First Peek at the New Home!

Hi, everybody! And welcome to our new home!

The place is a mess, but come on in and I'll show you around.

Keep in mind that we've only been here for a week. You'll need to use your imagination...pretend you're reading a Better Homes and Gardens magazine article and the house is beautifully decorated!

That means you'll just have to ignore the pile of boxes...but we love the floor!

We'll start in the kitchen...

Oops! I don't have the dishwasher installed yet! We'll come back to the kitchen later. 

Let's start downstairs, instead.

This will be my office for now. I'm currently working in the corner where you see my desk chair. Not much more will be done to this room until my current book is finished! Priorities!

Eventually, this space will be a third bedroom and bath (pipes for bathroom fixtures are already in place.) It will be perfect for guests.

The other part of the basement is the family room. Not very family-friendly yet, is it? Another work in progress!

The former owner left this room divider/bookcase for us, and we love it. On the left side is a tiled area that leads to the patio (it's a walk-out basement). It will be a perfect place to take Jack out (when we bring him home in a few weeks!) 

We'll get the rest of this room sorted out eventually. Let's go back upstairs.

This is the living room portion of the great room. The house has an "open concept" arrangement, so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are all in one big space. The master bedroom and a second bedroom and bath complete this level, along with the laundry room just off the kitchen.

Here's the dining room. We need to get a light for above the table...and a table.... Meanwhile, we're eating most of our meals out on the deck!

Speaking of meals, let's check on the kitchen again...

Yay! The dishwasher is installed and the kitchen is beginning to look usable! And look at that! My Instant Pot is busy cooking chicken for tomorrow's salad.

And now that evening has come, we have to go out on the deck.

Ah! Dusk in the Black Hills. Across the road is one of the many ranches in this area. There is another one behind us. Lots of beautiful empty space.

We'll just turn to the west to get a picture of Mt. Rushmore...

...and just like that, it's sunset! Mt. Rushmore is there, I promise. In another 30 minutes it will be completely dark and we'll be able to see the white granite lit up for evening visitors. Too bad that doesn't translate to a photograph!

We'll continue to work on the unpacking and settling in, but writing comes first! We hope to be ready for our annual Thanksgiving dinner in November, but meanwhile we'll enjoy our new home just the way it is!

Thanks for coming along for the tour!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-seven years.

A Morning of Bird Watching

Jan here with a moving update.

Do you remember last week's boxes?

Gone. All gone. The furniture, too. And the rugs. Packed into a storage locker on the south side of the city.

We're on hiatus for the next month, and four weeks from today we move into our new home.

Meanwhile, we're staying with friends - a week here, a couple weeks there.

This week our spot is in Mel and Mike's beautiful home in the Hills.

Yes, the house is up there. It was built to blend into the forest.

We were pretty wiped out when we arrived here on Friday afternoon after days...weeks...months of preparing for this move. The deck has become our favorite place to chill out in the mornings and evenings...and a perfect place for bird watching.

Even Maggie-Cat has made herself at home!

Here are some of our bird sightings:

The wild turkeys roost in the trees behind the house at night, then stop for breakfast under the bird feeders before heading into the woods to forage for the day.

A pair of western bluebirds have a brood of young ones in the bird house. The father flies back and forth endlessly to feed the hungry babies. Once in a while the mother comes out, but not for long. She flies to a nearby tree to grab something for herself, then it's back to the nest.

I caught this trick with my camera on Saturday morning:

The father bird perches just outside the opening of the house, poking the moth or worm that he brought into an open mouth, then flips and plummets toward the ground. Before he reaches the grass, he swoops up and lands on a nearby branch before heading off to find more food.

Other frequent visitors to the feeders are red crossbills. I was able to get this picture of a female. In this picture you can get a good view of the crossed beak.

They use that specialized beak to pry open pine cones to get to the seeds.

The nuthatches are frequent visitors, too, both white-breasted and red-breasted. They love the seeds in the bird feeders and the insects under the bark of the Ponderosa pine trees.

This one is a red-breasted nuthatch - even though this particular one has a white front. You can tell which one it is from the black line across its eye.

Here's another one, hunting for his breakfast.

To get extra oomph, they do this fun move:

We've also seen chipping sparrows...

...and chickadees!

My camera has certainly been getting a workout!

We've also had fun watching these two on Saturday morning:

This mule deer doe was waiting for us to go inside the house so she could hide her fawn for the day. We all know where she hides it, but we let her think it's her secret. :-)

On Saturday evening, mama deer came back and the fawn ran to meet her.

