Ho, ho, ho

Well, we finally started our shopping today! No point in getting in a hurry, right? Granted,we only did the local Chinamart and the farm store, but it was a start! :D Had one of the snow/rain/snow/rain days. Not exactly a Christmas-y kind of day! But it was what it was! Finished off with coffee at the town's newest attraction--a coffee/antique shop. Great folks and a nice place to finish a day.... :)

Keith hasn't been officially laid off, but it looks like his job is over for the year. I'm keeping him busy, tho! The Honey-Do list has been growing for 6 months, after all. And then there's the RV fridge that died a month ago. We now have the new cooling coil and tomorrow the dis-assembling begins. From inside! Thank goodness, once it's apart, it goes outdoors for the bulk of the replacing and then we'll have an INDOOR refrigerator again! :)

And so it goes....

After the feasting...

I'd love to show you the beautiful, moist, flavorful bird prepared by the Lord of the Manor...but, well, we ate the whole thing! This is our daughter and her extended family--that's me, bottom, front left, by the empty plate. :D Future generations will see all the pics I've taken over the years and wonder who....

Truth is--it was our second feast. Keith & I took a friend out to eat on Turkey Day, the day before. (I'm wondering if 2 Thanksgiving Dinners could be contributing to our advancing size?)

So, we drove home, stuffed and found a message waiting on the phone. Keith should show up for work the following morning! Never mind that the same guy had called on Tuesday nite to tell him they wouldn't go back to work until probably Monday! :( Don't get us wrong--we're big fans of time-and-a-half and double-time pay! But we were looking forward to several days off in a row!

Our son and his family have been gone since Wednesday--off to visit Grandma and Grandad in New Orleans. Which means that today they are out there on the highways, heading home with 40 million other people who have to be back at work tomorrow. We've always tried to avoid traveling on holiday weekends--a little aversion we picked up during our motorcycle touring days! Along with our aversion to riding in the late evening, dark and early mornings--to avoid head on collisions with deer!

So, I'm off to feed our granddaughter's chickens and a herd of 9 (NINE!) adorable puppies....

Later, I think I may pick up my needles and finish knitting the sock I've had on them for months! :)

Fall

There's nothing quite like a pile of leaves, when you're 5!

I've reached the point where the only good leaves are burned leaves. :) Especially when the 'man' who can make the leaf blower start is gone from before dawn until after dark and I have to rake leaves the old fashioned way!

Yep, it quit raining again, and the job Keith's on has been working every day--but at least they're down to 11 hours a day instead of the 12 to 14 hours a day they worked back in August! Feast or famine. No idea how much longer it will last, before it gets cold and they shut the job down...

We had a real scare a couple of weeks ago. I took our d-i-l to the ER with a severe headache that she'd had for 4 days. After shooting her full of all the migraine meds they had on hand, the ER doc finally decided she needed admitted, and eventually her doctor diagnosed meningitis. Then we had a couple of anxious days waiting to find out if it was bacterial or viral. Our prayers were answered, because it turned out to be viral. She's back to work this week, and feeling pretty good. :)

It's official. We're not going to make it back to our SD shack this year. The truck camper is not livable in the Winter, and the plumbing and furnace ductwork still need to be installed in the shack. No way we were leaving a good-paying job to go out there this Fall!

In fact, I'm searching for anywhere in the warmer states where there's a lot of construction going on--we might just take off on a job search for the Winter. :) Warm is good.

I've nearly finished up a quilt for Dawn (it didn't start out to be hers, but she laid claim to it when I was still piecing the squares!) I'll put it away until Christmas--she'll have forgotten it by then!
Next comes a quilt for her brother! I may "cheat" and drag out the sewing machine for that one! It'll have to be bigger and tougher for a 12 year old boy!

Aside from that, I've gotten into Facebook and reconnected with some old friends, and family, so I spend a lot of time there! :)

So, there's a brief update... Nothing exciting going on! I see Keith for 1/2 hour in the AM and about 1 1/2 hours at nite--and the dogs are underfoot ALL the time!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Dinah

This is it

Fall has arrived with a vengence. It went from t-shirt weather to jacket weather over nite! And rain! My goodness! I'm sure glad we're not trying to harvest corn and beans this year! It's bad enough having a 'dirt man' missing days of work!

Dawn had her 5th birthday. Now she's ready for another one! But first--she got her 'baby horse'!



