How to Rope Your Dad, Happy Father's Day!

 

 

 

 

 

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

How To Sell a Mule...

There are many techniques one can use to sell a mule, known for their cantankerous nature, unpredictability if not also dependable and sure footedness on harrowing trails in the wilderness and ability to put horses in the dust as far as endurance, but since they do have a bad rap, sellers have to be extra creative to bring out their positive selling points, like here at Jake Clark's annual auction, held annually on Father's Day weekend in Ralston Wyoming, that we got to go see with my dad and brother, both expert and well suited mule "rangers".

Of course you want to do some trotting and turning to show off the mule's moves...

Then to show how gentle and "bomb proof" they are, just toss a kid on 'em, (a scary rain poncho on the rump also testifies to their mellowness)...

Exactly how many kids can you get on the backside of a mule?

As they kept saying, "Now there is an insurance policy", still not quite understanding that one, having paid Daughter #1's medical bill after Grandpa, other grandpa to clarify, tossed her up on a untested horse he was considering buying, instead of trying out himself. My brother would blame it on the fact it was a horse instead of a mule.

But if the bidders still need some convincing, just start standing on them....

swing a poncho around...

or do it "Double Decker" style...

 

with spurs, now there is a trusting fellow!

Making of a Villian...

 

I was invited by the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde charities to decorate the start of the race "trail" in the theme for this year- "Super Heroes"...

You can't have Super Heroes without having a villain, so I got the idea of making OverEnder Man...

 

overender:  when a mountain bike suddenly stops ( by a rock or rut) and the rider flies over the handlebars and flips through the air.

 

Thinking through everything, I knew he had to be big... big enough to be seen from the highway...

 

and wouldn't it be cool if he evilly held an unlucky racer's bike over his head in triumph?

"No Problem" is Not what Jon said when I told him what I wanted to do- but we, mostly he, figured out how to get it done!

We cut out two silhouettes of Endover Man...

And then screwed them together, with spacers in between...

So there was a ledge to wedge the deflated bike tires into, a two by two stuck up from his head also that was braced between the frame and the pedal...

 

That part worked-but then we just had to figure out how to make it stand up...all by its self and not fall over on a biker...

 

You can see the 2x8s bolted to his boots- and inside the "gap" between the two sides of the villain are fence post that Jon hammered into the ground a couple of feet...

Oh- and the poor victim is a second skin, stuffed and dressed in bike gear, added a nice touch though the poor guy didn't get much attention when everyone watched the racers go by... 

 

                           

 

We got  every out to the fairgrounds....

 

 

 

And set up a few more Super Heroes....

 

 

Jon about had it when I didn't like the first place we put Superman, but after some grumbling, he did move him to the other side of the tunnel...

 

And as the kiddos of the racers "tried out"  the trail the night before...

We finally went to get a beer, well some really good Mexican Food and I had a margarita, cause the kids were away and we would have to be back to the fairground in 12 hours- starting a 6:00 in the morning to trail marshal and man the time tables...

A Bike Stampede...

The Twelve Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race was last weekend. Something like 900 racers descended down on the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on Saturday...

 

 

 

 

The theme of the race this year was "Super Heros"

And many went all out...

 

 

The bikers have to run to their bikes from quite a distance, called a La Man start. The bikes corralled in the rodeo arena....

 

 

Then they had to go right past me, through a cattle shoot, it was kinda a stampede

I was behind a locked gate. I'm not that crazy! ...

...

 

 

 then a stand still....

 

 

 

And there they go...

 

 

 

How you win the race is to complete the most laps on the assigned  trail- across the highway at "Phil's World" a labyrinth of single track- well known in the Four Corners- that's 8 laps- or continuous riding for teams or single competitors, yeah, they're crazy!

 

I landed in Ladybug...

Just received my advance copies for the May/June edition of Ladybug Magazine!

How cool is that!

I was thrilled to work with Suzanne Beck, a wonderful art director, again. I had illustrated a poem a few years ago in Babybug ( see here) with her.

Yes, I did knit the sweater on the little boy- on like 00 double pointed knitting needles.

 I probably love the sandpipers the most, they were a late addition, thought it needed something more when I was almost done...

I love watching them in the morning and in the evening when we rent a beach house, running around the sand looking for bugs and keeping ahead of the surf...

 

The May/June edition was not out at the magazine shop in Durango yesterday when we went over there, even though I get some copies from the publisher it is always fun to go in a store and buy one, trying to refrain from opening it and telling the cashier, " I made that!!", I'll try again in a week or so.

The Ladybug Website has some fun "kite" painting activities, my husband discovered and  was painting a little while ago...

 

Getting into Ladybug comes at just the right time, the school year is almost done, getting ready for the SCBWI conference in LA in August, I'm refreshing my portfolio, both my book and my online website, my postcards and business cards.  I kind of need a "I'm not crazy to be doing this" reminder!!

 

 

Happy Earth Day...

 

Today was Earth Day and I just could not decide what to do in Art Class. Looked online, on Pinterest and was amazed on how many art projects actually used paper plate...yuh? and new materials....yuh?
Finally decided on the old traditional toilet paper roll, peanut butter and seed birdfeeders, yeah, got peanut butter in my hair,still....

 

We also watched some fun Earth Day cartoon by Animal Planet...

Back to Colorado: Wtih an Elk

 

This is an Elk, a Roosevelt Elk I should say, since there are many species in the world that we use the name "elk" for...

these are Audubon's depictions of Eastern Elk, another subspecies here in the US.

 

Jon hunts big game very successfully here in Colorado, Elk and Deer, but since nothing ruins the taste of meat more then a bunch of "testosterone", I always encourage him to go for the cows(female elk) and does( female deer) instead of the males. Way better eating!

But my brother on the other hand, being a wild and footloose bachelor, is more for the trophy animals, a moose head resides over his coach, you would have to scoot over to get up, and a Kodak grizzly bear hide, is folded up like an afghan on the other side.

So up in Wyoming I went "fishing" to see if he had any elk racks "laying around" he didn't want and matter of fact he said he did,  "tired of "a 6point bull elk rack taking up the floor of a bedroom."

Slight problem.... we had to get it home.

 

This is the skull and rack  in the back of our truck.

 

 

Yes, we tied and locked the elk rack to the bike rack and drove through the rest of Wyoming into South Dakota, with passerbyers giving us strange looks, were we "liberal Obama loving mountain bikers" or "conservative gun loving right-winged patriotic Americans", actually we are a little of both.

The hotels were fun, I leaning towards carrying "Elkie" through the lobby and well, giving him one of the beds, but Jon won out and we locked the elk rack up with the mountains bikes , with cables, it was a debate which was more valuable- a top end mountain bike or a European mount 6 point bull elk.

 

I have to say, everyone thought I was silly, back in Wyoming when I declared we should coil a bike cable around the rack and lock it up, but guess what, that is what we did! The horrible, still slightly bloody tarp my brother gave us, probably from wrapping some game to pack out of the mountains on his mules also discouraged "looky lous"...

That is the actual rack, being packed out, shot in "them there mountains", the Absorka Mountains, where Yellowstone if on the backside...

Sorry if you haven't had your lunch yet, I might not be eating read meat today, either, afte this post!

 

All secure we drove east into South Dakota, south into Nebraska...

 

Back into Wymoning, down to the Eastern Slope of Colorado, over the Continental Divide...

 

 

And where back home the elk was unpacked and hung up in a place of honor between our  east cathedral windows...

 

The second Jon came down off the ladder and had not only drilled the hole for the mounting but several more to anchor the rack with wire for extra security, I realized we had "hung 'em too high", it took a day of pleading to get the whole thing lowered...