8/27/09

As our night sky is so dark we are staying up to watch mars tonight.

We have been busy keeping up with the raspberries. We picked 2 ice cream buckets of raspberries this morning and I jelled 4 batches today. As the raspberry went better than the chokecherry I am making more raspberry for next year. Hope everyone has been enjoying the jelly.

No big ventures lately for Happy Trails. Tally is still digging and will probably be digging for awhile, I think he is having way too much fun so I get him to help clean a cabin once in a while. The season is winding down. Labor day will be the last big hurrah though as we are open all year we do have quite a few guests coming in September. There is more time between guests so the cabin cleaning is not as hectic. It is hectic in our kitchen as I jell and can the garden produce. Sometimes it is a relief for the garden to be done. I have put out the notice that we can't grow tomatoes at our elevation so a few of our reliable guests have brought me enough tomatoes from their gardens to make salsa and still have a lot of tomato sandwiches and BLT's. We have been in heaven.

8/19/09

We made it through our own Primal Quest. Silver City came through with great support of all the racers. No matter what time of day or night we had someone cheering and feeding each team. With our background in ultra distance cycling and racing at high levels Tally & I really enjoyed seeing the athletes. It really brought back some great memories, the downside is that we did have to take breaks and clean cabins and get laundry done as guests were still coming in and we do have a business to run.

Though the weather has not been cooperating the die hard guests have been inner tubing. I may have to have some wet suits available for the adults, I don't think the kids feel the cold. For future guests... pack the wet suit. People have still been catching fish and the flowers are totally wonderful.

Tally is busy digging around the Boxcar Cabin in preparation for installing a foundation. We will start the hard part after Labor Day. Can't believe the summer is almost over.

8/16/09

The raspberries are ripe! Time to pick and make jelly. Many guests got a sampling of the fruits of our garden. Hope they were all enjoyed. I did notice the chokecherry jelly was not as well received as the raspberry. More raspberry for 2010.

We made it through Sturgis rally week. It was very busy for the town. Our daughter and cousin with the neighbor girls sell lemonade, brownies, hot dogs and chips to the motorcyclists. They do well and it is a great way for them to learn about business and customer relations.

This weekend the Black Hills are hosting the Primal Quest Race www.ecoprimalquest.com. It is 600 miles of racing throughout the Black Hills and Badlands. Silver City VFD is a check point of the race and it has been fun to see the racers go through.

More later.