Meanwhile, she hops off the bus here (when she can't talk me into picking her up at school), drinks her hot chocolate, watches Curious George and takes a nap with our little lap dog--who seems to think she's his litter mate! :D



Connor went reluctantly off to school. (How many 12 year old boys go happily off to school?) He got to march in several parades this fall, but got stuck with the bass drum every time! Lots of walking with the big drum!



When I'm not goofing around online, on facebook, and playing the games, I'm working on quilts again. Dawn keeps telling me that the one I'm working on right now is going to be hers.... It was going to be a lap quilt, but I guess it'll be her Christmas quilt! :) I've also got a mini quilt going, have started another red, white, and blue one for Connor, and have to cut out one for my niece's new little girl--who they will be flying to China to fetch home sometime around the first of the year. At this rate, I'm going to HAVE to drag out the sewing machine to speed up production!

I still haven't unloaded most of the stuff I packed for our trip to SD in July... :D Gonna have to address that little problem, since there is a quantity of canned goods in boxes that will freeze one of these days if I don't do something! And I have to find the rest of the winter clothes.... Life was so simple when we had tons of stuff we didn't need but it was all under one roof!

And now, I'm a mere 5 hours from having to get out of bed in the morning--so I guess I'd better get INTO the bed!

Almost Fall! :)

It's been a great couple of weeks! Clear skies, lows in the 50s, highs in the upper 70s! Squirrels in the trees, cutting nuts and dropping the hulls onto the metal garage roof, late into the evening.... Every time there's another BANG, the little dog leaps straight in the air and starts barking! I could live without that....

Our little munchkin is enjoying school and riding to Nonny's house on the bus. We don't get to play much now. She gets here about 12:30, has a drink, watches Curious George and then takes her nap--with her puppy, of course.

Keith's employers decided they didn't like the payroll numbers every week--14 hours of double time was killing them! So, we're back to 10 hour days, 6 days a week. It's a good thing, cause the old man was really starting to drag! He's so tired that when he saw I had bought him the new rear tire for his sidecar, he DIDN'T drop his lunch bucket and go pull the rear wheel off for me to take to get the tire mounted tomorrow! Now THAT is tired, for him!

Ding, dong, the mouse is gone! :) He/she won't be missed!

Weather man just said that next week could be colder! I believe it is time to get stocked up on propane, and dig out the jackets. I love Fall!

More August

Had to turn on the AC again today. Sure was a nice, cool week until today! :) Very un-August-like! We're hoping for a rainy day or two starting tomorrow... Keith has been working the long, long, days--one after the other--since the 7th! Work, eat, sleep a little....

School has started, and our 4 year old is going to be going to Pre-School! What is this? Our generation started school at age 6 and learned to read and write and cypher! LOL! Is my age showing? She's still a baby--even still needs her 2 hour nap! Yeah, she needs a little speech therapy, but School from 8 to 2 every day? *sigh* Not my call.... :(

It's been fun having her here! Life was pretty dull from 5 AM to 8:45 PM, 7 days a week! Now I get Barney, and Word World, and Sesame Street, and sand castles and chalk drawings and books!















My little black Yorkie shadow abandons me the minute 'his' little girl gets here! She doesn't make a move without him right there with her. If she's in the sandbox--so is he! If she's asleep, that's where he's supposed to be! He's going to hate it when she quits coming every morning!

Well, the RV has been sitting in the same spot for way too long, now. We have a resident MOUSE in the house! UGH! I'm sure this also means that Winter is coming early, right? Whatever--I'm going to become a 'killer' as soon as I get to ChinaMart again! His fate is on my shopping list! It is time to move this home-on-wheels! Or take the wheels off and get a cat! :(

It's already past my bedtime, so I'm off to the pillows....

Be careful what you wish for....

He was wishing it'd quit raining so he could get more time in on the job--and that's what he's got! He's finished his 6th day in a row, working 14 hours a day...and there's no rain in the forecast until Tuesday, maybe. Ummm, I hate to mention this, but he isn't as young as he used to be! Butt is beginning to drag!

Sure is boring around here, after having him underfoot for months! Just me and the dogs and the Internet! But, the good news is that soon there will be enough $$ to take the Subaru to the "Guy"! I really miss my homely little Subaru!

And now, off to bed! 4:15 comes early....

job

A WEEK later, the rain had stopped and the mud had dried enough to support equipment...so he worked yesterday and today!

