Native Birds

I have been able to get some photos of the birds that come in to the water containers I keep for them. The first is a male redheaded house finch, then 3 photos of black capped chickadees, another male finch (the female looks like a sparrow, no red on her) and one of some black birds on the power line over our backyard.

Rodeo

We went to the PRCA rodeo last night held at the Santa Ana Star Center here in Rio Rancho where they do a lot of events like hockey and concerts as well as the rodeos. I was a bit disappointed since it was billed as being a PRCA event, meaning that it was backed by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. But to me it seemed more like an amature event than a professional rodeo. I would have been alright with it if they had billed it as an amature event but not as professional. Consider this - out of about 8 steer wrestlers only one was able to jump off of his horse and wrestle his steer down as it is supposed to be done. Another rider got his down but it took him way, way to long so no score and the others just fell off their horses beside the steer which looked back at the cowboys as if to say 'Ha Ha - you missed' and ran out of the arena. Have to admit that the other events like the bareback bronc riding, calf roping, team roping and saddle bronc riding were better but the barrel racing wasn't great as most of the girls were riding way to close to the barrels so that the barrels got knocked over. I have seen teenage kids on TV do better than most of these professional were doing. The bull riding was Ok and I was able to get better photos of that as by then I had figured out how to adjust the camera to get some half way decent shots. Of course we were sitting up in VIP seating which was kind of high up but better viewing than I expected, plus the lighting wasn't the greatest being an indoor arena. Actually I almost didn't even take my camera as I didn't expect anything to come out, but my little camera did good considering.
Still it was fun especially as it was the first rodeo I had been to in about 20 years near as I can figure. The very worse part was the anouncer was so loud that we couldn't understand what he was saying so we didn't know who the contestants were or their scores.

More Rodeo

Bareback bronc riding, my one photo of the team roping, and barrel racing.

Bull Riding

I got some of my best photos of the bull riding. Most of the bulls were gray/white and it kind of looks like the same bull in a lot of photos but there were different ones as can be seen in the last photo of the pen of bulls. Last photo is of the area after the event.

Thanks

Thanks for a the kind words I have received in all the comments. Thanks

All Better

Went to doctor yesterday and they took the stitches out of my thumb and wrist. It is doing well. The thumb problem turned out to be a bone spur that had broke off and was 'floating' in my thumb. (I have a bone spur on my left thumb to and so does hubby.) There was a ganglion cyst in my wrist almost on the main artery that is used to check your pulse so doctor had to be really careful when doing that one. She made a crooked incision there to avoid it. So now I have two new scars.
The first thing I did was take a long, hot shower without a plastic bag duct-taped to my arm.
For the next couple of weeks I am not supposed to the dishes - or at least without gloves on, that is if I am doing them in standing water in the sink, which I don't do unless doing skillets, which hubby has been doing for past year as I couldn't pick them up. So nothing new there as she said it was ok to let water on the incisions if just rinsing dishes off to put in dishwasher.
I do intend to continue to practice my use of my left hand for things i used to do with my right hand. Just in case.

The Horses

The mares decided they needed to run and play, too. So took some more photos.

Double Photos

Sorry about getting double photos on the last post, and then I couldn't figure out how to take off the doubles without deleting the whole post. so I left it as was.

It Was A Dark, and Dirty Day

It was a dark, and dirty day but the ponies wanted to play, so even thou they were dirty from rolling in the mud, (it had rained a few drops the night before) I took some photos.

Using Both Hands

So glad to hear so many people use both their hands, or try to. Seveal friends I heard from said they had serious injuries to their right hand and had learned to use the left hand. Several others said they had used their left to streighten it for playing music.
Maybe we should be teaching our children to use both hands equially at home and in school so they will be more prepared for sudden problems or music or what ever.

The Cats