The beginning of the end...of summer.

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(Jean’s House: Antelope Creek Kennels)

We’ve been busy the last few weeks. We did make another trip to Sidney, and also attended the Medora musical again. Our daughter Megan came with her kids to spend a week with us, which was wonderful! The week before that Jean’s daughter and son-in-law and their kids were here, so this place has been full of words! (It might be my imagination, but I think Bob and Jean spend more time working in the kennels when there are little kids around!) But it was so fun to have everyone.

Our big news is that the kennels are done, and the dogs are in. I mean completely done. The last phase is to put up a wire fence around the dogs' exercise area. It wouldn’t hurt if the temperature would drop to the low 70s for a few days so they could get that work finished, but I don’t see that happening. So Bob’s pounding fence posts in the heat.

In the old kennel the dogs could see Jean as soon as she stepped out of the house, as well as see anyone driving up, and what’s going on in the yard. In their new digs they’re on the far side of the barn, and can’t see anything up here; the first day and night they spent mostly going from the outside of the kennels to the inside, just trying to figure out what’s going on. The kennels are much cooler now because of better insulation and ventilation, and they have cool concrete to lie on inside as well as out. The old kennels will be used for boarding dogs.

I've been sewing, mowing, cooking and staining the decks. And taking liquids to the real workers...just call me Molly Pitcher!

We’re off Highway 22, which apparently is a popular north-south route from Somewhere to Sturgis, SD. The motorcycle rally is going on right now. We’re about a mile from the highway, straight across the fields, and we can hear the motorcycles on their way down. I thought maybe we should beebop down there to see what's going on, but I lost that thought, two to one! Yesterday and today there have been more bikes traveling north, so apparently the good times are over for some of them.

Our time in Dickinson is running out, and we’re all scurrying to get things finished. The plans we had for rearranging the clothing and stuff in the basement of the motorhome are still plans, but we do know we need to have the warmer clothes easier to get to this year. Last year at this time we thought we wouldn’t be using them, so we packed them deep in the bus, and we must have moved them in and out of that storage area a dozen times. This year we’ll have a different plan. Plus, we need to get it washed and waxed before we head out. Those are both small jobs, but need to be done.

Ok, picture time:

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Photos

The prairies of Montana
This is such a classic scene of August.

Southern end of the badlands.
Different beauty than you see from the interstate, but still beautiful.

Taken in Medora--
(Do you read left to right, or top to bottom?)

Misc. work shots:
They were just figuring out how they wanted the gates to work. It took several on-off-on times to get the gate just right!

A top for the kennel.
Bob's not holding up the ceiling, he's just waiting for Neal to need something! This was another hot, dirty job. (I just know that because they told me--I'm allergic to hot, dirty jobs!!)

Bob's Shoe Repair.
Bob's trying to get the shoes to last through the job! Wayne and Dave~~we figured you'd both be impressed! Thing is, the tape wears out on the bottom, and after a couple days it needs to be replaced~~maybe he should use Gorilla Tape!

This is cool in every sense...
Each run has its own hose for washing down the concrete (in the old setup the hose has to be dragged from run to run.) The pvc pipe along the top is for the misting system~~cools the metal siding as well as the concrete as well as the dogs. Each kennel has its own mister. (I expected to find Jean and Bob standing under the misters! I'm not suggesting they don't do it, I'm just saying I haven't seen them yet!)

The finished project:
and the dogs needed to be in this photo!

Alook from outside the barn.
You can see that there's still a lot of space in the barn for storage.

Comments

[Jean]

Until we meet again.
Patty, you are so right that I am bittersweet. We had such a wonderful summer and the days flew past. Now that they have ended I look back on the time we spent together and I am grateful for every second! Hard work, great friends, good food, and warm pop (an inside joke) on the patio! Life doesn't get any better! Thanks, Vic and Bob, for all that you did for me, and I don't just mean building the kennel! Stay safe my friends and have the adventure of a lifetime this winter, your hammer and vacuum await you!