I think this is a record. We have had ten days of NO SUN. How could that be? To make it worse, the weather guessers say there will be ANOTHER ten before the sun shines again. That makes it really hard for me to want to head out for a walk, especially when it's 43 degrees ALL DAY LONG. We haven't even had a temperature change!!
I was bundled up as much as Santa was when I hit the neighborhood. I love these guys ......
I was surprised to see so many folks out walking on a Monday morning, including myself. It's damp ... you can smell the mold in the air!! Sneeze sneeze!!!
It's so bad, my lovely golden rocks are now covered with green moss. It's like the Grinch has taken over the neighborhood!!
Back home and STILL bundled up, I scanned my phone for recipes. I had one container of sour cream left that I needed to use. Funeral Potatoes popped up. I know ... another round of carbs. I probably should have thrown the sour cream out.
If there's one thing my ancient body doesn't like ... this is it!! Sour cream. Within the hour as the pain began in earnest, knew I had made a big mistake .... BIG!!
I claimed squatters rights and camped out on the couch for the evening. Round Five is here ... and I didn't want to miss a moment. No it's not your eyes ... the pictures are blurry. Ever since I updated my phone, action shots are fuzzy.
This is how NOT to bulldog. Smart steer here ... he just turned around and bulldogged his head into this guy.
This is what it SHOULD look like. Think about this ... they take off on their horse running at full speed, reach over and grab the horns, fall off their horse at the same time, then throw the calf to the ground ... all in an amazing 3.5 seconds to win the night. Pretty crazy considering these calves weigh around 600 pounds.
These guys .... I mean really, would you get on the back of THIS? The rope is to keep them from raising up and falling over backwards on the rider. It happens quite often.
Here's how NOT to do it. I don't EVER remember it being fun to hit the ground, though being young, I bounced a lot. Yes we rode calves in the corrals on occasion, but only when the adults were gone. You would get in trouble big time if you got caught.
This is how you do it. Herein lies a problem. You STILL have to fall off on the ground, even if you WIN. You may be able to tell, the ground in front of the chutes is the most hard packed of the entire arena. There are lots of broken shoulders in bull riding, not to mention being stomped on by those hind feet.
Did we ever ride bulls on the ranch? That would be a no. They can weigh upwards of a ton and are really good at throwing that around. Bulls do what they want, when they want, and we just stayed out of their way.
Cantankerous is a good word to describe them. If I had to move the cattle from one large field to the next, I always moved the lead cow first. Yes there is a hierarchy when it comes to cattle. Everyone follows the lead cow. The trick is to know which one it is in any given herd. Yup I can read COW. It's a gift, which is why I always seemed to get that unwanted job. If you get HER headed in the right direction, all the rest will follow, EXCEPT the bulls.
Bulls hang back because they are stubborn. It takes 24 hours for them to figure out it's more fun with the cows. They wait by the gate until you go back out and open it for them. Every move was a two day affair. No you can't just leave the gate open because the cattle will come back through and eat down the grass way too far, making it hard to grow back. There was a method to our madness.
Sadly, THIS is my fav Stetson. Round five and he got bucked off. He did win third place in the saddle bronc riding, so there's that. Two events puts you in the running for All Around Cowboy. He's been hurt so badly in the past, I'm not sure he's going to survive this NFR, but he's trying his very best. Tough kid.
On todays menu ... I got a frantic call last night. "I really messed up the books this time". Oh JOY! I guess there will be a couple of hours on the computer before donning my armor for Bingo time. This is going to be a very busy week. Hopefully I can sneak in a nap or two.
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