Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

What a mess

A note to you all. If you are going to put a spaghetti squash in the microwave to soften it, make sure to poke it sufficiently.

If you don't, this is what happens.

It actually blew the microwave door open and spewed forth spaghetti squash into a good portion of the kitchen.

More Wishard house progress

So a LOT more progress has been made on the house. Much more than is actually shown here, but I will get you up to speed.

Here is the view from upstairs, looking down to where the woodstove and dining room will be. (The woodstove is actually in!)


Here is the view of the main floor. This is the kitchen area. You can probably notice the black streaks running down the walls. That is from all the rain and snow that got in the house last winter when it wasn't enclosed. Mom, Aunt Rodie, and us three girls spent an entire day scrubbing the walls with bleach. That did the trick and removed the icky black water streaks. We then sanded the walls.

This is a view of the upstairs. Insullation has since been put into the ceiling and dormers. Lee
spent most of a day filling in those big cracks above the windows that you see. Most of the windows had large cracks over them. He did a good job getting everything filled in. All the gaps will be sealed with chink when the weather warms up a tad bit.

Last weekend Zach worked on the furnace unit, Matt worked on plumbing in the bathroom, and Joe worked on the wiring.

Views of the outside.

The dormers will have log siding on them to match the rest of the house.

This is the view of the front. The upper level and lower level will have decks built on them.

Matt has the septic system put in except for being backfilled. There is still a lot to go, but it is getting closer!

Buck Fever

We are entering fall and winter and all the seasons that they bring. Holiday season. Football season. And to my husband...the most important season of all, hunting season.

Now when I think of hunting I think of getting up around 8 and driving around in Glen's heated suburban for several hours, drinking beer, sipping on Cranastia, laughing loud and telling windy stories (usually in an Austrailian accent). If we get to shoot at something, great. If not, no big deal.

Zach on the other hand is not your typical hunter. Nope. Every hunt, whether it's for coyotes or a trophy deer, is serious business. It's up before dawn, no sudden movements, no talking (and if you absolutely must say something it has to be in the quietest whisper possible) and no suburban. Yep, you have to hoof it if you hunt with him. And starting in October he does not wear deodorant because animals can smell it way before you see them. And we're not talking about just the morning of hunts. He doesn't wear it for six months straight! Luckily he wasn't dealt the kind of sweat glands I was.

So he left me after only a few short weeks of being married to go chase elk in Colorado. The thought of not showering for over a week, sleeping in the cold, and getting up before the sun was enough for me to stay home (that and I wasn't invited).

He left being my sweet baby faced hubby...

and came home a rugged mountain man.

Anyway, he and four of his relatives headed out in hopes of that thirdy point buck, I mean bull. After breaking down and waiting for a replacement pickup they finally made it. I think they were secretly hoping to get snowed in up there because they packed food for an army and enough horses to trade with the locals.



After hunting a few days with no luck, Aaron and Zach got on fresh tracks of an elk.

Before long they found some fresh scat. For those of you who don't know, scat is animal poop. I asked how he knew that the 'scat' was fresh. Apparently you rub it to see if it is warm in the middle. That is dedication...They followed the tracks for over 4 hours and finally came to a spot where they got a glimpse of it. Aaron frantically whispered to Zach to shoot it. He pulled the trigger and the rest is history.

I can only imagine what the scene was like after that. Both of them jumping up and down and whispering "Sweet" and "You nailed him!" Maybe a big hug and some tears.

Anyway, it was almost dark and they still had to ride all the way back to camp. Aaron got the horses while Zach gutted his new trophy, a 6x6 bull. By this time it's snowing and they have their head lamps on. That's when they realized that Zach's saddle pack, which contained his tag, had fell off when Aaron was leading the horses back. No tag on dead game equals big fines. They quickly tried to find the pack before it was snow covered. They searched for quite awhile and then fortunately found it near a creek that they had jumped earlier. It was dark now and they couldn't pack the thing out of there with only two horses. So they hung it up in a tree and rode home getting to camp around 11:00 that night. The others were about to send out the search parties.

The next morning they took three extra pack horses and rode four or five hours to retrieve the elk. It took a good hour just to get all the meat and rack secured to the horses. Zach was leading Zippy who had the head and antlers (horns?) attached to his back.

Zippy was not in the least bit thrilled to have that thing strapped to him. He started bucking and racing forward trying to get away. Zach dallied up to try and get control. His Dad was yelling, "whatever you do, don't let go of your dally." That was about the time that Zippy raced behind the horse Zach was riding and the rope slapped Chief's rump. Chief went to bucking. At that point, Zach had to make a critical decision. Let go of his dally which held his prize or risk an even bigger wreck by hanging on to it. He let it go and Zippy went racing through a meadow, heading straight for a very wooded area. He got to the edge and stopped, knowing there was no way he could go into those trees by himself.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing after that.

Looks like we'll be eating elk all winter.

I didn't realize I married such an elkoholic!

Happy Halloween!!!

Weird...a striking resemblance!

Snakes in Winter???

This year in South Dakota, we basically had spring, three nice summer days, skipped fall altogether, and then jumped to winter. No seriously. The other morning, the tree in my back yard had green leaves on it as well as 2 inches of snow. It's been unseasonably cold and yucky out.

