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.