Update

Recently we got our house jacked up because it had settled 3 1/4 inches. It had been settling over the years, but this year it settled so much we couldn't open the doors or windows on one corner. We found a company that screws steel piers down and then jack up the foundation. Here is a picture of what they screw down.


Here is a picture of them screwing the piers in. Normally they can hit something solid at 15 feet or so, but they had to screw them down to 60 feet here.


This is what sits atop the pier. They put a hydraulic jack in the open space and jack it up until it gets where it needs to be then tighten down the nuts.


Here is the gap that was left after they jacked the house up.


This is a crack in the wall before they jacked the house up.


And the after picture.


Now, all our doors and windows open.

However, to have the house jacked up, the deck had to be taken off. We managed to take it off in just two pieces. It was a job, but not as bad as trying to take it off board by board.

We also had to put it back on. Luckily we had really nice weather. Here's some pictures of us putting the deck back on.




We are so thankful for the beautiful weather. Today it hit 54 degrees.

There is barely any snow, which we are extremely thankful for. It looks like the weather is going to stay good into January. They are forecasting mid 40's
in January.

Since these pictures were taken the snow has melted even more.


This picture was taken December 6th 2010... Over a year ago. I'm so glad it doesn't look like that now.



We are leaving our calves with our cows while the weather is still nice. It seems to be working quite well.


DJ

First Snow

Saturday night we got our first snow. We got maybe an inch, but it has melted quite a bit already.


We have been frantically trying to get everything done before winter hits. One of the tasks was putting in over a mile of pipeline. When Dad went to start the trencher a month or so ago, the governor stuck and it started over-revving. The fuel shutoff didn't work either, so he had to pinch the fuel line to get it under control. We had to take it to Dickinson and it took three weeks before we got it back. We finally got our trenching done at the mountain before the cold weather hit (so we thought). Saturday night Mom and I went to get a pickup that was still at the mountain and noticed water bubbling out of the ground. We shut the water off and went home. The next day Dad had to go dig the pipeline out when it was about thirty degrees with a thirty mph wind. He got it repaired and turned down the pressure. One of the problems was there is a 325 foot drop from the highest point in the pipeline to the lowest.

This is the pipe we used. It is actually gas line and comes in 2000 foot roles. After unrolling one roll with just Dad and me, we recruited Mom to help as well. Things went a lot better after that.


A picture I took a while ago of one of our future milk cows chasing deer out of the yard.

DJ

Extracting Honey

Last Sunday, Sept. 18, we extracted our first crop of honey from Danny's bees. We used the meat cooler room in our shop, which is about 5 feet by 12 feet. We warmed everything up to an uncomfortable 90+ degrees to allow the honey to flow.

The picture below is of the "supers" that hold ten frames each.


Danny is holding one of the frames that is full of capped honey.


We are using a capping scratcher to take the wax cappings off the honey.


We borrowed a two frame extractor to fling the honey out of the frames.


Oh! How exciting to see the honey begin to flow. We attribute the very light color to an overabundance of sweet clover this year.


A five gallon bucket filled almost to the brim! About 57 pounds.


Bottling time.


Below are a few pictures of the finished product.

Bobbie--pictures by DJ

Selling Steers and a Fly-in

On the 7th we gathered the steers and put them in the trap.

















The next day we brought them in and (after some excitement) loaded them on the trucks. We drove in to Dickinson to watch the sale. They were lighter than we thought they would be, but they sold well.

On the 9th we loaded up the airplane and headed to the Badlands fly-in at Hot Springs, SD. This is the second time we have attended. We had a lot of fun last year and this year wasn't any different.

I got a couple of pictures of Mt. Rushmore on the way down.


When we arrived, there were already quite a few airplanes there.


Shortly afterwards, several more showed up.


3 RV-10's and an RV-7A.


An RV-10.


An RV-9A


Another RV-10


RV-4


RV-12


RV-9A


RV-8


RV-7A (I think)


A bunch of RVs


A nice RV-10


We also went to a mammoth dig site. It was once a sinkhole that mammoths fell into and couldn't get out. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words...

DJ

What We've Been Doing

We finished haying a few weeks ago. We ended up with over 2,400 bales for the year. Dad finished hauling bales from across the river, but we still have to haul 1,400 or so bales over on this side of the river. We got all the bales bunched and ready to load on the trailer though.

These pictures were taken three weeks ago.(I forgot to post them)




It has cooled down a bit. Highs in the 70's lows in the 40's. It has been kind of dry recently. The other day we looked out the window and saw this. Evidently the cat was kind of cold.


A couple weeks ago Dad got his wheel loader. It is a John Deere 544H with approximately 1850 hours on it. Dad found it online, drove to Minnesota to look at it, and bought it. One of the main reasons he got it was to plow snow in case we have another bad winter. It is handy for other things like loading rock too.


DJ