely below, you can see a red squirrel just above the deer's head.  

The camera even captured Neighbor Jim and I chatting as I refilled the tank. 

That's it for this week. Today is a big day as my niece and her husband are coming over for the day with their two dogs. You know what that means! A doggy play day! And hopefully, if you are lucky, I mean really lucky, next week we might just have another dog video to show you!

Checking Things Off the List

 Lists. Throughout our working and personal lives, we have relied on lists to keep us on track. With our failing memories, they are more important now than ever. You may recall me writing about Barb and I driving across Canada making a list of things we wanted to get done when we finally got home. Well, we hit the ground running and have crossed several things off already!

First up was cleaning the truck. Holy bug carcasses! 8,500 miles of bugs, butterflies and a couple of birds were caked and baked on the front of the truck and camper. 

Next up was mowing the front "yard". I use that word very loosely as it is not a yard at all, just 3-4 acres in front of the house that we like to keep low so we can at least see the girls and any potential snakes that might be lurking around out there. It was over knee high, now it is ankle high. 

Next up was the hot tub. A couple times a year I will drain and clean the hot tub filling it with fresh water. I loaded up water tank and headed to town for water. Our water tank holds 450 gallons. Custer charges $0.02/gallon so for $9 I had enough to fill the hot tub and a little left over to fill the pool for the girls!

With the temps well into the 90's they really appreciated it. We don't have air conditioning, in the main part of the house so things get a little toasty in the house during the day. The inside of the house gets into the 80's. We do have a portable unit in the bedroom, so in the afternoons we will often be in there taking a quick cool off break, watching TV or just reading. It is not supposed to get this hot here! Looks like it will be gone next week so life should be bearable again. 

Since I already had the tank in the truck, I headed to Pringle to get some water for the deer and other critters. Since I was out there, I put up my trail cameras as well. 

Not on our list, but definitely an accomplishment was the day and a half we spent over at Kevin's helping them get the Bunkhouse in order for his mom's visit. At 84 years old, she is driving up from Arizona for a few days. The Bunkhouse is still a work in progress but is definitely getting there! 

Here are a few before and after pictures. 

There is nothing like the satisfaction of making a list and crossing said items off one at a time. In fact, sometimes we will add things to the list that we already accomplished just so we can cross it off! 

Barb has been doing her part to cross things off her list. 

Like, "Buy Breville" and "Buy Smoker"

Okay, maybe she did one or two other things as well. Like vacuum and dust, clean the inside of the camper/truck, restock the fridge....

Then it was my turn. Taking all the smoker components out of the box, I laid them on the top of the hot tub. So many parts wrapped like little presents. It was like Christmas! Although it is July and 95 degrees. But that was not the biggest difference between now and Christmas. Christmas is fun. This was the opposite of fun. 2 1/2 hours later, voila, it is done!

Of course we got together with our friends as well. Wednesday night, it was Dan and Bonnie for burgers at The Hitchrail. Thursday was Neighbor Jim (aka Prairie Dog Commander) and his lovely wife Carmen in the gazebo over at our place. Did I think to take any pictures? Of course not!

Later in the week, it was time to check the trail cameras. No big bucks, but some pretty fun pictures! It took me a minute to figure out what this first picture was. The feathers were obvious, then I saw the feet and the bill. This bird looks like it was getting ready to land right on the camera!

Then there was this little red squirrel who was happy that I filled the big water tank. I put a board in each of the tanks for birds and squirrels to climb up on should they accidently fall into the water. 

The only buck I got on camera was this little mule deer buck as he approached the water tank.

My favorite pictures were those of the does and fawns. This momma is alert to something in the background, while her baby seems oblivious. 

This momma had twins and was getting kisses from one of her babies.

Momma never gets a break nursing two little ones. 

What's the best thing about being home? So many things..... the hot tub, the gazebo, our bed, the couch, a TV...wait! It's the breakfasts. Yes, definitely the breakfasts. In the camper there just is not room or time to cook a good breakfast. Mmmm crepes!

Let's see, what is next on our list.... Oh yeah, we have an appointment with a therapist for what has been diagnosed as Obsessive-Compulsive List Disorder, can't wait to cross that appointment off our list!