Root Feast Rodeo kids day

One of the things I love about Warm Springs Rodeos is the events for the kids. In Madras we have the Cowdeo every October where the kids can rodeo too but Warm Springs usually has some kids events at every rodeo and on Root Feast Rodeo Saturday is kids day. The Rodeo contains nothing but events for the kids all day long. The adult rodeo is Sunday.

The rodeo starts with our nations flag and a little 11 year old girl, Mary Olney, singing the national anthem and a moment of silence to thank your God for everything and for help for those going through hurtful times.

The first event is the "Wild Colt Race", these kids range from 6 to 12 years old and yes even the girls participate.

The wild colt race is a tough and hard sport and you have to be brave. These kids hang on and never give up.

This round went to the horses with not one single kid crossing the line. This doesn't not even slow them down. When they lose their horse they chase it until the either catch it and try again or the buzzard sounds that they are out of time.

The next even is the teens, 13 through 18 in their wild horse race.  Most of them have been doing this since they were 6 and they are amazing to watch and every bit as good as the adults are.

Wild horse racing is a wild event as you can see from this photo. At least some of the teens won the contest and crossed the center line.

The first two cross the finish line. You have to get your horse saddled and then cross between the barrel and fence and many times the horse has different ideas of where it should go and you don't have a bridle or even the rope on the halter.

Then they had barrel racing

Then we had calf riding

This little girl did not give up even when her calf fell, she stayed right with it until that buzzer sounded.

Then came roping.

Then came chute bulldogging.

Then stick horse races

Then horseless roping. Boy do they start them young.

Then the ribbon race where they have to get the ribbon off the cow

Then cow riding, this bull screamed, growled and stuck his tongue out the whole time.

2nd go round of Jr. Wild colt races, horses won again

Then the Sr. wild horse race 13 through 18

If you ever get the chance to go to the Root Feast Rodeo in Warm Springs you should give it a try. It is a rough and tumble rodeo not for the faint at heart.

Disaster drill in Madras, Oregon

Training is an important part in disasters as it is such a traumatic experience that if you have not practiced things get out of hand in a hurry. History has shown that the more you practice the more you revert to that practice when your mind becomes horrified.  That is the reason the EMS crews practice at least once a week.

To have a big drill that involves everyone takes a lot of time and money and personnel many of which are volunteers that take time off their regular jobs.

Jefferson County recently had a drill involving an airplane hitting the jail full of inmates and involved all the emergency personnel in the region and the hospital also took part.  Even our local prison took part by transporting live prisoners (actors) to their facility etc.

The Crook County High School students came over and were the victims. some of these kids wanted to go into medicine and felt this was really good for them too. They put makeup on the students where they looked real and they also had a card telling what was wrong with them.  Here shows some firefighters and EMS checking to see who needed to be transported in the ambulance first.

The orange shirts are prisoner shirts and shows patients everywhere so they are not only trying to treat the injured but keep prisoners from escaping.

An area was set up where people could be brought to be treated and await their turn to be transported to area hospitals via ambulance or Air Link helicopter.

A couple of low risk prisoners escaped but they will be surprised when they find out they did not get to stay gone long as a warrant was issued and now they have even more charges on them. The injured were more important at this point. A life is worth more then a escaped low risk prisoner escapes.

Two firefighters packing out the last of the patients to the ambulance.

I would like to thank everyone who took part in this drill to make our county a safer place for all. They learned a lot that they would do different if it was real. The point of a drill is not to do everything right but to see what works and what doesn't. Thinking something will work does not always work in the real practice so policies have changed and training will take place and then another drill maybe next year or who knows maybe even this winter where you add cold to the factor.

Good job everyone.

Central Oregon Spring

Sometimes my  brain is a lot more optimistic then my body is.  I have all these great ideas and then I go and buy way to many plants for my body to plant.

You have to admit they are really pretty. Now the big problem is also that the weather turned cold and I don't have a table anymore to eat on.

