The weather is getting back to normal

More pics to click today. you may want to do some finger stretches so you don't pull a finger muscle.

Here's a perfectly timed picture [ some might say accidentally, I like to think it's skill ] of a cowboy doing the impossible. He lays out a specially formed loop that wraps around the steer's hind legs, and since the steer is being pulled forward by the header, if timed right, the steer has to step through the loop.

But doing this requires a lot of slack in the heeler's rope, so as soon as the steer steps through the loop with both feet, the healers horse instantly shifts into reverse and the heeler halls back on the rope to take up the slack and close the loop before the steer steps out of it. And all that happens in a few seconds.

Today dawned as bright and sunny as any day in the history of man. There was not even a microscopic hint of a cloud in any part of the sky; there was nothing to be seen but the deepest of deep blues that are typically reserved for low humidity desert areas. It was wonderful.

Staggering into the living room after getting my usual nine hours of sleep, glancing at my Bogart Engineering amp meter I conveniently mounted on the living room wall, I could see that it was 8 a.m., the sun was barely over the tops of the mountains, and there was already ten amps an hour of solar panel goodness pouring into my half-empty batteries. And since my lithium-iron batteries don't need a taper charge and will take the amps as fast as they can be stuffed in, and the amps would increase dramatically as the sun gets higher sky, I knew I would be fully charged around lunch time.... Life is good.

I had considered moving over to Congress Arizona after getting the new tires on the Arctic Fox and boondocking on some BLM land just outside of town, but, since it was pouring rain and the future forecast looked iffy, I decided the wisest decision would be to stay in the Box Wash area until the weather situation got back to normal.

 Also, I'm waiting on a General Delivery at the post office for the Dust Caps I ordered from etrailer. I don't know when they're coming in because etrailer's post office has had them in its possession for almost two days now, and they haven't even left the post office in Missouri yet. This probably goes a long way to explaining why Amazon is rich beyond belief, and the Post Office is deeply in debt.

                                               theboondork

Here are a few pictures of some actual certified Cowboys, and a Cowgirl. I personally certify them as Cowboys because I witnessed them exiting pickup trucks that only a cowboy would drive, with all the proper logos, dents and dings, cracked windshield, mud, a blue healer dog, and a mixture of hay and horse manure in the back.

This first cowboy shows that cowboys of any age can participate in Team Roping..

And apparently anyone of any weight, just so long as it doesn't constitute horse abuse.

I would say this is a typical cowboy participant. 30-ish. He doesn't have much money, so he saves his Stetson hat for special occasions. And he spends more time with his horse and rope than he does with his girlfriend.

Cowgirls like team roping, but I only saw two of them at this event. But I didn't stay long because it was kinda chilly and rainy.

Slowly riding out of the arena after you've missed your throw is tough, and in this sport there's no doubt who screwed up. You feel like you've let down your teammate, your horse, and worst of all yourself.

On his way out of the arena after a successful rope, this cowboy rode up to the fence I was leaning on taking pictures, and jokingly said, "did you catch that, it was all me."