Deer Hunting

Deer hunting season opened last week, and Roger, 2 sons and a grandson, each shot a deer on our land.  If you don't like hunting, look at it this way.  These are the animals that have destroyed my garden the past few years, the animals that tromp on and ruin our corn silage pile that will feed our cows this winter, and the animals that are so terrifically hard on our trees, from eating leaves to sharpening or cleaning their antlers.  SD would be overrun by deer if we did not have a season to reduce the population.
Today, we made deer jerky, cut steaks and loins for the freezer and made a large batch of brats for the winter.  This is a lot of work of course, making me admire the workers that do this type of work every day for their living.  Dressing an animal, cutting it up, wrapping, making salami or brats, physical work, and involves a lot of standing, probably on cement, and cleaning up every day.

Cold

Cold day, this day before Thanksgiving.  More snow flurries, icy in many places in the State.  A day to stay inside.  Painted my office, trying to go thru, throw and organize.  What an accumulation of paper!!

I made pumpkin roll up cakes to take to my sister's tomorrow. Have to put in the filling yet, cream cheese, powdered sugar and kool whip.   Baked squash from the abundance I raised this summer.  It is in the crockpot, ready to heat.  My brother from Texas is here, will see him tomorrow.

Hope the weather lets up, and allows for safe travel for everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!!

First Snow

We had our 1st snow this morning.  Fortunately, my calendar was empty for today, so I did not have to leave the house.  The ground was covered, with some big flakes over the day, adding a little more.  The snow fluffed in front of my feet as I walked to the mailbox. 
The ice underneath yesterday caused car accidents in parts of SD during the day and last night.  It always seems to take a little while for drivers to remember how to drive in winter weather.  Takes the first snow and ice to remind everyone.
I used my free day to catch up on computer book work, reply to some emails, and continued to put away and hang things back up after painting.  I have several boxes of books that have to be taken somewhere, and all the pictures of kids and grandkids and ancestors that I took down are in boxes with no plans to put them back up.

Winter is coming!

The weather turned here this week, to give us a taste of the coming winter.  It got windy, then cold, then last night a little precipitatjion that put a very fine spray of ice over everything.  It was deceiving, as you could not see the slick, until your feet started to move in odd directions.  Pastor sprinkled ice melt over the cement parking lot, but it was still a little treacherous after Church. 
I moved my apples and squash from the garage to the porch for the night, and they are still on the porch.  The temp is 26 degrees this PM, so it will get colder tonight.
The gerbera daisies are now gone, as are the arugula leaves, laying on the ground, cold and icy.

A New Look

Whoopee, Keke painted for me last week.  Our small house has rooms that run from one to another without much break.  Keke is very good with colors, and an excellent painter. Starting in the front room with a light brown color in the dining room, then to a dark gray around the front door, then back to the brown for the dining room, but changing to the gray for the soffitt, and around into the kitchen with the gray, back to brown for the hallway.  It looks very nice, seem to look alike at times, then change to the two colors, depending on the natural light or the LED lights.  She did the bedroom, 3 walls in the brown as well, and one wall is a dark barn red.
She seemed to easily slide her paintbrush along, with no goofs or errors, rarely used a dropcloth.  She repaired a wall in the bedroom, replaced some sheetrock and mudded up the seams.  She is a jack of all trades, as she also lays floors, builds things, and can do wiring.  Thanks, Keke!

Rodeo

At the Brookings rodeo, Keith Iseley was the clown. The announcer and the clown keep up a running banter.throughout the whole act.   Keith had Brice and Alex help him with the act between events.  Brice "sold" him a horse, which turned out to be a very small pony.  Keith tried to "buy" another horse from another man, who came into the arena with Alex.  That man left, and the Keith started to leave with the pony, and Alex still in the arena.  The announcer stopped him, saying, "Now, don't leave that little boy, he has always wanted a pony!" The clown ends up giving the rope with the pony attached, and Alex left the ring.  Alex did a very good job with his part, considering he talks all the time in an ordinary situation, and in this he did not talk.

Rodeo

We attended the PRCA Rodeo at Brookings over the weekend.  Alex, our 5 1/2 year old, went on his first boot scramble.  There were about 12 kids, 5 yrs to 8 in the rodeo arena.  Take off your boots, walk with the clown to the designated start point.  When the clown says Go!, run down, find your boots, put them on, and run back.  Alex got one boot, another boy got Alex's 2nd boot, so Alex put the other boy's on, and away they ran.  The parents did not discover the wrong boots until all the kids were sent back to their seats, but they made contact at the announcer's stand, so all was well.  Alex had fun, and is ready to do another boot scramble.

Painting

Whoo Hoo!  Keke is painting at my house.  It is a mess right now, a small house, and lots of "stuff".  The middle of the living room is completely full, 3 bookshelves emptied (so we could move them), the walls cleaned off, etc.  The living room has its first coat, a very pretty brown.  My rooms run together, without walls, living room into dining room, kitchen, some cupboards in between, and then down the hall.  She will use 2 colors to pull them together. The second color is called Mexican sand, a taupish gray, if there is such a color name.  She has lots of ideas, and experience to go with the ideas.  She will also paint the bedroom, trying to work a little red into the scheme, and Roger has decided to withdraw his objection to that, so I think we will go for one wall in a barn red.  I better like it, as that will take 3 coats.  Again, not a big room and lot of windows.  She will be back tomorrow, having put on some primer in the kitchen and dining room.  Can't wait!!

Quilt Club

Prairie Needlers Quilt club meeting was tonight, and we had a very good time!  A neighboring town's group came, so we had 32 people.  Almost everyone brought some Sew and Tells.  The beautiful items ranged from large and small quilts, hand quilted, tied and quilted on a long arm to baskets, bags, table runners, and lots of other things.  We had fun visiting and exchanging ideas with women who have the same interests as we do...cutting up big pieces of material and sewing the pieces back together!

Wind Farm

There is a wind farm being built, with the westernmost tower 5 miles directly north of us.  It has been interesting, while driving to work to see the progression.  It seemed slow at first, but then I could see more than a half dozen towers.  This week they are using a huge crane to put up the blades.  There are 3 blades, and they are assembled onto the head while on the ground, then lifted and put in place. 
The land is rolling, so I cannot see any further east to see how those towers are coming.  There will be a total of 108 when they are finished.
The transmission line has been laid, it looks like.  It snakes along, and will collect power from each tower, and take it the main station, which is three counties over, and covers a lot of miles.  It will feed into the same place that another wind farm does that was built several years ago to the east of these towers.  I think there are 36 in that farm, so this number is nearly triple.
It has certainly changed the landscape.  You see the huge towers, and not the land below.
South Dakota certainly has enough wind to handle these towers.

Election Night

My daughter stopped for an overnight visit last night.  We dined on a warm crusty French bread, sliced for dipping in a delicious oil and herb mixture, had my homemade black bean soup, opened a bottle of wine, and watched the Election results nationwide, as well as South Dakota's.
We watched some of the winning electors talk about how they would now go to Washington and change things.  If only that would or could happen!   The sad part is that we, the voters, exchanged politicians for politicians, none of whom can work with each other for the good of this country.
Kim and I did have a good visit.  We rarely have the time to just sit and talk.  Love her!!