There's nothing more relaxing than watching nature, is there? What's your favorite way to enjoy watching the world around you?

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-seven years.

Armadillo's Ice Cream Means Spring?

Two years ago this week, I wrote a post I called "Spring Means Armadillo's Ice Cream." (you can find that post here.) But this year...well, spring seems to be lost.

We're still in the middle of an arctic freeze, with high temperatures hovering around zero over the weekend. You'd think that would mean that we would forego celebrating the opening of our favorite local ice cream shop, but no way.

Those of us who live in the North don't let little things like snow and sub-zero temperatures stop us!

The flavor of the day was Strawberry Butter (YUM!!!), but you could also choose the standards - chocolate or vanilla.

And of course all of the delicious sundaes, shakes, and malts were available, along with the usual menu of soups, sandwiches and their signature steamburgers.

My favorite sundae creation -
the Salty Dog

But if the calendar says it's March, and Armadillo's is serving ice cream, doesn't that mean spring should be here?

This...

...instead of this?

This...

...instead of this?

This...

...and this...

...instead of this?

You would think so.

But after our cold weekend, we have a high temperature of 13° today, with blustery winds and a wind chill of -40°. That's Fahrenheit. That's cold.

I think I'll stay in and write.

Yes, there's a silver lining to every gray cloud!

Jan Drexler lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and growing family. When she isn't writing, she loves hiking in the Hills or satisfying her cross stitch addiction.

You can find Jan on Facebook, Jan Drexler, author, or her website, Jan Drexler.com.

Baked Parmesan Chicken and a Black Hills Car Wash

Jan here, with a quick, easy meal that most families love....

I've shared this recipe before, but I knew I had to dig it out again when my family protested over a new recipe I tried (we all disliked it, so I'm not sharing it here!) Sometimes, the old stand-by's are the best.






Baked Chicken Parmesan is perfect for a busy day. It takes about 10 minutes to put it together, stick it in the oven for an hour (rack up some more words for your daily word count), and then spend about 15 minutes at the end of the hour fixing the side dishes and setting the table.

Perfect, right?

So here's the recipe:

Baked Parmesan Chicken

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast for each member of your family
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (or bread crumbs with basil, oregano, garlic and parsley mixed in)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (use the powdery kind for this dish - not the more expensive fresh)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Step one: melt the butter - Preheat your oven to 350°. Put the butter and olive oil in a 9x13" baking dish, and put it in the oven to let the butter melt while the oven is heating up.

Step two: prepare the chicken - I buy boneless chicken breasts that are HUGE. Too big for one person. So I cut them in half top to bottom, making two nice sized chicken breasts half as thick as the original.


Step three: prepare the crumb mixture - Measure the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and garlic onto a plate and mix with a fork.

Check the oven - is your butter melted?

Step four: with tongs or a fork, coat the chicken on both sides with the butter/olive oil, then dredge in crumbs/cheese mixture, then place in the baking dish.

Step five: bake - cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes more.

And you're done!

If you want to make the prep even quicker, coat the chicken in the butter/olive oil, and then sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the chicken.

This same recipe is also great for chicken nuggets. Just cut the chicken breasts into chunks, put the crumbs in a bag, put your chicken chunks in and shake. Arrange evenly in a greased baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with pasta tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese, your favorite vegetable and a salad.


Now that supper is taken care of, I'm sure you're wondering about the Black Hills Car Wash.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The attendants work for free, but they don't really do a very good job.

You see, we had a blizzard last week. By Thursday, warm weather had returned and everything was melting. That means that the salt and slush are heavy on the roads...and on the cars! So we headed to Custer State Park in hopes of a free car wash.

We were just in time! The crew was out and ready to work!

This little one is less than a year old. Just beginning to learn the ropes.

Meanwhile, Mama appears on the driver's side, ready to get to work.

She starts in on the back door. Yum!

Then moves to the front door...my dear husband's side of the truck.

Here she is, working away, but suddenly...

Wait! Is that a person inside this moving salt block???

She decides hubby isn't a threat and gets back to business.

We wait patiently while the car wash crew finishes its business (what else are we going to do?), then we go on our way as they move on to the next customer.

The car behind us was a little sub-compact with Texas plates. I wondered what they thought of this impromptu car wash!

Would you want to take your car to our Black Hills Car Wash?

Jan Drexler lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and growing family. When she isn't writing, she loves hiking in the Hills or satisfying her cross stitch addiction.

You can find Jan on Facebook, Jan Drexler, author, or her website, Jan Drexler.com.