Mountain Man is moving...again.

I swear, if Mountain Man's not careful he'll beat DR and I in the battle of the moves. Last summer he moved from Kansas to Oklahoma and this week he moved back to Kansas. He was coming through our town on his way to his new place and was only able to stop for a few hours since he was hauling a bunch of critters on this trip. 

There isn't any place in my little town for a couple horses to take a break so Mountain Man and I drove a few miles out of town to my friend's house (thanks Connie!!) and let the horses out for a well deserved stretch. They'd been traveling for 4 hours and still had 3 to go. That's a long ride standing up!

And of course there's Flash. I love Flash, somehow she's related to our dog Knothead. I just can't ever remember how. 

As I was helping my brother unload the back of his horse trailer to get to the horses in the front we unloaded this baby!! 

This is a seven strand rope maker that was custom made for our Uncle about 5 or 6 years ago before he passed away. As I was telling Mountain Man how much fun I thought it would be to try it out, he offered to leave it at my house for a while so I could try it out. Rope making takes at least 3 people and he wasn't going to get the chance to try it out any time soon. 

But dang!! If I didn't forget to get it out of the trailer once we got back to my house....ggggrrr!

I guess this is his way of getting me to come visit huh? 

Speaking of custom made, Mountain Man was showing off his custom spurs to me. 

He had his spurs made into 4-H clovers...how cool is that?? 

I and all my siblings were ten year 4-H members.

And he even got his initials onto his spurs. Can you find the E, A, and W? 

When I told Yahoo that Mountain Man was coming to visit she was so excited because, as she puts it, "Mountain Man SPINS ME!!!" That's his most redeeming quality to a 3 year old! 

Come on Uncle!! Get to work! 

Flash was looking on in fascination. 

Flash!! You idiot! 

Just to let you know, Flash didn't bit Yahoo and I was never afraid he would. But Flash is a cow dog and that little body was moving and Flash is born to keep critters a moving along. 

It sure was nice to see Mountain Man even if it were only a couple hours. He's the closest family I have out here and I'd be lying if I said he wasn't special. Good luck in the new job bud! 

Annual Ranch Rodeo...and much better photos than last year!

You guys probably have been wonderin' if I've died or fallen off the edge of the Earth. Close...I was substitute teaching at the preschool last week. You probably wouldn't think working with a class full of 4 year olds would be so taxing that I couldn't even blog a bit this past week. You are right. I LOVE subbing at the preschool. Those little monkeys love to share....their germs. I came home this week with one of the worst head colds I can remember. I could barely remember my kids names much less be with it enough to blog. 

But, I'm back now and I have photos of share of the Annual Ranch Rodeo Finals held in Dodge City over Labor Day weekend. You can read about my introduction to Ranch Rodeos last year in this post. 

There wasn't too much different this year than last. The four events were; Branding, Sort and Load, Doctoring and Wild Cow Milking. But this year I had a whole year of photo experience under my belt and a zoom lens! I was so happy with how some of these photos came out....definitely better than last year! 

Mountain Man and his buddy Jake from Oklahoma came up to the rodeo this year, it sure was nice to see family! We even got to see Mountain Man's buddies compete this year. 

Young...

...and old. There were all types of cowboys out there working. 

Even a couple of women, and they sure weren't slouches! 

Branding

Aren't those pink shirts nice? This was one of my favorite teams to watch, they worked so well together. 

Halfway through the rodeo the kids were able to get out in the arena and have a little fun. First there was the pool noodle race. My boys in the stripes DOMINATED!!! 

Yahoo wasn't to be outdone and worked hard too! 

But the event that my boys had been waiting for was the boot scramble. Every Rodeo I've been to has held a boot scramble for the kids. First they take off their boots or shoes ( better have some bleach at home Mom...look at those socks!)

They dump the boots in the middle of the arena...

...and the kids race to find their boots, put them on, and race back to the starting line. Yip was aggravated that he was beat by a girl that was only wearing flip flops. He was quite adamant that she cheated because it was a "BOOT SCRAMBLE" not a "SANDAL SCRAMBLE". 

Wild Cow Milking. Aren't you happy you don't have to get your milk like this everyday? 

