County Fair--Part 2

After looking at the animals, we went to the “event” of the night...the horse pulls. Fascinating comes to mind. In the old days large draft horses were used to pull farm equipment. These magnificent horses are today used to pull some equipment, but mainly for sport! These athletes are strong...pure horse power!

The horses are huge...mainly Percheron and Belgians, but once in awhile a Clydesdale. They are trained to work as a team to pull loads as heavy as 10,000 pounds! There are 3 categories: pairs that weigh in at 3200 pounds; 4000 pounds; and 4500 pounds! The larger the pair, the more they can pull.

Unlike some contests where there might be points for style or beauty, the winning team is judged by how far it can drag a sledge filled with weights. The team that pulls the sledge the farthest is the winner! To qualify for the next round, the team must pull the sledge 20 feet.

The event started off with the smaller horses pulling 2000 pounds. Having never seen the event before, I was not all that impressed. The horses were able to pull 2000 pounds without too much effort. Then the weight was increased to 3000 pounds...still not too much of a problem...then 4000 pounds...now we were starting to see what this was all about. These massive steeds dug into the ground and pulled. If the team was well trained, they pulled as a unit, and that’s the trick! The teams need to work as a unit! The winner in this category pulled 6000 pounds!

Next came the mid-sized horses. They started out pulling 3000 pounds and the winning team pulled 7000 pounds!  Last came the big horses. These guys are huge! they started out pulling 3500 pounds and the winners pulled a whooping 9500 pounds!

I took a few videos of the event. I’m not an expert at editing videos...so these are unedited. Don’t worry, they are not long...but it will give you an idea how massive and wonderful these horses are!

County Fair, Part 1

We went to the County Fair last night to see the 4H pigs, and other animals...and to see the horse pulls!

The pigs we’ve been “following” are at the proper weight now, 260 and 261 pounds. They are also cleaned up and ready to be shown on Friday. I’ll let you know more about that on Friday. However, here’s the piggies, Bubble and Double Stuft. Have you ever gotten a pig to pose? I asked my small guide about that and he said sometimes “pigs are stubborn!"

It’s not that bad waiting to be shown at the fair...this pig looks to be in Hog Heaven. Do they know that after the auction on Saturday things will be a big different? I don’t think so!

We also looked at the other critters. Some of the prettiest beef was on display. The 4-H kids take good care of their animals.

Then came the horse pulls! Read the next post!

Lots and lots of white hats at the fair too!

91st Birthday

Today my Aunt is 91 years old! Happy Birthday Auntie Ruthie!

Another New Camera

I bought another new camera--it’s not a huge DSLR like the Canon 60D I bought in December and sold in March, but a tiny one...just the size I like. It’s a Canon (of course) PowerShot SX230HS. This “little guy” is in no way comparable  to the big DSLR, but after working with a DSLR, little point-n-shoot cameras are for me!

Before purchasing the camera, I evaluated the other “super zoom” cameras. Thank goodness there are many online reviews written by thoughtful folks who have purchased these cameras as well as reviews written by professionals who really know what they are talking about. After looking at the Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, Fuji and Sony reviews, I decided the Canon was best for me. I’ve had many Canon digital cameras in the past, I like how they work and I know their operating system well.

In addition, after lecturing about cameras and photography on cruise ships for several years, I’ve had a chance to “play” with cameras from just about every major brand. To that end, I found I don’t like the color that is produced by most Fuji or Olympus cameras. I don’t like cameras that use proprietary memory cards, such as Olympus or Sony. (Recently Sony cameras accept both the proprietary memory stick and the more generic SD memory card.) While Panasonic makes a good camera, their super zoom was too bulky...I might have kept the Canon 60D. 

The SX230HS is a small, lightweight camera that packs a whomping 14 time optical zoom coupled with a 56 time digital zoom. If you are familiar with DSLR cameras and their lenses, that equivalent to a 28 mm to a 392 mm zoom...which is pretty impressive for such as small package! Look at that lens!

