CAPITOLETTER

February 19, 2024

Capitol and Tie Creek had snow again this week, but the last snow had mostly melted before this two inches came. The weather stayed below freezing most of the time, but by Sunday, things were melting again.

Monday began the week with some light snow flurries, but Ronda Cordell made a quick trip to Ekalaka, and the road was good, except through the pines out of town. Toney and Linda Hannah came for supper that evening. Clint, Denise and Abby Zolnoski drove to Spearfish after feeding. Clint hauled a tele-handler back from Dakota Rental, to use for the barn building project. Ronda made a trip to Belle Fourche to take tax info to drop off, on Tuesday. The barn crew has made fabulous progress on the building, in spite of some mighty frigid temperatures. On Friday morning, the thermometer said zero.

Cristen and Jayda Westling came from Rapid City, on, Saturday afternoon, and stayed over to noon on Sunday. They helped with defrosting a couple of freezers, and moving some furniture items around. Ronda had gotten a new computer for Christmas, and Cristen did the technical part of setting it up and getting it running. Ronda and computerized things have a way of not getting along. She used to hear the saying, “You can’t hurt ‘em, just get on and use ‘em,” but she doesn’t hear that anymore. By the time the Gateway and Dell were well-understood, they had become obsolete. She’ll get the new one figured out with experimenting, and calling someone with questions. Ronda went to the Little Missouri soup and sandwich supper at the Camp Crook Area Community Center, on Sunday evening.

Gene Secrest had been out a few days to help with feeding, and a few pre-calving projects. Kim Secrest came after work to spend the long weekend at the Zolnoski’s.

Erma Albert visited the chiropractor in Buffalo, on Wednesday. She and Dick went to the Senior Citizen dinner on Friday. Lent had started, and Bobbie served salmon. It was Fern Giannonatti’s birthday, so they had special cakes and ice cream. Erma stayed to play cards in the afternoon. Dick and Erma went to the Catholic Church for mass, on Sunday, and then had lunch at Saloon Number Three.

Pete Anderson went to church at the Methodist Church in Camp Crook, on Sunday. Lynn Gustafson went to the Hills, on Tuesday, to pick up some groceries. On Sunday, they went to church at Little Missouri Church, then in the evening, they went in to Camp Crook for the church’s soup supper at the Community Center. Lynn’s voice was nearly gone by the time Karen talked to her in the evening. It seems that laryngitis is going around.

Julia Davis’s voice was gone, too, by the time Karen called on Sunday evening. She had stayed home from the soup supper, and let Doug and Morgan go without her. On Saturday, Doug and Julia had spent the day in Belle Fourche at basketball games. Keaton played a couple of games in the morning, and then Kellan played in the late afternoon. Doug and Julia got to rest in between sessions. Hope they had a pillow. Doug mentioned that lots of school-kids at Buffalo had had the flu recently, and many were out of school.

Junior and Shirley Melum are staying close to home. They haven’t been busy and didn’t have company, but Shirley likes to listen to Dirt Road Radio in the morning. Ernie, Rachel and Tommy Melum went to Baker on Valentine’s Day. The church had a gathering for the kids, and Ernie and Rachel enjoyed going out for a Valentine’s supper. They were back in Baker, on Sunday, for church, and enjoyed having three violin players to help with the music.

Bryce, Dawn and Dorothy Padden have had a busy week watching sports. They went to Buffalo, on Monday, for the high school basketball games. There were more games on the internet, and Dorothy went over to Bryce’s to watch those games. Dawn had found the game under the Phillip Scottie’s website. On Thursday, they were back to Buffalo for the game against Hulett. Next week will have more games that will be announced later. There will be some games at Buffalo on Tuesday.

Karen Odell has spend some time doing some research, this week. She got a call from her brother, Ron Evans, and her high school classmates, Bill Foulkes and Mary Ann Balser, in Ohio. Cody’s family are busy with school activities, Mollie Smith has been restoring a spinning wheel, and a violin in Minneapolis. Micki and Murphy Hinds spent three days skiing in Washington, and have a day to rest up before they both are back to school.

Karen made a trip to Wolffy’s in Camp Crook on Wednesday. She visited with Chancey Odell in the morning, and was at the service at the Methodist Church on Sunday, where Sam Cordell led the service, Tonja Hansen read Scripture, and Lynnette Wolff gave the children’s sermon. Karen played piano for the hymns. After church, the Sunday School kids treated everyone to very delicious coffee cake, that they had baked themselves.

Nothing is really lost. Even the other sock knows it is somewhere.