Dry Fork Station

Dry Fork Station, currently under construction 7 miles north of Gillette, WY, is a coal-based electric generation power plant owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the Wyoming Muncipal Power Agency. This picture was taken on June 14th, 2011 after a thunderstorm by Dennis Thorfinnson, plant engineer.
 

Crow Lake Wind Project

Roger and I attended the Crow Lake Wind Project Dedication Ceremony yesterday.  This project has 108 turbines, and puts out 162MV of electricity.  It is now the largest wind tower project in the US.  The ceremonies were interesting. The Emcee was Ron Harper, CEO and General Manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative.  SD Governor Daugaard spoke first,  followed with speakers from other entities involved. The project is owned and operated by Basin Electric, a co-op centered out of ND.  East River Co-op, and the SD Co-ops who make up part of Basin were represented.  Seven of the towers are owned by SDWP, (South Dakota Wind Partners).  680 South Dakotans invested money to purchase these seven towers.  The Mitchell Tech School owns one of the turbines.  This give the students a live model to work on, and to work at 250 ft in the air.  This project took cooperation from many people, from the landowners who gave permission, to the workers who constructed these towers and worked in a tough SD winter often with below zero temps, to the engineers, project managers and the CEO at the top.  It is truly amazing!

Dakota Discovery Museum

I attended the Summer Music Festival on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University. There were performers from 10AM to 5PM.  Two I really liked...Paul Imholte played his custom made hammered dulcimer, making beautiful music.  A singer, Jami Lynn sang original folk songs based on the experiences of her pioneer ancestors who homesteaded in western South Dakota.  She accompanied herself on the guitar and banjo. She sang about the mighty Missouri River.
The Museum was open, and I strolled through it.  I stood in awe at the display of an entire homesteader cabin. How much tenacity did the early pioneers have to be able to endure the life they had to live to survive? There is also an old Church, and a country school house on the grounds.  The Beckwith house is an interesting place to tour as well.  One of the early settlers in Mitchell, he is one of co-founders of the Corn Palace.  This house would have been a grand place in its glory.  All in all, a very relaxing day.

72 years of marriage

Congratulations to my 96 year old parents today, June 7th, on their 72nd wedding anniversary! This is amazing to most of us.  As my 25 year old grandson, (their great-great grandson) said, " It is almost hard for a young person like myself to understand how truly amazing that is. Very cool!"

They started married life on a shoestring in 1939, on a rented farm with very little machinery, then purchased a farm and raised 5 children in a large house (that we all loved!), became pillars in the community, involved in Church and social activities their entire lives.

From a Granddaughter--"It is hard to imagine the tenacity and commitment that you have to reach a milestone of 72 years.  And you have had incredible health and success throughout your lives.  Truly amazing!  "

And another Granddaughter says, "You have provided us with many examples of a life well lived;  hard work, make sure to play, the importance of education, discipline with love, love & respect of God and each other.  It is a high bar that has been set & I thank you for it!  Happy Anniversary!  All of our love to both of you! "

June 1 Gardening

I picked an ice cream bucket of spinach today.  It made a delicious salad along with a romaine leaf, cottage cheese, parsley, one slice of crumbled bacon and sunflower seeds.  The cool weather has been working fine for the spinach, but some of the other plants are sadly in need of sun.  The cucumbers, watermelon, squash and muskmelon look like they are barely staying alive.  However, the tomatoes are looking pretty good.  I put cages on some of them today, took off the can that was around them.  I planted a few mammoth sunflowers along the fence today, as well as a few purple zinnias.  I think I will try to use seep hoses this year for watering as my garden is larger, and more spread out than ever before.  I have a flat 75 foot one, and used it on the spinach.  It is a raised bed, 8 x 4, about 6 inches deep.  The hose was much too long.  Think I will get a shorter one, so I can leave them in place.  I can see they will be hard to move after the plants get bigger.  This bed also has beets and 4 rows of onions.  The other seep hose is round, 50 foot.  It was very hard to manage, wanted to stay kinked, so I learned a little on how to purchase these.

Calf

Saturday..  Cow has twin calves.  As typical, wants only one of them.

Bring calf home to old chicken house, and pen it.

Give it a tube of nurse mate, and tube feed a bag of colystrix.

Sunday AM..  Try to bottle feed calf, no go, cannot, does not, operate his sucking muscles.

Short on time, tube feed another bag of colystrix.

Sunday PM..  Mix up milk replacer, (borrowed from neighbor)

Use lamb nipple, eats a little, try again later and he is starting to get the sucking motion.

Monday AM..  Lamb nipple again, now he is getting the rhythm.

Roger stops at neighbor’s on way to town to get milk replacer, taking a bar of gold along to pay for it.

Neighbor’s girl friend says “I want the calf, here is a check for $200.00.”

Roger comes home, and we make a calf delivery.

Goodbye to a 2 month/twice a day chore!!

