100 Birthdays

 Last weekend I traveled to see family for a very special occasion: My aunt celebrated her 100th birthday.

My aunt is on the left and her sister, my mother, on the right

100 roses for her birthday

It was a weekend of looking at photos and this is one I had not seen in a very long time. The mother of the two sisters is in the back row, second from the right.

me and my brothers with Mom

This flock flew overhead as I was packing the car to leave on Sunday. You know what that means...time for us to migrate south also.

Time with the Grands

 The grandkids had a couple of no school days recently, so we snagged them for some geocaching and an overnight stay.

We went to a historical site in town where they had to read the historical marker signs and answer questions to get a number that was needed to find the final cache container.

M and I worked together and G'pa worked with Miss W.

Then they compared answers and numbers. Once everyone agreed, off we all went to look for tiny containers.

Then we stopped at the Sandford Hospital campus to search for statues with children. Again, there were questions to answer which gave us numbers needed to find the final. We had to fine-tune this one as our numbers did not send us to the right final location.

The correction was made and the container found. They did a good job and were good sports. Of course, having ice cream as treat when we were done didn't hurt!

The two of them enjoyed doing Adventure Labs last summer. Another AL was recently released and we saved doing The Japanese Gardens until the grands could do it.

They make the Adventure Lab a competition trying to get the answer first. Adventure Labs are completed using a smart phone so correct or incorrect answers are instantaneous. It works well because Hubby and I have our own geocaching accounts, allowing each grandkid to be one of us.

leaves at the Japanese Gardens

Our grands attend a Spanish Immersion School and have since kindergarten. They know about and understand Day of the Dead, which is what theses Colorful Skulls kits are. Each kit contained 8 (hard) imprinted sugar cookies with tubes of frosting and colorful sprinkles.

I got everything organized and for 90 minutes they frosted and tasted and decorated their cookies. 90 minutes without any electronic devices or TV.

Miss W baked a lemon dessert bread for her family. I am trying to use some things from my pantry before we leave for the winter. I am happy to share with family. And Miss W likes to bake and cook. Win. Win for everyone!

Autumn Geocaching

 We have been out and about in our part of the state doing some geocaching and enjoying the signs of another season, reminding us it is time to head south.

The Hutterites were dropping off assorted pumpkins at a local business where we were looking for a geocache. They grow quite the variety of pumpkins!

Our backyard red oak has been turning colors. I took the photo on one of the days I was harvesting seeds from the annuals (flowers) I had planted this year.

This guy is a reminder of pheasant hunting season. It opens this weekend, I believe.

We stopped at a very small cemetery and learned of this sad story.

Remember: you can click on the photo to get a larger readable version.

one of the readable headstones

very small cemetery

We attended a weekend camping and caching event at a nearby state park. We only spent a few hours there, but certainly enjoyed seeing some of our SD geocaching family. These trees have barely begun to change color. And even more surprising is the green, GREEN color of the grasses for October.

This was one of the more sneaky hides we have found this month.

I was wearing gloves when I reached in to pick it up!

No worries! It's just a geocache in fake goose poop.

We stopped at this marsh to get our needed weekend earth cache for a special virtual souvenir. We needed to pH test a sample of the water. 

This is the other project we have been working on this summer. My goal was to finish it, but that may not happen as our time is running out. We have 3 left to find.

This was our progress before we went back this summer. We added several finds in July 2021 when we learned some of the local cachers were attempting to keep the geo-art alive and active.

The trail contains 188 caches and is approximately 30 miles (50km) long x 4 miles (6km) high. The shortest possible distance to drive the entire trail is 180 miles. The GC Trail is made up of a variety of caches such as Traditional, Multi, Puzzle, Whereigo, Letterbox and an EarthCache.

We completed this much by July 2015. The geo-art was placed in 2011. We found some of the caches in the summer and fall of 2013, but were disappointed because so many were missing and others very hard to retrieve and sign the log. My belief is a geo-art should be caches that MOST geocachers can find and log. In 2013, some were impossible without a tractor and front end loader to reach tree tops. Thankfully, some of those have changed. 

