Today is a blur.
Had a good morning routine, good chat with the Big Guy, good gospel study…
Ate breakfast, took some work calls, cleaned out Rover a little bit, helped Hans a bit with septic leach line stuff, did a full mucking out of the barn-ish area (getting all fresh and old horse apples out), as the horses were being bombarded by flies. I figured that if I got rid of all the poop even the old much more dried out stuff, the flies would mostly move on, and greatly, I was right.
Certainly, they didn’t disappear altogether, but they went from swarms down to just the regular summer bugs, I think.
Use the four wheeler and metal dealie to drag all the horse apples that were already on the horse walkway, and those that I had mucked out, into little shreds, so they would dry out faster and not attract flies.
Helped Hans a bit more with the septic stuff, then he knocked off, ran some errands and took some needed break time, and I headed over to Cascade Falls to enjoy a dip before heading into town to run some errands myself.
The Falls was nice, but it was super crowded today. It was somewhere around 100°, I think, and a friday, so there were probably at least a dozen cars there? And lots of people enjoying the lovely water in the hot weather.
So I picked a spot up the river a little bit where I could just sort of chill in the water by myself, and I stayed there, until a couple of late-teen-looking young women in bikinis came by, so I figured it was about time to head out.
I’ve been doing really really well on the addiction side of things, so it wasn’t even really much of a bother, but I don’t need to stick around anyway just because, for the moment, it’s not an issue for me.
Better safe than sorry. I’ve been amazingly blessed in that area right now, and gratitude doesn’t include being careless or assuming that just because I’m not currently tempted by something doesn’t mean that it can’t sneak up and bite me later.
I have far too much experience with the latter.
Anyway, while in town, I ran two different errands that I wasn’t even really sure that I was going to run but decided to anyway.
First, I went to the driver’s license division, a building that shares its space with a senior citizens activity center.
I love small towns. 😊
I think there were two or three other people ahead of me, and gratefully, I had everything that I needed to be able to be granted South Dakota residency and be issued a driver’s license (social security card, passport, two different pieces of mail showing that I’m receiving mail at that address, and gratefully, they counted a picture of an Amazon package delivery as one of them 🥳).
So I’m now officially a South Dakotan. 🙃
And I’ve had two driver’s licenses in a row with pictures! 🙃
I have no idea how long I’m going to be here, but given that I don’t live in Arkansas really anymore, though I do still have stuff there, since I live in my van, I don’t really live anywhere, so I might as well choose a state that doesn’t have state income taxes. 🙃
Thx, for that, South Dakota. 🙏
After getting my driver’s license and registering to vote, I headed over to the county courthouse, where they do DMV stuff, and I paid the fee to have my title for Rover changed to a South Dakota title, so… that’ll happen at whatever point they do the paperwork.
Now it’s got me thinking about getting the rest of my stuff up here. 🙃 I have a truck, two trailers, a skid steer, a van, and a shed full of stuff. Hmmm…. what to do…
Anyway, after getting my title and registration stuff taken care of, my new South Dakota license plates, etc, I walked across the street to visit my sister at her work.
Good stuff. 😊
Got my license plates put on, and I also removed a bracket that’s been on the front bumper since I bought Rover in the spring of 2024, so now the bracket is off, both license plates are on, and everything looks all spiffy and official. 🙂
I even ended up with a license plate covered in dust on the drive up the dirt road to my sister’s place. So dusty was it that it looks like it’s been on there already for a year. 😆
Help taunts a bit more working on the septic trenches, then headed over to Cascade Falls for a second time, only to realize that there was a fire breaking out on a property south of Cascade Falls, so we cut our visit short after basically just jumping in the water and staying there for about 60 seconds and then getting back out.
We drove back to the property where Hans got changed, drove into town to fill up a water tank, and then headed out to try and help fight the fire.
Turns out the fire was on the property of somebody that Heather and Hans know a little bit. A shed full of solar panel battery stuff had caught on fire, and it had caught three nearby trees on fire as well.
Not a great place for a fire, either, as that property is one of the few in the area that’s surrounded by bits of forest.
Lots of the treed acreage in the area has burned in recent years.
Ate a little bit of dinner, beans and cheese with jalapenos, while Hans was out doing fire stuff and Heather was at the neighbor’s. I have to get to bed earlier than it now is (just after 10:00), I apparently took too long. Oh well. 10:00 is better than midnight, and I’ll have a chance to try again tomorrow.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful to be in a dry climate. Having reached somewhere around 100° today, 100° here has nothing on even 80 or 85 in Arkansas. In Arkansas, I beat boiling in my own sweat. Here, I don’t even realize that I’m sweating because it evaporates off so quickly. Feels so much better here. And no ticks. 🙃 Wish I had more family closer. And I wish the acreage were larger with more trees, but hard to beat a cool springs just down the road that’s the same temperature year round. 🙃
- I’m grateful to have noticed one of the septic line requirements before it was too late.
- I’m grateful for uplifting music. I’m very very grateful for uplifting music. The music section of the LDS library app has been an absolute godsend for me.
- I’m grateful for good conversations with Captain Universe.
- I’m grateful for continually improving perspectives.
- I’m grateful that 100° days are followed by nights in the low 60s. 🥳
- I’m grateful for the little smoothies and shakes that my sister makes on a regular basis. 🙏
Success:
- I recognized multiple times today that I had turned off my uplifting music to do some things that needed to be done without music, and I turned the music back on. So nice. 🥰
Improvement:
- Gosh, it was a pretty darn good day. Nothing is jumping out at me. I did forget to ship my Bluetti Power Station back via FedEx while I was in town today.
Thought of the Day:
“When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours… when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.
When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you.“
~ Russell M. Nelson
Love this. Have lived this. 🥰
💚
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 