CAPITOLETTER

May 13, 2024

Well, we did get a little rain this week on Tie Creek, but it seems that Capitol got the bulk of the moisture.

Ernie Rachel and Tommy Melum are still calving, but are close to the end of calving season. Tommy has finished his school year, and is a big help to his dad in all his free time. Rachel’s brother, Don Kalbach and his wife, Thu, from Seattle, came out to the ranch to visit for a few days. They had come out for Daniel’s wedding, last week, and stayed to visit a while longer before heading west again. They also visited with Junior and Shirley Melum a time or two. It is so fun to have family visit.

Early in the week, they had a hail storm at Capitol and the hail and rain left lots of moisture behind. The total rainfall was two and a half inches. The ground was happy to soak it all in. On Sunday, Ernie, Rachel and Tommy went to Baker for church at the Baptist Church. To celebrate Mother’s Day, the men of the church and kids made a Mother’s Day meal after the service. Tommy now knows how to make sausages. What a great idea.

Erma Albert was busy on Wednesday with a chiropractor appointment, and also a physical therapy appointment. On Friday, she and Dick went to the Senior Citizen dinner. Erma made bars for a funeral. Then on Sunday, they went to the Catholic Church service and went to Saloon Number Three after church, for the Mother’s Day Buffet. It was a wonderful meal.

This week, Alvin Cordell found a calf that had been hit on the road. It hadn’t survived, so he used it’s hide to cover another calf. In that way the mother would accept another calf as her own. She now accepts it, and has a new calf to replace the one that was killed. A friend. and his son from Iowa, came to hunt turkeys early in the week. They didn’t have much luck for a day or two, but finally were happy to get a turkey, before heading home.

Alvin made a trip to Buffalo on Wednesday. Both Alvin and Marlee went to the South Dakota Stockgrower’s meeting in Camp Crook, and enjoyed a free supper sponsored by Pioneer Bank. Wade and Cade Pearson came out to do some farming for Mark Baier, a couple of days. Marlee went in to Belle Fourche for a track meet on Friday. Then, on Saturday, she and Ashley Pearson went to Rapid City to watch Gavin play in a double-header baseball game. Jay Cordell came out to the ranch this weekend, and Jay, Alvin and Marlee went in to Camp Crook to the Corner Cafe for Mother’s Day supper on Sunday night.

Bruce and Lynn Gustafson went to the Hills, on Tuesday, for shopping. On Wednesday, Lynn went in to Camp Crook, to the Methodist Church, for the Diligent Doers Extension Club meeting. On Sunday, they attended church at Little Missouri Lutheran Church.

Monday was shearing day for Doug and Julia Davis. Of course that caused it to rain. Everyone wondered why they hadn’t sheared sooner, and brought the rain sooner, but the cold nights were lingering on, and the sheep would have been shockingly cold without their coats. On Wednesday, Doug went to Belle Fourche to the dentist. He took along some lick barrels for Alfreda to use as planters, and had a visit with his mother. Doug went over to Latham’s to help with branding, on Sunday.

Dorothy Padden went to the Diligent Doer’s Extension Club meeting on Wednesday. They had five members present. A couple of members had conflicting appointments, but they had a good meeting. On Thursday, Dawn took Dorothy to the track meet at Timber Lake. It was a beautiful day, and Dawn got lots of good pictures of the team members, that day. The Paddens had their yearly Mother’s Day branding, on Sunday. After all these years of cooking for the branding on Mother’s Day, Dorothy let the younger mothers do most of the work, so Ashley was the designated mother who did lots of the cooking, and Dawn got to help both inside and out, this year. There was lots of young help with branding, but also lots of grown-ups always ready to help them out; ready to show them how, and add a little muscle where it was needed. It was a good day’s work.

Karen Odell got a little outside raking work done this week. Her inside starter plants are getting big and would prefer to be outside, but there still is a chance of cold nights. Maybe they can move outside next week. The rain made a little mud, one day, but those north of Capitol didn’t get the big rain, and things dried very fast. Chancey Odell and Megan made a trip to town on Saturday.

Karen talked to all her kids on Mother’s Day. She and Hywel went to Camp Crook to arrange and number church music, at the Methodist Church, and since there was no local service, they went to church at Marietta, Georgia on YouTube when they got home. I hope everyone had a good Mother’s Day.

You have to feel sorry for the rich. They don’t ever know the thrill and relief of paying that last installment.