A Little Geocaching Fun

Because of the move, we haven't done much geocaching this month, but it has not interfered with attending local geocaching events. This community has a very active group of geocachers. We've attended monthly puzzle solving events, working on puzzles and learning lots. One cacher has hosted monthly brewery events. Sometimes when geocachers from other states come to town, they host an event as a way of meeting some of the local geocachers.

The monthly brewery event was held at the Prairie Berry Winery & Miner Brewing Company. Their first and main home is in the Black Hills (Hill City) and we make it a point of stopping most trips to the Black Hills, as we did last month. This was our third brewery event of the summer.

The three inches of snow last Sunday did not stop us from getting our mandatory earth cache for a virtual souvenir. 

We stopped at The Pettigrew Home & Museum which featured some petrified wood with its granite blocks. We grabbed a few other caches before we headed back to our warm new house.

We ended the week with an event hosted by geocachers from TX who were geocaching the eastern side of the state all week and ending their stay with an event at the Prairie Berry Winery and Miner Brewing Company. Also there was a group of geocachers from Winnipeg who were down for a long weekend of geocaching in the Sioux Falls area. It was interesting to have conversations with both groups who had found our Watertown geocaches.

The puzzle event will happen later this month. And now that we are feeling settled, FEELING settled, we'll also get out and look for some geocaches before the end of the month.

Little Cathedral on the Prairie

On our road trip earlier this month we also stopped in Hoven and I walked into the Cathedral of the Prairie or St. Anthony of Padua Church. The large wooden doors were unlocked and the quietness within enhanced the church's title of cathedral. I had been in the church about 25-30 years ago for nieces' confirmation. At that time I did not appreciate the beauty and architecture of this small town historic building.

twin 140' spires

This Romanesque revival style was built in 1917-1921 after the wooden structure fell as a result of a prairie windstorm. The residing priest Anthony Helmbrecht convinced seventy of the parishes 200 families to raise $500,000 to build a structure that would last through the harshness of the prairie's weather and natural disasters. He envisioned a church similar to the ones he remembered as a child in Bavaria. This structure is a miniature replica of a 1,000 year old church in Ruhmannsfelden, Bavaria.

The church was created by Bavarian craftsmen and artisans. It seats 1200 and has the acoustics worthy of opera singers, which it has hosted. 

Local townspeople have learned artistic techniques necessary to keep the church looking as it did 100 years ago when it was built. The church went through a major restoration in the 1970s and 80s. That was when I saw the church, through scaffolding and new paint/old paint. Maybe that is one of the reasons I did not think it impressive.

The church has 31 Bavarian stained glass windows. Many of the windows' details follow the style of Bavarian & European artists with whimsical adornments of Bavarian hats and local residents in the faces. The windows originally cost $8,300 and are considered priceless today. They have been polished and resealed and are now protected with plexiglass.

$500,000 in 1917 would be equal to $10 million today. Anton Dohman, a Bavarian immigrant from Milwaukee was the architect for the project. He also designed catholic churches in Strasburg and Richardson ND. I have been in Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Strasburg. (The priest is a geocacher and has placed a geocache The Rock and the Sword GC3TJWW in the church. Evidently I did not have the camera with me on that adventure.)

Hoven was settled in 1883 and the first St. Anthony of Padua Church was built in 1887. It, like most of the early places of worship, was a wooden building.

The day was cold and windy with on again, off again rain. The skies did not clear in the evening, but the clouds certainly added interest to the sunset along the Missouri River at Pollock.

Moving Day and the Weekend

When we initially signed papers and chose finishings for our new townhome in July, we were told closing would be on October 11 and it was. We signed the official papers and handed them the check at the 10 AM meeting and got a call from the movers saying they would be at the storage shed at 11:15, two hours ahead of schedule. That was fine with us. With keys in hand we met them at the storage unit and headed to our new home. A friend was coming at 1:00 to install curtain rods.

The van was loaded with the essentials from the other storage shed: bedding, toilet paper, soap, towels, dishes...things we'd need the first few days.

Thursday's temperature was a balmy 34º! Our handy-dandy-man friend put a computer desk together before the movers got there. The movers were done by 3:30 and the furniture company delivered the dining table and chairs at 4:30. Great timing as two trucks did not fit in the driveway at the same time! Curtain rods were in place and curtains hung for privacy and we slept in our new home Thursday evening. I did not take another photo that day as I was busy directing traffic and making decisions.

On Friday our family came to help with some of the unpacking and organizing. Also on the schedule for Friday were the cable company and Culligan. Our handy-dandy-man friend came back and installed a cabinet in the laundry room. By the end of Friday I felt pretty good about what had been accomplished. The furniture was in place. Rooms were arranged to my liking. Things were put away in the kitchen. All the beds were put together and made.  Hubby and son brought all the hanging clothes from the other storage unit. That was when we both agreed the moving company should also move the stuff from the other storage shed. We thought we could/would do it ourselves, gradually...NOT! 

Friends brought spaghetti dinner and joined us at our new table in our new home on Friday. We were both exhausted that night. (But thankful for good friends!)

Saturday was a day of soccer games and looking for storage shelves. We found something we both liked and started with some shelving in the garage. 

On Sunday we awoke to about 3 inches of snow! We did a few geocaches in the morning. Much of it had melted by the end of the afternoon.