Canned goods, etc. are still packed. :D

Hey, Marie! Are you guys doing okay? I missed my 'birthday call'.... :(

job

So, his new job isn't bad...except for the fact that they're trying to build a railroad spur in a mudhole (which pretty much describes this part of the Country this summer!). He worked 12 1/2 hours on Tues. and none since then. A little of that wouldn't be so bad, since they'd work 7-12s if the weather were fit, and the old man isn't really wired for hours like that! Meanwhile, I'm not unloading the little camper and the spare car just yet...cabinets and pantry are still empty and there's boxes piled around the edges of the living room!

Limbo

After 6 months of no work, we decided to pack up and go back to SD, where Keith has a job offer--for pitiful wages, but a job close to our un-finished shack. We've been sorting and packing--Keith even put a new head gasket on my Mom's old Dodge car so we could haul it out there to use! All the canned goods are boxed and loaded, the kitchen cabinets are emptied of food stuff....

This afternoon, the Union BA called with a job, about 20 miles from our IL home! AAAAAARRRRRGGGG! We weren't looking forward to living on non-union, slave wages, but were looking forward to having neighbors that we like and finishing the house..... There's a new crafters consignment store opening up near our house and I had my mini quilts and beadwork packed and loaded! Ah well, we must be where we're supposed to be--right?

I think I'll give it a few days before I start moving into the RV again! Good time to do some heavy housecleaning, I guess!

I hate housecleaning!

Home, home on the Hill!

Well, we left SD at 41 degrees and today it's 85 and steamy in IL. And the skeeters are the size of chickens!

The chimney came down and went to the dump (aka "Kadoka Walmart") and the truck came back with more stuff in it than it left with!






























We now have one of the few houses in town with numbers on the front and a fenced back yard! And brand new electricity, and running water (no indoor plumbing, yet). The purple bedroom is now sandalwood, the dark, paneled front porch is now a pale, cheery yellow with a new 1/2 moon door into the house and a new storm door. There's a real, honest to goodness breaker box in the basement (instead of 4 assorted old fuse boxes), the kitchen and bedroom are level again.... etc.

Finally, after nearly 5 weeks, we simply had to wrap it up and head East... So, here we are!

First thing I had to do was run to the podiatrist and have a sliver of porcelain dug out of a toe! A memento of the 'manly art of removing a bathtub from a tiny bathroom'.... But I get to sit around for a few days instead of emptying and cleaning the truck camper! :)

Here we are, still in beautiful downtown Kadoka--or near there. We have water of our very own! Now, granted, it's a garden hose attached to a faucet in the basement and run up the stairs and out the back door--but it's OURS! Today, we're hoping the electrician comes to give the final okee dokee so the power company will give us ELECTRICITY! :D

Today is also supposed to be the day the chimney comes down and the hole gets covered up! And with luck, I'll take time to upload pictures.....

The Kadoka Adventure

It has been been brought to my attention that this blog is sadly out of date, due to my own negligence, soooooo.....

We are in the great State of SD, Week 2, working on the Shack. The trip out was fairly uneventful, except for the top my favorite outdoor table, which went sailing off down the road because some dummy laid it across the load to get to something else and forgot to put it back before we took off again.

So far, the kitchen has been leveled!!!














The electricity wiring has passed initial inspection. Part of the bedroom foundation has been removed, since it wasn't holding up the bedroom, and the little old cement chipper is chipping away at the offending mortar so he can put in another section of foundation that actually holds something up! :)





Yesterday, however, Keith and his buddy next door, built chainlink fence around our back lot. Off to Menards tomorrow for another 10' gate and a bunch of 20' posts for said fence.

Brother Jim has been trying to help, but just like me, can't work for Keith! Fetching and carrying seem to be what our major function is!














As for INSIDE? Not so much. The house keeps moving around, due to the big, old gopher who keeps working on the outside of the house! Mud a crack and the next day there's another one.... *sigh* Old houses!!! What insanity!

I'm snapping pics as we go, so there will be more, eventually....

Almost gone!

It's not going to rain today! :D And in SD, it's not supposed to snow.... We might actually get on the ROAD!

We have a ratty (but working) riding mower, loaded into an ancient (but working) 91 Chevy truck, loaded onto the 20' flat trailer and the 93 one-ton has a fresh oil change and the slide in mostly packed for travel! I promise, I'll take pictures of this Clampet-like rig! :D Because, it gets worse! Keith has built a box on the front of his trailer to fill with tools and all the things he can find around here that can be used on the Shack! And then, there are conduit bundles, Rubbermaid boxes(filled with drywall tools and painting tools and more), cans of paint, my brother's bicycle, and many other "important" things yet to be loaded onto the trailer....!

