Reckless Cattle, Reckless Kelly

It's summer, it's hot, and it's the middle of July. It must be time for the California Mid-State Fair. Last year, we visited several times during the 12-day fair with our season passes. We went to see the cattle dog trials, the neighbor's kids and their 4-H hogs, and other fun yeehaw activities.

This year, The Man and Z. attended the official kickoff for the fair - a cattle drive through the streets of Paso Robles. They rode their bicycles and followed behind the fifty heads of cattle, wagons, and all manner of folk on horseback. The route was three miles to the fair grounds: six minutes via car, a couple of hours if you're following behind cattle and horses.

Of the many multi-aged "cowboys and cowgirls" on horseback, only about a dozen were professional cattle wranglers. This was in evidence when a few feisty cows decided to make their own way to the fair grounds. At one point, getting a little too up close and personal with Z. and The Man.

(Psst: If the video doesn't work, all I know is when I post a picture, a video, or publish a post I just click and click. Where it goes or how it works is beyond me. Sorry.) 

The following week, The Man and I stopped by in the late afternoon for a free concert. The Mid-State Fair has a Headliner group or event (Monster Trucks! Rodeo!)  - with an added ticket price - but there's also excellent entertainment on the "free" stages. (Back in the 80's & 90's you could've caught Johnny Cash on the free stage. Darn it, we wish we had.) On the weekend, there are five stages rockin' and rollin' and only one is not free.

Anyway, we went to see a band from Austin, Texas called Reckless Kelly. We didn't recognize the name of the band but when we heard them play we did recognize several of their original songs. Later, in the evening we stopped by the Frontier Stage again for the end of their second show. They were excellent.

The Mid-State Fair embodies summer around here: hot, free, fun. Next year I'm looking forward to attending the Cattle Drive and will make sure to get off from work. And, if we take our bicycles I'm going to make sure to keep my bike helmet on the whole time. Just in case we encounter a few frisky cattle.

Number Twenty-Eight

"Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquility of a lovely sunset." ~ Ann Landers

A lovely sunset.

"If variety is the spice of life, marriage is the big can of leftover Spam." ~ Johnny Carson


Happy Anniversary to us.

Hidden in Plain Sight

This week we saw our first owl. Whoot, whoot. We've been on the lookout for an owl, any owl for quite some time. Mainly because they are such teasers, i.e., we know they're around.

We hear them at night calling to one another. On very noisy nights when it sounds like they're having a party (a hootenanny, of course) we've grabbed a flashlight, gone outside, and tried to spot one of these illusive birds. The calls we hear belong to the Great Horned Owl and since they're perfectly camouflaged in the oak trees we've had no luck finding them.

We are not alone.

So there we were, out on The Vista, enjoying the cool evening breeze and watching dusk turn to twilight. Our wildlife lookout, aka Mele, gave a bark and The Man and I noticed a dark spot down on Eagle Ranch. Through his binoculars we could see an owl on the ground. It looked as though it had just captured it's dinner.

We shared the binoculars to watch it for several minutes before it flew off into the trees.

It was too unexpected and too dark for a photo but The Man thought it was a Great Horned Owl, he described the tufts of feathers on it's head.

One day we'll get a close-up of an owl. In the meantime, we will have to make do with the life-like guardian that sits on our fence.

Scaring the varmints away.