Badlands Residency Day 46

Fantastic day today.  Beautiful weather.  Woke up super early and got to painting, possibly even finishing it, or at least very close.  I also spent a couple hours in the visitor center preparing for a field trip I'm leading tomorrow.  We ran out of sketchbooks so I had to wing it and make a bunch, plus get my handouts and other materials together.  In the afternoon I went to John's house; he asked me to come keep him company and help with some of the food prep for tonight's friend-family feast.  I was listening to music all morning, and again in the car on the way to John's.  When I turned off my car, I heard music pouring out his windows: we were on the same page today.  Listened to lots of great music and danced around as we prepped an apple pie and dinner rolls.  John had already made twice baked and scalloped potatoes in the morning.  When those were ready, we headed to Ryan and Katie's to help with food prep there and start getting things in the oven.  Katie made a corn casserole, deviled eggs, and we had a ham.  I made a quick scavenger hunt for Katie's Easter basket, sending her running all over the house for her treasure.  After 5:00 other friends started rolling in, and by the time all the food came out of the oven, we had a pleasantly crowded dinner table.  

View from John's deck - Cedar Pass in the distance.

Pie prep.


Homemade basket goodness.

Badlands Residency Day 45

Another early morning today to work on this painting, hoping it'll be finished today or tomorrow and I can dig into the next one.  Later I went into Wall with a couple friends to pick up groceries for a last minute Easter feast.  There was supposedly an estate auction in Quinn as well, so we brought the truck and trailer with plans to purchase a mower for my friend's cousin.  Turns out the auction is next weekend.  Not a big deal, we lingered a bit in Wall instead, had lunch, and browsed the stores, arcade room, and shops.

We returned home in the early afternoon, and I spent a few more hours on my painting before meeting up for yet another group dinner.  Before we ate, a few of us sat and decorated Easter eggs and made baskets by weaving strips of paper together.  We created baskets for as many people in the housing area as we could.  It was ranger Danny's last night in Badlands, so for dinner we helped him finish some of the contents of his fridge with a fantastic bbq and green bean casserole.