The Hinkle Farm

Jeff got re-assigned by ShopKo last spring. He lived in the Aberdeen Holiday Inn while Valerie stayed in Sioux Falls at her job and to sell the house. The state corrections department (something like that), for which Valerie works, created a job for her in Aberdeen. Meanwhile, they looked for a house. Houses for sale were hard to find due in part to a housing shortage caused by major flooding in Aberdeen last spring. They did, however, find this acreage near Bath, SD, and fell for it. We'd heard a lot about the negatives -- house has only one bathroom, essentially only one bedroom, and there are snakes everywhere! -- so we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be really neat.

The previous owners raised miniature horses, so there is a nice barn with miniature stalls, similarly down-sized outdoor stables and pens, plus a large multi-bay garage for parking and working on your farm vehicles. Lots of pasture land and a (miniature) river runs through it. The house has nice spacious rooms, what there are of them. When Jeff and Valerie lived in Bloomfield, they had corrals and farm animals, so they're looking forward to getting some livestock here, but probably after they experience their first winter on a SD farm.

At any rate, here are some farm pictures:

As you can see, we snuggled TuziTwo up next to the garage. I was worried about drawing too much current for the circuit, but there was no problem.

This weekend marked the beginning of pheasant season for non-residents of SD; residents got a head start last weekend. This county is the state's and maybe the nation's hotbed for pheasant. The hotels and restaurants are full. The airport is lined with private jets, and we've heard gunshots on adjacent property. Jeff thought the hunters there might have scared some pheasants on to his property, so he took his shotgun out for a while. Nothing to shoot at, though.

I've come down with a cold and sore throat and so spent most of Sunday sleeping and TV-watching. We plan to leave tomorrow, take five days to get to Luray, VA -- the next stop on our trek to Florida.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie