Our weekend in Tuttle

We had a great time in Tuttle over the long, holiday weekend. We weren't sure if we were going to come home on Sunday or Monday initially, but Sunday afternoon when we asked the kids if they wanted to stay or go home, and Gage yelled out "STAY!" we decided to stay! :-) That's quite a different attitude than what he left for Tuttle with. He complained about not wanting to go because it would be SO BORING without any friends to play with. So, he apparently had a lot of fun!


Scott, Gage and Emma enjoying Dad's hammock that he got for his birthday last year. Brie wishes she could get in it too!?! Actually, she's waiting for everyone to get distracted with something else and to stop paying attention to her so she can sneak off and gallavant around Tuttle. She did that once or twice during our stay. Scott took off on his bicycle looking for her and as soon as she heard him yell her name, she took off for home with her tail between her legs! I saw her do it!

Here's the house for those of you who haven't seen pictures. The paint is starting to peel off, just like I knew it would. There's something wrong with the siding and paint won't stick, just like the locals had warned us 2 years ago when we started painting it to begin with.

We have quite a bit of grass to mow as you can see! To the very left, the white building with the 2 small windows is a garage that is ours along with the house which needs to be burned down in front of it. Then we have the 2 car garage where Scott stores all of his hunting gear, another old building which you can't really see, that is in front of that blue trailer (which is not ours), then the house.

Across the street is the Farmer's Co-op and gas station.

Down the street is the M&R Sports Bar. Gage wanted me to include that this is the most popular establishment in Tuttle. It was a happening place on Saturday. There were several guys who got out of their truck and could barely walk to the front door when we rode by on our bicycles, headed home from the park. It was a great little lesson for Gage. We had a long talk about drunk people and how dangerous it is for them AND everyone around them.

Just north of M&R Sports Bar is BSers, another bar, which is closed down. By the looks of the building it's probably a good thing!

Just thought you would get a kick out of the name. Thankfully Gage didn't ask what that meant!

At the far north end of Main Street (our house is at the far south end of Main Street) is the Tuttle School. It closed down it's doors for good in 2007. I saw some T-shirts in the Community store with some dates. I believe the elementary school closed down in 1995 and then the high school in 2007. This was very sad for Gage to think that a school like this could close down. It very much reminds Scott and I of where we grew up, as they too are small schools which are having the same problems. The kids enjoyed playing on the dilapidated playground equipment. Riding our bicycles down Main Street to go to the park was the big adventure of the day(s). Gage and I walked around the school looking through the windows that didn't have blinds pulled and saw that they still have all of trophies in the trophy case at the main entrance. We saw the science lab, computer lab and the shop. They still had all of their tools in the shop. I'm not sure if they will have an auction at some point for all of that stuff or what? Gage didn't realize that you get to learn how to build things at school! Apparently he doesn't realize that his Grandpa Stephens is a shop teacher, as well as a science teacher.

Perhaps the most interesting place for Gage was the Tuttle post office which burned down this past fall. I took his picture in front of the building, then he took over the camera for the rest of the post office pictures that follow.


Gage was very interested in the "Keep Out" sign.

We are not sure what caused the fire. And, you would think, since it's right across the street from the fire department, that something like this couldn't happen!

It looked like it was a neat, old building before the fire.

What a tragedy.

I'm not sure, but I think this was the vault, which is why it isn't burned down to ashes?




Here is the Tuttle Community Store. It is a really nice little grocery store. They have most of the things we need when we are in Tuttle. Even though their prices are higher than in Bismarck, we try to do some business with them when we are there. The kids were VERY EXCITED that they have "Bug Juice" there. (A sugary drink with, maybe if we're lucky, 5% fruit juice!) Right next door (within the same building), is where the new post office is housed.

Despite the wind and cooler temperatures, we built a little fire just long enough to make each of us a s'more and a few roasted marshmallows as well. It had rained earlier in the day, so we figured the fire danger was somewhat decreased.

We took our new tent with us to check it out. I decided to just set it up in the living room, since we had the space, instead of getting it all dirty and wet outside. Emma had a big time playing in it. She was going to sleep in it, but since no one would sleep in it with her, she decided it would be too lonely and slept in the bed. We took it down so everyone would have a clear path to the bathroom during the night! :-) This was the EASIEST tent I have ever set up and taken down! They have certainly improved since our last tent we bought, which we still have and plan to use along with the new one when we go camping.

Despite thinking he would have nothing to do, Gage had a great time. He spent a lot of time shooting his BB gun at pop can targets. Scott also bought some little clay targets for him to shoot at. I had fun with it too. I didn't know I was such a "sharpshooter"! :-) HA HA!

We took Gage's new Wolf scout handbook and were able to do several of the achievements and electives listed. One of the activites we enjoyed was bird watching. Gage is supposed to document, for a week, all the different birds he sees. It is very handy that Scott knows all of the birds and can identify them very easily. I can identify several, but certainly not like Scott can! We will have to remember our bird guide the next time we go. Perhaps the BIGGEST hit with Emma was when we drove to Lake Josephine (3 miles from our house) to look for some different birds. When we drove into the camping area to stop and identify the ducks on the lake, 3 goslings were walking to the lake and crossed right in front of our car. Initally when I asked if we could get out and check them out, Scott said no, but then he decided it would be okay since the mama goose was no where to be seen. Emma fell in love with the goslings. She of course wanted to bring them home with us. It was very chilly out and the one she was holding snuggled right into her. She tells everyone that it "climbed up me"! She was very sad that we couldn't take it with us. When it started pouring down rain, we sent them on their way and headed for the car. Hopefully mama goose found her little goslings!

Scott got his garage all cleaned out and organized. It took him ALL DAY to do! It started driving me nuts that it was taking him so long so I would start to try to put things back because it looked like it was going to rain several different times. He told me to just stop putting things back in there and help him to think of a more organized way to do it. He then said he wanted decoys with decoys, the weights and straps all in the same place, etc. I finally told him I couldn't think like him, and that this would be just like me asking him to help me organize my scrapbooking things. He agreed and then let me go on my merry way. Gage, Emma and I got Gage's book "A Wrinkle in Time" and read it while laying in the hammock. We finished the second half of the book over the weekend and enjoyed it a lot. We plant to go to Barnes and Noble today to get the second one in the series. We have a book mark which is also a timer and I used it to see how long it would take us to read the book. We clocked in at 5 hours and 9 minutes! I wish I had done that with the Harry Potter books! I would be interested to see how long those took to read. I know we had the first 5 books read in a year, which is ALOT of reading aloud if you've seen how big those books are!

Overall I'd say we had a great weekend. We have a list of things we need to take with us next time we go, which I think will be this weekend. There is something wrong with the water pump and Scott wants to get it fixed. I am going to have to watch Emma, the pack rat, a little closer next time. She had so much crap with her that she just had to have. I wanted to leave some of it there, like the Tinker toys, etc., but she would not knowingly leave anything behind. I'm going to have to tighten the reins a little with her packing. She LOVES to pack things to go places. She already has had bags packed for our trip to Iowa over the 4th of July. I've had to unpack them several times. I know when I can't find something, to look in her bags.