The camera has a few other bells and whistles, but the one I like the best is a built-in GPS. The GPS function will tag pictures with a location...so the next time I’m in Slovenia or Bulgaria, it will show on a map the exact spot where the picture was taken -- it won’t give coordinates either, but the actual name of the location! That’s a nice little memory aid! The GPS works too. I took a few pictures around my home, and each one placed a slightly different tag on the map. GPS has a downside...if you are posting pictures on the web and you don’t want folks to know where they were taken, then make sure the GPS is turned off as the data is embedded in the photo. Because the camera has the GPS feature, it has one more opportunity to “eat" battery power--the reviews said that battery life was not as good as for non-GPS models. So far, I’ve found that the battery will last about 300 pictures. Not as good as the G11, which will go for 600+ pictures per battery charge. The trick is to have a spare battery!

With 12.1 megapixels, it has more than the G11 (at 10 mp). What I like about the camera so far is the ease of use, the super zoom, and size. I’m not completely convinced it will be as sturdy as the G11. I’m also not in love with the fact that it does not have an optical view finder. It does have a nice big screen on the back. I’ve not had the camera long enough to see how the screen works when there is a glare on it.

Watch this space...as I learn more about the pros and cons of the Canon SX230HS, I’ll let you know.

Summer Meadow

My front yard is a wild flower meadow. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, then you know I love these unruly blooms. While most folks love their green lawns, my “lawn” is filled with dollops of color that erupt in the best places. Some folks might call those drops of color weeds, but I beg to differ as weeds are unwanted, and my wild flowers are definitely wanted and cherished!

 Aster

 Salsify

 Indian Paintbrush

 Salsify

 Red Eyed Susan

 Flax

 3-Spot Lily

 Winter Cress

Lupine

It takes a certain type of bravery to have a meadow for a front yard. Some folks just don’t understand how beautiful the flowers can be. Lastly, you have to admit that a summer meadow is a lot more colorful than a ordinary green lawn!

Parks Redux

Last week I spent a few days in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks with a group of friends who had not been there before! It seemed as if all of us were visiting the Parks for the first time and it was a grand adventure.

It started with a scenic raft trip down the Snake River. The views of the Tetons from the River are always exquisite. Our guide was excellent...a good way to start the trip. We visited Jenny Lake and the Oxbows and fell in love with all the wild flowers. A snowy winter means lots of flowers in the summer.

From there we went to Yellowsstone. Our first stop was Old Faithful and we had a great treat!

Not one eruption, but we stayed there long enough to see two eruptions AND we had dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge, which is a fantastic log structure about 7 stories tall and is over 100 years old!

Along the way we saw lots of bison. It’s always fun to see these huge animals wander around the valley floor. 

The next day we visited Artist Point, another must see.  Lower Falls, which dumps into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was spectacular! Lots of water in the west this year! In fact, there is still snow on the mountains!

Another treat was a tour in one of the old yellow buses. These refurbished 1936 White Touring buses are wonderful, all you have to do is try to get a reservation for one of their guided tours. We were lucky to get a reservation for the evening animal watch tour!

We were lucky again, as we saw a grizzly bear frolicking in the clover in the Lamar Valley. We watched the big beast for half an hour as it ate clover, rolled on the ground and wandered the valley floor. We were about 60 yards away up an embankment. It would have been a good time to have a super zoom on my camera.

For our last day in the Park we visited the Midway Geyser Basin and marveled at the beautiful clear blue pools. The bluer the pool, the hotter the water and these run about 199 degrees F. We did not dip our toes in to see how hot they were.

On Friday morning we left Yellowstone and headed back to the Tetons to stop at Colter Bay. It’s impossible to have an ugly time in the Tetons! Then we headed home.

I’ve been to to these park many many times since my first visit in 1973. They are both marvelous parks. Last week I got to see them from a fresh perspective and they were even grander!

4H

Our friends are raising pigs for their 4H project. Tonight I got to see the pigs up close and personal. For a person who has never spent much time with pigs, it was both interesting and exciting.

The kids were having a great time showing me how to feed a pig a marshmallow, which is apparently a favorite treat.

It was also great to watch 2 little people walk their pigs. The pigs weigh in at almost 200 lbs...and the kids are less than a 1/4 that size! The pigs need to be ready for the county fair in August. At that time, they cannot weigh more than 280 lbs. The pigs grow fast. When they were purchased in March, they weighed 25 lbs. I guess there is something to that phrase “eat like a pig!"