Equine Affaire

Posted on November 10, 2013November 10, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I finally got myself out the door to DO SOMETHING. I’ve been sitting at home watching my pennies because we are in the last quarter of the year and I have a bunch of annual bills that come due. I was in pretty good shape with money in the bank to cover them but my car had other ideas.

After several pricey repairs my formerly comfortable bank balance is back to it’s normal level of no reserve. At least I got one of the 3 bills paid (2 more to go ) and my mechanic says my car should last at least until I hit 300,000 miles.

My former job had overtime during the holidays so I usually worked the extra to plug the shortfall but my new job doesn’t have that. Don’t get me wrong, I love not having to “kill myself” and my new job pays about the same as my old job…just no OT which is hitting my purse strings now.

That said I have been playing the hermit, trying not to drive too much (Gas), making a grocery list and sticking to it, cutting coupons etc.; being a good budget minded person (Not my normal way of operating). But eventually that had to give and it did in a sort of big way.

I kept seeing an add on Facebook for Equine Affaire. It was being held at the fairgrounds in Springfield where they hold the “Big E”, Eastern States Exposition . The Big E is a very Big deal out here in the east even though I still haven’t been but a Horsey event… well I might be interested in that so I counted my pennies and bought a ticket for the day and since I was going to be out there anyway…I bought a box seat to the Fantasia Show that evening. (At that point I had no idea what the show would be like but I figured in for a penny in for a pound)

I hadn’t been to a horse show in years and never to one like this. I took over 400 pictures. Not all are worth the paper it would take to print them but there are a few “keepers”. The photography part was challenging because everything was indoors and I was trying not to use the flash. (More on that later). It took me quite awhile to “sort of” figure it out. I never did get the result I wanted but I had fun and over the next few days I want to share my experience and some of the pictures (not all 400).

I was pretty amazed. When I pulled into the parking “field” (Only $5.00 for the whole day) one of the attendants said the event had sold over 6000 tickets each day. (A 4 day run!) (That’s $30,000 per day in parking fees only) There were cars from all over… New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Canada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and of course, Massachusetts.

So welcome to Equine Affaire!

See You Later Alligator

Posted on November 7, 2013November 7, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Recently alligators have been making the news and not just on Animal Planet’s Gator Boys show.

I told you about the gator that went shopping at a Walmart in Apopka, Florida.

Well now we get word that one turned up in Chicago, in the airport no less. It must have missed it’s flight and gotten lost in the terminal. A maintenance worker discovered the alligator, which is about a foot long, on Friday in Terminal 3.

With all this attention to the scaly reptiles I thought I’d see just how often they turn up in the news. Quite a lot it seems and going back a number of years.

A couple of really interesting articles that caught my eye were a bit older. This first one concerns a 66 year old retiree that may have a new career as an alligator wrestler.

In some crazy alternate universe called “Florida,” a mild-mannered retiree dived into a pond and fought a 7-foot gator that was making off with his terrier—and the retiree won. Seems 66-year-old Steve Gustafson was trimming an oak tree at his home in a retirement community when he heard what the Orlando Sentinel calls a “blood curdling yelp.” He turned and saw the gator snatch his dog from the shore of a nearby pond. Gustafson then kind of wigged out.

“For whatever reason, I don’t know, I just yelled, ‘You’re not going to get her!’ and just leaped on the gator—just like you do some silly belly flop in a pool,” he recalls. “The only difference was I landed on top of a gator.” They wrestled, and Gustafson won. At one point, he tossed the gator deeper into the pond to enable him and little Bounce to make it to shore. Both are fine. The gator, however, was later trapped and is bound for Gustafson’s mantel.

For years it’s been said that there are alligators in the sewer in New York City. It’s debunked periodically as Urban Myth but in searching for interesting Alligator stories I found this blurb–
Hold the phone: it’s not a croc; there are alligators in the New York City sewer
system—at least in Queens. The alleged urban legend turned out to be the real
thing when Joyce Hackett pulled over to find a group of passers-by and a cop
staring, agog, at a 2-foot-long young alligator tucked beneath a car at an
intersection curb. “It was like the urban legend washes up from the sewer and
says, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ and hides under a Datsun,” Hackett
quipped to the New York Times.

So is it “Fact or Fiction”? The Gator’s aren’t telling.

