Autumn

October in the Midwest was beautiful! Didn't rain hardly any--in fact we were under a burn ban!

Keith is still working the I-69 job and living away from home in the truck camper. No way of knowing how long the job will last, but he's not inclined to break camp here on the Hill and move the 5er to the campground. In his usual, pessimistic manner, he figures the job will end as soon as he goes to the trouble of moving! We're both pretty sick of living apart, but there's not much to tempt me to down there, anyhow. He's working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, so it's not like we'd see much of each other!

Today I finally got my dental work done, and am not enjoying my evening much. Had the last teeth extracted and the lower denture put in. I'm now, officially, a 'toothless old hag', I guess!

I've been cranking out bead bracelets on my little loom. Making orange & black "Tigers" ones to sell to the local sports fans. At $4 each, I won't get rich, but profit is profit! :)

November is making a good start towards Winter here. Temps have been up and down--down to low 20s tomorrow nite, then back up into the 60s next week. I could be talked into going South for the Winter! :D

Summer

It's been a long, hot, boring summer--except for the nearly daily visits to the local Coffee House. The biggest excitement was the demolition of the building that took up 1/3 of the remaining block of 'downtown', and the removal of a bank vault that had been there since 1896.

Keith finally got sent out to work--during the 2 hottest weeks of the whole summer, naturally. He's 'batching' it in the truck camper, while I hold down the fort. His job is about 70 miles away from here...camping rent is $300 a month. We can do the math! And, with working 10 hour days, the old man is better off living closer to the job! He has a 1/2 hour drive--which is plenty. If he's still on the same job in Nov., we'll move the 5th wheel and set up for the winter, I think.

Progress!

Last nite I cut my own fingernails for the first time in 5 months! Doesn't sound like much, I know, but when you've had to have someone else do it every time....

We're STILL unloading the camper and the trailer! The heat and humidity and attacking skeeters have slowed us down even more than normal! First on today's list is a trip to buy benedryl cream for the bites!

There was a wreck in front of our house, just before dark last nite. We never heard a sound, over the tv, fan and AC--plus, the truck and camper are parked between us and the road! Poor girl was having a driving lesson in the family van, with Mom and her siblings. Lost it on the loose gravel, over-corrected and hit the light pole. Our lights never even blinked, so she didn't hit it hard--but the van looked awful--everyone seemed fine. Took Crawford County's Finest at least 30 minutes to get here! Makes ya feel safe....

I learned that my cell phone is getting it's signal from the next County--so we will have to tell them which County we're in if we call 911 again, so they can transfer us! Altho, they might be able to get someone here faster than Crawford County....

I'm working on beaded headbands for the Biker Rally in SD next month, but I don't think I'm going to get many done at the rate I'm going. I've got a lady with a craft store waiting for them, but between having to wear my ancient glasses until we can afford to replace the broken ones and my aching shoulder, progress has been slow! I'm still beading the first one! And she wants key rings, too! Maybe by NEXT summer....

Okay, getting dressed and heading for that benedryl....

Back in IL

Here we are, surrounded by overgrown grass/weeds and starving hordes of mosquitoes--back in the Land of Lincoln. Already been to the Coffee Shop and seen nearly everyone we know, except for our kids and grandkids.

And now the mowing and unpacking and cleaning and laundry and fixing what's broke begin!

Trip home was fairly uneventful--the front brake on the truck was merely finnicky, instead of locking clear up. (hopefully that will get fixed/replaced soon) We did the trip in 2 days so we'd make it here before the mad, mad July 4th traffic got bad! Rolled into our driveway at about 9PM and went to bed in our camper bunks! We went so far as to battle our way thru the biting hordes to open up the 5th wheel so it could cool down, at least....

We had packed our camper fridge tight with frozen meat and goodies, turned up the cold and locked the door--and everything was still frozen solid when we got here. I love that little fridge!

We were a bit sad to leave our house in Kadoka (note that it's now called a 'house' instead of a 'shack'?) It's going to be a cute little place..... :)

Visitors!

JD & Marie came to visit! :) They were headed East, after a trip to Alaska (I am SO jealous!) It was great to see them--even tho I broke my glasses at breakfast and wasn't seeing them as well as I normally would! :D Worst part of the day? I totally forgot to take a picture while they were here!

