It's a Wonderful Life

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was a couple days ago, but Bill was called back to work and internet sucks in North Dakota.  

None-the-less, it's best to be thankful everyday for what we have.  And I am thankful for the life I/we have.  We have had opportunities and experiences that many just dream of.  Here's just a few.....

1.  Bill.  Not only do I have a wonderful husband, but also a best friend, soul-mate, and partner in crime.  Living the oilfield life hasn't been the easiest life for either one of us, but it makes one appreciate everything the other does for the home team.

2.  My home.  We left my beloved Wyoming mountains five years ago for the South Dakota Black Hills.  At no time has this ever been regretted.  We've worked hard together to achieve the home we dreamed up, have a nice little chunk of property we call our own, with some really great neighbors!  Our road is it's own little community where everyone pitches in to give each other a hand when needed.  This is exactly the type of community we were looking for.  Not only have we found this community on our road, but the entire Rapid Valley has felt like a community since the day we arrived - with belongings in tow. 

3.  Family - on both sides.  It's true I haven't been around the O'Banion clan a lot over the years, but my Dad's passing this last summer made me really take a look at myself and appreciate that Mom and Dad are the foundation of the person I am today.  I think I turned out pretty OK.  I owe my love of the outdoors to Dad, my ability to cook to Mom, my work ethic to the two of them, my hatred of playing the piano to Mom (she enjoys it, I on the other hand, do NOT!, and my love/hate relationship of being mechanically inclined to Dad (he wasn't to bad at it).  Yes, I can run a chainsaw, fix a garbage disposal, lawn mower, or limp a vehicle home.  It does NOT mean I enjoy these things!  I appreciate being welcomed into the Snow family.  Although we don't get to the see the kids/grand-kids much or Susie and Charlie, we sure treasure the times we are able to have together. 

4.  My ability to learn.  College was not an option for me so I attended the School of Hard Knocks - majoring in L-I-F-E- 101.  Everything I know how to do is because either someone took the time to mentor me or I jumped into something with both feet up to my elbows and figured it out.  I may not be perfect at any one thing, but by-golly, I can hold my own in a lot of different areas of expertise.

5.  Travel.  I have fantasized about traveling most of my life.  In recent years Bill and I have been able to act on some opportunities laid at our feet.  I am blessed to have witnessed a baby rhino nurse for the very first time in South Africa - in it's own habitat and not in a zoo, listened to elk bugle in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota - a sound I will never tire of hearing, had elephants wonder into our camp in Mozambique - so close we could hear their stomachs rumble as the hippos serenaded from the river, body boarded off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii - what a rip that was!  To many more experiences to list out.

6.  My American Citizenship.  Bill has worked literally all over the world.  We have traveled to several parts of the world.  Every place has awesome things to offer.  But, no where, no where else in the world will one find the things we have on good ol' American soil.  We have first rate education, we do not need 'papers' to cross state lines, we choose how we spend our hard earned cash, we choose our careers, we as a society choose our government officials, we choose our own worship habits, we choose our own vises, we have clean living standards, we have a disease free society.  Nothing brings home how easy it is here like watching a teenager literally wash the clothes off his back while taking a bath in the river full of alligators and hippos. 

7.  The American Veteran.  All this talk about the world is a good time to appreciate our veterans who have served this great nation both in times of peace and war.  Veterans sign a blank check to our nations people, sacrificing time from their families and their lives.  Some have paid the ultimate price with their lives defending our freedoms.  God bless each and everyone of you and your families.  

8.  My health.  Can I get around as easily and fast as I could as a teenager?  Not a chance.  BUT, I  can hike anywhere I want, shoot a pistol with relative ease, walk on my own power, accomplish what needs done around our place, ride my motorcycle or even a horse when the opportunity presents itself, and enjoy most days pain free. 

9.  Friends.   Friends come into life to compliment us as human beings.  Some friends become so close that they are far more like family.  These are the ones I am really grateful for.  It's fabulous to be able to call a friend to come give you a hand when you stick a chain saw because the tree fell the wrong way and you're on the mountain by yourself.  Back yard BBQ's are filled with lots of laughter - and maybe even a campfire.  Holidays are never spent alone. 

10.  My life in general.  I have a warm house to be in out of the elements, hot food on a cold night, a glass of wine to reflect the day over, we've collected some toys by working hard, I've made awesome memories - not only around the dinner table, but around the world, I have mentors that encourage me and teach me when I decide to try something new, I have the ability to mentor kids about my beloved outdoors, I have a spouse who loves me unconditionally.  

I have a W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L life.

This has turned long.  Not what my intentions were.  

Thank you Bill for working so hard for us, sharing in my interests, backing my judgments, and being my biggest fan!