My line-of-sight internet service goes on vacation Friday, my VCard is activated, I'm headed for the post office today to line up mail forwarding... and then to pick up the RXes, and do some last minute shopping at Chinamart.

The Union Hall hasn't called Keith about a job in a very long time, but the unemployment keeps coming, for now.... It'd be just our luck that we'll get out West with all this conglomeration of stuff and THEN they'll finally have a job for him! (Not that I expect it--no one, not even the "pets", is working in this mud!).

So, off to sort clothes....

Almost Easter

Did I say that the Hall called him? Well, on that Sunday morning, Marathon called and said, "Oops! New plan--we don't need any guys, after all." So much for that job.

New departure date is the day after Mother's Day. We can't get any of the renovations done when it keeps blowing up a blizzard every few days--which is what this spring in Kadoka is like! This new date has, of course, slowed down K's preparation schedule, since now he has "loads of time to get ready".... But progress is being made, I guess. The 91 pickup is ON THE ROAD! Insured and driveable! One ton needs an oil change, and there still seems to be some issue with the light connection between it and the flatbed trailer... (not my department!)

Hubby Dearest is 'all about' electrical wiring and boxes and such crappola, these days. I'm not sure why.... I just keep collecting things I'm gonna need to take along and making a pile. :D

Spring planning...

So, we made this Big Plan and started getting ready to head out after Easter. Then my brother, whom I have had very little contact with in years, discovered that he liked hanging out with us. (He had a stroke 4 years ago and can't hold a job any more.) Anyhow, one thing led to another and he's going along to SD to help with the renovations!

The 'best laid plans' are well under way--and the Hall called yesterday with a job at the refinery where he worked off and on from last August through January! So he's off to work tomorrow and our departure date is now written in jello! This job won't last--it's just a matter of when they will drop him again... And when they do, we'll hit the road. :)

Meanwhile, the preparations continue.....

Up in the air....

It's been a loooooong winter, and there's no sign of let up yet, but we have HOPE! :D Easter is coming!

A friend in SD called a while back, with a JOB OFFER! Doesn't pay much, compared to what we're used to, but it beats unemployment! And it's steady work and Keith would actually get to move dirt! AND, we could start work on our Kadoka shack--which really needs to be done, while there's still something to work with! So, we dug out the old pics of the shack--which could be a really cute little house (3 rooms, a bathroom and a basement), hardwood floors are it's best feature!

So, we're thinkin'. Leave the big RV sit here and take the camper and pickup, loaded with necessary stuff, and camp out this summer in the shack? Or sit here and wait for the Union to come up with some job that none of the 'higher ups' want???

The 'leaving stuff behind' is the scary part, since the last time we did that, thieves went through everything and took whatever they liked....

Ah, nothing like a bit of indecision to raise the BP!

Spring is coming, spring is coming....

A foot of snow this week! Enough already!!!

Aside from that, there's not much going on here. Keith is still out of work, struggling to get the State of IL unemployment started. He made the 2 hour round trip to open his claim--a week later they sent him a notice saying he isn't eligible. So, today he has to make the round trip on snowy roads to deal with it again.

I'm still knitting socks and waiting for Spring!

Keeping warm?

Keeping warm in an RV in below zero temps can be a real challenge! I sort of have it down... Thermostat is set at 65 and we have lots of blankets.... :D

Winter continues...

Yup, anywhere that corn will grow is no fit place for people to live! December was filled with rain, freezing rain, more rain, ice, some sleet and a little bit of zero degree temps. We had a couple of 60 degree days and now we're back to yucky with really cold headed this way! We keep salt in a lidded bucket on the top step of the porch now!

Keith is still slogging off to the refinery to drive around in a truck, picking up the equivalent of dumpsters... It's still not dirt work, but it still pays well. We just knew they'd lay him off at Christmas time--but not! In fact, I think he's worked longer this time around than any time since July! I'm pretty sure they aren't keeping him around for his charming personality--he grumbles and growls all the time about the stupidity he sees all around him there....!

I just keep knitting, altho a friend mailed me a box of assorted beads that I may have to dig into and make something from! But first I have some socks to finish!

ReRun got to visit the vet yesterday, so he's been snipped and is a bit 'ouchy' today. I almost hated to have it done, because it seems like every time we've had a male puppy done, we've lost him within a year. Now, don't get me wrong, I would gladly give him to a good home that doesn't mind having a dog that stubbornly insists on leaving 'surprise packages' around the house--even tho he may have just come in from outdoors!



Now, back to my needles, while the wind howls and flaps the slide-out awnings and the furnace hums.....