We need to do a long walk on a day that is not 70º+ and we need to bring a ladder under a bridge when the water level is very low. The other is waiting for a replacement. It is doable!

Fort Sisseton 1864-1889

 On our way home from our North Dakota geocaching adventure, we also stopped at Fort Sisseton, also because of geocaching. I have been to the fort with school kids, to attend a play or maybe a melodrama, and once or twice just to visit. It always intrigues me. 

Named after the nearby Sisseton Indian Tribe, this historic fort is now a picturesque state park that unfolds the area's past.  Walk the grounds where the officers' quarters, stone barracks, powder magazine, guard house, and other buildings that remain from the time of the western frontier.

This 1864 fort, atop the Coteau des Prairies (or hills of the prairies), was originally a frontier army outpost called Fort Wadsworth.  The site was chosen because it provided a strong natural defense, an ample supply of lime and clay for making bricks, an abundance of lake water for drinking and a thick stand of trees for timber and fuel.

I have not known much about the history of the buildings as I have only entered one or two of them. But I found a most interesting story about the history of the fort after it was abandoned by the US army. Take the time to read The Fort Sisseton Kid.

Yes, there was some rebuilding through the WPA program, but the most interesting part is from the 1930s to 1959 when it became a state park.

At the height of activity the fort housed 150 to 200 infantry men assigned to protect the settlers and miners traveling through the area.

Andrew enlisted at age 14 and kept a diary while stationed at Fort Wadsworth/Fort Sisseton. His comments on the info signs around the fort make for very interesting reading. My photo tour will be counter clock-wise.

 School House and Library

 Hospital

notice the widow's walk

The fort also kept records and reported the weather:

“On the 29th of July 1873, a terrific storm of wind, hail, and rain broke over the fort, which seemed to have originated but a few minutes before in a comparatively small, dark cloud. In a few minutes the commanding officer’s quarters, one of the company barracks, the guardhouse, the adjutant’s office, the Government stables, and the old buildings outside the fort, formerly used as quarters for scouts, were either wholly or partially unroofed. Every window exposed to the storm was broken, and the buildings were deluged with water, which caused the plastering to fall. The hospital had one hundred and eighteen panes of glass broken, and the produce of the gardens was destroyed.” 

Doctor's Quarters

West of this residence are depressions in the ground marking the hospital toilets and the death house, where bodies were stored when the ground was frozen.

duties of the doctor

no photo of the commanders quarters

looks much like the info sign photo

Officers' Quarters

Andrew felt Fort Sisseton was the worst place he had ever been stationed

Adjutant's Office

duties of the Adjutant

Magazine

also showing the moat and earthen works 'wall' of the fort

originally the berm was 8 feet high

inside the magazine

arched brick ceiling

A stone and brick magazine was one of the few structures in near-original condition by the 1930s.

Guard House

 

Napoleon

range of 2000 yards, moved by a team of 6 mules

5 or 6 men to load and shoot the cannon

South Barracks

designed to house 150 men

North Barracks

Remember: Click on any photo to enlarge

now housing the Visitors' Center and staff offices

Stable/Barn

The 35 x 219–foot stone stable, which contains 78 stalls, originally had a gable roof but was redesigned to the present gambrel roof during the WPA restoration.

used to store equipment

Also outside the 'fort's berm was a 3-room root cellar that stored produce grown in the fort’s three gardens. 

I did not know the fort had a cemetery, so this was my first visit to the hill. All of the interred have been moved to the Custer National Cemetery at Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana.

burials at Fort Sisseton Post Cemetery

As we were driving away, I noticed the name of a woman on a headstone. So I snapped a photo and then when looking at my photos realize Louisa's headstone is in the above photo. Wish I had noticed when I was there. Who was she? How did she die? Interesting to note, I read somewhere the woman/women who died in childbirth at the fort. That is confirmed on the Post Cemetery link above. Also interesting...Louisa is on the list of those buried, but Betty is not.  Hmmmm.

The fort was surrounded by lakes on 3 sides. There is a bit of water showing behind the sign of the first photo and a bit of water below the cemetery hill and some along the south side. Certainly not as much water today as there was in 1864.