Another Fair Coming Up

We are hardened county fair participants as we have been doing 4H and FFA with the girls since around 1989. Devin and Tara started the whole thing with those dang rabbits. Actually the truth of the matter is that Delaine started it by bringing home a rabbit named Apricot that she picked up for free at the girls swim lessons in Medford. So here we go again for another year. This year of course we're in the Douglas County Fair Aug 4th through the 8th and we will be there from the 2nd through the 9th with the animals. Anna's steer is finished and ready for market and she has delivered 20 buyer letters to misc. businesses throughout the Roseburg area. Of course one went to all previous buyers and then she added several letters to folks that have bought but not from her. We know the economy is in tough condition and the odds of getting a good price at the auction are slim but she'll do her best anyway. Then there is Brazo . . . he'll go in Monday afternoon and Anna will compete in events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She will compete in western equitation, showmanship and trail on the three different days. Brazo is more mature this year and more settled so she hopes to score higher than she has in the past with him. I'll try to get off long enough to watch at least one of the events, but I'm not taking the week off.

Along with Anna showing her steer and competing with her horse we will be working the gates a couple of evenings during the week with our Posse group. It's one of our main fund raising events for the year so we need it. Delaine will work in the 4H kitchen at least one day and maybe more if needed.

I scored tickets to the Josh Turner concert on Thursday evening and since I'm not a big fan of Josh Turner I gave the tickets to Anna and Delaine. They will get to go back stage and visit with him and have their pictures taken with him and maybe the band, who knows for sure. I think it will be a good relief for them. Then Friday night is the auction . . . I'm sure we will be there late for that and of course we hope Anna sells early so most of the buyers will still be there.

Anyway . . . wish us luck . . . I'm sure we'll need it.

Story Time

A couple of weeks ago on Sunday evening Delaine and Anna wanted to go down to Rob Estabrooks arena and ride the horses. Rob lives just down the hill from us and owns and runs rough-stock with his son-in-law, so his place is set up pretty well for riding. I debated on whether to ride or not because I was still a bit sore from our trail ride the previous weekend. My leg and back were still hurting a some. After some kicking it around, I decided I would take Maverick down and work with him and ride him a bit. I've ridden him a couple of time in our round pen so I figured it might be good to get him out into a larger area to see what he might do. Well we rode around the arena a couple of times slowly while stopping next the several bulls Rob had in pens next to the arena. He was perfectly okay with standing there looking at the bulls and showed no signs of excitement really. He seemed pretty well settled after the walk down the hill and several minutes of groundwork so he was doing what I expected him to do. I rode him back to the end of the arena where Delaine and Anna were parked talking with Rob's daughter Amy and her two sons. We set there and talked for a few minutes then I decided to make another lap. As Maverick and I took off and were about 20' from the group headed across the arena at a walk a gust of wind blew up in our faces and it must have caused some sort of reaction in Maverick's brain when all at once he started bucking while standing in place. I stayed on for about three bucks then lost my balance and went over the left side of his neck head first. Luckily I thought or reacted to tuck my head to my chest and roll with it as I hit the ground on my left side shoulder and arm. Amazing my glasses stayed on. My reflexive reaction was to hang on to the reins and Maverick was backing away from me while I was laying on the ground hanging onto the reins. I guess he dragged me a ways until I heard Delaine, Anna and Amy hollering at me to let go of the reins which I did quickly. When I got up I couldn't breathe well because of the blow from my arm and elbow into my ribcage. Amy told me to raise my arms and breathe which I did and that helped some. I walked around a while catching my breath then got back on Maverick and rode him in circles for a while. I got off and we headed home after that. I didn't go to the doctor because I had full range of motion with my arm and shoulder so even though it was extremely sore I figured there wasn't anything broken inside except maybe a cracked rib or two. After two weeks I'm just now getting to where I can blow my nose and cough without extreme pain in my left side ribcase. It still hurts quite a bit when I sneeze though so I try to avoid that when I can.

Lesson learned? I'm not sure . . . maybe if I had recognized quick enough that he was starting to buck, I could have pulled his head around and stopped him from getting too carried away by throwing him off balance. Rob's suggestion was to add a "dog collar" to the saddle next to the horn to give something to hang onto while he bucks. He said he uses one and has never had a horse put him on the ground when he has been using it. I think I'd rather figure out a way to keep him from bucking, so he is going to get plenty of ground work before I get back on him. Then when I do if he raises his head or rear end I will promptly pull his head around to through him off balance before I lose my balance.