An Update from Mayor Stubbs

Posted on November 6, 2013November 6, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Stubbs Mayor Cat

Hi Guys
I have greatly improved over the last few weeks and is beginning to get back to his old self. I may need another surgery to repair a floating septum bone but otherwise I am doing well. I am watching the elections with great and Feel ready to dispense advice on any issue. I am roaming more freely (around the store) and extra precautions have been taken to assure I remain safe and well while recovering. I may come out of retirement and Claw my way back to the top..
Many thanks for your wonderful support

Wisconsin

Posted on November 2, 2013November 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Land of the Cheese. I’m going to say yes but I probably should say no. I didn’t get much sight seeing done as I was only there a few days. I think I may have touched on the visit when talking about Illinois and Chicago O’hare International Airport. So rather than repeat myself; let’s just say it’s the journey, not the destination!

My brother retired from the Navy at the base in Wisconsin. He was stationed there and living in Kenosha so I had the chance to fly in for the ceremony and visit his home and that was about it. I’m sure there’s so much more to the state so let’s see what I can dig up.

Wisconsin shares it’s shores with Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, 2 of the largest of the 5 great lakes. In size Lake Superior is #1, Lake Michigan is #3, right behind Lake Heron.

Seems to me Lake Superior deserves a visit. It’s the largest freshwater body in the world and a great place to visit would be The Apostle Islands. 22 islands strewn over 450 square miles, they range from tiny Gull island (3 acres) to 10,000 acre Stockton Island.

Heading south from the Great Lakes you’ll find the famous cheese country from Monroe to Mineral Point. Here the rolling hills and river valleys attracted dairy farmers starting in the 1800’s. Today it is the heartland of Wisconsin’s dairyland where cheese making remains a generations-old fine art.

In Ontario, Wisconsin you can explore the “Driftless area” all serpentine valleys, crooked rivers, craggy bluffs and limestone. The Kickapoo River best characterizes this geology. Sometimes called the “crookedest river in the nation”. One of the oldest river systems in the world, the Kickapoo winds for 120 miles to cover a 65 mile distance. It’s a lazy spring-fed river of easy paddling except during the spring run off.

Running from Prairie du Chien to Prescott is the Great River Road or at least part of it. The 250 miles is only a fraction of the whole byway running the length of the Mississippi River. This stretch slaloms between the Mississippi and it’s towering bluffs. The road will take you through sleepy river towns, past busy barge traffic, braided backwaters, wildlife preserves and birds, birds, birds. This is part of the Mississippi Flyway. More than 40% of the Nation’s waterfowl and shorebirds pass this way.

In the southern end of the state, not far from Chicago, Illinois is Lake Geneva. The area has a resort-like feel and attracts vacationers from all over. The lake is a pristine spring-fed lake 22 miles in circumference. Being only 10 miles from the state line you can see how it would attract city weary residents of Chicago.

There’s more, from the North Country to Circus World, Amish settlements to Madison’s Dane County Farmers’ Market but I’ll leave some of that for another time.

The count is now 21/ 28. Only one more state to go.

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2013October 31, 2013 by Dusty Roads

History of Halloween

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows’ Evening also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve.
Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and carving jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and New Zealand.

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.

The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.

Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.

Trick-or-treating, is an activity for children on or around Halloween in which they proceed from house to house in costumes, asking for treats such as confectionery with the question, “Trick or treat?” The “trick” part of “trick or treat” is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or his property if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating is one of the main traditions of Halloween. It has become socially expected that if one lives in a neighborhood with children one should purchase treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters.

The history of Halloween has evolved. The activity is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and due to increased American cultural influence in recent years, imported through exposure to US television and other media, trick-or-treating has started to occur among children in many parts of Europe, and in the Saudi Aramco camps of Dhahran, Akaria compounds and Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia. The most significant growth and resistance is in the United Kingdom, where the police have threatened to prosecute parents who allow their children to carry out the “trick” element. In continental Europe, where the commerce-driven importation of Halloween is seen with more skepticism, numerous destructive or illegal “tricks” and police warnings have further raised suspicion about this game and Halloween in general.

reprinted from HalloweenHistory.org

Now that you know a little of the history, remember that there are those people or individuals who take Halloween to a more sinister level. They use the pagan roots of the holiday as an excuse to torture and maim small animals, commonly black cats but also dogs, birds, rabbits and any other household pets. Please, to keep your pets safe, keep them indoors tonight, especially your black cats. Be a responsible pet owner and provide the safe haven they need.