6-10-06 Carving Classes & Fort

Coral shows off her carving progress on day two of the week long class at the Wood Carving Museum in Custer.

Close up look at the rough carving.

Ralph hard at his carving project.

Coral carving on her piece. On day two the work didn't look like much.

Here is the results. The detail is amazing.

The proud artist shows off her completed project.

Ralph and his complete carving. I must say that I was impressed. The camp owners were so impressed they want Coral and Ralph to carve a sign for the camp!

Here's Coral covering the office. She is wearing the Fort Welikit shirt given us workampers.

Here is the start of the fort Ralph and I are building for the kids to play on.

Here I am working with Ralph on the fort.

Wait a minute....Is that the Skipper and Gilligan?

Here is our progress to date. Behind the fort will be a version of KidTown that I built for PJ and Mari Jo years ago. Feels good to be building something.

6-1-06 Bison..Museum...Cave

On our way to Keystone we ran into a little traffic!








Coral wanted to pet this mule.



Looks like she gets a kiss instead!
Coral gets the local favorite hairdo..."How do I look?"

Ralph gives Abe a little advice. They were old friends.

Off to Rushmore Caves. If you can climb the stair to the entrance...you can survive the cave!


Ralph going in. Looks like hell!



This column was broken by the town kids before the cave was developed.
Ralph looks at the crystals reflecting back to him.



Back in Custer we take a look at one of the Buffalo painted by local artists. This one depicts Custer's Last Stand. The leather on the back is sculpted as well.

5-30-06 Caves..Museums..Caves

Off we go to Sitting Bull Crystal Cave! This cave was a 200' vertical drop with no elevator.










Ralph heads for the wide opening but this is not the tour entrance.....too easy.


Ok...This is the hell hole they want us to enter. Coral opted to stay in the gift shop for this cave.











Looking down into the abyss....Turn back!





At least we have stairs. This is the original entrance! There is no way I could squeeze my butt thru this hole!






Ok, Ralph and I made it out of the pit. We had to lag behind several times to catch out breaths. Coral was the smart one on this cave. My legs like rubber we plod on to the Journey Museum.














This is "Stan" not "Sue". Sue is in the Chicago Museum of Natural History and is the most complete T-Rex ever found. "Stan" is the second.
Lakota beading. The beads were made from seeds and porcupine quills.












Coral wanted to adopt these kids. They are the Bison twins and I felt hairy kids with hump backs might not be a good fit for our family.












Then Coral latches on to a baby Mammoth! I'm not cleaning up after this one.











This Triceratops was found in the Black Hills.
While we were in the museum a bad storm was moving in. This storm dropped 3 feet of hail in some areas of Rapid City. They had to bring out the snow plows to to clear the roads. Coral sees an eagle flying left to right in the clouds. Scarey stuff.
Ralph checking the plumbing again!













Ralph says "I'm tired of you taking pictures of me checking plumbing....come on...you want a piece of me?"