Time to Start a House Building Project!

You may notice that my last post mentioned nothing about me getting a new spotting scope. Well that because my “good” friends Jim and Harry kind of ruined it for me the other day when they were over. We were all sitting around having a beer when a deer walks out of the woods about 500 yards away. I get out my old spotting scope telling them that they can try and look through it and see the deer but all they will probably see is a brown blob since the spotting scope is old and crappy. Thinking “Bro Code” would kick in, I saw this as an opportunity for them to support me on my need for a new scope! But noooooo, Jim has to mention how this particular buck does not have a split in his ear like the one that he has been seeing.

I try to prompt him by saying that there was no way he could see that kind of detail with that scope. But he carried on and even had Harry take a look who confirmed that there was indeed no split on his ear. Barb, ever alert caught on and said “well that scope must be pretty good if you can see that detail! Foiled again..... by two of my so called buddies no less!

This week was all about Kevin and his fiancée Cheryl who came out to get a start on their future home. 

They came loaded for some serious work!

The first project was to install another section of culvert at the end of his driveway.....

Digging out the existing culvert to add extensions

Culvert installed, ready for some gravel!

Next up was getting the building site leveled, getting the forms for the concrete set up and burying the sewer lines

Leveling and getting forms up

Forms up, next came laying some pipe....

Forms up and plumbing in!

Then it was time to head to Rapid City to get a load of lumber....

Once that was done we put a pitless adapter on his well. This involved digging 6 feet down along the well casing, lifting the well pipe, installing the adapter to the pipe, cutting a hole in the casing and lowering the pipe and fitting the adapter into the plate installed on the outside of the casing. It has to go 6' underground to prevent freezing in the winter. It was an intimidating project but went well so now Kevin has water to his building site!

Pulling the well pipe

Installing the pitless adapter

 Last but not least we began his fencing project by drilling several holes and installing corner posts. We did not get this project completed so I hope to finish it in the next few weeks before he gets back.

The ground here is much softer than our area

Down goes the first pole!

It was not all work as we found time to have a incredible fire-cooked steak dinner over at Kevin's which friends Richard and Cheryl were able to attend as well!

Check out those steaks! (Cheryl, Kevin, Richard, Cheryl and Barb in the background)

Shawnee got to come along too!

Everything was going well until one morning when Kevin went to start his truck and it made a horrible noise and the serpentine belt shredded. He lost his power steering and eventually would not start at all. Fear not, GMC to the rescue and we towed this tired old Dodge to the mechanic!

Once again proving GMC's are better than Dodge's!

Ends up it was a little more serious than just the belt. Evidently the water pump seized completely snapping off the tensioner arm and when the belt shredded it also took out the crank sensor. All in all it ended up being about $1000 in damage but luckily we found a mechanic who could do the work in a little over a day.

We had another visitor to the ranch last week. This antelope is a first for us and stayed 4 days before moving on. Not sure if she will be back but it was cool to see her!

The antlers are continuing to grow on the elk over at Kevin's. This is the same elk we posted a picture of last week. Amazing how fast they grow! 

It was a busy 5 days and with those two departing just an few hours ago, we are anxiously awaiting Farmer Bob and Deanne to arrive this afternoon! We have a much different week planned, less work and more fun on the way!

Going Crazy in Custer!

Two words to describe this week….Rain and wind. 2 inches one day, 1 ½ the next follow by several days of scattered showers filled low-lying in water and the grass green and lush. No day was a total bust, in fact most of the days were very nice with storms popping up throughout the day and most of the nights.

These three days were followed by several days of winds well into the high teens and 20's. Walking outside we would get pelted by sand and gravel.The green landscape combined with the clouds made for some spectacular scenery. See that rig across the valley from us? Well, Cindi and Roger are over visiting Jim and Brenda for the month so we have two more to our little community!

Memorial Day was beautiful, rain in the forecast but much later in the day. Vicki and Harry came over bringing their dog Sadie and Buster along with a thick tri-tip steak and some macaroni salad. We were joined by Jim, Brenda and Cindi (Roger was working). We had a great time with many laughs, now that I think of it most of them were at my expense….

With the cistern pump up and running it was time to turn our attention to our neighbor’s prairie dog situation. The Jordan’s have not had any on their property for several weeks. We on the other hand have a little more of a challenge. With about ¼ mile of our property bordering hundreds of prairie dogs we have some invaders who don’t respect fences and no trespassing signs.

