Blooms in a Drought

Our area is officially in a drought. It has been too hot and dry to do much of anything. Still, a few flowers are blooming in the yard.

I saved some zinnia seeds from last years flowers. Apparently I picked my favorite color to save.
The phlox is still blooming albeit a dull.
Of course some black eye susan,
and sun flowers.
No new volunteer butterfly bushes this year. I guess they need more rain.

Leaving for a horse show in a bit.

Bred Heifers

J recently moved the bred heifers to the field in front of the house.

They are now sharing this field with the goats and horses.
So far the water tank has kept up with the additional livestock.
The biggest problem is getting up the driveway. For some reason they seem to think the middle of the road is the perfect place to hang out. Plus, even if they are not in the driveway they have left plenty of evidence behind to splatter on the cars.

Sunrise

Fair Cattle Show

We decided at the last minute to go the the cattle show at the fair this morning.

Had to get up at 6 am to catch the heifer, lead her to the house, bathe her and hook up the trailer.
We got to the show in plenty of time and everything was very relaxed.
V did very well. She placed 2nd in showmanship (behind the 20 year old). His heifer was acting up and the judge had them switch animals. V did well controlling the other heifer. The judge's reason for placing her second was that V's heifer needed her rear feet trimmed and she had a structural problem with her hip. Both problems have nothing to do with showmanship.
She was also 2nd in her Hereford heifer class.

County Fair

The county fair is going on this week. For the last several years it has been the week of July 4th because that was when the carnival was available.

This year they were able to move it back to August. It is really hard to have any produce ready by the first of July.
We entered the cabbage E made me plant. That is our's with the blue ribbon.
And we entered the broccoli that we double planted after the goats got into the yard and ate the first planting.
The ranch rodeo was tonight. There was a moderate turnout of contestants but it is always a crowd pleaser. My favorite is the wild cow milking event.

Water Park

C took Matt and the girls to Emerald Pointe water park yesterday. I think they all had a good time. They stayed until closing and C enjoyed it much more than she had anticipated.

She made the children pretend to be on a ride so she could get their picture. I'm surprised that they cooperated so well. Matt said this was not a true representation of how he rode because he was too busy hanging on to throw his hands in the air.

Bon Fire

Matt and C are visiting for a few days. Last night we decided to have a bon fire with the brush from the fence we had built a couple of years ago. We had had some rain recently so we didn't think it would get out of hand.

E's first order of business was to get a marshmallow stick ready. This proved to be a brilliant idea because by the time we were roasting marshmallow's it was pitch dark so finding a proper stick was difficult.
Matt pick out a spot to try his luck starting the fire. I think he has forgotten anything he may have learned in boy scouts about fire starting. His never did work.
J went straight for the paper fire starting technique. He lamented the fact that paper just doesn't burn like it use to.
I was greatly hampered by Emma and we all had to share one box of matches.
We finally did get it started. We had to resort to J's paper technique however.

We enjoyed to fire, roasted marshmallows and had smores.