Christmas in Sioux Falls area

We spent Christmas with Ron's daughter's family who lives by Sioux Falls. The dogs always greet you when you arrive - it's hard to take their picture, but I succeeded here! Embracing the frigid weather, we walked through the Christmas-tree-lighted park to see the beautiful Sioux Falls, which had special illumination for Christmas. The wind was so cold it took your breath away, but the walk was worth it! I took a picture of the girls and Ron, and another one of Katelynd and Jana. Myra was a trooper, running as if it wasn't cold at all! We had a lovely time visiting. Snow fell quite heavily Christmas Day, so it was definitely a white Christmas! We left early Wednesday for home; the roads were really slippery and the ice fog coated the car antenna so it swayed wildly; the windshield iced up and I tried to clear it with blue juice - a big mistake, it smeared everything up. So anyhow, after some jittery driving in the fog behind the snow plow, we made it to Mitchell in 2 hours, the sun came up and the roads were dry and clear all the way home. Whew! Well, next post will hopefully be from warmer climes! Until then.

Early Christmas

We had Christmas with Sue's kids early this year. So we decorated right after Thanksgiving. Check out the VERY tall tree we axed from the forest!

I decided to try to make a garland out of real pine boughs. I took branches from all 4 Ponderosa pine trees on our land (we don't have very many, I discovered!) and cedar and junipers in the back yard. They had little berries on them so they were awesome. Check out the garland and table decoration I made - all thanks to Martha Stewart's website!

The kids came over and we had awesome steak sandwiches by John and soup; then we opened our gifts and Santa's stockings. At first I could not figure out what the tripod thingy was - can you guess?

The next day it was really snowing - we have about 6 inches. I was chairman of the quilt show and it was well attended despite the snow. I entered my Christmas quilt, finished it just in time! Here it is.

Next post may be from Arizona - we are looking forward to the warm weather!

Kristi and Mike stop by

Saturday Kristi, Ron's daughter, and her family stopped by. They were able to stay and extra day and we went to Wind Cave and Mt. Rushmore. The animals were out and about and it was fun to show them to Yanna - she's the foreign exchange student staying with them. Myra kept wanting to see the tiger, but I think she wanted to see a mountain lion - thank goodness we didn't see one!

Delivering Horses

Last week, Dusty and I went to Great Falls, Montana, to deliver her horses to the trainer. The scenery was beautiful and the weather wasn't too bad (50's, but drizzly). We stopped in a little Victorian-style town for lunch (Dusty is in front of the old hotel) and had German noodle soup - very dumply and good! The sun peeked out just in time to light up some giant wind generators. In the morning the fog covered the valleys and hills and the sunrise turned everything pink. Beautiful!

October sights with Rhonda

This is the nugget that John found in the Northern Black Hills panning.

The house one of my friends lives in; was the town's bank in the 1880's. All the other buildings were dismantled when the railroad didn't come.

Ron and his friend Poker Alice at Wall Drug.


The last three weeks have been really busy with classes. The first week we spent with John in Spearfish, hunting for gold. I got to bike ride through Spearfish Canyon with the flowers and colorful leaves. The guys took on a few big hikes down into a canyon and found color! The second week Rhonda flew in and we toured a bit in the hills, although much of her trip was cold and cloudy. Last week I fixed the desktop, got high speed internet and a router. Also spent a lot of time throwing dirt and manure around in the gardens. Ron is counting - only 10 weeks before we leave for Arizona!

Eureka!

We've been hunting for gold in a gulch by Rockerville, SD this last week. I hurt my back so didn't do much this week until today. The trees have been turning color and the gulch has been just beautiful. So today I had Ron carry some material we dug out from under a tree and from the rotten bedrock at the creek bottom, and I washed the rocks and panned everything. It was so exciting to see the big gold nugget at the bottom of the gold pan! Of course, tomorrow we go home, so I made him go back and we filled a couple of buckets for panning when we get home. Also, I have to show off the socks I learned to knit this month. They fit wonderfully!

Trophy picture

Katelynd and Myra went fishing with Grandpa Ron and Grandma Sue last week. Myra caught the first fish both times, but Katelynd caught the biggest! What a hoot, we had so much fun. Myra would fish a bit, then go to the swings. In the afternoon of the second time, we took the girls swimming too - they both learned new swimming moves!

Rockerville

Husband and I searched around Rockerville for gravel layers. We took the forest service road south just at the old boy scout camp turnout. Found out where the old timers mined with the flume from Sheridan Lake area. Here are some pictures of what we found - a cave (we were nearby Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns), rock piles in the valley floor, similar to what we saw at the Mother Lode in California, and a piece of sandstone with beautiful crystals of some kind - looked a little like maybe salt crystals? Maybe its the same as what's on the cave walls. There was evidence of mining everywhere, both old diggin's and recent drywashing (is that legal here?) We will see if there is any gold left tomorrow.

Walleye Fishing

Caught my first walleye at Angustora Saturday morning. We went fishing with our neighbors in their boat - the only way to go. Here is a picture of me and the walleye - fifteen inches. Also, older son and daughter in law came to visit - brought a unique mother's day gift and a father's day gift too since they won't see us then - here are pictures. I love the mother's day one - how cool is that. Father's day one is a survival kit for Alaska, but we'll be able to use a lot of it wherever we go in our travels.

Mothers Day Flowers

These are the flowers my son sent me for Mother's Day. They are so beautiful! What a great thing to be thought of!

Beginning this blog

This is the first post to see if I can create a blog the way I want it. Here is a picture of some beautiful spring flowers I saw this weekend.