sunday drive up spearfish canyon

my sis and i were told....according to my sis...that we were going on a scenic drive up spearfish canyon this sunday to see the leaves. i am glad we went. the air in higher altitudes, with the water and the trees is so wonderful. aspen do not grow here as far as i can tell, but there were ash trees, birch trees, and some oak trees.

they had announced on the radio that this was the weekend to see the color so there were jillions of people with cameras and kids all up and down the canyon. the yellows are not quite as intense as the aspen in the rockies (as i remember them), but it made nice viewing and picture taking. there was a little park about halfway up the canyon with falls and walking trails. the little pond shown was attractive to children as it was home to several trout. don't know what kind, but they didn't seem to be rainbows.

the maple shaped leaves grew on a bush about 3 to 4 feet high and the leaves were the size of a dinner plate. have no idea what it is, but they were up and down the whole canyon.

multitude of meanings

my sister (who is way smarter than I) thinks i am a snob...maybe i am; maybe not. no one forced me (in the seventh grade) to sit by myself in front of the tv on sunday afternoons to watch greek plays. no one forced me to like classical music or to read satre. or to take baby physics after college to get a small, tiny idea of how the universe worked. (i don't do math well).

for most of my life i have lived in a university town where there were a lot of people who liked to study, mostly not the the same things that i was interested in, but certainly there was intersection. there were people working on their phd who also worked as grocery clerks to help pay their way, not because they thought it was their end job.

hence, it is taking some adjustment living in a community where going to college is not the understood goal of most of the households. my sister and i knew we were going to college from a very early age--it just was in our house even though our dad did not graduate from college and my mom only had 2 or 3 years of college.

in this community the majority of households consider high school as the end goal; if you a girl the end goal mght be getting pregnant. Since education is not high on the list, my afternoon interludes with third and fourth graders is much different that my interaction with students in the college town even when taking into consideration the age difference. i use to teach seventh and eighth graders.

i had a new student today in my little group and he is even more distant from my life than the others. he came from the south and believes that if you are under twelve you can hunt with out a license plus he can hunt any animal. i also learned that he (his family, i suppose) believes that the government owns all the property.

i knew when i moved here i the only people with higher education would be the doctors, dentists, teachers, and lawyers and maybe a few others (game warden, banker), but for the most part the hightest level of education is high school. i really haven't tried to make friends outside of my family; but probably i should-- although the process is sure to frought with stress. i have to be careful in picking topics of conversation.

i truly belived GOD puts people in places. i don't know what my purpose is here. maybe it is his purpose for me to learn humility, graciousness, patience, and acceptance of others.

animals

this week was animal fun week. our chickens started laying eggs....well, one did. you can just see her tail in the picture. she is buff with white in her tail. she is a red-sex link or red star. they supposedly lay about 300 eggs a year.

this thursday and friday, newell --the sheep capital of the west--(maybe, that is what the sign says when you enter town) hosted a show and sale. i convinced my sis to go with me to the prize ewe and ram sale. there were people and sheep from wyoming, south dakota, north dakota, and probably a few other places.

we passed a truck with this puppy. not at all friendly. i do believe he was a great pyrenees which were bred to guard sheep. the are very large, strong, and fierce and not suitable for a house pet. i have seen grown ones guarding sheep near the real center of the nation marker.

we couldn't get into the area where they were holding the sheep for sale. the picture shows only one of 3 double rows of pens. we really like the ram. i don't know what breed he is, but we liked his horns and his wrinkily nose.

dennis, the cat also added to our animal fun week by bringing in a tiny snake which scared my sis. it wasn't a common garden snake --- those have lenthwise stripes. it might have been a baby rattler! dennis followed me out as i threw it over the fence into the neighbors back yard. dennis is not very poplular right now.

there are also reports of a tagged mountain lion that comes into town during the evening. people are warned to keep their pets inside during the evening hours.

the new kid in the garage

well, my sis bought a new truck without really checking to see if it would fit in the garage.
as you can see it just makes it. i told her she could not add on to the garage for her truck, nor could she cut little side openings for the mirrors to go through. it just barely makes it.

she tried to fold back mirrors, but didn't know the trick until she called her son. you can see there is not much room in the back and in the other picture you can see how much space there is from the front bumber to the step into the house.

bertie looks like a hobbit next to the new truck. i keep trying to tell her that she should name it thor, but i think she wants to think up her own name. it is big. half ton extended cab.

it really is nice. we took it up to the local variety store and bought some plants to put in the back to break in the bed of the truck.

but, it really won't be broken in until someone spills a drink inside.
she was babysitting her grandchildren today and when she took them out to taco john's for lunch, she made us all eat inside instead of in the truck. we will see how long that lasts.

center of the nation dedication

i went to the dedication of the monument for the center of the nation. it was supposed to be televised by abc, but their cameraman got sick. ha i bet. he probably didn't want to come to a tiny town. well the flags look really nice and the cowboy band played. they are really good.