Oh my I forgot about these, at least two of them are house plants and I don't have to plant them. I just can not pass up a flower. Please keep me out of any store that has flowers.

Not only do I have to plant all these plants I bought on sale I had to bring in my strawberry pots because it is suppose to get to 24 tonight.  Now I know why that store had such good buys on the plants right now. My house has plants everywhere.

Every window is full of plants, I have tomatoes enough for 1/2 the town. Everyone said you have to expect that some won't come up so being me I planted two seeds in each pot thinking only half would come up..wrong!  Everyone of them came up.  Then my mom says I had to pull one of them up and throw it away..  Wrong, I do not throw plants away until I have tried everything in my power to save them.  Mom says, "well if you try to separate them you are going to lose a bunch of them and maybe all of them.  I separated them and planted them in separate pots. Everyone of them lived. Now I have 40 tomato plants and my friends are very happy.

To continue the plant sage it turned 80 and 40's at night so guess who planted all her plants..Yep me and then guess what happened? It turned 24 again and I think I have lost at least 1/2 of my plants even though I covered them with a sheet.  My poor body is sore, 1/2 my plants are froze and then it turns hot again. I water and water as the shock from 30 to 80 the heat was cooking them. Then blast it the weather turned to 24 again last night. I covered everything I could. I used every sheet and extra blanket I had. I guess I had better not need to change my sheets cause they are all out covering plants at night.

I just might have to give up on this..Nope, I just have to plant some more flowers I guess.  The old saying if you don't like the weather in Central Oregon hang around 5 minutes but give me a break from 80 during the day to 24 at night.  My poor babies but the ones that survive are sure tough plants so I guess Central Oregon grows tough people and tough plants.

Custom Metal Art

If you love metal art or airplanes you just have to check out this site. Amazing stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/BergCustomMetalArt

This would be a perfect gift for anyone who likes airplanes  or custom stuff..

Healthy smoothie experiences

I live with my 89 year old mother and we have been trying making healthy smoothies with protein powder in them as an afternoon snake and we love them and have more energy.

My daughter who works at the hospital called to see if I would bring her lunch as the other girl had called in sick and she did not have anyone to relieve her at the ER desk to go get some food. So thinking I was being a good mommy I made her one of my homemade smoothies as a treat to go with her lunch.

I have a Ninja kitchen system and it has two little one serving glasses for it to make drinks with. I made her our favorite with banana, blue berries, honey, cinnamon, almond milk and ice and took it up to her. She took a taste and said she did not like it. I said "well then give it back and I will drink it".  I drank the smoothie on the way back home.

When I got home I told my mom that she had not liked it. She said she loved them and wondered why she did not like it. Mom went into the kitchen to do dishes from lunch.  She says "What did you put in this smoothie for Sandie as I have to agree it is terrible, you had to do something different."  I said "no, it is just like I always make". Mom says "Then what made it orange?".  I said "Orange, it wasn't orange it is purple just like always". She comes around the corner and shows me this orange mixture in one of the ninja glasses.  I laugh and say "mom, that is the salad dressing I made that we did not like because I got to much vinegar in it and I sat it on the counter where we could throw it away"...she says "well it doesn't taste any better when you drink it, in fact it is worse."

We both had a good laugh and so did my daughters.

Growing Tomatoes in cold weather

My mom is an amazing gardener and usually grows a beautiful garden but this year?  She decided we needed to plant the three biggest tomatoes outside now because we could just cover them at night when it froze.

I planted three of them and put the tomato cages around them where we could lay the blankets over the top of the cage.

Well mom is now 88 and she decided it would be hard for us to lug blankets out there so we would use a small blanket, a sheet and a piece of black plastic.

Wrong choice.  The one that was covered with the black plastic cooked this morning after the sun came up but before it warmed up outside. It was still freezing out but cooked it anyway because of the sun.

