Fog

Yesterday morning we looked out and a flock of geese was flying by. It made me notice how pretty the fog in the sunrise was.

I never get tired of the view from my back porch. It continues to change with the seasons and the weather.

Chopping Corn

J helped a neighbor today chop corn for silage. He drove a tractor packing the trench silo. He said driving the truck was too scary, one had no brakes and the other couldn't steer. The tractor only had bald tires.

It's a very nice farm, it looks like the corn did well this year.
When they are done this should be full to the top of the concrete sides.

Our farm is more low input, so we don't grow corn (plus the ground is too steep).

Mt. Everest

E has turned over Bunny to Uncle M for the first leg of his trip to the base camp of Mt. Everest. Bunny and M will be gone for a month. We are looking forward to lots of travel pictures on their return. C made Bunny a special parka he'll wear when it gets cold.

Good luck M, take care of Bunny. We'll be praying for your safe return.

Mini Mellon

I had a volunteer watermelon vine growing around some shrubs near the deck. I didn't see any melons growing on it so I pulled it up. Then I found this.J named it the Mini Melon.

V cut into it today.

It may have been cute but it tasted awful.

Stall Decorations

Part of the State Show includes stable management and stall decorations. This year the club decided to do a theme instead of just green and white matching. The theme they came up with was old west. Each stall was a different main street building front. Pep's stall was the Saloon and Jessica Rabbit's was the Hotel.

We also had a livery stable and jail.

The tack stall was the General Store. The club won second place for their efforts.

Results

It was a very long four days. V had a repeat of last year's show (no ribbons), even to the point of her horse laying down in the ring leaving the last class.she still wanted a nice picture, so after several tries I thought this the best.

She looked good in all of her classes, but had some issues getting the correct leads at times.

You can see from this line up that there was stiff competition. J said they all looked so much alike that it could be an army.
E came a long way from last year. She said she had much more control especially at the canter. She said last year was just luck because all she did was "kick and flail."
She was 2nd in western pleasure pony 1st go and 6th in the 2nd go. She got 8th out of 21 in a class that required doing a pattern and 9th in the western pleasure pony championship. She also qualified for the finals in trail but didn't place.(only 13 qualified out of 40).

V is planning her strategy for next year and I think E is relieved it's over.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We are leaving for the State 4-H Horse Show tomorrow! We have been very busy getting ready; riding, cleaning, packing, painting. Wish V and E luck.

Volunteers

I usually get lots of volunteer flowers every year. Last fall I spread the old dirt from my wheelbarrow flowers around in my shrub planters. This summer petunias volunteered,

in two different colors.

My first butterfly bush came from a volunteer in my sister's yard. Now I have them volunteering in different parts of my yard. I guess I'll need to decide where to transplant this one next.

Kit Pharo

This was our first bull from Pharo Cattle Company in Colorado.We had him for 4 years so a lot of our replacement heifers were out of him. We sold him last week. He weighed 1845 pounds.

Nature's Garbage Disposal

Because we have a septic system we did not install a garbage disposal when we built our house. Therefore, we throw a lot of things over the fence.

It usually doesn't take long for a curious animal to come by. This goat had quite a feast.

Yard Ornament IV

I found a mate to my other gargoyle (May 27th post) at the Dollar Tree. I think he looks a little perturbed that the dead geranium blooms are falling on him.

Horse Show

V wanted to go to one more show before State so we found one about an hour and a half away that had both western and hunter classes.V did well, 2- 2nds,1- 3rd and 1- 4th.

Emily's day didn't go as well, 1- 4th, 1 -5th and 1- 6th.
The highlight for V was an open Go As You Please class with 11 entries where she placed 2nd and E didn't place.

Sleazy

I recently purchased two of these "Sleazy Sleepwear For Horses". One is for Pep to get her mane to lie flat and the other for Jessica to protect her braids at shows.Surprisingly, the horses don't seem to mind wearing them.

They were about $30 each. Just so you know our priorities, I can't remember the last article of clothing I bought for myself that was $30.

Apples

I harvested some of the apples today and made a batch of applesauce.

I got this tree at Lowe's and left the tag on it until it had fruit so I would not forget what it was. The label said golden delicious. So I still don't know what they are.
They did however make some good fried apple pies. But not as good as Grandma's were.

The Beach

Sorry for not posting recently. V, E and I ran down to the beach for a few days.I always love pictures of the sea oats.

The surf was calm Saturday and Sunday, but this morning was totally different. The waves were much rougher, the tide came in higher, and there was quite a lot of beach erosion.

M actually went out swimming in this today. He looked like a little cork bobbing around in a washing machine.