More grandkid fun

This weekend saw me at a Swine show. Hog show if you like, but D2 says its a Pig Show since they are too nice and lovable to be called Hogs. And this coming from a horsewoman!

Grandson Coy started off the morning in PeeWee Showmanship. Try to imagine, some 20 or so little kids in a pen with the equal number of pigs going in all directions. At this level they are mostly concerned with keeping track of which pig is theirs and following them around the ring. Its called driving your pig but I can't say there was a lot of driving going on. Coy actually had that bored look on his face which surprised me. He sometimes gets into this pig thing.

The big deal of the day was Brody winning the Junior Showmanship Championship. He really did a nice job but I was a little surprised he won it because it didn't seem the judge looked at him that much. I'm not sure how many there were out there.... 15 or 20, maybe more. I think the judge was watching out of the corner of his eye. Of course I think the judge was really really good.

I did get a nice picture of Brody. I'll try to figure out how to post it here.


Coy's picture is not so good.... him and half his pig.


Next weekend its back to junior rodeo for the boys, with another pig show the following week I understand. I'll have to see what room is left on my dance card.

Being a fan

Wow! What a week-end! Had a ball!

Thursday, I threw a few things in a bag, filled the gas tank and took off for Colorado. Got to an arena in northeast Springs in time to see my two youngest grand-daughters Annie and Laramie Jo take part in a Little Britches rodeo. It was cold, cold, and the girls weren't either one having a great night but it was fun jut to see them do their thing. I got to see son-in-law being the bull-fighter as he protected young rough stock riders. And daughter was high in the crow's nest announcing not just one arena but two, thanks to a walkie-talkie. I got to climb up there and it was worth it because the view was fantastic and it was not so cold, But the adrenalan rush of the whole weekend for this old fan was when I tripped on the top step of the stairs while looking down through the big gap between step and deck. All this while experiencing a bit of sway under hand and foot. Oh my! Who needs carnival rides when you can get spooked over climbing the crow's nest stairs!

Friday morning the five of us climbed in my trusty Rondevouz and headed for Laramie and the U of Wyoming college rodeo. G-daughter Kaylee is on the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo team at Torrington. Friday afternoon found her in slack in break-away roping. I thought for sure she would be in the top ten, looked fast to me, but her horse Havoc did a itty-bitty hesitation moment before she caught, hardly enough to notice but enough to keep them out of the money. Still pretty amazing for a self-trained girl (for the most part) on a family trained horse. Neither one is a finished deal in this event but are getting oh, so close.

Friday night perf had them in Goat Tying. Results: a smokin 7.5 seconds. I think she was in 3rd at the end of the evening. Following the Saturday perfomances, she was 5th and set to come back in the Short Go on Sunday. This meant we all stayed instead of going home. Seven of us in a nice motel room with two, yes two big tv screens.

Sunday morning we checked out of the motel, loaded up and got to the arena for the last half of Cowboy church. It drives me nuts to be late for church but when you have six girls and one good sport dad in a motel room, we did well just to get us all out of there before noon. I'm sure the Lord will know we were doing good to get there at all.

Kaylee's event led off the Sunday afternoon performance. The top ten girls were all fantastic of course. Kaylee's goat turned as she went for it and I thought for sure it was going to cost her too much time. But when all was done, she tied in 7.3 I think it was, and won the short go and the average, winning her first Champion buckle at the College level.

I'm so proud of her of course, but not because she won. I'm most happy because I know how hard she worked to get there. She decided to go the extra distance to reach this goal. Will winning make her a better person? Probably. But more important is the work ethic, the time management, the dedication, the goal setting that she exercised getting there. Those are skills she will use all her life. Even if she had not made it to the top, she would have won from the road she's traveled to try for it. And the smile muscles she got to exercise at the end were good too.



Way to go Kaylee.

The girls surprised me with an early Mother's Day present - a beautiful necklace and earrings set. I was so surprised, I don't think I did a good job of expressing my appreciation. It knocked me speachless.

