In Communicado

Well, we did it. We braved the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to attend our annual family vacation in the Black Hills (it just so happens to fall on the same week as the Rally). In reality, we saw maybe a dozen bikers while staying at the cabin. It's not exactly a luxury cabin. In fact, it's simply a hunting cabin, but when it means being out in the Black Hills and not even seeing the one million people that was estimated to be there, I'll take it! We've been going to the Black Hills for our annual family vacation for over 30 years. There are only one or two things that have ever stopped us from going out to the Hills for our family vacation. My son being born was one of them. The other was a mixup with getting the cabin. Otherwise, 30+ years of family vacation time in August.

Usually going out to the Hills and coming back means that I'm rearing and ready to tackle some major projects. Not this year. Being in the Hills while nine months pregnant isn't exactly relaxing when the baby is sitting on a nerve making it nearly impossible to do more than hobble along at a slow walk. My mind is also fogged over so I'm doing pretty good to get the day-to-day activities done. No fundraising ideas or activities are coming my way because I just can't seem to comprehend anything more than simple chores and sitting with my feet up.

We got home super late last night so I didn't get a chance to check on the herd. We'd put a bale in with the ponies (with a cinch net) and another bale in for the mares and Junior (with a cinch net). I will go out and check everyone to see how they survived without me. I'm sure they could all care less about me, except maybe Junior who wants his grain. I am worried about him but I'm not sure there's really anything more I can do other than switch up his grain and see if a different feed and ration would work. I'll try just about anything.

I haven't quite started the countdown until the baby comes (only because there's too many numbers involved and I can't count). But there's still plenty of time to get a few things done around the place.

This spring I'd wanted to get an excavator out to our place (before the grass grew) but that didn't happen. Trying to find an excavator in our area that's willing to do work is difficult. But I did find an excavator but with the bad weather, farming in general, and daily life getting in the way, I didn't think we'd ever get the excavator here. Well, we came back last night and shining in the truck's headlights was the excavator sitting and waiting to get to work! I'm excited but need to call because I haven't gotten everything torn down like I said I would. I'm sure there's a voicemail from the excavator guy, but we've been without cell service since we reached the Black Hills. When we get to Rapid City, I simply turn my phone off and that's the last of any communication until we come back down out of the Hills. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I don't even bother turning on my phone until we reach the river because I'm still on vacation mode. Being incommunicado is sometimes worth more than gold, although we do  miss a lot of what's going on in the world. But sometimes you just need a break.

We are getting rain now so I'm not sure what the plans are for digging. I'm hoping we'll be able to get the old building and rubble buried and gone by this weekend! I've been waiting for SO long to get it all cleaned up. It does make me want to get to work on doing more projects around the place; that is until I start walking around and the back/leg start to ache to the point of not being able to even hobble along at a slow pace. But once the building and rubble are gone, and maybe after the baby is born, I can set up a cleaning/painting day or something along those lines. It would be nice to look out the window and see freshly painted buildings and a few new fences but we'll just have to wait and see how things progress. I'm pretty much at the mercy of everyone else these days for getting everything done around the place.

And a HUGE HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to one of our Guardian Angels for taking care of the dogs and looking after the horses while we were on vacation. It's so nice to know that I can count on a few close friends and angels so that I can take a short break from the Sanctuary. Because as we all know, Sanctuary work is a 24x7 kind of life but having that short break even if it's only for a few days, helps rejuvenate everything. So THANK YOU Stacy A. for taking care of the place while we were gone!!! You are such an amazing Guardian Angel to the Sanctuary! Words cannot express my gratitude enough.