i stopped in at the little log cabin museum. i took a picture of the 'master bedroom' with it's loft. it is bigger than my bedroom. but i bet that it was really really hot in the summer time.

my sister and i had an attic bedroom in our jones street house in omaha. i remember that sometimes our folks would let us come downstairs and sleep on the living room floor because it was so hot upstairs. it was before air conditioning. the house had a strange layout. the kitchen and the bathroom had been added on. there was a dining room, living room and one bedroom downstairs. small by today's standards, but it worked. it was certainly a lot larger than the tiny log cabin with only a kitchen/sitting room and tiny office on the first floor.

horse pull at the fair west river style

the paper listed events for the 2 weeks of the fair in rapid city. hidden among all the events i found a horse pull. when i called to confirm time, the ticket person, said, "What? We have a draft horse show?" but she found it. i was so excited because i used to go to the horse pull at the boulder county fair and the big pull at the end of the national western stock show.

well, it really wasn't a pull, it was a demonstration put on by a club. it consisted of 2 farm teams of draft horses, not the heavy weights you see at the nws, plus a team of mules and a team of shetland ponies (the old breed, not the jazzed up breed that looks like miniature hackneys).

the big teams shared the hookup, but the shetlands had their own. they were the best. the little dark chestnut really put all his muscle into it. you didn't need to ask him twice to go for it. the pulled the sled which was about a thousand pounds plus another hundred.

it was easy to see the other teams were really ambivalent about the whole thing. if it was a real contest the horses take off the minute they hear the joining of the metal.

so after sitting in the sun without my hat which i left in the car and without my sunglasses which i left at home, i went home. it was really hot.

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.

rodeo

we had really good seats for the belle rodeo...second row center. right across from the chutes. i thought i took four times as many pictures than appeared on my camera. even so i did get some good ones, but not any of the bull riding. which i thought i had taken tons of. guess i need to do some experimenting with my camera.

the bay mare with the star is Miss Congeniality, bucking horse of the year. she is a really big horse, probably has some clydsdale blood.

there was only one rider of the saddle broncs that made the time and no one made time on the bulls.

fourth parade

the best part of a parade are the horses...for me. still, i like the belle parade because it has a little bit of everything---old and new cars, clowns, big trucks, tractors, horses, bands, kids, and fire trucks.

there were not so many big trucks this year, i suppose it was due to gas prices. also the cowboy band only went by twice instead of the usual three times...gas prices i guess. they march the first time, except for the old members who ride a flat truck tailor. they the whole band usually come by two more times on a flat bed. the band was also smaller. some members do not live in belle. my niece was talking to one from minnesota.

there were lots of teams of horse this year. they included Belgians, 3 teams of pintos, mules, and various small ponies. hopefully i will be able to drive one of the pinto teams in the near future. it is on my bucket list and my nephew has already arranged it with the owner. we just have to set a time.

several men were riding really big horses. one looked part Friesian, another one looked at least to be part Percheron.

deck steps finished

my daughter and son-in-law were up early and were so quiet that i was upstairs being quiet so as not to wake them. they were downstairs working on the steps and patio pavers.

my daughter worked inch by inch with a level, shovel, rake, and fingers to lay the pavers which we decided would look nice in a random pattern. my sis and i plan to plant ground cover between the pavers. we have cats and sand does not stay nice when you have cats. ground cover will make the pavers transistion between the yard and the cement patio.


my son-in-law worked on the paver steps to transition the end of the wood steps into the lawn. there was quite a steep pitch between the flatter part of the yard and the end of the steps. he did a great job making the pavers flow from the higher part of the yard and the steps into the lower part of the yard. they are nice and wide and sturdy --- especially good for older persons like my sis and myself.

we had a bbq that evening and everyone sat around in the back yard after getting their food from the bbq on the deck. we could not have had such a large group without the steps down. we do not have enough room inside to have large groups in the winter. there were about twenty people all loosely related.

we bought tiki torches to keep the insects away, but have decided they do not do a very good job. maybe they have to burn awhile before the party or maybe we have to place them closer togeather. or...maybe we just use them for looks!

steps and patio progress

the garden/back yard saga continues. my daughter and son-in-law arrived from california and my sis and i put them to work digging out a place to put patio pavers to extend the patio out to the pillars of the porch above.

fortunately because of all the rain, the soil was not too hard. hopefully the sand will serve as a collection point if necessary the next time we have a flood. hopefully there will not be next time for a flood while we are living here.

the hard part is figuring out how to put some steps at the bottom of the wood stairs from the deck. our yard does not have one level spot. through the use of wood and pavers, my son-in-law is putting in some nice wide gentle steps for us.

my daughter is working on the pvers which she is putting down in an artistic pattern. we will plant some small ground cover between the pavers. it will make that little strip of ground look like it belongs to both the patio and to the grass.