A Hearfelt Thank You

Thank you to all of the veterans of this country for your selfless sacrifice serving our country - past, present and future.  It is with gratitude I thank your families for the sacrifices they have made/make also.  May you be remembered everyday.  May this land always be the home of the great American Service Man.

Sentinels rest easy tonight.

Patience Grasshopper, Patience

A couple weeks ago I was matched with a new young lady to mentor through South Dakota Youth Hunting Adventures-Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  This one is kind of unique as the family is living the same lifestyle Bill and I have lived most of our married life - Dad working away from home.  Sadie's Dad is self-employed and recently moved his business operations to North Dakota given the Bakken Field explosion.  Her Mom works part-time - don't be fooled, she is a busy lady!  After all, she has Sadie and Sadie's younger brother to keep track of and that in itself is a full-time job!

This family is full of archer's - something I know nothing about.  Sadie has two harvested does to her credit already - one with a bow and one with a rifle.  (South Dakota has a mentoring program where youth beginning at age 10 can harvest a doe under their parents license until they are eligible for their own hunting license.)  

Our adventure started out last Thursday by making phone calls to the land owners to gain permission to be on the land I wanted to take her to.  Bill and I went to town to watch Sadie practice shoot her bow, then went to dinner with a small role play session on the way to the restaurant.  Once we arrived at the restaurant, I handed the phone to Sadie so she could make her first phone call - no answer, only was able to leave a message.  Hmmmm................  Prior to our dinner being served, Sadie and I excused ourselves so that we could make another phone call, different land owner this time as I had two spots I was lining up just in case nothing was going on at the first.  This time Mr. Landowner answered.  

Now, for a twelve year old girl, this phone call is a little scary to make; after all she has never met the person on the other end of the phone.  Never fear, Sadie handled herself quite professionally, was very polite and graceful.  After a few questions from Mr. Thompson, like "do you know the difference between a deer and a cow?" and what are you going to hunt with, Mr. Thompson was very gracious and said yes to Sadie being able to hunt his land - with one condition:  he gets a picture if she gets a deer.  Phone call #1 done.  That wasn't so bad after all!

Having one more spot to ask permission to hunt, Sadie and I again excused ourselves before ordering dessert hoping to reach the other land owner.  Successful.  This call wasn't as scarey, as she is now a pro at how to handle herself!  Again, after a short conversation about how appreciative Dan is that she called to ask to go in on his land rather than just make herself at home, asking about her hunting experience thus far, who's going to be on the land with her, Sadie was granted permission to hunt another piece of land.  One thing Dan spoke specifically about to Sadie is that stopping by a ranch to introduce yourself when asking permission so the landowner has a chance to meet you is important whenever time allows for that - understanding that just wasn't going to work for this hunt that was planned for two days after this phone call.  Wow!  This girl has learned so much already and the only part of the process that has been done is asking permission to be on land!

Saturday morning has arrived.  Today isn't just any hunt.  Oh no.  Today is Sadie's first hunt on her own license - with her bow.  Today is special - special enough that at 6am a videographer arrives at the house to document her hunt.  (Gary is on the board of directors for Big Brothers/Big Sisters; although the program is growing, the administrators feel it could grow so much quicker - and with more girls active in it - if there was footage from some hunts demonstrating the teaching experiences, the safety that is of utmost concern, and of course, the moment of truth.)  After a quick cup of coffee and a point to the ridge behind the house "that's where we're going", "we're gonna leave from here?", "yep", Sadie attaches the quiver to her bow and the hunt is on. 

Remember, we are bow hunting - old school - no blinds or stands.  Slipping through the woods, ever so quiet, just as we are getting to the first spot I wanted to set up on, a deer pops up on the trail we are on.  S-T-O-P.  Use this tree to break up your shape, get your arrow ready.........  This one leaves.  That's OK, where there's one, there's more.  Ten minutes later, another half dozen deer start wondering over the ridge our direction, two of which really wanted to come over and investigate just what was different by that tree.  No luck.  OK, lets move to these other trees where the deer are staying that just isn't quite in range.  Two more deer come our directions, but at 55 yards, that's just way to far for a bow.  Patience grasshopper, patience.  (I've never had this experience with deer - only turkeys.  Boy am I learning patience; meanwhile, Sadie is just as cool, calm and collected as she could be.  Obviously, this girl has more patience that I do!) 