Frustrated with this situation I called an emergency meeting (aka Happy Hour) of “The Dog Squad”, Barb and I along with Jim and Brenda sat down to brainstorm a solution (scary thought huh?) That came to two important conclusions: 1) Cold beer is good and 2) If we wanted them taken care of we would have to do it ourselves. Our next step was to come up with the best method to address the neighbor’s pests. We considered harsher no trespassing signs but ultimately came up with the following formula as a sure cure to this infestation: J²+B²=0 Prairie Dogs! We gathered the next morning at the fence line and faced our enemy. The prairie dogs across the fence on our neighbors 75 acres just laughed at us knowing they were safe on that side. When we opened the gate and drove our 4 wheelers through you should have seen the look on their faces!

Over the next several days we pushed the frontline of our battle westward. We would make good progress each day but the dogs would take some of it back each day after we quit. Barb and I have a pretty good system of applying each hole and burying it and were going smoothly until I hear Barb yell “We’ve got a runner!” I turn to see a prairie dog sprinting east behind our frontline with Barb chasing it with a shovel over her head. (If you think I am making this up, you don’t know Barb very well.) The prairie dog was a little faster than Barb this time and made it to a well-hidden hole.  Day by day we pushed the line all the way across the property and are happy to report that we have the first 35 acres under control, only 40 left!

Another exciting event was the fact that Jim and Brenda found a tractor on an online auction that they wanted to bid on. Jim and I drove to Rapid City to inspect it. After driving it around and testing its components, we found the tractor sound and bid-worthy. Several hours after arriving home we received a text from Jim that said they won the auction and now own a tractor! The next day we drove back to Rapid to pick it up!

Jim loading their new tractor!

While perusing Facebook one evening I noticed a garage sale in Hot Springs that had several items that we just could not live without! So bright and early the next morning off to Hot Springs we went. What intrigued me was the construction material in many of the pictures. We left there with 2 Jeep loads of stuff. Wheel barrel, 2 ladders, 60 boxes of construction nails, and many other items. Good thing we have that shed, it is getting filled up!

The trail cameras have been very active the past week with deer, turkey, elk and even a mountain lion! 

Three Elk coming down the hillside

This guy will have a nice rack in the fall!

Hard to tell but this is a mountain lion. Can you see his ears and hump on his back?

Our last and final adventure of the week involved a 6¼ mile roundtrip hike up to the face of Crazy Horse. Known as a Volksmarch (People’s March) this bi-annual event allows you to walk right up the arm of Crazy Horse and see the construction up close and personal!

As we started out on the hike it dawned on us it had been quite some time since we have been on a trail. At the first hill the group started to spread out, this is where the men were separated from the boys so to speak and we were passed by hikers well into their 70's and an old lady in a walker. I promptly pushed her over and we felt a lot better about ourselves.

Off like a herd of sheep.....

The trail wound through the forest where we caught glimpse of the monument now and then. We eventually got closer and closer getting views that you don't normally see from the visitors center.

Getting closer!

The machinery looks so small!

About an hour after starting we were standing on the arm of Crazy Horse looking down at all the lemmings on the trail below us. It was very interesting how they are chiseling away at the mountain and how smooth the surface of the face is.

That group of buildings off in the distance is where we started

On our way back down we ran into Jim, Brenda and Cindi who were on their way up. Overall I would say it was a moderate hike, most of the terrain was a slight grade intermixed with steeper grades. Definitely worth the time if you are in the are area when they are having this event.

Jim and Brenda on top (picture stolen from Facebook)

Last but not least is this weeks mini-rant...… Each month we watch our Verizon Jetpack usage trying not to go over our 15gig highspeed limit. Once we hit this limit we a throttled down to a snails pace speed. Although we usually go over our 15 gig it is not too bad as it happens at the end of our monthly cycle. This month we anxiously awaited May 29th which is the day our new cycle begins. Imagine our surprise when we turned on our Jetpack this morning and it read "10 gigs used"! How is it possible we used 75% or our monthly data in 3 days?!?! We don't watch videos, movies or shows and we turn it off whenever we are not using it.....Frustrating!

Tomorrow starts four weeks of visitors and work as Kevin and Cheryl arrive followed by Farmer Bob and his wife Deanne, Dino and Lisa and my sister Carol! Let the fun begin!

Returning to the Black Hills!

Back Home in the Hills!

I don’t know if it is possible to be sad, happy and excited all at the same time but that is how we felt as we pulled out of the Finken farm on Sunday the 20^th. Although we were there 3 weeks it seemed like it was just a couple of days.

From Douglas we went on a quest, a manhunt so to speak. We had heard that our elusive friends Dino and Lisa were in the area of our travel route through Minnesota. The problem was that we did not know exactly where they were. You see, Dino and Lisa are in the witness protection program and are always in an “undisclosed location” so we had absolutely had no idea where to start. Just for the heck of it Barb plugged in “undisclosed location” into our Garmin GPS to see what popped up. The little dial on the display spun and spun and spun, pretty soon the unit shook and smoke started coming out of the top and then the unit displayed coordinates! Could it be? Could our reclusive friends really be within 300 miles of us?

