Cowboys And Aliens

I don't want to jump the gun here, but I THINK the first day of spring has arrived.  The weather guessers say it's the last night of 30 degree weather and today should be 68 and "springy".  I'm ready for that since my gas bill to keep my house warm is now higher than the electricity bill.  Everyone is taking advantage I guess.

So ... we are back to the cowboys for a few more exciting shots of the rodeo.  This is team roping.  We did this occasionally on the ranch when we had cows and calves that needed shots.  It was much faster to catch them, then run up and stick them with penicillin, than it was to drive them all the way to the corrals at the ranch house.  I cheated ... I just walked up slowly and dropped a loop over their head.  

When we did vaccinate all of the cattle, we ran them through a long chute at the house.  We just walked along the walkway, vaccinating as we went, then they were all let out.  Cattle had to be vaccinated for lots of things that are hard to pronounce.  

These guys ... running as fast as they can down the arena are amazing with a rope.  Those headers ... they seem to just effortlessly throw the rope perfectly every time, well most every time.

Look closely at the calfs hind legs ... the heeler caught both.  Once the header turns his horse facing the steer, time stops.  Not the most exciting, but it requires LOTS of skill.

On to saddle bronc riding.  I can tell you that when you are up there and your horse starts to buck, you feel like this guy ... like you are 25 feet in the air.  Truthfully, with few exceptions, my horses would just crow hop a few times before they took off running.  If I stayed on, I felt like I was the champion bronc rider of the world.  

If I fell off .... well it hurts, big time.  The trouble was, you always had to get back on.  You obviously learned how to hang on a little harder next time.   

This was a young horse, a wild and twisty bucker.  They breed these horses to buck so it does come naturally, but they are actually tried a few times with mechanical dummies on their backs to see how they handle it.  Horses used for bareback and saddle bronc events are usually 6 years old and up.  

To put that in perspective, we started our colts at 3 years of age to be sure they were strong enough to handle our weight.  Nowadays, they start them at 2 years old.

On this day, not everyone rode their horse.  Seriously, these cowboys take a beating!

See that white spot on the ground?  That's the cowboy's number on his back and he's about to hit the ground head first.  

The pick up men hang out pretty close so when the whistle blows, they can get close enough for the cowboy to grab hold and be gently dropped to the ground.  Most times they get dumped, but it's better than this.  OUCH!!

And so ends another day of fun and bruises at the rodeo.  But what about the aliens you ask?  Well I just happened to step outside in the dark a couple of nights ago and spotted this.  I grabbed my camera instantly.  UFO's!!!!

Did anyone see that movie Cowboys and Aliens??  I of course loved it, even if it was weird.  It quickly came to mind, but my brain said no silly, this is Venus and Jupiter.  I don't think I've ever seen them this close before.

About an hour later, there came a message on my phone.  WHAT'S THIS?  OMG UFO'S!!  No kidding, back in California the folks in my neighborhood were going crazy showing pictures and asking what it was.  It MUST be aliens!!!  Panic seemed to set in.  I burst their bubble by saying it was Venus and Jupiter because I saw it from Arizona.  It was just too funny!!

I whipped up some stir fry for dinner ... not NEAR as good as Chef Patty's, but I tried.  I didn't have anything to make the sauce, so I went with Kung Pao sauce.  If you didn't know, that stuff is HOT!!!  There's still half of this in the fridge.

That of course brought about a frenzy of cleaning up the oil splattered mess on my stove.  This is very unusual behavior, so I took a picture to prove I actually CLEANED the stove.

And so another day is in the books.  I've got my camera ready though, in case any more aliens stop by to say hello.