9/6/11

Today was a really fast day. It seemed like it blew by. 

We started with a staff meeting here at headquarters which went from 7 to around 9. I was handed the preliminary plans for the hunting lodges by Duke sr, and told to get acquainted with them, as I would be working a lot on this project. YESSS. It felt soo great. 

Not yet though, this week I’m assigned to spend the whole week with little Duke, repairing 6 water troughs out in the dunes. Were reinforcing the troughs with dirt, because the dirt has eroded from beneath the concrete footings of them. 

So we loaded up all the gear and fuel we would need for the day, and took off on the long journey out to the dunes. It took me about an hour to get out to the first trough in the dump truck, while little Duke trailed me in the newly rented front loader. I love driving  the dump truck, I think it was made in like the 1950's, they bought it in tennessee, and its sweet. Check it out...

Duke started digging a hole with the front loader and loading the dirt into the dump, after  four 3-yard scoops, the dump was full, and I would haul it over to the tank and dump it at the base. We did this for a solid three hours, then switched, him in the dump, me in the front loader. Driving the front loader was also really fun. Its a huge machine. Biggest tractor I’ve ever driven before, including the trencher. Ill have pics of it tomorrow, as well as more of the stuff were working on. But for now, Here’s a good one of a nice little road block I hit on the way out. 

Around 5 o’clock, the dump started to overheat really badly. We tried to get it to cool down by waiting till 5:30, but it only got a half a mile back to the sawed off which was 5 miles away. From there, headquarters is about 20 miles away. So, we had to ditch the dump and walk the 2.5 miles back to the sawed off truck with huge thunderstorms looming in the distance. 

It was awesome just walking and chatting with Duke. We had a great time today, learned a lot about each other. I learned something I thought was crazy. He is only 23. I couldn’t believe that when I heard it. Only a year older than I. We had a solid hour long walk back to the sawed off, so we talked about a ton of stuff. Good bonding time. 

On the way home, we stopped into the Phillips’s house to say hey. Its always great to see Janet and grace. Duke was fixing a screen door, so we helped him out with that, and Janet asked if we wanted to stay for dinner, we gladly accepted. Dinner was awesome because the night before, Duke had smoked a bunch of different meats, and the leftovers were tonights dinner. We had and assortment of smoked lamb, dove, bison, salmon, and sausages along with cucumbers, cottage cheese, and potato salad. It was phenomenal. 

I had a great time talking with the Phillips family, they’re really awesome people. I can tell we will form a strong relationship while I’m here, I’m excited. 

Duke and I left around 8:30, and I got back to headquarters and showered. Its cold tonight, around 45. Its stormy and windy, should only get up to 65 tomorrow. I love it. I’m ready for the cold. Bring it on. 

Goodnight everyone. Hope life is great.