Spring and Gardening

Beautiful day in South Dakota.   I did some laundry and hung it outside, love that outdoor smell!

We made the garden area bigger, brought up more panels.  Several raspberry plants made the winter, and the 3 lilac trees are inside and protected from the deer, but not the rabbits.  You can tell how deep the snow was this winter…deep…by where the lilacs are eaten off.  However, they are finally showing some leaves.  The apricot tree is starting to bloom today, and I saw plums in some other shelterbelts with blossoms.   Maybe spring is coming!!

I bought some asparagus roots…a $2 special, 6 crowns, each with lots of very long roots, so today,  finished digging the trench, watered and got them put in the ground.  My lone asparagus plant from last year survived as well, even tho I had to move it in the middle of summer.  There are 4 or 5 raspberries plants sticking out of the ground.  The spinach I planted is coming up, and the onion sets are peeking.   I spaded up a short row by the fence and planted a half dozen old sprouted potatoes.  Also bought another Rhubarb plant, a Canada Red, so now have three.  That should be enough.  The ones I put out last year look good.  Roger’s horseradish is 6 inches tall or so.  We can dig and grind any day now.  And my tulips, or some of them opened up today!   I got some lettuce and peas in the ground this week. 

Need to get another compost pile started, and let the one in the middle of the garden finish cooking.  I can see as I turn it, that eggshells need to be crushed, and I have no idea if I am getting the right greens (high nitrogen) to browns (high carbon) mix right.  It is supposed to be 1 part to 4 parts.  But I will keep at it, see what I get.

Roger brought up 3 railroad ties, and we extended one raised bed, so he brought in a tractor scoopful of dirt today to fill it.  Couldn’t get the tractor all the way to it, so it required some scooping.  We needed some younger bodies and backs here to move that dirt around, but we got it done and pretty well leveled off.

When we enlarged the garden, it also encompassed one of the burr oaks I planted 2 years ago, and it looks like it is still alive and budding out.  I decided that by the time it gets big enough to be a problem, I won’t be gardening anymore anyway.  They should grow to 40-50 feet, so don’t know if I will get to see that or not.

Wahoo, let the growing season begin.

Easter Week

This is the week we stop to think about Christ on the cross, sent by God, to die for our sins.  Maunday Thursday services last night, and Good Friday this evening and then the joyous Easter morning.  Jesus was discovered, not in the grave, but risen and alive and walking in the garden.
The youth at our Church did a reenactment of the Last Supper, and how it may have been.  Dressed in robes denoting the era, they sat around a table, and repeated the words that were said that night so many years ago.  They did a wonderful somber portrayal, with Judas being dismissed at the end, as he was that night.
It was sobering to watch and to remember the words of the Bible.
Holy Communion was then offered to the congregation, with the 3rd to 6th graders taking first communion with their families, after previously taking classes to learn what communion means....the Blood and Body of Christ.
My hope and prayer for all of these young people is for them to remember this night, hold it in their hearts as they face the world and their life in it.

Snow

April 15th and we have snow in SD again.  15 inches in some places.  We had 6 or 7 here.  It is a little hard to tell how much, as there was rain first, and then the snow melted in places, like the driveway, etc.  But there is a lot on the yard and the pasture.  The weather promises to be cold next week too, 24 degrees tonight, then in the 30's at night next week.  The interstate must be snow covered, as I 90 is partly closed.  Some idiot ran the Sheriff of Hansen Co. down as he was assisting with pulling someone out of the ditch.  I think there should be a HUGE fine for these people who will not slow down when they see flashing lights.  This is not the first time someone has been run over, hurt or killed in SD because a driver cannot or will not drive the conditions.

Painting

We had to replace part of the ceiling in our downstairs bathroom, and once that was done, it called out for some fresh paint on the walls.  I had a small can of yellow, that I had been "persuaded" not to use when the kitchen got painted last fall.  So, the thrifty person that I am will need to use this can of paint, just a quart.  Roger is against the yellow paint, even to use downstairs, the room is very small--paint it white, he said..  Son Troy, via Skype, is also skeptical about the yellow.   I suggested maybe even some stripes or a rainbow to jazz it up, and neither of them thought that was a good idea. :)  Oh, I guess they stated it more strongly than that!  5 year old Alex thought stripes that might be cool.   Anyway, I now have it painted, two coats, and Roger has not come down yet  to look, so he is going to be surprised to find....2 yellow walls.  One of these walls is opposite the mirror, so I hope it reflects more yellow in the room.   I did paint the other walls a light brown.  This bathroom was put in in the 1960's, and was poorly done, so fresh paint can do nothing but help the cause.   This room does not get used except by Roger and I, and occasionally by our kids or grandkids to shower, so whatever paint is put on is better than what was there.  I am anxious to put back down the rug that covered the ugly tiles on the floor.  This is giving me incentive to move on to a few other projects!