Labor Day Weekend 2008

How is it possible that it's Labor Day weekend already? I remember JUST taking our Memorial Day camping trip like it was a few weekends ago! Our busy season is here, and lots of plans are starting to take place.

A week ago, Nathan left for the Hills for training, and I drove separate so I could get our groceries and Walmart trip done before Mom got here on Monday. So Sunday flew by fast! Monday got here, and Mom pulled in the driveway around noon. Painters were here working cattle, so they were in for lunch and got to say hello to Mom. We got settled in for the rest of the day, had a huge supper and fun time at Painters, and before we knew it, it was time for bed! Tuesday we got up and headed for the Hills. We were planning the BIG jewelry party for on Wed the 27th, so we got supplies for the party, and it was a nice trip together. Wednesday came here fast, and we cleaned at the REC center in town, and got set up for the jewelry party that was at 5:00. After all that, ran home to get showered and pretty, and went into town for the show! We had a wonderful time, and turn out of 21 people, which is great for Buffalo! We got home around 10 and our heads hit the pillows hard! Thursday came, and I woke up not feeling so well. My throat was really sore, and a strong head cold was starting. That was only my start to a miserable few days of a summer cold, something I've never had, or want again!
Friday came, and I kept Mom busy with finishing a painting project in our mudroom that I started during the 10 day Spring storm, and had never gotten back to it. So while I was trying to relax and get better, she painted the rest! What a great job and relief that is to me! Friday night around 9, Nathan finally got home from training! He was beat, and so were we! Saturday I was still feeling horrible, but managed to take Mom into the events going on at the rodeo grounds in town. Painters were in most of the events, and Mom had a great time taking pictures and meeting people! Nathan had to work his game warden gig all day Saturday, and then at the concession stand during the rodeo Sat. night 5-8. Afterwards we went to the bar, the #3 and had supper. There was a dance going on, which seemed like fun, but with me feeling and sounding horrible, I just wanted home! Come to find out, Mom was starting to catch what I had, along with Nathan feeling it this morning! Darn germs! The weather yesterday was in the 100's with today being in the 90's. In Montana, 300 miles West of here, it's only 50 out, so we have a nice cold front coming our way SOON!

I don't have any new pictures to post, only because there was 100's taken over the past week, except they are all on Mom's new camera! So for now, all you can do is read about our wonderful time! Oh yeah, AND Mom was supposed to take off this morning, but we talked her into staying ONE MORE NIGHT! Tomorrow it all comes to an end, and reality will hit us on Tuesday. With another busy week coming up!
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend with family and friends! FALL is right around the corner! Enjoy!

Camp Crook Rodeo

This is what we saw while sitting on the hill watching the Camp Crook rodeo this last weekend. I grabbed my camera so fast, and then turned it into black and white. I absolutely LOVE this picture!
To start the weekend off, on Saturday Nathan had to work. Archery Antelope season opened on Saturday, so Nathan had to be out and about. We're planning on heading out Mid-September to harvest our antelope with our bows. Our friend, Kit will also be coming up to hunt with us, so we're looking forward to archery antelope season. Nathan ended up getting home around two, and then we took off to Crook so he could shoot the 3D archery tournament. The mosquitoes and heat in the river bottom made for a long couple hours of shooting, especially when you are only walking along and watching! Nathan did a great job, but placed lower than he wanted. All in all it was a great experience and they had a great turn out. I am for sure planning on shooting at the next one! After that we walked through the fair building, and watched some of the premium sale, and then headed home. Sunday came fast, and Nathan was off to work until noon, and then we took off to watch some good rodeo! Painters were in most of the events, and we knew a lot of others participating, which makes it fun to watch! After watching most of the events, and getting a sunburn, we headed home to go on a nice ride ourselves. We got Rex and Derby saddled and went for a wonderful evening ride together! We headed East of the house, and then headed Northwest. We went on top of a huge butte North of the house, and sat up there on our horses, speechless. We could see for miles, past the river, and into Montana. We figured we could look at least 30 miles to the West of us, and see nothing but prairie. With the hot pink sun starting to set to the West, we headed home. What an amazing weekend!

