Horsing Around at The Twins Game

In my last post I mentioned that we had seen the Budweiser Clydesdale's at the Twins game.  I had some fun taking photos of them!  Here they come, from the next to the bull pen in the outfield.

Horses, beer and baseball.  Works for me!

Great times are waiting indeed! They timed their changing signs pretty well.

Grab some Buds!

The horses are so impressive.  I think that the players were pretty taken back by their size.  Wonder what Justin Morneau #33 was thinking!

I wonder what the horses thought of TC bear!

They made the turn behind home plate look pretty easy peasy.

They are getting closer!

Pictures don't do them justice...the sheer size and power is pretty impressive.

Oh...look at this, they stopped right in front of us!  Maybe we can get in on some of the horse conversation.  What, you didn't know that horses talked?  Haven't you seen Mr. Ed?

Look at these two...they put the young ones out in front.  Trouble makers, you can just see it.

One little guy with 8 sets of reins.  He's hoping those trouble makers in the front behave themselves!

I think these two spotted someone drinking a Coors up in the stands...you shouldn't drink Coors in front of the Budweiser Clydes...it just ain't fittin'.

Oh oh...these two are starting to chat...hay...did you hear the one about the horse that went into the bar?

The bartender said "hey, why the long face".  Har har hardy har...I crack myself up!

Clyde...you are so funny.  Har har...oh...my ear itches...

Ahhh...that is nice Bud...thanks for helping a guy out.  Itchy bridles and stuff all over us...

Hay...did you see that new filly in the back pasture?

She can sure swish her tail...woo hoo!  Maybe she has a sister for you Clyde!  Maybe they'd want to horse around....

Oh hush...here comes that mean handler guy, shaking his fist at us again!

Come on you two, focus, you're working remember?  No more joking around....

Oh I hate getting scolded...quit getting me in trouble Bud!

But Clyde...we don't get out much...and boys just wanna have fun!

No more fun for you boys!  Straighten up, you can be replaced you know!

Darned trouble makers...a drivers work is never done.

Way to go Clyde...getting us in trouble again.

But Bud...did you hear the one about the...oh never mind.

Time to get back to work.

Nice chatting with you Clyde...let's pull this thing back to the barn...maybe there will be some oats and filly's waiting for us!

And just like that they were off.

The 2nd horse was hollering at the Twins...wishing them luck!

Another tight turn.

Precision driving...pretty impressive!

Oh luck, there is TC Bear!  Looking for that Coors drinker I bet.

Oh oh...I think he found him!  It wasn't me TC...don't shoot!  Whew...that was a close one.

And then it was time for the game.  The Twins didn't do very well...and it was Justin Morneau's last night as a Twin.  Sad to see him go.  Sad to see all the changes that have been made on the team since the fancy stadium was built.

The sign lights up when the home team scores...

...if they keep trading away our good guys they might as well turn off the lights!  Or they could just keep bringing the Clydesdale's back.  When there are horses and beer it doesn't really matter how the team does!

Silly post...thanks for stopping by.

Horses, Flowers and Fall

August slips into September, the days are still warm but there are signs of fall in the air.  Schools are in session, schedules changing, flowers are fading, the days are getting shorter with cooler nights ahead.  I love the feeling of fall and the changes it brings, even the pressure of feeling like we had better get some fun things in before it's too late!

One of the fun things we did on the spur of the moment was head to a Twins game, mostly to see the Budweiser Clydesdales!  So beautiful, so huge!  They came in just behind left field, and traveled around the warning track, stopping right in front of us.  We had the perfect seats for seeing them.

We traded in our tickets from a "snowed out" game in the spring.  Sometimes things just work out the way they are meant to.  I love watching the horses.  They are a wonderfully trained team...but yet, they are still curious, antsy, lovable horses.  Wonder what these two are looking at?

 Some days are just spent at home, working, trying to stay on top of things, stopping to smell the flowers that are left in the garden.  This was taken late in the day on a Thursday.  Getting dark.

On Friday we decided to go to Canterbury Park to watch the horses race.  I vaguely recalled seeing that the Budweiser Clydes would be at the track sometime over the weekend...I was pretty excited to see that they would be there on Friday night too!  I got to see them at the Minnesota State Fair on Monday, Target Field on Wednesday, and then at Canterbury on Friday.  So cool.  Sadly they discourage bringing good cameras into the track, so I only had my cell phone camera to take a few quick shots.  Still cool.  They performed some pretty amazing moves.

Back to the flowers.  The roses are fading but still beautiful.

We stayed at the cabin for a few days over Labor Day weekend.  Busy days.  I didn't remember to take a photo until the evening.  The paper lanterns in the cabin are usually a good subject when I fun out of daylight.

I made up for it the next day though.  Hello handsome.  The horses coats are getting darker and so shiny.  The last hurrah before their winter coats grow in.  What you looking at Skylar?

It's been so dry, their pasture is drying up.  With the large area that they have to wander there seems to be enough to nibble on to keep them healthy.  But a little rain to green things up again would sure be nice.

When your dad was a farmer, you worry about things like rain.  Too much rain, too little rain.  Things you can't control, but things that make such a difference!  I worry about the farmers crops this year.  They got them in late because of the late spring rain and snow, now a drought.  Tough times.  Praying for rain.

The sunflower seeds below created the sunflower in the picture above.  That little sunflower sprouted up in with my pathetic little tomato plants.  The birds are better gardeners than I am.

Sweet Penny, she's in the fall days of her life I'm afraid.  She can't hear at all, she sleeps most of the day, she's stiff and has trouble getting up, but she is hanging in there.  She turns into a pup when she's by the river, it's pretty cute.

