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.

July 17, 2009

Things are going well. The weather is finally warm enough for guests to go tubing down Rapid Creek and the evenings are still cool enough for a nice fire in the fire pit. The mosquito population seems to be lessening - I think we had a bumper crop this year.

Last weekend we had our Silver City VFD annual fundraiser. We have a pie and ice cream social in conjunction with a volksmarch. This year we added an artist paint out. Check out silvercitysd.com for an update of the event with pictures.

We have had some great rains and a bit of hail. The flowers are going strong and everything is so green. The rains caused a bit of problems at our house - the roof leaked but we spent the last 2 days re-roofing and it is watertight again. The first thing we did when we bought the place 15 years ago was roof and we've gone full circle replacing roofs.

The mountain biking has been good, as has been the fishing.

June review

Can't believe June is almost over. We have had some fun guests and lots of children. The s'more's have been good and we have had a bumper crop of mosquitoes. Don't let that deter you from being outside as the evenings have been wonderfully cool.

It is finally warm enough to get the inner tubes out, the attrition rate is quite high and there is lots of patching to do. I need more if anyone has an outlet for tubes. Creekville is fully built by the local kids and inhabited almost every day.

Our current guest is having great luck on the creek for fishing. The water is still running good. We had .83" of rain last Friday, keeps Rapid Creek running and the grass green.

Our garden is doing well. There are a few weak spots but the moisture is good and things are growing rapidly. The main feature is the raspberries and there are lots of blooms.

The chickens are all moved to the new coop and everyone has settled in well. We put new nest boxes up yesterday. By this time next year we hope to have enough eggs for guests. Right now 3 chickens barely keep us in eggs.

Time to go to work.

5/29/09 summer is starting.... are we ready?

We are finally getting summer weather and it is beautiful.  The wild Iris are blooming and the Pasques are done.   Autumn has the hammock out and the chicks are getting big.  We put them outside today in a pen.  They are 3 weeks old and getting their feathers.

We are winding down on the spring cleaning.  Tally is shampooing the Bullion Cabin, the last cabin to spring clean.  It sure feels good to be almost done. 

It has been awhile since my last blog.  During this time we spring cleaned 5 cabins, planted our garden, went on a few bike rides and watched a musical performance of the choir at the middle school.   I also painted the outside of the Boxcar Cabin then decided we did not like the color.  We have picked another color and my sister in law repainted yesterday.  It looks great.  I will post a picture ASAP.

We have been hosts to a lot of fishermen lately and they are having great luck in Rapid Creek.  SD Game Fish and Parks is in full swing stocking the creeks.  Pactola Reservoir is full and Rapid Creek is running good.  Maybe I will go fishing this week.  We can get fishing licenses online through SD GF&P don't even have to leave the house.

The big event this week was the moving of the future chicken coop.  The 4 x 10 old outhouse was moved to it's new spot.  Tally actually loaded it onto the back of our trailer, don't ask me how he did it, I was hiding in the garden.  When it was on the trailer he drove down past the garden to show it off to me.  It was quite funny.  

When carpets are all shampooed Tally will work on the coop.

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day.  We had a great week.  The Signature Cabin is totally spring cleaned and the Tree Cabin is half done.  Monday Tally hopes to finish the east siding, the north siding is totally finished on the Boxcar Cabin.  I will try to get pictures up ASAP.  Tally almost got the siding done friday but every time he got going it would start to rain.  Tally would bring the tools out, cut and put up a few boards, the rain would start, tools would be put away, Tally would come inside.  As soon as he would come inside the sun would shine.  Out he would go to start the cycle again.  After lunch he finally just helped me clean a cabin.  We even had a snow squall.  Snow in May??

Yesterday we took a break from cabins and went to a branding.  It was fun to take a step back in time as they branded pretty much the old fashioned way.  It was such a smoothly run operation and a joy to watch.  There was every generation represented and all had their part.

I did pick out the color for the Boxcar cabin, it is a shade of red.  If I get ahead on the cleaning this week I will start the painting, we are painting the grey part and keep the green trim.

It gets quite hectic this time of year but when the dust settles (dust??? what dust) it all seems to get done.

To top off the week we picked up our chickens on friday.  They are so cute.  Guess when the siding is done and cabins are cleaned we better get the chicken coop done.  There won't be any eggs for guests until late July or so.  We will keep you informed on the egg production.