This and That

This is just a little of this and that---

We have now entered the pheasant capitol of South Dakota! We are in a town called Huron, South Dakota, we moved here last Monday--due to some technical difficulties we were not able to stay in "The little town on the prairie" Des Smet, South Dakota that I had previously mentioned in the prior blog. This part of the state has a HUGE pheasant season--October 19 thru December 31, so everywhere you look, there is something about a pheasant. This pheasant in the picture is located right on the outside of town at another motel. As you are coming into town--you can see him for many many miles--he is huge! Since we have moved North, the country has really changed--lots flatter and some hills and every 10 miles, another recreational lake, and lakes with no trees around them--all surrounded by prairie grasses. Very different for us!

We have done several corn appraisals here as well as learning my new job. I have been officially hired on as an auditor for John Deere Risk Protection Services. I am really looking forward to it!

We traveled near 400 miles on Thursday, appraising corn fields. The young man in the picture to the right had the best dry land corn we have seen so far. He was very interested in visiting with us and learning some of the West Texas ways. In conversation he had ask us how our winter months were, we replying that if we had 1 week of single digits we were freezing--we went on to tell us that last year they had 23 days of 30 degrees BELOW zero!! Glad I get to come home and miss that one. It has been very cool here, we had to drag out the jackets every morning this week. Fall has definitely hit this area, the trees have all turned and all the crops are at harvest peak.

Last week we had an appraisal in a little town called Dante, SD. Back in August this town was hit by a very dangerous hail storm. The hail storm did literally no damage to crops but destroyed the roofs in about a 5 mile radius. Having no crop damage was due to the hail stones being so large. The farmer that we were visiting with told us that his home was hit with hail stones that would not fit in a five gallon bucket--you read it right--a five gallon bucket. It said it killed cattle, and the stones had ended up in many living rooms. I have a couple of pictures showing the damage to a barn and then a garage. He explained to us that one home had 2 stones hit side by side on their roof, and a person could crawl through the hole that was left from it!! UN-imaginable, huh?

Traveling a little further North on Tuesday, we were setting in a nice quiet insurance agency office talking over my new duties--when all of a sudden the walls started vibrating and music started playing. We literally could not carry on a conversation-- Julie, the agent, explained to us that main street was the practice field for the high school band. We left her office and stood outside and watched the band march their formation right there in front of the office as well as right in front of Warner South Dakota National Bank. It being so unusual but also brought a smile to our faces. She went on to explain that they had been state champs several times and the band director does know what she is doing. She marched that main street 3 times right with those kids, just while we were there.

We hope to visit Laura Ingle Wilders homestead today. Hopefully I will have some pictures of her prairie town next blog..

Until Then......