I made a trip to the parents’ ranch near Hermosa over Labor Day. My Dad and I had planned to tackle painting the ceiling in the main part of their house. The ceiling/roof developed a leak a while ago, and there was some damage to the paint, and it had been at least 16 years since we painted it, so it was time.

It has become tradition on my Labor Day break for me to bring tomatoes for my former 4-H leader and neighbor, because she likes home-canned tomatoes in the winter. Her daughter (my friend L.) used to live down here near Denver and we would go home to SD together, stopping first at the roadside farm stand and buying tomatoes and other veggies to take home to her Mom and other relatives. When she moved away, I continued the tradition, and then word spread to some of my Mom’s church friends, so this time I was hauling 3 bushels of tomatoes, a box of green beans, a box of peaches, and some other sundry vegetables I can’t remember. I don’t mind, because then there is a little more justification for my usage of gas to drive that far. I stopped at Palombo Gardens near Brighton for the vegetables, and then I stopped at Lauer Krauts in Brighton to have a breakfast runza sandwich. I kid you not, this “sandwich” was about the size of my head. Plus they had German chocolate brownies, again, just about as big as my head. I thought I took pictures but apparently not. The sandwich could have used some hot sauce, but since I was driving, couldn’t do that.

I stopped to see my friend Cyndi in Hot Springs. I stopped in at Black Hills Books and Treasures in Hot Springs to pick up a copy of Dave Strain’s book, “Hay Camp.” A few weeks before they had discovered a book about the early days of the Black Hills called “Black Hills, White Sky,” and then heard from another friend that they should have “Hay Camp” to complete the collection, so I stopped in there and they had a copy, the updated edition even. And then I stopped off in Hermosa to drop off some of the tomatoes.

When I got to the ranch, my dad already had a bunch of the ceiling taped, which was a real time saver. He was still working on the area that needed to be repaired, adding some plaster/fill and then letting it dry and sanding. Friday morning we got going early and tackled that painting. We made good progress, I was mostly using the trim brush and doing the edges. Their ceiling has these tiny little trim boards in a contrasting wood grain all across it, so we had to work around those. Next time I just vote to paint those white. The blue painters’ tape didn’t work for squat. Where it didn’t leak paint, it stuck to the wood. I was pulling that stuff off with tweezers for DAYS. We got done with all of the painting that day, I think, just needed to do some of the clean up. We also ran out of paint and needed some more. I also suggested that Dad get some texture to spray on the repaired area, because there were a few other areas that had some water damage, and the paint didn’t adhere really well in those spots. My dad is 77 years old and he pretty much puts me to shame in terms of endurance and working hard, so I just tried to catch up.

In the meantime, Mom was washing down some of her teapots and tins that she keeps up on top of the cupboard, since we had to take those down to paint around them. I got the small hand vacuum and went after the dust on top of the cupboards, so we got those good and clean before painting. I removed the jar of rattle snake rattles and suggested that THOSE be thrown away, but that was vetoed. I did suggest that we take one of the interesting jars on another shelf and put the rattlesnake rattles in there, so they wouldn’t get so dusty the NEXT time. I hope my brother is aware that HE is going to inherit the rattlesnake rattles. Or maybe his WIFE needs to be aware.

Saturday was spent cleaning up, putting things back, and getting things back in order. I grabbed the dust vac and went after the north window screens in the house, cleaning out some bugs and dust. Dad and I also brainstormed (at my instigation) how we could replace the screens in those windows without tearing the whole house apart. We put some materials for those on the list for town on Sunday.

Sunday we went to church, and then into Rapid City to go to Ace Hardware and get more paint, patching material, window screen, etc. We also met my Aunt E. and Uncle J. at Perkins for lunch and caught up.

By the time we got home, Dad wasn’t feeling well, and so we all took it easy that afternoon.

The next day, Dad and Mom took him to the Dr. (he is fine, had an infection), and I went into Rapid City to do some shopping and visiting of old haunts and a new restaurant.

Disappointingly, the antiques mall was NOT open. Since this is getting lengthy already, a report on what I did next will come tomorrow…..How about a few pictures from around the ranch?

Yes, I am sitting on the boot brush, what of it?

I am hiding in the blocks!

Whammo! I suddenly attack!

Bailey and Zippy wonder why I did not bring them any apples.