Just Call Him A Bull Rider…

You heard me speak of my good fortune at finding a strong young man to help us move and do heavy lifting for me. This is Jonathan getting his game face on…

Both his daddy and his granddaddy were bull riders.  Jon started riding when he was 5 years old and after 9 years the boy is practically a veteran.  They only let him ride steers, which really ‘chaps his ass’, pun intended, but he will be 15 in April and then can start riding the big bulls.

   One of the neat things about going to small local forums is that I can walk around and watch what the cowboys do to prepare for their ride.  Here Jon is working on the baling wire on his spurs that go under the heel of his boots to help keep them from slipping when he gets hooked into the hide of the bull.

Some riders like to tie their boots on with strips of latigo. They DO NOT want their feet to slip out of their boots causing them to lose their leg grip.

And another example… or two.  Each cowboy has their own routine that they go through, kind of like every other sport, they have their own superstitions.

I thought these chaps were good looking… not much else is on this photo…

This shot looks a little better…

And check out these blue chaps.

Jonathan strapping his chaps up, getting ready for his ride.

Waiting his turn.  There were 21 entries in the bull riding division so they ran out 10 of the bull riders, then ran Jon’s group, the steer riders, then the mutton busters which was won by a GIRL!!!  Wooo Hoooo!!!  Then came time for Jon’s group.

He asked me if I could video his ride for him and I told him I’d try.  I’d only done it once so here is my try at video with my point and shoot camera…

Except for the fact that I can’t figure out how to get it to download. I’m unloading my boxes as fast as I can to try and figure it out.  I know where the video is, it is the verbiage that is killing me.  I give them (those gremlins that reside in my computer) the answers to the questions as best as I can figure out but then I get something like the path is incorrect or the name isn’t right for the transition to be made and my ever favorite,         ” You’re an idiot that can’t figure out shit about computers!”

When I do figure it out I’ll have a bunch of videos to share. Right now I think I’ll go back to bed and cry myself to sleep.

A Farmer I’m Not…

I have been experimenting with garden stuff that likes the red dirt.  I’m finding out that potatoes like our dirt, squash seem to love it, bush beans, not so much, pole beans, yep, and black eyed peas love it.  Okra does good and tomatoes, well, the jury is still out on them.

Cucumbers, I know if we find the right breed they’ll grow and I need to plant another batch of radishes because the first ones are all gone and they were good.  I should have planted them two weeks ago, but see the title of this post. At least I’m learning a thing or two…

I tried cabbage and broccoli.  Here’s those results:

Gorgeous head  

not so much so. almost broccoli but not quite.

I thought at first I was feeding the rabbits with my broccoli, but then saw Colorado potato bugs on my potatoes and realized they were getting my cabbage and broccoli and the squash besides the potatoes.

Then came the squash bugs.  So now I’ll have to say I’m not an organic farmer or even an organic gardener because I went to the farm store and got the baddest chemicals I could to combat them.  I became the g.i. Jane of gardening.  I will fight for my few morsels of food.  I figure I can wash my food pretty good and I don’t like sharing with bugs. 

The rabbits… well, they provide exercise for the girls.  They have fun chasing them and the rabbits think it’s fun, too, since they know the girls can’t catch them.  They will tease them and then take off, schnauzers hot on the trail and low to the ground.  Then when they get too far ahead the rabbits will stop… hop a hop or two back towards the girls to make sure they don’t lose interest and, once again the chase is on.

It takes so little to entertain this Gardner that is not a farmer but working on being a gardener and a better Gardner.

Marry a Girl from Oklahoma..

I can't take credit for this joke. I just liked it and thought I'd pass it on... In other words... my brain is lazy today.



> Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had
> given their new wives duties.
>
> The first man had married a woman from Colorado and had
> told her that she was
> going to do dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple
> days, but on the third day
> he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put
> away.
>
> The second man had married a woman from Nebraska He had
> given his wife orders
> that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the
> cooking. The first day he didn't
> see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By
> the third day, he saw his
> house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge
> dinner on the table.
>
> The third man had married a girl from Oklahoma. He told her
> that her duties were to keep
> the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry
> washed and hot meals on
> the table for every meal. He said the first day he
> didn't see anything, the second day
> he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of
> the swelling had gone down and
> he could see a little out of his left eye, enough to fix
> himself a bite to eat and load
> the dishwasher.

Why? (or why not?)

First, the why not? Sometimes on the road of life we come to a crossroads and have to make a decision.... do we stay on the main road or try a "road less traveled"? Now I don't know about you all out there in blog-land, but I've always been one with a curious nature and can hardly resist trying to find out what's around the corner. So this seems to be where this road is taking me, into the wonderful world of blogging. I have always enjoyed yakking it up with friends and now have decided that the world is my friend, so here I am. The why? part of this post came after trying to sign on to post today for about an hour. First off Google didn't recognize me, or my user name. When I finally got that figured out, my password didn't work with my user name. I do understand that probably in this western world I am one of the most technologically challenged people I know and therefore I probably have no business even trying to do this blogging adventure, but I am also aware that I have to "use it or lose it" as far as my brain functions are concerned and I am one of the more stubborn people I know, so here I am trying to teach this old dog new tricks... providing, of course, that I can remember how to sign back on again for the next post.

Until that time y'all have a good day now, y'hear...