Eclipsing at the ranch

Monday, August 21, 2017 was the day of the great American eclipse. 

Here in western South Dakota we had 95-96% totality. We had heard all the hype and weren't excited enough to travel a couple hours south to be in totality. Now I totally wish we had though. We had planned for Terry to come home from work for lunch but then his dad asked us to help immunize calves. When we arrived at the ranch around 9am, we found the cows all bellering their mama hearts out since they had been separated from their babies.

Just getting over to the corral.

The guys started pushing calves through the tub and into the shoot where Jerry would squish and trap them, give them two shots, and spray them down with anti-bug stuff.

The whole process only took about an hour and a half and then the kids played outside a bit.

Sydney and Evie had randomly wore Star Wars shirts. I went inside, grabbed the eclipse glasses a friend had given me (we had another from Main Street Square the weekend before when the National Grassland rangers were there), went out by the kids again, and took a look at the sun. I was so excited to see that the eclipse had already started! That was actually the best part for me, my first glimpse of it. It was just so cool, surreal. Looking at these photos I can tell that the sun is dimmer than it usually is at the ranch. Usually you just can't hardly step outside without sunglasses because it's blindingly bright.

Everyone finally went inside and Alice worked on lunch. We turned on the TV and watched totality cover Oregon and it was just so darn cool! Every few minutes we would go outside and take a look with our four glasses. I had seen many warnings about making absolutely sure not to damage your eyes by viewing the eclipse without approved eye-ware, so I followed the directions of one such video and taped a paper plate around the outside of the glasses to prevent peeking.

I took a ton of pictures with my phone and Canon camera and none of them turned out. It was amazing to me that even with the tiniest sliver of sun showing, the camera just couldn't capture it, it still just looked like a full sun! The closest thing I got was this reflection of the eclipse below the sun.

I tried putting the glasses over both lenses and that didn't work either.

Terry and his mom.

I stepped back from the house to try to capture the sky and the dimness. It sure was dark compared to what it usually is. 

I wanted to capture the dimness all around but it was hard to do so. I think since I was higher up here, there was more light for the camera to take in. I dunno. It does look darker than normal but I think in real life it was more so.

Samuel picked a "flower" for me.

We had heard repeatedly that animals could go a little nuts during the eclipse and perhaps that's why Luna started chasing Girlie around. Or it was simply because she's a puppy and always acts like that.

Luna is wicked fast.

The height of darkness was around 1155am or so. I ran inside and told everyone this was it and out they all came.

Jerry, Alice, Terry, and Noah. Oh, and Luna and Girlie frolicking. Ha ha.

Dim dim dim

It really was quite amazing. I so wish I had been in totality. 

I sure hope the kids remember this. I'd never seen any part of an eclipse before! I especially love Samuel and Ezra's faces, their mouths all squished and funnily shaped from pressing down so hard on the plate.

The eclipse in moving time.

It's pretty dark really!

I was bummed the stars didn't come out though. I didn't realize that 4-5% was such a big deal! The sun sure is powerful.

Luna was tuckered out on the way home. 

tomato crazed deer attack

In the early, dark morning hours of Sunday, August 20, 2017, Terry and Noah were awoken by some sort of loud crashing noise in the backyard. Terry said he thought it was one of the kids awake and running into something in the dark. Then he thought perhaps it was a deer, while Noah was just freaked out. When Terry got up later that morning for church and looked out the window, he saw that our back yard was a mess and there was some kind of plant under our apple tree. He went out to investigate and discovered that our blooming cherry tomato plant had been uprooted and tossed under the apple tree. 

The tomato plant had been completely uprooted!! 

So our tomato had survived the huge hail storm we had six days before only to be completely taken out by a dumb deer. You can see the big thriving tomato plant behind Evie. It's the bushy plant behind the deck tub and heat pump, next to  the house. I think it was the day before that we had finally thrown all the fallen apples into the National Guard field behind our house before we mowed the lawn. Perhaps the deer were drunk on fermented apples and that's why they acted to crazy. Or maybe the apples gave them a taste for more and they were bold enough to come sniff around our garden. Or maybe it's due to the drought. Who knows. 

There were leaves and green tomatoes spread all over the yard from the raised bed by the house, all the way towards the back fence where the National Guard land starts.

There's the tomato plant under that tree. Terry followed the debris trail and it led him to the fence. There were green tomatoes and hoof prints everywhere plus the fence was dented and knocked over a little! What we think happened was that a deer had been nosing in at the lowest part of the tomato plant and got its antlers stuck in the metal fencing Terry had placed around it for support. Noticing he was stuck, it then went thrashing around the yard in an attempt to get the plant and supports off his head. Then he ran into the fence and presumably, that sound is what the guys heard. 

After church Terry replanted tomato plant and surprisingly, it has new growth on it now, though most of the tomatoes quit growing and just started ripening. The rest of the grounded tomatoes we collected and let ripen in a box inside.

Here's some of the debris trail leading away from the garden.

This is one the larger more obvious hoof prints visible in the yard. 

Crazy right?! There was a lot of these but they were harder to see later on.

Here is the back fence that's leaning back too far and is bowed out in the middle. See it?

