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!