Cats!

I mentioned the local shelter in a previous post, and on Sunday we walked downtown and visited the kitties again. There was some serious cuteness happening at the shelter, mostly in the form of almost every single cat being adorably passed out in a kitty bed.

I love that the black cat just sort of face-planted. The orange and white guy did not get the memo about naps. Also, it is warm enough to wear Chacos.

Once you get past the reflection, there is quite a bit of cute happening in this picture.

Zesto's

We celebrated the return of spring with a walk down the street to Zesto's. They have soft-serve and a different sherbet flavor every couple of days. It's a delightful little walk-up ice cream stand that is open from March to October. There's no Meyers Dairy or Rita's in this town, but Zesto's is a pretty decent substitute.

The turtle sundae. Delicious.

Josh and the strawberry cheescake twist.

The closest thing we have to a CSA

When we moved to town, I looked around to see if there were any farms nearby that had CSA shares. There weren't any (but there are two farmers' markets this year!), but there is a co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Each Monday you can contribute $15 for a basket and then pick it up on Saturday. The number of baskets is limited and last week they were all spoken for within 10 minutes. It was great shades of registering for classes back at Case using SOLAR.

Anyway, Josh picked up our basket yesterday while I was in Huron and he sent me a picture.

2 head of lettuce, 6 tomatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, celery, 2 mangoes, strawberries, pineapple, mini watermelon, and bananas.

This is seriously the best produce we've seen since moving to Pierre, and the most affordable. I completely understand why the baskets are claimed so quickly.

Bridge:1 Truck:0

There are railroad tracks that run through town. The tracks go over Pierre Street, and the resulting bridge has a clearance of 11 feet 3 inches.

No, really. 11 feet 3 inches. This is very important.

For the record, we were not the only people taking pictures of this unfortunate truck.

I'll let you know if it's on the front page of the paper tomorrow.

Artsy arborvitae

Every camera I've used up until this point was a point and shoot or in a cell phone. At work, I have a Canon Rebel something fancy to use to photograph samples and generate images for my projects and publications. It even has a lens adapter to use with my microscope, and a macro lens is on the way. This arborvitae sample came in today and using it to test out the new camera seemed like a better idea than using my cell phone.

Bird sightings: American White Pelicans

I went to Kadoka again today, and on the trip we passed a bunch of migrating American White Pelicans. Traveling at 75 mph is not conducive to getting a good picture, but this is what they look like:

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenblumin/2210233545/

Kadoka

I was supposed to go to Kadoka tomorrow to pick up a bunch of stuff for work, but ended up making the trip today because of the snow and ice in the forecast. According to the 10-day forecast, it should be spring by the end of the week. Maybe.

When driving in South Dakota, the closer you are to civilization the greater the number of billboards on the side of the road.

No other humans in sight.

Getting closer.

If you're low on gas, now is the time to be optimistic.

Someday it will actually be spring

Current weather in Pierre: snow floofies.

Weather in 10 days: maybe sunny and 68, but that high temperature keeps changing.

This was the view out my office window during the storm two weeks ago.

This is Cleo enjoying cat TV back in Pennsylvania.

Finished project

When we moved to South Dakota, I had a cross stitch project in progress.

I've been working on it some evenings while catching up on podcasts...

Finished!

And the wrong side.

Snow!

It snowed a decent amount between yesterday and today (~6-8 inches plus drifting). Enough that we actually saw the snow tractors out at about. Enough that driving into work was tricky, not only because of the snow on the roads, but because of the 3-4 ft snow wall where the double yellow should be. My car is pretty ok in the snow, but I don't have the ground clearance required to bust through that kind of pile. I had to get to work today making as few left-hand turns as possible.

We're quickly learning that it is hard to predict from the weather forecasts and radar just how much snow we'll get in Pierre. You see, the closest radar station is an Aberdeen. We're kind of in a weather radar dead zone.

The timing of this snow seems somewhat cruel, but most people in town are happy to see it. Snow = precipitation which is something this part of the country has not seen enough of in the last year.

Snow on Tuesday.

Snow on Wednesday.

I'm so glad we're buying a house with a 2 car garage.

Tear down that wall! That's one of the snow tractors with the snowblower attachment filling up a truck. They plow the road and then eventually come back for the middle bit.

Devo not looking like a scruffy sofa bison.

New game!

Josh got me Ticket to Ride for my birthday. You should visit us so we can play it with more than two people. This is one of the few German-style board games that I really enjoy. The rules are clear, quick to learn, and there is a decent element of chance that helps to level the playing field. There is also an episode of TableTop that is a very fun way to learn the basics.

We had our home inspection yesterday, so we're moving forward with the whole home buying thing. There is some wallpaper in the parlor (there's a parlor!) that has got to go, and some mauve paint that I will not be able to live with (I spent enough years with shades of maroon and mauve already). Those are just cosmetic changes, and the bones of the house are good. The stained glass windows are probably my favorite thing. I'll be able to post photos once we close.

Until then, a bonus picture of Devo being  an adorable sleepy sofa bison:

Tax season

Josh's tax preparation method.

They are finished! (a full 10 days before the deadline, too).

Someone didn't get the memo

Some of the trees around the Capitol building are conveniently labeled. While walking around today, I noticed this one:

Hello, buckthorn. Fancy meeting you here.

I realize this is just one buckthorn and there aren't a ton of soybeans in the vicinity, but still, it's an invasive species that is the host for not only the soybean aphid, but also oat crown rust. It really has no place being in anyone's yard, especially not as a labeled and obviously maintained planting.

Enjoying the spring weather

When I got up this morning the pavement outside was wet. Actual water fell from the sky! I was beginning to think we were never going to experience rain again.

After the early morning showers, it cleared off and was sunny and almost 70. Pretty good for spring in central South Dakota. It'll be back to 30 and snowing on Tuesday, probably because I was thinking of digging out my Chacos.

Someday there will be leaves on these trees. I think.

The World War II Memorial at Capitol Lake.

A squirrel! There aren't nearly as many squirrels out here and they are more reddish than the ones in PA.

World War I Memorial.

This is the view from those bronze statues above, looking up to the flaming fountain. As you can see, it was a bit windy.

Happy (late) Easter!

Josh organized the jelly beans by color.

Devo had to check them out.