Happy Birthday Ron

Today was a good day! I heard from Dale, Tara, Devin, Mom and Mel (twice). Thanks for singing to me Mel. Delaine and Anna both wished me a happy birthday too. The weather was near perfect today too with no rain! I got up at 6:00am after laying awake in bed for about an hour. With the nice cool morning and overcast sky I figured it was the right time to mow the grass around here. Delaine went to town, Anna went to the school to take the SAT test so I was here all alone so mow I did. I got all the lower area around the round pen mowed and all the area between the driveway and the road mowed as well as all around the goat pen. It looks pretty good right now. Delaine came home from town and planted some flowers in the yard while I finished mowing then we went down town and met Anna for lunch. We had Mexican food . . . it was good. Delaine and Anna stayed in town after lunch and I came home. I laid down on the couch and took a nice long nap. It felt good! I can't remember the last time I took a real nap. That's one of the simple pleasures I really enjoy. In the evening Delaine and Anna took me to Anthony's for dinner. Fox and Mary went with us to help with the celebrations. After dinner we came home and I opened presents and we had carrot cake and ice cream. Now Anna is off baby setting for Ben Tatone and Delaine and I are vegging out in front of the TV.

It's been a good birthday . . .

Everything is Okay

Just a quick one to let you all know I'm still here and that everything is okay around our place. It finally dried out and warmed up a bit here in Roseburg. I've been busy working out around the place. Today I managed to get two piles of brush burned, these two piles have been bothering us for quite some time now and it's good to get rid of them. Delaine got a bunch of her plants in the ground today too. With the long weekend we may actually get our deer fence up around the garden spot. If we get it up then maybe we will actually have some vegetables later this summer. Anna and Delaine have collected a bunch of plants to go in the garden. Delaine plans to put in a small flower garden behind the fence too.

Anna went to prom last weekend. She had a lot of fun and she looked very pretty. I got a photo of her in her dress. I posted it on flickr if you want to see it. Monday evening Anna was honored a UCC for outstanding performance in her math class. They had a night of excellence and she was one of about 50 kids from high school that were honored.

I hope you all are doing good . . .

Progress on the '95 GMC

I got the fender and the hood on the GMC today before church. I noticed the '89 fender is just a bit different than the '95. There isn't enough difference to make me want to look for another one but right at the top next to the door the '89 tapers back toward the front of the pickup, so there is a little bit of a gap. It's only about 1/8" in 1" so it's not very noticeable really. I snapped a couple of pictures of it. You can't see the gap but you can see the difference in the color.

Now all we have to do is get the new grille in and we'll be able to start prepping for paint. I have a new grille coming from Clint Newell, it should be here this Tuesday. The grille is coming white so we won't have to mess with painting it. The bumper I got is a little rough and should really be re chromed. I suppose I'll put it on the way it is for now then after school is out I'll take it off and get it cleaned up and re chromed. All the side body molding is glued on and will get ruined when I take it off, so likely I'll order up body molding kit from Clint Newell too. The old pickup should look pretty good when we get done with it. Before Anna starts driving it to school I'll take it in and have the front end aligned since it got jarred around during its trip into to the tree.

The Jimmy is Home

We picked up the Jimmy from Clint Newell this afternoon and drove it home. Mind you there was no bumper, grille, hood or right front fender on it. The lights all work but some are hanging from the wires on the front end. I'll clean a spot in the shop and move it in tomorrow so we can still the reassembly process and prep it for paint. It will be white still and get a pearl treatment then clear coat after that. I'll get some pictures of it later and post them up for all to see.

The work begins . . .

The Frame is Straight

Okay, we decided to go ahead and get the "Jimmy" fixed so Anna would have it to drive. We got it for such a small amount that we figured we could spend some money on it so we took into Clint Newel's body shop and they put it on the frame rack to straighten the frame. Well they were successful and it is straight again. Nick the technician did a very nice job and he painted the two spots that he had to straighten. You can see the end in this photo. When he took the inner fender tub, and core support out he found them to be too bent to put back in so I had to scurry around and round up the parts. Luckily for me our neighbor Rob has an '89 Chevy setting in our other neighbor Larry's driveway and they visited me the other day to tell me I could take whatever I need off it. Also luckily the '89 was clean on the front end and all the parts interchange perfectly so I got the inner and outer fenders, the core support, the hood and the bumper. The parts are silvery blue instead of white so Anna and I will paint them and we'll also repaint the whole pickup. It ought to be good project for us. I though Nick would be done with today but he didn't make it so we won't get it back till Monday. I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping to work on it this weekend. Now it will be next week before we can get into it. Here is another shot of it on the rack:

It will be nice to have it back . . .