Sorry it's been a little while since the last one. We've been busy! We are clearing an area for the horse barn and a turn out area, as well as getting contractor's estimates for various things in the studio. We also made a point to see a REAL team penning event!
The team penning was part of another county fair. After going to the local one, a couple of people told us to check out the one in Imperial. It reminded me of our fair in Wells county, Indiana. Lots more livestock and some machinery exhibits. We didn't make it into any of the exhibit halls, so I didn't see the crafts or vegetables or any of that.
We spent the whole evening at the penning. I really liked the part before it started - a water truck came and sprinkled the area to keep the dust down. While that was going on, the teams came in to warm up and show off a little. There were also little kids riding - some bareback on ponies, some on working horses. There must have been more than 75 horses in the area, some spinning, some walking, some jogging and even loping. Kids would stop by the rail to talk to their friends and the horses all behaved. I think I spotted an arabian and maybe a gaited horse, too.
It starts off with an auction where each team is for sale. Whoever buys the team gets whatever the team wins. Many of the teams bought themselves for 100-200 dollars! All the money is pooled and then distributed over the first few places. That took awhile, as there were over 30 teams! Tonight's first place was well over a thousand dollars. Some teams were multi-generational, some were women, most were made of people who work cattle for a living. It was amazing! We saw mostly good riding, and even those that we wouldn't think were good riders were still pretty effective working the cattle. One guy got bucked off his horse; after he caught him, he hopped on and got back to work. And one horse was a runaway; the rider let her reins get too long and had no control as the horse ran laps. One of her teammates rode next to her and lifted her off the horse like in the rodeo.
The barn area is coming along. Right now I only have the "before" picture - everytime I go out there I have more logs to pick up. I'm guessing the clearing is about 50 ft by 100 ft. Wayne has been cutting down dead trees and then slicing them into smaller sections so we can move them. We have a huge pile right now - about 12 ft long, 8 ft wide and about 6-7 ft high. We're hoping to have the grading/bulldozing people move the pile across the driveway to another pile that's been accumulating. Meanwhile, I've been talking with Joe at Mueller buildings about ordering the barn structure, and Vern who puts the buildings together. I'm trying to line up the grading people (we're talking details on Monday) and the cement guys to pour the foundation. The barn will be 30 ft by 40 ft, with sidelights and an overhead door on each end. I think turn out will be either 50 ft x 60 ft or maybe 30 x 80. There's still water, electricity, and pasture fencing, but that will come in the spring.
(the "before" picture is in the last entry - hit "previous" at the bottom of this page to see that .)
Back to work! Next time studio stuff!