With anticipation levels high we followed the directions on the GPS right into the city of Fergus Falls. Then things really started to get crazy…..right here, left there, another right clockwise around a roundabout three times, counterclockwise once…. Next thing we knew we were winding our way through a remote campground where way, way in the back corner we could see the front of a Cardinal 5^th wheel! As we approached there was no one around but we did see movement on one of the shades inside the rig like someone was peeking out. Pretty soon Lisa bursts out the door like she is all excited to see us. It was a good act as we knew they did not want to be found. On the other hand it was as though they knew we were coming as they had Tri-tips and cold beer waiting for us!

Lisa’s mom stopped by as well and we all spent the night sitting around the fire catching up and making plans to get together this winter in Florida.

Side by side Cardinals!

Barb, Beverly, Lisa and Dino ready to rip into some tri-tips!

Barb and Lisa enjoying a beverage

The next morning we were off to spend the evening with my brother Bob and his wife Greta in Taylors Falls. We had not seen them in almost a year and again spent the night getting caught up.

The next morning we had a couple of hours before Barb’s doctor appointment so we visited Kevin at one of his job sites and surprised our old neighbor Chelle and got a tour of their new house that Kevin and his crew built. You can see come pictures of their awesome work here.

The doctor appointment went well and Barb was sent off with instructions to return in July so we were off to our place in South Dakota. Although it was only a month, it seemed like we had been gone much longer. We were worried about keeping the prairie dogs from invading from the neighboring property but the Jordan’s came to the rescue and kept them at bay while we were gone. Thank you Jim and Brenda!

They had also taken care of our mail and one of the packages awaiting us was Barb’s new camera! Yes, she got a camera. In fact she ordered it within minutes of proof reading the last blog post. Just to make sure that we had no money left for a spotting scope, she not only bought one camera, she bought two!

The first camera she bought was the Panasonic Lumix ZS-70. It was a step up from her old ZS-50. The other camera she ordered was actually for me. Over the past few months my camera had started to act up. The shutter button no longer worked, the only way it would take pictures was with the remote shutter release and more recently it would continuously turn on and off every 10 seconds. I could take pictures but I had to time them between these cycles. She got me the FZ-300 which was a step up from the FZ-200 I had. Wait it just dawned on me that if she got me a camera for Mother’s Day….does that mean she thinks I am a mother …..? Nah, I must have just deserved it!

After playing with hers for a little bit she decided that she did not like it. It was heavier and bigger than she wanted. Me?  I love mine and cannot wait to get out there and take some pictures. Before doing that though I ordered and am reading Grahm Houghton’s guide book for this specific camera so I know all the ins and outs. Barb ended up returning hers so it was a win/win for me, I got a new camera and since she returned hers, maybe we have enough money for that spotting scope!

Thanks to the Jordan who kept the prairie dogs in check the grass is really growing. Both bluebirds and swallows were inhabiting our birdhouses when we got back and it is time to get back to work. Our major project for this week is installing the cistern pump so we can finally get water out of our tank. We ordered it over a month ago and had it shipped to the farm and now that we are back I can install it. I was so intent on the installation I did not take one picture!

Bluebird hanging out on a fence post

Couple of swallows outside their home

The grass is really growing from all the recent rain!

Swallow peeking outside its house

This skinny young buck was checking out the trail camera

Life is good in the hills, happy to be back and looking forward to spending the next few weeks continuing to work on the property and exploring the surrounding area…..

What Do You Hear?

It was another crazy busy week here at the farm. I don’t think we had one day shorter than 12 hours. Busy planting, rolling and running trucks to and from the field. Barb went to Minnesota for a few days for some planned surgery and spending a few days with my sister. She is now back recovering and is getting better every day. The last of the crops went into the ground on the 17^th which Bob said was the earliest they have ever had them in the ground. Not bad when you are planting 4500 acres! Just in time too as the next day brought much needed rain to give the crops the moisture they needed. There are studies that show that your yield increases by up to 1 ½% for every day you have your crops in early (or decreases for every day late) so hopefully getting them in early will yield great results!

Chris did manage get stuck in one of the low spots......

Stuck in the mud!

Pulling it out with the 325 

With only a few days until Mother’s Day I had to decide what to get Barb as a gift. She said she wanted a camera but I kept having a reoccurring dream that she wanted a new spotting scope so she could see the deer better while sitting at the rig at our property in South Dakota. She already has a perfectly good camera. Sure it has dust on the lens and sure it does not focus all the time and maybe the zoom gets stuck once in a while, but other than that it is perfectly functional. And the spotting scope, well the one we have was fine when we got it many years ago but now they make such nicer ones and I really think she deserves one of those! And this reoccurring dream must mean something right? 

