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It has been been brought to my attention that this blog is sadly out of date, due to my own negligence, soooooo.....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