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.