We ventured back to the Colorado ranch Sunday night across Colorado backroads I'd not seen before, one of my favorite pasttimes. Monday I headed for home. Wish the distance was about half as far. But it was a good trip. I really missed being able to drive cross country when my eyes were bad. Thanks to a great surgeon, I can now handle long distance driving again. Its the greatest feeling, being that independent!

It was a great extended week-end. I must watch that I don't put off doing things like this. Life is too short!

Time to Blog about Finding Family

This will not be news to bloggers but it has become abundantly apparent to this writer that if you are having life experiences that might be worth writing about, you do not have time to write about them. And of course the opposite being that if there is time, what is there to say!

If you follow my blog at all, you can tell I have been having lots and lots of life experiences this spring...... or none at all..... since I haven't written about a thing lately.

I'll admit to being really busy but will try to focus on just one thing. Just got back from a business trip to Phoenix but was lucky enough to have one free day to pursue my own interests. And I chose to look up and visit some long lost relatives that I had never met in person...... my father's first cousin Gertrude who is 95, and her son, an amazing artist. 

First I'll talk about visiting with Gertrude. She has spent most of her life in the Phoenix area but did visit Kansas relatives for long periods of time as a young girl and young woman. She was able to tell me tidbits about my paternal grandparents (who were gone before I was born) and great-uncles and great-aunts of that era. Things you'll not find in old newspaper articles or the census reports. I was thrilled. And I hope it was a good experience for her as well. She lives in her own home but has some health issues so has an attendant person who was very friendly. Having artists for children, her house is a virtual gallery. My two hours with her were not nearly enough to take it all in. And of course I thought of more questions to ask after I left. Her hearing is not the greatest so I'm not sure how comfortable she would be with me asking them over the phone. Perhaps I can write.... an old-fashioned paper and ink letter, for a change.

One of the things she talked about was my Great-uncle Vernon who was a doctor and had a big house on the beach in California. I never met him. When she was a child she said the Arizona summers were so hot, it being before air conditioning, that they spent a lot of time visiting him and other relatives in California. Aunt Eddie Hines (my grand-father's sister) and her husband Frank also had a house there at that time. Aunt Eddie is one I've never know much about so it was like meeting a new set of people I'd never known. She talked about staying with Aunt Eddie in Manhattan as a young child but the household was uninspiring for a youngster.... no other children to play with.... restrictions to certain parts of the house. There were two staircases and Gertrude was not to use the front stairs. She much preferred to go to the farm where Aunt Bertha had children she could play with. And she said Aunt Eddie seemed happy to have her there as well.

She said others in the family didn't care too much for Eddie's husband, Frank, probably because he was very successful. But Uncle Frank liked Gertrude and treated her with a coin and a wink whenever they met. 

About Gertrude's son, my second cousin Ed Mell. He is a well-known artist in Arizona with a distinctive style that is easily recognized. His work is in large oils and in sculpture, and can be found in the galleries of Scottsdale's art district among other places. There are posters of his Grand Canyon Music Festival work available at art poster places. I stumbled onto his work when browsing thru a museum bookstore back in the '90s. Saw this art book with work I found to my liking but I didn't know the artist. While leafing thru the pages, what should I see but the mention of his mother Gertrude Sargent. While I did not know the person, I certainly knew the name, as my parents had talked of her and her brother when I was growing up. Closer inspection showed a photo that includes my great-grandmother who, to my knowledge, I had never seen in any photo before. Its taken me over ten years but I've finally gotten to meet Ed.... both a relative I didn't know I had, and an artist whose work I admire.

A bonus of the day was getting to visit Ed's studio and to meet a friend of his, another artist Gary Smith from Utah, a very nice gentleman as well. 

Ed's brother Lee is deceased and brother Frank is in ill health so I've waited too long to meet them.

I suppose there should be a moral or something to all this. I guess it would be.... if you're at all interested in the people of your grandparents generation, don't put off visiting those who knew them, back when. And there might be a bonus in meeting some very interesting relatives of your own generation as well. What a thrill it is for me... maybe it would be for you as well.