My garden had gotten so full of weeds, more weeds than flowers...it hasn't been fun to go out there.  But I did...and look at what I found!  A late blooming Lupine!  Something that the rabbits didn't get!  Starting to fade, but still so pretty.

Last weekend we invited my old classmates to the cabin for a picnic.  Not a reunion exactly, just a chance to get together and have some laughs.  I put some sunflowers in Ball jars to brighten things up.  It was a fun day...maybe next time we can get a few more people to come.

Sunday morning sunrise on the river.  Such a peaceful and beautiful place.

The birds did some gardening at Barb's house too...but the sunflowers there are crazy tall...like 12 feet tall!  So fun.

Home again after a busy weekend.  I'm feeling behind in everything.  Housework, organizing some things that need organizing, clearing space in my computer, starting projects that I want to do.  Seems like I can't even get my "to do" lists made.  Part of it is that I've been busy with work stuff.  Part of it is needing a kick in the pants.

My motivation and inspiration seems to come and go in waves. I think I've been stuck in low tide for a while now.  High tide must be just around the corner.  I hope so, I've got things to do!

 I'll get to it all when the high tide gets here.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Thanks for stopping by.

Dog Days of Summer!

It has been hot, hot, hot in Minnesota!  Hot and humid for the last week with no end in sight.  Well, no predicted end anyway!  We got Billy off to college, he's all moved in and we don't hear much from him.  I think that's a good thing.

The trip to school is just over 3 hours.  He wanted to get there before his room mate so he could get his stuff put away before his room mate (Tyler) arrived with all of his things!  He and Tyler knew each other from High School, and have been good friends for a while, so it should all work out well for them. 

My comments obviously have nothing to do with my photos, but if you've read my blog before you probably expect that!  Flowers, horses, flowers, bird, flower and then Billy and Eric at ISU.  There...we're caught up, back to the college stuff!

The move in was very smooth.  There were a lot of volunteers to haul things up to the room.  I took one trip with stuff mostly to see where the room was...and then one final trip with Eric carrying the rug.  I think Billy only took one trip as well...then he needed to go and check in and get his key.  His room has air conditioning...which didn't seem necessary when they signed up...but boy is it nice that they have it now!  And the room seemed bigger than I thought it would!

We got him unpacked, we walked around a bit and went to lunch together.  Then it was off to a very crowded Target to find a few last minute things.  I think that reality was sinking in for him...he kept getting more and more quiet, almost crabby.  He was worried that he'd come back to the dorm to find that everything had been moved around.  (It wasn't)  He was worried that his cupcakes would bet eaten. (they weren't)  I think that he was really just worried about the huge leap he was making from life at home to life in a dorm.

I was worried too.  But once he was back in the room and chatting with Tyler he seemed to relax...a lot.  There was a lot of excited chatter.  Then we headed out to look at the campus a bit.  Another freshman was standing by his door in the dorm.  Billy started a conversation with him, reached out his hand and introduced himself.  And all of a sudden I just plain knew that he would be fine.  And then it was time for us to go.  So he could get his new life started.

So we could figure out what our new life will bring.  I surprisingly didn't cry that day.  But I'll admit, I've had a knot in my stomach since.  A long time ago I read a quote that said: "Changes are hard, you fight to hang on, you fight to let go."  I don't know who said it, but I'm thinking it must have been the mom of a college freshman.

Billy was worried that we wouldn't have anything to do now that he's gone, now that we don't have games to go and watch.  I think that we've been doing just fine with keeping busy.  He left on a Wednesday...Thursday we went to a Saints game.  Friday we played in a golf tournament.

Saturday we caught up on some of the house work that has been piling up while we were busy going to baseball games.

Sunday we went to visit our folks and to check on my horses....we sadly were also there when my brothers beloved dog Rusty passed away.  He was a big red lab with an even bigger personality.  It might have been the heat, it might have been the tumors he'd been battling, it might have simply been his time at 13 years old.  We'll never know for sure, we just know that it's hard to lose a faithful friend.  I was glad that we could be there for my brother...even though there wasn't much we could do.

On a lighter note, on Monday, after working in the morning, I took the bus over to the Minnesota State Fair.  One of my friends was in the horse show there...this isn't her!...and I wanted to get a few pictures for her to remember it by.  I didn't talk to her about being on my blog, so instead I am showing a picture of a pretty horse and some random guy.  Maybe that isn't better, I don't know.  Anyway, it was a hot day for the fair!  Two really good things happened because of that...the crowds were much, much smaller than normal, and because of the heat I wasn't very hungry!  One pronto pup, one twisted tater thing, a cone and some cookies to take home for Eric and Brian.  Not too bad for over 8 hours there!

To complete the first week of Billy being gone Eric and I both golfed in our respective golf leagues.  Very few people were on the course where I golfed.  One of our partners decided it was too hot and humid...but my friend Kay and I toughed it out!  The heat index was over 101 degrees...but it wasn't so bad.  We rented a cart, we both scored well, and the beer we celebrated with afterwards was one of the coldest and best beers ever!  Not too many weeks where our summer favorite beer "Summer Shandy" will be available.  It was a little discouraging on my way home to see that the thermometer in the car read 87 degrees at 9:00 p.m.  Air conditioning never felt so good!

This cute little tree frog found a cool spot in my hanging flower pot.  It's cool and moist, and close to the bug attracting front light.  Stay cool little froggy, fall will be here before we're ready!  Thanks for stopping by!