The movers brought the rest of our STUFF on Monday.

kitchen & dining

living room

master bedroom

guest room

garage 

more garage

lower level family room

back wall of the family room

the office craft room

the storage room

I no longer felt settled or organized! On Monday evening we moved across town temporarily to the kids' house to stay with the g'kids while their parents went to Mexico for vacation. After taking the g'kids to school in the morning, we'd come back to the NEW house and have coffee and breakfast and attack the piles of boxes. We bought more storage units and but them in the storage room. I moved things around in the kitchen trying to find the 'right' place for stuff. I went through boxes of stuff and realized although the townhouse is a bit larger than the old house, it does not have the storage space the old house had. Things will get packed away and never used! Because I left the house each day by 3:00 PM, the piles of boxes and tubs did not bother me, because I was fresh and energized when I saw them the next morning. 

Thursday's goal was to unpack all the clothes! Four suitcases and several tubs later...Ta Da! Friday was a ME day...some grocery shopping as we are now home, a haircut, a pedicure, and some fun shopping for the new home. 

The window blinds arrived on Wednesday and were installed by our handy-dandy-man on Saturday. The rest of the furniture arrives on Tuesday. Updated photos will be posted after that. We love the house...and will love it more in another week when we aren't stumbling over boxes and tubs...

An Aussie Artist & the Elevator

Throughout the summer I had been hearing of a painting (mural of sorts) happening in a small town in South Dakota. There were TV reports and updates, facebook posts, and the posting from a friend who had driven out of the way to see this most unusual art. It was on my MUST SEE when we visited Mom this fall.

The mural is on a grain elevator, which in and of itself, is an unusual canvas. It is in a small community, not close to a major roadway or one of the larger SD communities. It was painted by an artist from Australia. Huh? What?

Not only was it a must see, but it deserved some research, as there had to be a story behind an Aussie artist painting a grain elevator in the middle of SD...well, sort of the middle of SD...

population 747

farming community

"An internationally-known Australian artist, Guido van Helten, is using Agtegra's Faulkton grain elevator as his canvas this summer to paint a giant mural which will take several weeks to complete. Van Helten visited Faulkton in the summer of 2017 to gain insight from the community so his art will reflect the strong community spirit.

Public and private funds were raised for the Faulkton project."

So how did an internally-known Aussie artist choose Faulkton for his next project? 

David Hedt, known as 'Aussie Dave' to folks in Faulkton to differentiate him from other Daves and also, because he is from Australia.

The story of the grain elevator starts in a Melbourne pub in 1999, when Hedt first learned of Faulkton. He came to work there a few years later, then left, then kept coming back, eventually starting some businesses and making it his home.

In 2016, Hedt's parents came to visit and drove into town against a beautiful sunset. His dad said, "Why don't you call Guido and have him paint something on your elevator?" Hedt thought it was a crazy idea, but decided to give it a try.

"Guido" is Australian muralist Guido Van Helten. One of his first big projects was a photo-realistic mural on the Brim Silo in Brim, Victoria, Australia, not far from where Hedt's family farms. Brim, a town of about 300, has seen an influx of visitors and a multi-million dollar impact from Van Helten's creation.

And that was the beginning of the grain elevator mural in Faulkton, a project unofficially believed to be the third largest public art piece in South Dakota, after Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, covering three sides of the 110-foot tall structure. But the story of Faulkton is far more than just a mural. It's a tale of history and hope and passion for community, and it illustrates what can happen when the people of a town "believe in possible."

Biography of Guido Van Helton

elevator is 110' tall

Guido used durable paint in shades of smoke-gray to rust-brown

the detail is amazing...

the stitching on the jeans, the wrinkles in the shirts

county courthouse to the west of the elevator

there are other murals in the community

we did not stop to see them

A stop in Faulkton would be worth the drive!

Restroom Doors

This post idea originated the summer of 2016 (and maybe before) when I questioned how a non-reader would know which restroom was appropriate for their sex. I was thinking about my grandchildren who were just starting to read and the other recognizing letters. If they needed to use a restroom their parents or we might say to them, look for the W or the M. And yes, I most likely would NOT have sent them to a business's restroom by themselves, but we may have if it was a small restaurant and the restrooms were in our eye-sight. I happened to see some restroom signage that summer that got me thinking about this situation. I have been taking photos of interesting restroom doors ever since.

It all started in Colorado...Yes, in an 'adult' establishment, but all the same...how do you know which one is appropriate for your sex???

Honestly, I checked the signage of both doors, before I made my choice. Thankfully, it was the correct choice. (the second photo is STAND-2-P) You can tell where THEY open the door!


Then we went to a family restaurant, also while in CO. Here were the door markings...

At least this time the more common signage was posted on the wall to the side of the doors.


And finally, we stopped at another CO tourist/gaming town and this was the signage. At least they had pictures. The M door would have been confusing to someone looking for the W or the M door.

And one more from that trip. Again no W or M. The wording is clear to an older person, but maybe not so to a beginning reader. And this time, the pictures would not be of any help.

The very best door signage I think I have ever seen was at a donut shop in AZ. Again, this is a family business, often very busy.

I was there with several friends, both male and female, and I asked them if they 'got' the signs on the bathroom doors? I laughed and laughed as some of them looked and looked at the two rolls.

Again, LUCKILY, there was the more common signage on the wall near each door. But again, a couple of them were not certain which door to enter. I knew which one!!!


And finally, Hubby and I were at an 'adult' business this past week, when once again, the restroom door signage was worthy of a cell phone photo.

No doubt this time about which is which, but the two doors did remind me of my photo collection. I realized it was time to blog about them and to get YOU thinking about how confusing the wording may be to early readers, children, non-English speaking, and others. Cute signage? Yes, but...


And finally, I have passed this billboard quite often. It sort of follows the theme of this post.

Protect Your Parts

not signage for an implement dealer!