Sunday Roping and Gardening

This afternoon we had our second roping practice and lessons. There were 10 horses this time, all in one arena; ropes swirling, horses galloping, the mechanical steer being pulled around by a quad; pure chaotic bedlam. On top of all of the commotion, I wore spurs on my mare for the first time ever. She was in a snit about the spurs and fretting about the constant action. I suffered through several of her bucking tantrums and then we got down to business. It was fun but painful, I twisted my back yesterday carrying boxes and am paying for it today. I am a wimp.

Did I mention that Jerry was worried about not being able to rope when his shoulder dislocated last week? Well he roped. Needing a bit of a break, I reined into the center of the arena to join Jerry chatting with the arena owner. Jerry laughingly says to me, "hey I just had one of those hot flashes like you always have." Huh??? I'm thinking I heard wrong, but then I noticed his cowboy shirt is drenched with sweat. And he LAUGHS as he tells me that while roping, his shoulder just popped out of it's socket and then back again. He says he got really queasy and almost passed out, but just got sweaty instead. I married a freak folks. Because later he takes his turn at chasing and trying to rope wild roping live steers.

Not me, I roped only a tame mechanical steer. We made it home safely. Rinsed off the tired sweaty horses. Jerry cooked dinner. And now we are settling down for the night. The weekend went by way too fast.

I took garden pictures to share. Our vegetable garden is truly pathetic. Very little of the seed we sowed has germinated. I was hoping to avoid pesticides but we have bugs. I hate poisons but we have gophers. Lots of gophers and they have now discovered the garden.
No carrots came up, no beets came up.

We have plenty of cucumber plants now. I'm supposed to thin them to one per spot, but I cannot.


There are three tomato plants and they look better than anything else. I planted romas, better boys, and cherry tomatoes.

This is a very lonely little lettuce. I planted two rows with two types of lettuce. This is it, one...

We have bean plants coming up beautifully, they are feeding the bugs. I can't see any bugs, I don't see any grasshoppers, but those leaves sure looked snacked on to me.

In the past week I have visited friends with marvelous green thriving gardens. I am envious.

One recommended spraying the plants with a mixture of water, dish soap and vinegar. I'll try it tomorrow, if that doesn't work, I am declaring war and will use insecticides.

It sure doesn't look like I'll have to learn how to can excess vegetables this year.