A Close Encounter With Aliens

There has been some positive progress in our little piece of paradise. Try saying that real fast 3 times. We went in August to the J Bar B Ranch in SD and soon as we left town our contractor started our new driveway project.

They worked on that for about a week. It didn't take long. The highway department came to inspect it and they said that we needed a four foot concrete apron connected to the road. So we waited and waited. As we waited we had a week of rain. Lots of rain and our poor driveway looked like this.

We just watched the rivers of water and gravel flow back down the hill. It made us start to second guess this whole project. So we will have to watch and see how it erodes in the future. Our other option would be to black top it and that gets expensive.

The concrete eventually got poured and then they came back and fixed and finished the driveway. So now in mid September we can finally say that our new driveway is open for business.

We have to say that it turned out great. This is a project that Lisa's mom and dad were thinking about for years and never quite got to it. The paperwork process is what takes so long. As an added bonus, the power company has been out clearing the brush under our power lines so that they can energize our lines. 

When Lisa's father purchased this property, he had power lines run back into it but never had the lines energized because there was nothing back there. So it has made that part easier for us as we go forth to build our garage. We don't know if he had ever planned on building something back there but we feel very lucky that he gave this to us and in a way it will kind of be his legacy so that we can still enjoy that property.

I like to jump on our atv's and drive our trails that we have made. I usually tell Lisa that I am going to patrol the back 40. Well on one such patrol I came across this in the woods.

It is huge. It is the size of a basketball. As I looked around I spotted even more of these things.

I have found about a dozen of these things. I think they may be Sasquatch eggs. Or maybe they are body snatcher pods. Whatever they are I decided to take matters into my own hands and take care of them before the government disarms me.

                                     

I loaded up some hollow points hoping for a spectacular explosion of Sasquatch or alien embryo matter. But nothing really happened as you can tell from my video-agraphers reaction. Satisfied that they were not a threat, I let the others live in peace. They are free to do whatever it is they do.

Our next project will be to clear the land where the garage is going to go. Permits have been applied for and now we wait again.

Rumor Control at the J Bar B

I thought that I would set the record straight after our visit to the J Bar B ranch. It is true that we visited Jim and Barb. That we don't deny. The reason we went was just to visit. I was keeping tabs on Jim's work progress and saw the perfect window of opportunity to visit. No heavy work was going to be involved. Actually not much work at all.

We jumped into our truck and slowly made our way to South Dakota. Carefully watching the calendar. We arrived at Jim and Barb's and was greeted by this sign.

Okay????????? "I guess we are in for a "beercation", I said to Gladys. We drove up to the house and it looks great. We can't believe how different it is from our last visit.

Last year when we were there, there was just the plumbing in and the foundation in. And with some very careful planning we were able to avoid everything to this point.

Although that upside down house wrap is still bothering me. Hopefully it will be sided by the next time we are there so I don't have to look at it. I don't know how they can sleep at night knowing that that is up there?

Now don't get me wrong. I would love to help. But in all reality I was born to be more of a supervisor than a laborer. 

As you can tell from my perfect stance, holding my coffee cup at the correct angle. Standing at the right distance to not be too close that I might be asked to get something and yet not too far away that I can't see what's going on and offer my words of wisdom. There's a fine line being walked here and it takes many, many years of working in the government to master it. So consider it mastered.

In this photo I watched Jim help unload his steel. I expertly stood out of the way. I like to give heavy machinery a wide berth.

This photo shows me staying out of the way again as Jim levels some gravel at Kevin's place.

And finally this photo shows me staying out of the way as Jim wires electrical outlets. I am sure there were many more incidents that I didn't photograph but I am sure you all get the idea. 

The beauty of this is pure genius on my part. For the many years that we have known each other I have been planting psychological seeds. Whenever we would get together the first thing I might say is something like this. "Boy it's great to see you guys again, but my arthritis has really been acting up." Or this. "Let's go for a hike but I have some calcification in my foot right now."

It has been going on now for years and they are at the point where they don't expect much from me. I think that they are just happy I am still breathing.

That pretty much wraps up our visit with them. We watched them do many things.

Here Daisy was doing a mind meld on Jim trying to talk him out of his rice crispy bar. I think that it was working.

Here is a group picture of us all. Luckily I was able to get out of my scooter long enough to take that. 

We had a great visit as always.