homestake mine

after the wagon train parade down the main streets of deadwood, my sis and i wondered around lead for a little bit. we stopped briefly at the homestake mine. you can see part of the pit mine from the highway. they have some of the old underground equipment on display at the homestake mine visitor center. you can see the engine is not very tall and there is not much room inside!

the underground part of the mine is now a science lab. check it out at http://sanfordlaboratoryathomestake.org/

Fort Pierre - Deadwood wagon train

stealing supper

most of the neighbors have been very good about putting in their lawn and trees, but the house kitty corner from our back deck is a rental. it is at least three years old and has not had grass put in. our block nazi had to get after the renters to mow the weed lawn. the renters moved out and the owners came back for a week and did some work.

part of the work was tilling under the weeds and had sewing lawn seed ontop of the new till. they watered it at least twice and then took off leaving the hose twirling around the lawn.

during the first part of the week we saw a "murder" of grackles gorging themselves on grass seed. do you suppose the owners thought the hose was going to water the grass by itself and keep the birds away. and what about all those weeds that were sort of plowed under.

porch update

first picture is last year--i like the flowers and chairs on the walk. the next is this year's pictures after the stain and putting in edging around the roses. like the color better. our flowers were better last year. not sure why.

besides mowing the grass this week, my sis and i have been working on staining our porch and deck. we finished the front porch with its new brown color. it was red before even though we meant it to be brown from the start. the first stain did not turn out quite the color we thought it would. this color is spanish moss. our roses which are old type roses are blooming intermittently, so we always have some color and fragrance by the porch. the back deck isn't finished. rain and lack of energy. guess i will have to try and finish by myself....the top at least; because cyn is going to back to school meetings.

i am NOT going to do any work on a ladder though. i have a slight problem with dizziness and do not want to fall. meniere's disease.

fair at nisland --butte and lawrence county

my sis and i went to the butte and lawrence county fair this morning. i was expecting lots of animals and exhibits because the boulder country fair was always stuffed with animals, people and machines. we were sadly disappointed. my sis says that when she lived here before there were tons of entries and people. it is not clear why a fair in the middle of cattle and sheep country has dwindled to almost nothing while the fair in the middle of suburbia has prospered.

we went today for the horse judging. one of our students at the after school program was showing a horse. it is the gray in the picture. the horse, jerry, used to be a roping horse, but the roper sold him because jerry was too lazy. but our student managed to get a purple ribbon anyway. it was the first time in the ring for jerry.

we also saw a tiny little girl with a curly coated pony. the pony was so calm and just followed her where ever she led it.

the fairgrounds are beautiful, too bad they are not being used except for the fair. they used to have horse races. the track is still there but overgrown with weeds. the grounds and buildings are set aside as a historical site. the octagonal building reminds me of the chautauqua building in boulder.

nisland post office

last friday was the hundreth year for the writing of the take me out to the baseball game song. for some reason the nisland post office decided to have a little celebration. they had special post cards with the song, water and cookies and an old fashioned baseball game in the afternoon. my sis and i plus two of her grandchildren were the first customers. while we were there a lady in the yard had two tiny miniture Chihuahua puppies.

any children who visited got a box of authentic cracker jacks. i loved those as a kid, especially the silly little toys inside. cheap thrills.

you can see that nisland is pretty much a dead town. there are no stores, but they do have an american legion building, a fire department, a nice church, and great fair grounds.

cats and water

cats claim they don't like water except to drink, but one day i found my sister's cat, cc, playing in my bathroom sink. sometimes she plays on the edge of the bathtub between the curtains during shower time. she is an elusive creature; sometimes i don't see her all day. my cat sam wakes me up at 5:30 or so for water, treats and to open the sliding door. cc and dennis also appear after i get up so they can go out and hunt. after a treat and a drink though, sam goes back to bed until noon when he pesters me for his noon treat.