First Walleye

Jim may have caught the first fish ( a northern ) but I caught the first walleye.  This beautiful fish was 19 inches long so a little over two pounds.  He was delicious on the grill!  I caught it right offshore from the resort.  On the hillside up by the top there is a square patch -- hard to see but Indian Hills is spelled out in rocks. 

There was a fishing derby this past weekend.  The winning team caught almost 80 lbs of walleye in two days.  Most of the fish were 4 pounds each.  You can keep five walleyes any size here and use two rods.  The last several days people have been coming in with their limits of very nice walleyes and throwing back lots of small fish.  We hope to start catching fish as fast and furious as all the locals -- we'll see. 

The Last Round Up

 

Next to the resort is a ranch owned by the parents of the owner of the resort.  They have been busy the last several weekends branding all the newborn calves.  All of the local ranchers get together and go from one ranch to the next rounding up the cows and calves so they can get branded.  We drove out to the field where they had a corral setup.  We watched as the ranchers brought the herd to the corral.  The cows were bellowing the whole time.  They were not happy being forced to go to the corral.  Once they had them all penned the adult riders cut the cows out and moved them out of the pen so just the calves were left.  The cows then surrounded the pen bellowing loudly, calling for their calves, clearly upset about being separated.  The boys on horseback were then allowed in the pen and got to be the ones that roped the calves.

There was a four person team that worked on the calves.  One person rubbed the area to be branded with an orange substance, then another gave an immunization, the branding was done and as a last insult they were castrated.  All of this took less than four minutes per calf.  The calves didn't bellow during any of the procedures.    It was interesting to watch the process.  The owners son (in the picture) is such a good roper that he is going to Washington DC to be in the junior national championship competition for roping. 

Lake Sakakawea

I took some pictures of the lake from the campground and from the overlook area.  This is the lake we will be fishing for the summer.  The campground is huge as far as acreage but doesn't have that many campsites.  There are less than 100 campsites which for us is a nice size -- we prefer this size versus the ones with over 300 sites on smaller acreage.  The part of the campground along the waterfront is owned by the Corps of Engineers but the resort runs the camping area, boat docks and boat ramp for them.  The other half of the resort is privately owned and is where the full hookup RV sites and rental units with full kitchens and bathrooms are located.  We have a very nice site but its in a little bit of a valley so our cell phone service isn't the best.  We actually get better internet service than cell phone.

We've been out on the lake one day so far and amazingly everything works -- so far-- on the boat--.  The poor boat has traveled about 4,000 miles since it was last in the water and the motor started right up.  The last 3 miles to the resort are gravel road with cattle guards.  We got rattled good enough that a plastic connector to the hot water heater broke.  It broke off inside the tank so we had to call a repair guy out to fix it.  We have no fancy tools for that kind of job.  Of course its 80 miles for the mobile repair guy to come so the service call fee with mileage charge was a big ouch. 

We have started working -- I'm cleaning and Jim is mowing.  We are very excited because we should have time to really get out fishing this week!

Lake Oahe

We spent several days in Presho, SD waiting for the rain and wind to quit.  We finally made it to our next stop north of Pierre at a campground on Lake Oahe out of Gettysburg, SD.  It was a very nice campground with a nice view of the lake and it was reasonable.  Its too bad we couldn't have waited out the bad weather here.  Although we would have probably had a frozen water hose if we had been there during the bad weather.  Lake Oahe extends all the way along the Missouri River from Pierre up into North Dakota almost to Lake Sakakawea. 
This area has great walleye fishing and it is out in the middle of nowhere.  There are a few resorts along this part of the lake but not much else.  Its amazing that such good fishing waters aren't busier and more populated with cabins.  We had walleye dinners at the local restaurant -- it was good but I now fresh walleye will be even better.

We made it to Indian Hills campground out of Garrison, ND the next day and are now getting settled in -- the dust and grime washed off everything and getting ready to start work.  We hope to be out fishing sometime in the next week!