Lesson learned: Never cover your tomatoes with black plastic even if it is lighter then a blanket.

The second tomato that had the sheet looks like it should be in ICU as it is not very healthy looking, I think the sheet was a little to thin to work good.

Lesson learned:  Cover with a blanket not something thin.

The third tomato had a blanket around it and it looks pretty good this morning.

Lesson learned:  All my tomatoes will be covered with a blanket. I put a blanket around it and then put dirt all around the bottom like we do our tent in cold weather and closed the top with clothes pins.

Tonight all tomatoes will be covered with a blanket but I really don't think the two are going to make it but I won't give up as long as they are standing at all..I am stubborn that way.

Lesson learned:  Wait the 4 more days until it says it won't freeze at night for at least a week. Impatience is not a good thing.

Two of my friends told me that they have froze their tomatoes and cut them back at ground level and they grew again and were very productive.  So guess who was glad they covered the dead one and the ICU one along with the healthy one.  I got up this morning and uncovered them and cut them off at ground level so I will let you know what happens.

Springtime in Central Oregon

One thing you can always count on if you live in the high desert of Central Oregon is that you can't count on what the weather is going to be from one day to the next. One minute to the next. Day to night. You might have it 80 degrees and then 35 at night. The saying goes "if you don't like the weather wait around 5 minutes", "The only place you can stand in a mud puddle and get hit with a dust devil" and many more.

I woke up this morning to great big snowflakes coming down and it is April 16, 1013 at 6 am.

The flakes were big and it was sticking and then the sun came up and it quit snowing. My beautiful flowers I was so excited about now have a blanket of snow. I don't think I am going to plant in my garden today.

They are stubborn and intent to keep blooming even  if they are covered in snow.  It looked so funny to look out my window through the tomatoes that are in the window sill and see snow all over and big flakes falling from the sky...Is it now spring??

They say Thursday it won't freeze at night for a few days so I am going to plant my tomatoes and other plants in the garden where we can have a dining room table back. I can't use the pellet stove because it is covered with plants.  You can hardly see out the big windows, they are covered with plants and then this cold spell came.  Even when it isn't snowing you wait for a section of weather that is not going to freeze at night for a few days to plant where they get their roots settled and then you cover them with a blanket if a cold spell comes.  If you don't do that you can't raise a lot of stuff because the growing season would be to short.

Wish me luck that the weather forecast doesn't change and I can plant Thursday before the plants completely take over the house.

Thoughts of the elderly

We don't always think of all the problems with getting old. You can't do things anywhere near as fast as you used to do but yet you still want them done.

Lifting things that are heavy become a real chore so how do you haul 40 lb feed sacks around? Your bags of garden soil? Use a wheelbarrow they say, right trying to walk with my balance with a wheelbarrow should be made into a cartoon and I still have to lift them out of the vehicle into that wheelbarrow. I know I will put plastic down in the back of the car and load it by the bucket as I use it.

Laundry can even be a problem, never realized how much bending is associated with laundry. I swear my arms are shorter to fold those sheets and blankets too. Ok we can just roll them up and put them in the cabinet and shut the door and no one will ever see them anyway.

Dishes are not a problem yet except for the cast iron pans when they are full and they hurt arthritic hands and wrists.  Why does the chore I hate be the one I still get to do with no excuses?

Baking a turkey is almost an impossibility as they are heavy in that pan..I know we can leave it in the oven and just eat all of it..Can you pretend a chicken is a turkey?  The way I am going pretty soon it is going to be a game hen.

Vacuuming is one chore that kills you period, your arthritic hands, your back, your knees and your feet.
So, put in a hard wood floor where we don't have to vacuum except with the little floor cleaner.

Taking a bath becomes a long forgotten memory because you are afraid you might never get out of the tub once you get into it. I know float on your stomach until you can get your knees under you and then hang on to the side and stand up..whoops forgot about that knee replacement and you can't put weight on your knees. Oh the dreams of relaxing bubble baths will have to do.