Anyway, Zach has been in Colorado elk hunting and he took all the horses but Charlie. So I've been going out to our "country house" and feeding Charlie. On Saturday, after I broke three inches of ice on the tank, I headed to the shed to get some grain. Just as I crawled through the fence to open the shed door, I looked down and saw a snake right in my path! Ackkkkk!!!!!! I screamed and ran into the panels two times before I could get away. I only allowed myself a split second to get a glimpse of the snake who seemed to be just as scared and stunned to see me. He was so cold that when he tried to coil up he looked more like a used rope left out in the rain. I raced back away from the shed and tried to figure out what I was going to do next.

Thoughts rushed through my head. It's 17 degrees out...why wasn't he in a hole somewhere? How was I going to get the grain? How many of his scarey buddies were lurking nearby? Had he been in the shed already (I had been in and out of there several times in the last few days)? What if he headed for the house and decided to curl up in there for the winter?

Of course, I couldn't call for Zach because he was gone. Matt and Lindsey were out of town as well. I had to handle this on my own. So I put on my big girl panties and did what any other real man (or woman) would have done. I drove to Tractor Supply Company and bought a brand new bag of grain. By the time I got back, the bag had ripped and spilled all over in my trunk and then my next fear was that mice might start inhabitating my car. Ya...laugh all you want! But at least Charlie got fed.

More Wishard House

Here are some more pictures of Joe and Ris's house. There has been lots of progress even since these pictures were taken.



Annie and Z discussing when to get married in between cutting logs.

Z and Shane take a break from cutting more logs.

Joe got a telehandler to lift the higher logs.

Donnie and Matt setting logs.

Matt, Ris, and Donnie

Fast forward to the gable ends and ridgepole, this is the upstairs.

More updates to come. Hey, may the actual progress on the house move more quickly than our blog posts!

The House - An Introduction

We have neglected to mention a BIG ongoing project. It is a project that started last fall and is still going. The project has been interrupted with calving, a baby, haying, weather, and life in general. This project is the building of Joe and Larissa's house.

It is going to be wonderful when it is done! So we will go back in time a little bit here to see some of the work in progress. To date, it has most of the roof on and the doors and windows mostly in. We will show some more recent photos in a couple of weeks.

So last fall, the footings were poured

Fast forward to the crawlspace being poured. Then the floor joists, floor, and a round of logs.

Here is Ris last fall. She was prego then. I think that she was going to try to not go into labor until the house was done. Good thing she just went ahead and had the baby.

Here is a picture of some of the crew. By the way, family, friends, or absolute strangers are welcome to show up on any given weekend to hang out, i.e, work on the house!

Uncle D is good help!

Sometimes breaks are taken. Annie and Dad take another break.

Below is a picture from last fall. You can see Ris was really starting to doubt that the house would be done before Randen was born.

When I grow up...

Big R is 324 days old and we're already predicting what he'll be when he grows up. There's the obvious...

a cowboy like his daddy!

Probably not a rhinestone cowboy though.

Maybe a famous piano player like Mozart!

Or a model for some big designer clothes company. Maybe he could help his auntie shop for fashionable clothes.

Or how about a taste tester? Hmmm...mashed lima beans.

I hear dog whisperer's make big money!

Or a real estate agent. Ring ring!

Hello - why yes! I have a property that would be just perfect for you.

Let's face it...he's already got the cell phone thing down and who wouldn't want to buy a house from such a cutie?

But for now he'll settle for being a mama's boy.

Sand Creek - Girls' Campout

As mentioned earlier, we are going back in time. We are remembering the lazy days of summer. Actually, we are just posting some of the stuff we haven't gotten around to yet!

One of the highlights of the summer was going on the annual All-Girls' camp weekend. The group consists of aunts, cousins, and friends. We always have a blast! These gals are awesome!! It truly is a highlight of our summer.

We go to Sand Creek by Beulah, WY. The scenery is gorgeous. Our Aunt Barb and her friend Vicki plan the weekend and tell us what we are eating and what to bring. The weekend consists of eating, tubing down the creek, geocaching, sitting around the campfire, laughing, and having a contest of some sort.

Here is a picture of Vicki cooking up some vittles.


Here is a picture of the pink flamingo that is the camp mascot of sorts. It used to have a partner, but evidently it was stolen out of camp one time.

As mentioned, each year there is a contest. The contest this year was most creative apron. Here is a picture of one of the winners. Vicki's apron was cool and practical with potholders and towels velcro'ed to it. Larissa is in the background. She also won a prize for her apron.

Here is a group picture of all of us sporting our aprons. Back left: Ris, Vicki, Aunt Janet, Annie, Lindsey, Anne, Shannon, Kendra Front: Aunt Barb, Julie and her adorable daughter. Kannon was not there for this picture.

We didn't get any pictures of the tubing adventures, but it was GREAT! Aunt Barb has a camera housing that she uses on her diving trips, so we are still waiting for her to e-mail those pictures to us...

Here is Kendra in front of her camper.

Here is Aunt Barb enjoying a glass of the good stuff!

Annie and I are enjoying nature.

This picture is all of us having a meeting at mid-day. Here Barb, Anne, Janet, and Vicki find a geocache!

Anne and Larissa were geo-cache virgins. This was their first one. Here they confer on coordinates.

Ris and Annie set up the GPS.

Before the campout, Aunt Barb usually sends out the itinerary. For one of the meals, the instructions said "Dress for Dinner." Which probably meant to put clothes on instead of just wearing your swimsuit. Annie read that differently and wore "Old Blue" the promdress. Pretty sure she was the best-dressed person in Beulah!

Here was one of the campfire nights. Making S'mores, drinking toddies, and laughing. Life doesn't get any better than that.

Goodbye summer, we miss you already.