Oh South Dakota

I just returned from a momentous trip to South Dakota where I stayed in my Uncle Ray’s house and rested and recuperated.  I am now ready to begin work on this site. The ranch where I went has been in our family for three generations; (that is almost 120 years).  It is a quiet place, about 75 miles from the nearest town including 30 miles on dirt roads.  My grandparents house still stands  beautifully in its oldness. My father was born there.  I  am amazed at how much knowledge Randy and Leanne (my two cousins who run the ranch) have and how hard they work. They are both ranchers and farmers.  It is a complex and tough job, with very little financial rewards.  They are my age and need to retire.  They are actively seeking someone to take the reins from them.  It is a different life from the one I know. but everyday there is so much to do,  The days fly by and I think Leanne summed it up when she said, “you can live anywhere these days and  I am never ever bored here.  It is my home.”

Of course I photographed a lot.  Down in the breaks, the landscape is spectacular.  The Breaks which contain Deep Creek run down to the Cheyenne River.  The landscape is deceiving because one feels the flatness of it and the vastness.  Driving right up to the edge of the Breaks, one does not realize that in just a minute there is a huge drop-off..  Down in Deep Creek there are lots of cattle with many calves.  They were not afraid of us and stood in the skinny roadway and looked very seriously at us.  I wondered who they thought we were.

i  remember my grandmother always having a camera ready to go by her back door.  Among other things she was a serious amateur photographer.  She told me once, when I was a child   “Have  the camera ready because you never know when you will need it.”  Her photographs are rich and beautiful and an inspiration to me. She photographed her children, visitors, the landscape, the animals.   I felt her presence strongly and found an old lard can which I will make into a pinhole camera.  I checked the back of the bathroom door where she kept a strap that was used to paddle all the miscreant children (but never me). It was gone.  I was given a beautiful coat she made and a dress of hers and two cigar boxes of my grandfathers.  I could still smell the cigars in the boxes, and still love that smell even though the cigars caused his death. I spent a whole day alone there, sitting in the old house, remembering.  I went up to the attic to find a bunch of children’s toys on the floor.  I was happy that children still played there as I once did. When Leanne had time, she took me back to the house and we looked at the old Bible among other things. Grandpa had written the births and deaths of people in the family in the Bible.  I felt heartsick that I had not been there more but I felt lucky to have this place as a part of my history and lucky to be able to go visit. Another important part of the trip was going and coming back.  My friend and I camped in the National Forests.  So many of them have been  burned and we camped in several burned out places.  It snowed one night!  There was a moose in a camp one afternoon.  We felt it was a good sign that no grizzlies were around. I was so amazed at seeing the moose that I  did not think to pick up the camera to take a photograph.  I was glad to camp in the burned out  places.  No one was usually around and the air was cool and the light beautiful.  I took lots of photographs of these places.  I will write more about the trip in future blog posts.  All of it is still new and I am still awed. Some bad things did happen but many good things as well.. Here are some photographs of the ranch.  I am still editing the pinhole images.

First four images:  My Grandparents house, the Shed, the Stairs and a field of winter wheat. Last three Images:  Landscapes along the way there and back.