White railings, a quirky window -- and snow

We had been planning a trip to visit the Iowa folks over the long weekend, but we've had to call it off. One reason is the weather -- today's weather might not be pleasant once we head south from here, as it's snow here (yes, snow, in October! not unprecedented in South Dakota -- it's not likely to stay) but rain further south, and central South Dakota is supposed to have quite a bit of accumulation on Monday when we're set to drive back.

But we probably could have tackled that. The other reason is that Blue, one of our dogs, was hit by a pickup truck this evening, and although we're pretty sure she'll pull through, we can't leave her to my parents' care like she is now. She let Dave carry her into the porch, but now she won't let him move her. We don't think anything is broken, but we can't really tell -- we're guessing it's internal bruising, which could be quite serious. Animals are tough, though. I think we'll be able to tell quite a bit by morning.

We knew this day was coming, honestly. She's an incorrigible car chaser -- we never could train her not to do it. When we were here in the summer of 2003, we tried everything we could think of -- including spraying her with pepper spray out the car window. That worked the first time; she quit and went to roll in the grass to try to get the pepper spray off. But before long she was back at it, so we tried it again -- and this time, even though it hit her square in the face, she just closed her eyes and kept on running. Dad eventually rigged up a cart for her to pull, as she couldn't chase cars while pulling the cart. (Of course, then we often found her caught up somewhere with her cart snagged up around a pole or in tall grass. But she's a vocal dog -- it was easy to find her.) This time when we came back to South Dakota we just resigned ourselves to the fact that she was a car chaser, and that someday she would no longer be as fast as she thought she was. Now we hope she's learned her lesson -- though we wish she could have learned it another way.

... The dogs were out by the garden with Dave when the truck went by (the driver did stop and apologize -- Dave told him it was as much our fault as his). Temps will get in the teens tonight, so Dave thought he'd better get out and get our potato crop in. This might take a while -- we had a good potato crop!


... This is what Dave was working on last night -- getting in one of my crazy windows, this one between the kids' room and the living room. This is one of the old granary windows. I think it looks darn cute in that wall! ... I do have to had getting a curtain for that window to the to-do list. I got it primed this morning -- hopefully I can get out and get it painted this evening.


... And here is the piece de resistance! I've been working on this staircase every evening this week. It's been sanded, stained, primed, painted (and scraped, sanded and stained again where the paint dripped) and varnished. It's still not completely done, as there is a little bit of trim missing (where the steps and the back wall meet), but I have to say I am pretty pleased with how it's turned out. (Thanks, Walt, for encouraging me to get the white painting done now!)