Monday came way to early, and before we knew it we were saddled and on horses by 7:30 that morning. Painters were working cattle starting on Monday, so we scratched out our "real" jobs and helped give fall shots. We did a lot of riding on Monday, and finished up around 4 that afternoon. After getting in the house and downing water like a camel, we got showered and left to go clean Continental, the oil field business we clean for. Needless to say, we were beat when we got home! We woke up Tuesday, sore and sun burnt from the hard work the day before. We made it though, and now are looking to Thursday already! Archery hunters are showing up slowly, which means the busy hunting season is getting closer. Nathan is leaving this Sunday-Friday for training in the Hills and in Pierre, so my mama Anne is coming to visit! Even though my shotgun is loaded and ready for anything, I'm still not a fan of staying here by myself for a week straight, so I'm more than excited that she's coming to visit! A jewelry show is in the works for a week from tonight, and invites are being sent tomorrow, so plans are coming together! I'm taking the week off of work, and we'll find plenty to do! Have a great rest of the week!

Shooting Archery

Nathan was pretty proud of my shooting the other night! It was such a nice group, and I didn't stop smiling for quite awhile!

Good Night of Archery

This is something to be proud of! It was defiantly picture worthy, so we snapped a few! This has been my best group by far!

Game Wardens

Here's Nathan & Kit at the TIPS trailer in Rapid City at Cabelas. Aren't they so handsome?! Kit is the game warden in Philip, SD. They grew up together in Pierre.

Archery

This is the first shot of the day, and even though it's a 3D range, this was just to get our yards sited in. Last October for our anniversary, we both got new bows! This is my "diamond"...bow that is!

Shooting Archery

The pictures I'm going to be adding are from shooting at the 3D archery range that is over by Camp Crook, 20 miles west of us on the Montana/SoDak border. We went over and shot on Friday night, had supper in Crook at the bar there, and then headed home. We had a wonderful time shooting for the first time together! We have shot at home together, but never at a 3D course. We did okay, it was a learning experience for both of us. Saturday morning we decided that we had so much fun on Friday night, that we should go back and shoot again! So Saturday afternoon, which turned out to be pretty hot and humid in the river bottom, we went and shot again. There is a tournament on Saturday over at Crook that we are both debating on shooting at.

Yesterday we headed down to Rapid City to meet some good friends of ours. Nathan and Kit had to work at the new Cabelas in the TIPS-turn in poachers-trailer for GF&P while Kayla and I went shopping! We had a lot of fun, but couldn't believe how fast the time went by. I think we ended up getting home around 10..a long day since we had left at 7 that morning.

Nathan got the day off since he worked yesterday, but for me it was back to cleaning. It's hard to believe that school starts in one week! Since the big blizzard went through in May, it sure cut our summer months down! The county fair is this weekend, so we're hoping to get over to some of the events over at Crook.

Enjoy the pictures!

Thursday August 7th 2008

Bring on the weekend! I am just home from work, and I think Nathan is only working until noon tomorrow. Obviously our new computer is working awesome, and I'm hoping everyone is enjoying the pictures and our blogging. After writing on Saturday, we had a long Saturday night. A thunderstorm moved in from Montana around 11:00 that night, and since Painters and their hired men were all down in the Hills, Nathan wasn't going to be able to sleep until we went up to the biggest butte or hill on the ranch to see if anything was on fire. The storms west river are a totally different experience than the storms in Iowa. All the storms I have seen here, have been with very sharp lightning, and this is my second time being in the house and looking out the window and being able to see a lightning bolt almost touch the ground right in front of me. Another difference is that the storms don't produce that much rain. There is always a huge light show, and lots of thunder, but not a lot of rain, which is why we needed to go out and look for fire.
So we left home at 11 and when we got to the top of the hill, we could see a very unfamiliar light to the south of us. We watched for a couple minutes until we were pretty sure that a round bale was in flames. We were already in a pickup that had a fire rig on it, so we headed towards the bale. It ended up being a quite a few miles SE of our closest neighbor and they guided us through their pastures and into the hay field which turned out to be the another landowners. Needless to say, we got the bale's flames slowed down, and sprayed water all around the green alfalfa that was grown beside it. The wind is always the main factor, so as long as we had it under control, we were just hoping the wind wouldn't start it back up.
Since we had a lot more ground to cover, our neighbors babysat it for an hour, and then brought a tractor out to spread it out more. Nathan and I went back up to the top of the hill, which by the way is a wonderful feeling when the lightning is striking every few seconds! We listened to some good tunes, and watched a pretty crazy storm move through. We made the round, and drove past Painters home place,which is 9 miles West of us, and then continued on home which ended up being at 2:30. Then, we all know when your adrenaline is pumping that much, you can't sleep anyway! SO it was a long night!
Sunday was a new day, and since we were so tired from the night before, we didn't do too much. Nathan started mowing the yard, while I made a batch of brownies for the Ice Cream Social. We went and helped a bit at the social and then came home. A friend of ours, Shawna Sundberg, from town, and her kids stopped on their way back home. It's always a fun time having visitors! Monday came along, and the week hasn't stopped moving along until NOW! Nathan has golf tonight, and you will find me relaxing on the couch! haha.
This weekend is pretty open for once, except for Sunday we are headed to Rapid City because the NEW Cabelas opens and Nathan and our friend, Kit have to work at it in the GF&P booth. So while they are working, Kit's girlfriend Kayla and I, are going shopping!! We are also hoping to stop by Jessica Painters place she has outside of Rapid and visit with her!
Also found out that my uncle Tim drew his rifle deer tag for Harding County, so after putting in for 2 years, he got it this year! We were very excited to find that out!
Enjoy the weekend!

