Lead

It is pronounced with a long e and is a reference for a gold seam that can be seen with the naked eye… an investigational lead… a lead to lots of money, perhaps!

Lead was established in the northern Black Hills in 1876 after the discovery of gold.  Lead has a population of about 3,000 people and is steeped in history.  Lead is the site of the Homestake Mine, the largest, deepest and most productive gold mine on the planet.  There is a huge hole in the ground and a huge array of shafts and tunnels going down over 8,000 feet!

It was Friday the 27^th of April.  It had been raining since the previous evening.

Our first stop was the Black Hills Mining Museum.

There were a lot of great pictures and a model of a gold mine shaft crane, stamper mill, steam engines and other accessories.  It looked to be a working model, there was a start switch but it didn't work.  I took lots of pictures and will use them when I start my model railroad... after I complete the house.

The locomotive shown below was used in the mine to move equipment around the mine and hauling ore to the shaft elevator.  When I first saw it I thought it was a steam engine but it didn't have a smoke stack or firebox... it took a few minutes to figure out it was powered by compressed air.

We also stopped by the Lead visitor center, it is where the below picture was taken.  Inside we watched a movie about Lead and the Homestake mine.

There were things to see outdoors but since it was raining we didn't dally outside except to run back and forth to the car.

We will have to come back later when it is not raining.  Some of the exhibits were closed until mid May.  There were a couple of tours that looked interesting.

Footing update

Tower section - this is where the pond is going to be.

Our timing on the footings was just perfect, it started raining on Thursday night and has been raining off and on for the last week.  We had a couple of nice days and have been removing the forms, so far we have the tower section done and the inside of the lower level.  As you can see in the picture above the forms didn't leak!  I was so pleased!

The 2x6 in the "pond" represents a rock that is going back in there... it is about 3 feet wide by 3 feet thick by 10 feet long and will be orientated in the same direction as that 2x6.

We had a half inch of rain over night (5 May 2012) so our work site is pretty muddy.  A couple of days of sun will dry it out.

The Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) are due on Monday or Tuesday (7 or 8^th of May).  They stack like Lego’s so they go quickly.  We are using two different brands of ICFs, the estimator on our garage project way over estimated the number of ICFs that we needed and then wouldn't take them back!  These have 10" cores so we are using them for the tower section - they will have to withstand the water pressure.

We are hoping to be ready to pour concrete about the 17^th.  

Footings

We poured concrete on Thursday, the 26^th of April 2012.  22 ½ yards.  Everything went great.

Kevin Jennegis and 3 of his concrete technicians arrived at 7:45 am.  Carol was tying rebar, “Do you want me to help you with that Ma’am?” one of the technicians asked.  Carol replied, “No thanks, this is my last one.”

“Don’t you have anything left to do”, he asked.  They arrive on the job site early to finish up last minute things that homeowners typically haven’t completed.

“Nope”, Carol replied.

I had one form remaining, the top step on the tower section.

We started building the forms on the 30^th of April.  It is hard work more fitting for young bucks and not old guys like me.  We worked 5 to 6 hour days, slow and steady, 27 days in a row, hampered by some rain and cold weather.  We had three soft start dates for pouring concrete and on Monday the 23^rd committed to pouring concrete on Thursday.  We worked until 7 pm on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and set up work lights on Wednesday.  I got up at 5:30 on Thursday and headed out to complete the forms.  We were pretty tired of building forms.

The concrete truck arrived about 8:00 am and they started pouring concrete on the lower section of the forms, where the great room and guest bedrooms will be located.  This gave me time to continue to work on that last form and by the time they had emptied the truck, 9 yards of concrete, I had completed the last of the form work.   We waited about 40 minutes for the second truck to arrive, another 9 yards, this load completed the lower section and started the tower section.  The third load was 6 ½ yards. 

The forms held beautifully!

They gathered up their equipment and were off the job site a few minutes before noon.

We really enjoyed working with Kevin and his crew!  They were very skillful and South Dakota polite.

As soon as they had gone, I opened a beer.  Yeah, that is a bit unusual for me, but I felt like a bit of celebration was in order.  I had two.

Eyore's brother

That afternoon Carol drove us through the wild life loop at Custer State Park.  It was a wonderful trip, the scenery is beautiful and varied and we saw lots of wildlife: deer, several herds of bison, eagles, meadow larks, mountain goats, antelope, and a wild burro.  We stopped by the park office and got our new Custer State Park annual pass.

We continued through the park, our destination Lintz Brothers Pizza in Hermosa, roughly 20 miles from Custer.  Lintz Brothers Pizza recently won the Pasta Madness Contest through the Rapid City Journal, a contest juried by the public.  We had the whole wheat thin crust made with beer, it was exceptionally good.  We will be highly motivated to go back again.

After pizza we headed back through the park, this time taking the road to the Black Hills Playhouse.  This road wanders through the park, out into the Norbeck Wilderness Area, and then back into the park. 

Along the way we saw a male wild turkey serenading a female.  His snood and wattle so red that you thought they were lighted… strutting his stuff, doing a little dance… it was great fun to watch.

Further along the road we came to the Black Hills Playhouse, where two bison were quietly browsing next to the administration building… very close… and moving closer.  The folks inside were pretty titillated, we could hear them from the road.  What an adventure that must have been for them.

The last leg of our adventure was along the Needles Highway… through tunnels and past the Needles Eye. The rock formations along this highway are fantastic – so majestic – beyond description.

All in all, a great day!