Alright, after a short bit, it's time to move again.  This time we set up at the end of the ridge - the end of where we are allowed to be and low and behold - 8 deer, on the other side of the fence.  Patience Grasshopper, patience.  We set ourselves up behind a downed tree to use it as cover and just hung out for a while watching which direction these does were going to go.  Didn't take long, they were crossing the fence - our direction.  Remember, we are bow hunting.......we need these does at a maximum distance of 30 yards.   The wait continues - my feet go to sleep.  Gotta change positions.  Sadie's feet go to sleep.  Gotta change positions.  Gary whispers, "DON'T MOVE.  DOE BEHIND YOU AT 12 YARDS."  Crap.  If we move we will blow this one, and very possibly the ones we've been watching.  She leaves, but not with a fuss....didn't even raise her tail.  Meanwhile, while all this is going on, the other deer have fed in and are almost in range....get ready...get ready.....crap, they've come around the tree and Sadie isn't in position.  Move very slowly and methodically.  Deer stop.  30 yards away.  Broadside.  Sadie is on her knees.  Sadie has her bow at full draw.  Doe stomps her foot, snorts and blows the country.  Wait....there's another one.  She doesn't hang around, but her fawn does.  Bow at full draw again.  "It's a fawn."  Bow is put to rest.  "You can take it if you want."  (Fawn is STILL standing broadside, at 25 yards.)  With a shake of her head, Sadie makes the ethical choice of giving that one a chance to grow up. 

However.......talk about excitement!!!!!!  Our first morning out, Sadie had her bow at full draw: T-W-I-C-E!!!!!!!  

Man, was it hard for me to be so patient waiting for the deer to feed in close to us.  Sadie, on the other hand, is an archer - she's a pro at patience.  I bet I learn more from Sadie than  she learns from me.  Don't forget, Gary has this all on film....his last frames have the end of her bow and the deer standing broadside in it..  Wow!

The Wyoming wind arrived in South Dakota over the afternoon so our evening hunt was with a rifle instead of the bow.  Evening started to shape up pretty awesome when just before getting to the fence to cross into where we needed to be, I spotted a doe bedded down.  OK, time to lay a plan.........get across the fence, load the rifle, wind switches and we get blown - big time!  Dang.  The evening is young.  Back to our original plan; work the ridge, see what we find.  Set up a couple times watching deer way off in the distance.  Got about half way up the ridge, set up again.  Nothin' going on, time to move.  Wait,  I see deer over on the fence line, we have time to make a move, let's go!  Sounds easy, right?  Yep, until you get to the creek that has to be crossed and it felt kind of quick sandy to me and the other side of the creek is pretty straight up.  We're tough, we got this. 

Sadie is a hunter, she understand moving quickly yet quietly.  We're making our way to where we need to be.  Before we break out of the last of the timber we have for cover, we see another 4 deer.  Time to set up and wait - 40ish minutes of daylight left.  Yes, we're hunting with a rifle this time so the deer don't have to be as close, but remember the wind is blowing 9-0.  Not going to ruin the day by making an if-ey shot and have to go track something.  Better to practice patience grasshopper and wait for those deer to get a little closer.

We ran out of daylight waiting for the deer to feed closer in our direction.  The day may have not ended with meat in the freezer, but it sure was a fun day full of smiles!  And excitement!  We have time, we can go again!  I had an awesome time!  I'm pretty sure Sadie did also!

Life is pretty grand at the Snow Chateau!

Dan on the left accepting Sadie's thank you cookies and card.

Mr. Thompson and Sadie posing for a quick snapshot after introducing herself and thanking him for the opportunity to hunt and harvest on his land. 

A Little Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween from the Snow Chateau!

Sunset

Not having a chance to get out and do any bird hunting yet, Bill and I headed north this past Friday.  Only saw one rooster and I didn't have any kind of a chance at him as I was still in the trees when he flushed and Bill wasn't even set up yet - not that he was any where near where the bird flushed.  Casey got a *L-I-T-T-L-E* hard headed working one field as there was so much scent that she and I butted heads pretty hard...resulting in me searching for my shot gun.  Damn dog anyway.

However, at the end of the day, she worked a bird in textbook manner, even if it was a hen.  Then Mother Nature graced us with this beautiful sight as we started home.  This shot is straight out of the camera...no enhancement what-so-ever.

How can life NOT be good with a sight like this to send us on our way home?  Yep, Life's pretty good!

Pheasant Opener - Not a Bird In Sight

When I took my Mom down to Colorado to see her grand-kids/great-grand-kids, she mentioned to me that she wanted to have a sidewalk put in from in front of her house around to the garage door.  As most of you know, I have had a few dealings with contractors and told her it was gonna be pretty hard to find someone willing to do such a small job.  Of course her response was *sigh*.  

When my folks built their garage many, many, many moons ago, Dad had just laid some palettes down to make a make-shift sidewalk.  As you can imagine, over time, they have become pretty crappy, and rotted, and yucky, and well, just time for them to go away.  I asked Mom if she could wait until spring to have a sidewalk put in as I thought Bill and I could go over and pour then, not knowing if the weather would hold out long enough to get it done this fall.