Yep, that's a LADY throwing down that steer! and boy, did she mean business. 

I sure wouldn't want to cross her! 

Ranch Rodeos are one of my favorite things about Kansas. There just aren't too many places to go experience anything like it. 

Olympic Fever and Memories of Horse Dancing

Are you sucked in to the Olympics yet? 
We sure are! It's been a lot of fun explaining to my almost 8 year old boys what the Olympics are all about. Every evening we've been sitting down on the computer and hitting the highlight videos here. My boys enjoy picking which sports they want to watch and mostly they've either chosen shooting (rifle, archery, skeet) or gymnastics. Who can blame them? Guns, bows and arrows and some really impressive feats of strength and agility in those gymnasts!! 



DR though has been getting pretty tired of watching endless gymnastics. "Gymnastics again??" he asked just the other night. 
"Well" I replied, "at least it's better than horse dancing!" 

Didn't you know that horse dancing is an Olympic sport?? It IS!!! 

Granted it's not one of those sports that get's a lot of television coverage, in fact, NBC this event at 3am in the morning. And 8 years ago I watched A LOT of horse dancing! (I just learned they call it Dressage) 

Yes, 8 summers ago my twin boys were born right in the middle of the Olympics. Honestly, that summer I wasn't following the Olympics at all. I was doing everything I could to get two babies born! I had grown out of practically all my maternity clothes and I was miserable from being pregnant all summer. Praise the Lord when my two boys decided to finally arrive at the end of August! 

As you mothers out there surely know giving birth isn't a 9 to 5 job. My sister, mom and I were up in the wee hours of the morning, bored and waiting for my husband (that's a whole other story) so I flipped on the television at 3 am and yes, there was Olympic Horse Dancing on. At this point in my hospital stay I needed any diversion I could find to help me from stressing out more than I already was. Horse dancing...now that wasn't something I saw everyday! 

The horse and rider has a large rectangular arena where they would perform a routine to music. Horse Dancing didn't have any obstacles to jump, no...the horses just dance to the music. The horses even seemed to enjoy dancing, but what do I know I'm not a horse whisperer or anything. 

Check out this video where the horse dances to hip hop!! 

I wouldn't say Horse Dancing, okay Dressage, is my favorite Olympic event but it's kind of interesting to watch once or twice. 

What's your favorite Olympic event? 

Photo Thursday - Horsin' Around

Mountain Man and The One Eyed Horse

Over the weekend the kids and I drove three hours north to spend the day with my "little" brother Mountain Man. We are both 1000 miles from any other family so we spend as much time together as we can.

Mountain Man and his trusty sidekick Flash!

My brother kept us busy! He took us to the park to play and for a picnic and then we went for ice cream and then out for dinner than evening. He also took us to the local museum, all Kansas towns have em'. I won't bore you with all the photos but just share the highlights.

A different kind of windmill.

The biggest barn in Kansas which also has the biggest haymow. We baled hay as teenagers and we were glad we didn't have to fill this haymow!

The highlight of our day was meeting Mountain Man's one eyed horse, Dot. We drove out to the feedlot where my brother works and spent a couple hours riding Dot.

Yahoo didn't last five minutes on the horse but I was at least able to get a good picture!

Dot is an older horse but beautiful and patient. The only problem she caused was trying to walk back to the barn. She'd much rather been in the shade than working in the sun. I can't say I blame her. The boys though didn't want to stop; they would have rode all day and night if we'd let them.

I took a turn too but mostly I let the boys have all the fun.

Mountain Man and Yap have a special relationship, though Yap doesn't know it. I'm thirteen years older than Mountain Man and remember him well as a baby. The first time the nurses laid Yap in my arms after he was born I could have sworn I was holding Baby Mountain Man. Yap looks nothing like his daddy and exactly like his uncle! I've even confused childhood pictures of the two! Yap has looked at those pics of Mountain Man and thought he was looking at himself. Funny too that Mountain Man and Yap even share some personality traits. I particularly enjoy watching Yap grow and mature to see just how much like Mountain Man he is.

Thanks for a great day Mountain Man. We are sure looking forward to seeing you again.