Remember what it was like to set around on a winter's eve in front of the fireplace. Well going out and chopping wood is no longer an option. Order it chopped already is expensive and you still have to carry arm loads of wood into the house. I know get a pellet stove,  40lb bags of pellets for your stove?

I might have to give up eating anything or being very thrifty as I can't do big shopping trips anymore.  I think going grocery shopping at Costco may be one of the worse. Everything comes in big amounts and you always buy a ton to save another trip of 50 miles to get there. I don't think anyone goes to Costco and gets just a few things. By the time I pack all of it in I don't want to ever go back without counting all the miles you put in shopping in the huge store. So now I buy things almost daily where I don't have to pack it into the house. That is my daily walking program.

I have decided that weeds are greenery for the garden and flower beds. I can't bend over and pull them anymore as I tend to be pulled over onto my face with my balance instead of the weeds being pulled out.

Walk they say, well now I have to use a cane or a walker. Those walkers don't fit anywhere you want to go and are a real pain. I also hate the way everyone looks at you when you use them. They seem to think if you have a walker then you can't see, hear or think and treat you as a sub-human.  I hate it when I go into a store with my granddaughter and they don't want to talk to me, they won't hardly look at me, they talk to her..Give me a break, I am buying this and she doesn't know what I like the best. I am old not stupid.

I hate my eyes going bad. You look so forward to when you have a license to drive. That shows independence, now I am back to being dependent on someone to take me everywhere like a small child. I am thankful I can still see the beauty of the flowers and see my loved ones faces.

The worse thing of all about being old is watching your friends pass on, every week you have fewer and fewer friends. The friends that understand are all gone away and the young treat you like you have nothing to offer. They don't want to listen to your stories and tell you that you are living in the past. Well that past thought me a lot of things about life that young ones still have to learn, remember some day you will be old too.

Different ramblings from my elderly friends. God bless their souls, they did not have the easy life that we did. People from that generation are tough, thoughtful, honest and hard working.

Appreciate your elderly while you can as they won't always be there and then you will have wished you would have listened to them. I hope you never get old and live in a cocoon where no one any longer cares about what you feel.

We do not treat our elderly good, they used to be respected, the older they were the more respected their opinion was. Now we throw them in a home and never go see them except maybe for mothers day or fathers day or their birthday and to drop off a present that took you 10 minutes to buy and means nothing to anyone to satisfy your guilt.  They never abandoned you when you were little, nor did they put you in a home until you could take care of yourself so why do we do that to our elderly?

Spaniel or Saddle clip

We are trying something new to try and keep the dog hair down from the King Charles Spaniels. We took them in and had a saddle clip or a spaniel clip.

YoYo on the left is looking up at mom like do you still love me but Freckles on the right looks flat out ticked off.

In this one he just looks sad. We had them shave the outside of their ears too per the vet. She said to clip the ears short until the ear infections clear up and then keep the inside of the flap always clipped short but the outside can grown back out. They were pretty gross with all the medicine and stuff that was coming out of the ears. I sure hope it works.

 Paco actually growled at YoYo when he first saw him but as soon as he smelled him they are great buddies again

Strange cut in some ways but they shook all over when we got home and we did not have a big cloud of dust like we usually do when they shake. Even right after a bath they shake and the hair would fly so we have great hopes this is going to help with our hair problem all over the house.

 Mom is all worried about them getting cold at night now but I told her they could have a cover if they wanted it.

 They seem quite happy now but their fat sure shows especially freckles as he has a little fat bump on his b-hind over the tail but they are still as cute.

Much cleaner and they got a treat on the floor to go search out and find so they are happy little dogs.

I will let you know if this worked for the shedding problem. Their hair is so fine that it flies all over everywhere and you can vacuum and still hair everywhere within the hour. Other then that and the ear problems they are the neatest most loving dogs and even with it my mom loves these dogs like no other and they are little dolls.