Once I returned home, I told Bill what I had volunteered us to do.  I have a wonderful husband.  The more we talked about it, the more we both agreed that the sidewalk really did need to get put in this fall so Mom wouldn't have such a tripping hazard with those rotted palettes to cross every time she went to and from the garage. 

Bill and I looked at the weather and decided last weekend was the time to head back to Billings to pour some concrete.  

Steps 1 & 2:  Get rid of those awful pallets and *try* to till that ground up to dig out for the concrete.  NOTICE:  Rose bushes have been moved.

No job is complete without supervision - this job required two.

Rake, shovel, repeat.  Man, is that ground hard.

We had to re-till the ground multiple times to be able to get deep enough to get the dirt out.  Very thankful we took the roto-tiller up with us.  We'd STILL be there digging.  "Slot" dug, forms set, mesh laid.  Bruce came over when he got off work and gave us a hand getting some of the back fill done.

No, there are no pics of pouring the concrete as I was rather busy on the end of the shovel and I didn't have time to get the pics Mom took put on my hard-drive.  Trust me, there may not be any pics of me, but I worked just as hard.  Had the draggin' butt to prove it.

Again, Bruce came over when he got off work the night we poured.  His help was tremendous with the last half of the pour and all the finish work.

Things are cured enough Bill and Bruce were able to go ahead and edge the concrete.  Sure was lookin' nice at this point.

And the almost finished product.  All the edges are done; unfortunately, the mud didn't cure quick enough for us to be able to strip the forms prior to leaving.  Doesn't matter, Bruce said he would strip and finish back filling.  The important thing:  Mom is HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY.  (I know she was happy, most telephone conversations started out with "I'm getting a new sidewalk", then turned to "I have a new sidewalk".)  Thanks for all the help Bruce.  In Bill's words, "Thank God for brother-in-laws!"

While there, Bill, Bruce and I talked about the lack of motion detection light and all agreed that would be a great idea and that it really should get done - sooner, rather than later.  When I told Mom what we all had decided needed to happen, if she was agreeable, she said her only objection is they had one before and it shined into her bedroom.  Well, I'm married to not only a super nice guy, but a pretty handy one at that.  The light was moved around the corner, with new motion detection installed, and set to shine on that brand new sidewalk of hers - where it will do her some good.  Now that it's all done, Mom said she wished they would have done it a couple years ago.  I wish she would have mention it ten years ago - when we were all younger and had stronger backs.  But, with that said, all in all, a pretty successful weekend - even if there wasn't a pheasant in sight.

Elk, Elk, Some More Elk, and Oh, a Buffalo Too

Yesterday Bill and I had had about all we could stand of staying cooped up in the house.  The weather has been windy, rainy, dreary and just plain yucky.  We had a short break in the wind; Bill asked what I wanted to do, so I said, let's go find the elk.  South Dakota doesn't have a huge elk population so they can be kind of tricky to find.......I only know one spot that you have any kind of chance to find them so off to Wind Cave National Park we went.  Again South Dakota doesn't have a huge elk population so it's kind of a crap shoot to find them.........Mother Nature smiled on us.  

We found one descent sized herd; I took a short hike to be able to photograph them.  They were far enough away that I couldn't clearly see their antlers - please forgive the less than spectacular photo's.  As we drove home toward Custer State Park we found a bachelor group of 3 bulls that I was able to get within about 40-50 yards of one of the bulls; then found 2 bulls hanging a little farther down the road.  Just as we entered into the State Park, we found a small group of elk.......5 cows and 5 bulls in total......a couple of spikes, a small 4 point that must have just been kicked out of the group, another small 4 point and the herd bull - who had only one horn.  He may have only had one horn, but he certainly knew what time of year it is and that his hormones were to be raging.  

And yes, Custer State Park and Wind Cave both have healthy populations of buffalo.  One guy happened to be in a good spot with the sun shining exactly the way it should be.  So, yes, I couldn't resist a shot of him also.  I've become a ........PHOTOGRAPHER!!!!!!!

Our one buff that gave me a descent photo op.

The herd of elk when I first found them.  Notice the bull....lounging in the sun.

He did stand, take a walk over the edge, just simply turn around to watch over his harem.

And with a grunt the girls gather to change real estate.

Surveying to ensure everyone followed.

The magistrate has successfully kept his harem together.

One of the three bulls we found along side of the road.

Not real big, but he sure was handsome.

Can you not hear him saying, "Did you need somethin'?"

These two were far more camera shy.  The big one of the bunch is the closest to the camera.

A 'silent' bugle.

Handsome.

So, he finally stops for a photo....in the timber.  This guy is smart.  Notice how wide he is.

The last group we saw.

He knows exactly what time of year it is.

Indeed....a great day to be on earth.  A great day spent with my Husband.  Life. Is. Good!