In fact, I spent the day in a haze--until Keith went to working his magic and gave my glasses a JB Weld nose piece! Not quite as bad as the old days when ya held them together with tape. Good thing, too cause the old tape method would have really screwed with my bifocals!

Meanwhile, I *think* the plumbing is officially hooked up! At last. Bathroom is almost ready for rugs and such! There's a bed in the bedroom, and 2 dressers. The living room furniture is in it's proper room (room being minus the offending wall that someone had seen fit to put up across it!), but surrounded by sheets of paneling, boards, plywood, tools, etc....

I think we're going to wrap this trip up this weekend, but with this contractor, one never knows!

winding down

Last week, in amongst the exhausting work, Keith took time off to take the neighbor to Rapid to load up a few things that had been given to us by a long-time friend. They came back with a pickup load of scrap iron that she'd convinced them to take. That load was transferred to the neighbor's bigger truck and another trip was made to load more steel and 'stuff'.... Lost 2 remodeling days that week, since I'm not allowed (nor is it even POSSIBLE!) for me to navigate this construction zone and get anything useful done that requires such things as "two-handed reaching", "ladder climbing", etc. :(

But, as soon as it quits drizzling/raining, Keith will crawl back under the house and finish hooking up the fixtures and we'll have a completed bathroom! Meanwhile, we managed to get the chimney that someone in years past had built a hallway around, torn down and the much larger hallway is being finished.

Yeah, I know. construction details are boring!

Friday we're packing up the camper and heading for the hills on an over-nighter in the aforementioned friend's driveway! A mini-vacation! Then back here to unload/load the trailer for the trip back to the heat and steam of IL--and hopefully a paying job, since we've spent all we had at Menard's and the local Hardware Hanks!

Today is one of those days where we look at each other and wonder if we'll live long enough to finish this place and actually get to USE it!

Busy, busy....

Boy am I behind, or what?

Let's see. Wednesday we found out that the USPS is forwarding only the mail it feels like forwarding. Called the H'ville PO and found that everything was being sent to St. Louis, just like it was supposed to--so the fact that we haven't gotten several pieces of mail we were expecting? Gonna cure that. I told her to quit forwarding anything and my 'new' mailman' is going to send me a packet once a week! :)

Then there was Thursday. Trip to Rapid Day. This time, the wheels of choice was the old pickup, so we could haul more junk home from Charlotte's, like fence posts. So up the street we went, to get gas and head West. Kah-thump, kah-thump, kah-thump.... First thing on Keith's list was to get the tire with the bump on it changed--when we got to Rapid. The day before, I had suggested that it might be wise to get it dealt with BEFORE we left??? "Oh, no!", he says. "It got Jim & me there and back last year!" Kah-thump, kah thump... Up onto I-90 and 10 miles down the road--KAH-BAM, KAH-BAM, KAH BAM! I didn't say a WORD.















Friday was plumbing day--where he crawled under the house and I sat at his beck and call while he built drains under the bathroom. And then dragged him out of the hole, one-handed....


Saturday, I was the dumb flunkie again...while he glued up the shower walls, hanged wallpaper (which I had not bought enough of--my daughter is the math whiz, not me!), installed the toilet... Fun stuff, like that. I also knocked down, carried out, stacked chimney bricks. We're going to have to go back to IL just to rest!

So, Tuesday we'll be off to the City again--for more wallpaper and another load of fence posts and a giant flower pot from Charlotte's never-ending collection of stuff she doesn't want to fool with trying to sell. I have a running tab on the stuff she does want to sell that I get first dibs on. So far, there's a flat screen tv (which doesn't work in Kadoka, of course!), a couple of dressers, a cool table, and more. That will be Thursday's trip! :D

So, now you're up to date--except for my on-going battle with the B who runs the Post Office. She got her $28 for a PO box this time. I don't know what she told them when they called to check on my complaint, but I do know what she told ME. "You don't live there. You came in a camper and you could leave again in the middle of the night!" Gosh, if everyone in this little town were as friendly to new folks as she is, it would have dried up a long time ago! Nothing like being called homeless trash in the middle of the local post office! So, Tuesday, I'm calling the H'ville Postmaster to find out how the USPS hierarchy works, cause their Customer Service division didn't work for me. Last year we were residents and this year we're homeless-in-Kadoka? I drove around town and saw several campers and RVs sitting in people's yards--are they all homeless like us? The story will continue.... :)