As it ends up she got neither, I made her a cake. Well, I kinda made her a cake. We have been working so much at the farm I had not had a chance to go to Minot to look at cameras, spotting scopes or get her a card or anything else. We have literally been busy from 6:00, 7:00 in the morning until 8:00 to 10:00 at night. In the meantime Barb has been on line looking at cameras and talking to B&H Photo on the phone trying to pick out the perfect camera. I have not seen her or heard her researching spotting scopes, I can only assume she is doing that when I am out in the field. 

Thursday before Mother’s Day I started to panic and was resolved to the fact that she was not going to get a camera or a spotting scope so I texted Holly at work and asked her if she could pick up a cake mix and frosting. The least I could do is make her a cake. With cake mix on the counter I walked by it the next two days trying to figure out when I was going to make it. Finally Saturday morning I found the time…..when Holly offered to make the cake for me. All I had to do was frost it! Barb loved the cake but when, Mother’s Day came and went without a camera or a spotting scope making an appearance Barb said she wanted a “do over” sometime in the next few weeks when we had time to go out to dinner.

Speaking of diner, we get out three times; once with Dan and Jeannie and two times with time with Bob, Deanne joined by Dylan on one of those outings. We went to Ebeneezer's Irish Pub in Minot with Dan and Jeanie. We caught up and made plans to get together this winter in Florida. The food was excellent, and would highly recommend it! Our other dinner was at the Hitching Post in Benedict a small town bar where the special of  the night was a hot roast beef sandwich. We were so full by the end of the meal we all about fell asleep on the way home.

Barb and I with Dylan and Bob (Deanne took the picture)

Our second adventure with Bob and Deanne included some sight seeing to see the one and only railroad tunnel in the state of North Dakota. Given the fact that the state is so flat there is not a lot of need for tunnels in the state. Even more amazing is the fact that this tunnel located in the Sundheim Park and Recreation Area was never used. At just under 1500' the tunnel was built in 1913 using mules and built entirely of timbers.

Adjacent to the tunnel is another interesting attraction. The Fairview lift bridge was built at the same time as the tunnel to accommodate steamboat traffic on the Yellowstone River but like the tunnel it never really went into use. It was lifted just once for testing in 1913 as steamboat traffic stopped on that river before the bridge was ever completed!

Photo compliments of Ghosts of North Dakota

Bridge Selfie!

On the bridge with the Yellowstone in the background

Since these sights were only a few miles from the Montana border, we drove down the road just to say we went to Montana!

We ended this adventure with one more one and only (well maybe only). Bob and Deanne's first flight of beer. These beer tasting newbees are not big fans of beer but after reading our blog for the past few years wanted to give it a try. So we stopped by Stonehome Brewery in Watford City where we learned a couple things.....Neither Bob or Deanne like dark or sour beer but they did find a couple of lighter and fruitier beers that they did like. In fact their favorite along with mine was the Dakatoh Zen while Barb's was Teddy.

Beer Tasting Newbees!

I did have a couple more interesting encounters. The first was a moose sighting in one of the fields nearby. Although not common there are several living in the area.

Chris took this picture from the cab of the tractor

The second encounter involved the Air Force. I was picking up some trash in the ditch when a military helicopter flew by very low, just above the power lines. A little while later a truck pulls up to me with Federal Law Enforcement written on the side in large letters. It pulls over to where I am and asks me what I am doing. “Picking up trash” I explain. The guy driving then says that they have “sensitive” cargo coming through and to stay away from the road. Sure enough a few minutes later here comes 12 Humvees and another helicopter which all surrounded at long semi-tractor trailer. They must have stopped traffic in both directions somewhere down the road as there was no other traffic either way for a while. With all the missile silos in the area it does not take a rocket scientist (ya, I just said that!) to know what they were moving.

The ever present wildlife made for some great photo ops. Too bad Barb's camera is on the fritz, she could have taken some!

American Widgeon

Blue-winged Teal

My biggest revelation came yesterday when all the T.V and radio stations were abuzz with this whole Laurel/Yanny debate. If you haven’t heard it, here is a link. Apparently some people hear the word “Laurel” while others hear the word “Yanny”. No matter how many times I listen I hear the word “Laurel” and cannot imagine how someone hears “Yanny”. I thought it was a bunch of bologna until I told Barb to listen to this stupid thing on TV. She proceeds to tell me that she does not hear “Laurel” at all and clearly hears the word “Yanny”. It certainly explained a lot and magnifies why men hear things differently and do not always understand their wives as anytime she says she wants a new camera, all I hear is spotting scope! I'd better go order it now......