Bull Riding

I went to the Marion County Fair with my little sister and my brother-in-law. We were going to see the bull riding event. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, but once I was there I was having fun. I hadn't been to a bull riding event for a long time, I was maybe 10, and I remember my dad getting really excited and having a really good time.
Here are a few photos of the bull riding event.

 What a entrance, this was awesome one of the ladies in the back of the pickup is the owner of the bull(has only had 3 cowboys ride for the 8 seconds)

 Ride em' cowboy!

One of the cowboys that was able to stay on the bull for 8 seconds.

 I loved watching at how high some of the bulls were jumping.  Below are some photos of bulls bucking cowboys.

I believe this is our winner of the night

Here is the presentation of the Henry rifle. 

Here was our comic entertainment of the night

Our main rodeo clown, He was very entertaining!! His name was something "Donkey" 

It was a very clever name.  

Announcer asked if he was a drug dealer, he said no, I am the munchies guy. 

I'm an airplane...

This is a TPI portable toilet for women(pretty clever)

getting ready to go in the barrel 

The coffee can rose from Grandma McKinley

Grandma McKinley's Yellow Rose

This wild yellow rose is a fighter. Let me tell you a little bit about why it is a fighter. My Grandma McKinley had this rose up at her house, in Scotts Mills.  This rose was next to the garage/shop. This rose was run over by tractors, fencing was put on top of it, animals would eat it. Yet,every year this rose would bloom and my grandma would smile. Grandma loved this rose. She loved the color and the smell of it. 

One year my mom wanted a cutting of the rose. My grandma went and dug a piece of the rose up and put it in an old rusty coffee can. My mom brought the rose home and planted it. The rose was not looking good, so we dug it up and put it back in the coffee can. It came back! We then decided to plant the rose and the coffee can in the ground. We now have the rose by the mailbox, and several small rose starts close to where we planted it. 

Here are some of the new little blossoms. The rose it very delicate, but it has a very mean thorns.  See below how mean the thorns are. If you are going to take a cutting of the rose, you have to make sure your hands are protected either using gloves, or using a towel to cut the rose. 

Sun hitting the yellow rose showing a pale yellow, it is usually a vibrate yellow. 
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the fighter of a yellow rose. 

My Grandpa's Farm

View of one of many of the mountains 

A couple of weeks ago, I got to go up to my grandpa's farm it was I'm sure it was where he felt closest to God; I know it was most likely one of the first trips he made after he passed.

I love how there are no cars, even very few planes. I'm sure that there is a lot more traffic on the roads and in the skies since when my mom was up there as a teenager.

Pony Butte- Grandpa loved this view

I have lots of memories of Grandpa up at the farm. We have made many memories since he's been gone too.

A flower 

My cousins, sister, and I all know about the huge fire that went through the property in 1996. Here is a photo of couple of trees that burned. My grandpa had such a good attitude about the fire, I'm sure he was sad at first, but he kept telling us that everything would grow back.

Sure enough the sage and grasses came back the next year, we had and still have a lot of dead juniper trees. Grandpa did his part by trying something different.He bought lots little pine trees and planted them up at the farm after the fire. You usually don't see pine trees up in this area.

We had a camping area that was burned so we stopped using that area.  We can look at the old campsite from where the new campsite is. 

 

I just took some really awesome looking photos of rocks on this last trip. 

My grandpa made lots of improvement up there. We still have an outhouse, but we also have some indoor plumbing in a pump house. I think the best part is that we have water that we can wash our hands. We use to have to haul water up. Grandpa had a well dug and found water.  

Grandpa has two places an upper and a lower place, we use the lower place for camping. The upper place has an old house(no windows as they have been broke and shot out) and probably wouldn't want to stay in it now. I think the barn would be easier to stay in.

Grandpa also have an amazing view from the highest point on  his property.  Below are some photos from the Highest point.

Up at the farm you can see all kinds of cloud formations and you can see many, many miles. At the high point you can barely see the windmills on the gorge. 

A pretty flower

 A piece of sage that looks like a Bonzi (I think this is from the wind) The highest point is very windy, and it's a place that  you better not wear a hat.

A lot of plants and trees have interesting formations after the fire.

The Old House Stead
My mom said they use to be able to stay in it. When the fire from 1996 was happening, grandpa went racing up to the farm. He got his Caterpillar (Cat) and made it so that the fire wouldn't burn the house, barn, and other things.

I took these because it looks like what the pioneers would have vast prairie type fields. I always feel like it is the prairie.  We even have an area on the lower place where there is a spot where wagon trains would have gone.

  A bit of a different view of the old house 

  This tree is dead, but the sage is living and made for a great story of what grandpa had said. That everything would grow back.

 The Barn and grain bin on the old homestead

Storm clouds a rolling in, the evening we were up at the farm we had a Thunder and Lighting storm, Rain and it was very windy.

 The grass and a little bit of dead sage make for an interesting photo. the next photos are really just fun to look at.

As storm clouds close in on the farm we were sitting and watching them come closer wondering if we there was going to have a rain storm or not.

 This Cloud and sun was just to pretty.

Cloud Formations are some interesting. The one that looks like a mountain could also look like a wizard's hat. Grandpa's farm is a great place to look at clouds, sometimes there are no clouds at all.

These next two I'm going to call
 "God's presence" and you could also thin that it is Grandpa's way of saying "hello"

A presence of happiness before the dark storm.

 Pony Butte before the thunder and lighting storm.

 The Storm is coming. Lighting, Thunder, Rain, Wind!

The dark clouds from the farm's for the storm.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my Grandpa's farm. I love it up there and know that he did too.