This is in the kitchen! I think this is the best place in the house to be! Right now we're facing SW and if it wasn't night out, you'd be looking out into the pasture and over a few hills you'd see Montana.

This picture is taken in living room also, but on the South Wall. The quilt was an awesome wedding gift from Grant & Shelly Else. Shelly did an amazing job, and the quilt gets used a lot!

A peek into our home!

I decided that since most of our family and friends haven't been able to make it out to visit yet, that I'd post some pictures of our lovely little country home! While mom was here visiting on the 4th, she went around and took some great pictures! So, this picture is my favorite one, because I LOVE my old door. I've tried to decorate the house with all PRIMITIVE decorating. The more prim, the better! This is a picture of the West wall on the main floor. The house, to my knowledge, was built in 1930 and is an amazing piece of history! We are very proud to be living where we do!
Enjoy the pictures!!

Saturday August 2nd

What a wonderful day today was! We got our butts in gear this morning, and headed to the Black Hills for shopping. If anyone doesn't know, that is our closest big shopping area, and it's 90 miles from home. We go to Walmart, and to Safeway, the grocery store, about every 2 weeks. So it is quite the outing, at least in our house, when we do go. The day started in Spearfish, getting pictures done at Walmart, and then we headed to Sturgis, since the Sturgis Bike Rally is going on. Oh the sites we did indeed see! We were going to walk the main strip, but decided to head on to Deadwood. Our route we took was through Vanocker Canyon, where many Nathan and Erica memories are. The first place we came upon was the cabin we honeymooned in! I hadn't seen it in almost 3 years, so I had a smile and tears on my cheek as we drove by. After passing by many trails we have four wheeled on, we came upon the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at almost 2 years ago, on our first anniversary. Once again, more memories came flooding back. On our first anniversary, we had just bought our four wheeler, so we did lots of four wheeling that weekend, and lots ever since! We eventually got to Deadwood. We love Deadwood, it has a comfy feeling to it, and anything goes there. We surprisingly got a decent parking place, and walked to the main street. Bikes everywhere up and down, flying in and out..everywhere! Once again, anyone and everyone fits in there! We spent some time people watching, and then headed to the Silverado to gamble $5! We're not much for gambling, and at max out of all the times we've been there, probably spent $20! We sat down at the slots, and right away Nathan loses almost all our money. SO I decide since I've never touched a machine to try, and end up winning our $5 and .96 extra cents back. Needless to say, I'm not too much on the wild side, and cashed out! HA HA! I do see how people get addicted, and I'm sure if we had a weekend in Deadwood, with a set amount to spend, that it would be fun to gamble. But for now, we're ahead .96! :) After eating ice cream at a spot on main street that we've always gotton ice cream at, we decided to take off back to Spearfish.
After a long hour or so in Walmart, which is enough once every two weeks, we went to Safeway, and headed home. We got to Belle Fourche, and decided to stop by Joe and Cindy Painter, the people who's ranch we live on, and say Hi. We had never been to their other ranch they have outside of Belle Fourche, so we got the beautiful tour, visited awhile, and then headed on home. Now that we're home, we don't want to move! Tomorrow is the Ice Cream Social at Ladner Lutheran Church, which is the church we have been attending when we're home! It's about 7 miles North of our house, so I'm making brownies to take, and Nathan will be helping scoop ice cream! It will be nice to see a lot of familiar faces! Other than that, lots of chores need done around the house, and another busy week awaits us! We hope that everyone is enjoying their Saturday night, and Sunday before heading back to work! If anyone is planning a trip to the Black Hills this summer, you'll have to let us know, we could sure use some visitors! :)