You can see the bowed out portion sticking out here.

The nearest fence post is knocked loose, whereas before you couldn't pull it back like this.

What was even more interesting was the fence next to Noah's bedroom's was also hit! The metal support was stuck here, the post was also knocked loose, and the fence is leaning away. 

Further on was yet another tomato support stuck in the neighbor's fence! So now we're not quite sure if there were two deer or if it was just one who hit both fences. Either way, I'm sure we could have won $100,000 from America's Funniest Videos if we had had a game camera recording. I sure wish I could have seen what that deer looked like. It would have been hilarious! We thought of remaking it with Terry as the deer. 

After Terry replanted the tomato plant we set up a defense to scare any more deer away in the night. We've never ever had problems with deer since we moved here five years ago, despite the fact that they walk the fence line every night. We think Snap, and now Luna, keep them out of the yard. We didn't want to take any chances for a while though so Terry set up the Star Trek motion sensor door chime I gave him for his birthday two years ago. Ha ha ha!

the free 1880 Train ride

We celebrated Terry's homecoming after his first week back to work after sabbatical by riding the 1880 train. The railroad celebrated it's 60th anniversary on Friday, August 18, 2017 by giving free train rides and entrance to its museum to SD residents.

Cited from their website, he 1880 train is "a two-hour, narrated 20-mile round trip between Hill City and Keystone. Passengers view vistas of Harney Peak, mining encampments and participate in good old-fashioned fun. Trains follow the original route of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad laid down in the late 1880s to service the mines and mills between Hill City and Keystone. The Black Hills Central Railroad is the oldest continuously operating tour railroad in the nation and operates three steam and two diesel engines throughout the season. One of our steam engines is close to 100 years old!"

We randomly found out about the special deal when Terry read the Journal paper his dad gave him the Sunday before. Sometimes he doesn't get around to reading it but thankfully he did that day!

They run the train all day long but the only remaining time was 7am. We live 30 minutes from Hill City and had to be there even earlier to pick up tickets and get in line so we arrived at 615! 

We got up at the crack of dawn and were pretty darn tired that afternoon. I think we took naps later. That is why the sun isn't up properly yet. Oh, and a Diesel engine pulled us that morning since it takes the steam engines four hours to warm up.

Waiting in line...

Everyone was so friendly, they even gave away complimentary cookies!

All aboard and eating our cookies.

We opted for a closed train coach for two reasons; one, because it was cold out, and two, because the only memories I have of riding this train as a little kid were tons and tons of soot from the steam engine everywhere, especially in my hair and face. 

We chose to start from Hill City, ride down to Keystone, and back up again. I had a good view to the south of Harney Peak, or Black Elk Peak as we're supposed to call it now. 

I was actually very pleased with the time we had to take the train because there was a lot more wildlife present. Check out that derpy deer. Ha ha ha!

And another one shortly thereafter.

We took a lot of pictures on the way down to Keystone and less on the way back up. It was such fun!

This picture looks like nothing, but it's actually Camp Judson where we do our Fall Retreats every fall. We play games in this field next to the rail road every year!

I was the only one who got off the train in Keystone to use the ladies room thanks to that coffee I drank. I had to pee so bad the entire time! Ha! I was much more comfortable on the way back up. 

We switched up our seating for the ride back to Hill City. Me and Ez swapped with Noah and Evie. He's so cute!

Across the aisle.

The weather had warmed up so we put our windows down. Looking towards the front of the train. 

The back of the train behind us.

Ezra stuck his head out to watch.

He liked listening to the train whistle when we crossed the road.

The conductors came down the aisle collecting tickets and told Ezra to put his head back in.

I thought the ceiling was really pretty.

As soon as the guys were gone Samuel and Ezra proceeded to stick their heads back out. 

It was so beautiful.

Some smoke from the diesel. 

An old house and shed.

Another old house and root cellar. I can't remember the history to all these little places, but they were from the 1800's.

Back to Hill City. The return journey went way too quickly.

We were surprised when we disembarked to see a motorcycle arriving at precisely the same time. We were  even more surprised to discover that it was my dad!

He was on his way out for a camping trip and thought he'd stop by. Talk about perfect timing!

The next train got to take a steam engine.

It was really such a fun time. We never would have been able to afford a ride otherwise. 

We didn't quite know what to do afterwards. We had brought lunch in case we wanted to go for a hike, but we ended up wandering around the little play area. Then we went in that pink, reddish coach behind there.

This was an original caboose from 1906!

Small sleeping quarters though. Or maybe for baggage?

More playing.

There goes the sooty steam engine with its next load.

Next we went into the museum. 

Cute little antique stove inside that red train.

The coolest part was this huge model train.

Ezra coming out of the red train.

All the historical photos and artifacts were neat.

There was a very large timeline along half the room.

Model train downtown.

We had to give those boys a leg up so they could see.

I hope Samuel didn't break their old typewriter, but it's clearly supposed to be touched. 

Ezra's legs were tired so Daddy came to the rescue, just like in Zion, and shortly thereafter we were done.

I discovered this dinosaur in the down town. Ha! We left the museum, had lunch in the van, and decided just to go home since we were so tired. Nap time!