Air Museum in Liberal, KS

We have been on the road since May 4th.  We made it to Amarillo, well almost made it, when the truck started acting up.  We thought it was from the heat -- it was 100 degrees-- but nothing showed that it was overheating.  We limped to our campground and took the truck in to the local Ford dealer the next morning.  It needed a new fuel pump.  Thankfully this very expensive repair was also covered by our warranty.  We were feeling jinxed about trying to get out of Texas.   Our next stop was Liberal, KS.

We found this Air Museum in Liberal that was crammed full of planes.  The planes are packed in so tight its a wonder how they got them all in there.  They have military and civilian planes.  They try to do a whole history of flight.  There was even a small version of a hot air balloon.   They also have a lot of  model planes that people have donated.  Since this is Kansas and Cessna is based in Kansas there were a lot of Cessnas on display.  We were impressed with this small town air museum.   It was a great place to check out.  I think because it was in Kansas -- they also had a display of airplane quilt blocks.  I don't think you would see that kind of thing anywhere else! 

We left the 90 degree heat in southern Kansas and are now waiting out wind and rain in the tiny South Dakota town of Presho.  We should be to our job in North Dakota by Wednesday!

Midland RV Park Garden Project

We did a bunch of special projects while working at Midland RV Park.  The one I'm most proud of is redoing the flower garden.  It had the roses and agave but nothing else but weeds.  They had a landscape planner come out and decide on the design and plants.  The garden was originally covered in mulch.  The owner decided rock would be better so Jim and I removed yards and yards of mulch.   I also had to dig out dozens of baby agave plants that wanted to take over the whole garden.  The garden center crew came out and put the landscape fabric down and planted the new plants.  Some lantana, yucca, sage, specimen grass and two large plants I've never heard of before.  Everything had to like full sun and tolerate being very dry.  The manager put in a sprinkler system so the plants do get water.  The owner had purchased the egg shaped fountain sometime last year.  Jim and I got to shovel 9 yards of river rock into the garden and I made sure all of the sprinkler pipe and electrical cord was covered up with rock so it was nicely hidden.  Finishing touches were a seed block and a hummingbird feeder.  The birds love it and most people in the park are very impressed.

We painted the big fence, and sign knick knacks out front so the park looks more welcoming.  We painted buildings and cement patios and walkways.  Jim trenched through rock and pavement to bury wires.  He dug holes in rock to plant trees and shrubs.   I reupholstered a golf cart and a bunch of dinette chairs for the cabins.  The managers and the owners of the park were ecstatically happy with our work.  The owners told us people in the park thought either the rent was going to go up or the owners were going to sell the park because we got it so spruced up.   We left with praises ringing in our ears and invitations to come back and work anytime.  We are both praying that the campground in North Dakota won't want anything painted!

More Oil Well History

 

The top photo is an example of a very old oil well drilling rig.  The oil well drilling rig in the bottom picture is a modern one.  Not really a lot of difference between them -- the very first ones from as far back as one hundred years ago were made of wood.  Now they are all metal but the basic design and function has not changed.   Oil was first discovered here in Midland and now they have discovered even more oil deeper in the ground here so the new oil boom is going strong.

There is no unemployment in Midland so if you can't get a job here you either aren't looking or can't pass the pee test.  Even Walmart is paying $15 an hour.  The bad part of the deal is there is not enough housing so what there is -- is very expensive -- an average apartment is over $1700 a month.   People that are living here in the RV park have come from all over the country to work in the oil business.  They might start out at a local business but as soon as they get an oil job the local business is out another employee.  Even the local post office can't keep anyone -- and they used to be considered a top job. 

We are headed to an RV park in western North Dakota that is within a hundred miles of Williston, ND where the other big oil boom is happening.  People will start to think we are looking for oil industry work -- NO WAY!  The guys we see that work in it -- have almost no life.  Work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep--- that's all they have time for but they are raking in the money.  We heard the average salary for people in this park is $6000 a month  - one couple is putting away $10,000 a month (after expenses) so they can pay cash for a house.