Out with the old..

In with the new… I hope you all have a wonderful new year, this coming year… 2014… my father would have been 100 hundred years old if he were still alive, and also my mother.. hard to believe she has been gone for 10 years and he for 20…. 100 years ago in June, my Grandfather made the final filing on his homestead that grew into this ranch. He came to South Dakota in 1899 when he was 16 and worked around this country. He had his pick but didn’t get around to filing for some time… I think if you waited 7 years you could get the land cheaper and from the stories I’ve heard about him, I am sure that is what he did. His father and Mother came sometime after him and got land before, but I am not sure what year… I do know he registered the v/4 brand in 1902…  we have used it ever since… and plan to keep on using it for many more years… this year we got another grandson and had a wet summer, tho’ it was dry in the spring… year was great right up until that October storm! Been kind of a wintry rascal of late, more like the winters I remember as being the norm… we have hay on hand and got in a load of little bales today with more ordered in, if it ever gets here… as long as it doesn’t get to tuff, we will be fine and able to get hay in fairly easily, but if another winter like 49 sets in, who know, tho’ we have neighbors with good tractors and loaders who would be glad to help out… I think the thing I am most thankful for by getting to live where i do, is the neighbors.. they all are more than happy to pitch in and help each other out… and that sure makes life a lot easier… Happy New Year.  Here’s hoping it’s better than the last one and plumb sad compared to the ones coming in the future!