Humble Pie

It just so happens that this weekend there was a watermelon festival in the tiny town of Fair Bluff, NC, which is about an hour and a half from us.  On Thursday night when I picked my 93 lb watermelon and found out about the festival a few hours later I thought it was a sign.  I was going to take my melon to the festival and sweep the blue ribbons (or at least the white ones...).  So Saturday morning we woke up at 6 am (!) so we could get to the festival in time for the large melon competition.  I was like a puffed-up rooster thinking I had this awesome watermelon that was going to win all the prizes.  When we got to Fair Bluff (don't blink - you'll miss it), we stopped to ask where we were supposed to take the watermelon to be weighed.  As we were pulling away, Mark thought to ask what the winning weight normally was.  To my astonishment, the gentleman answered, "200 lbs".  WHAT?  Hold balloon.  Insert pin.  Deflate.  That is how I felt.  To pacify my injured ego we decided to go to Hardee's in the next town over for breakfast.  Walking from the truck to the restaurant we saw a giant, no, a colossal watermelon in the back of someone's truck.  It had blue ribbon written all over it.

(On the bright side, I did learn a few things.  1)  Watermelons can reach 200 lbs.  This will give me something to strive for the next few years.  It's good to know I didn't peak too soon.  2)  When you cut your prize-winning melon off the vine, you should cut a few feet of vine with it and place the end of the vine in a bucket of water.  This will keep the melon from dehydrating.  When I have a 200 lb watermelon, you better believe I will do this.)

Where's the Fair?

This is what I pulled out of the garden tonight:

Ok, so maybe Mark pulled it out.  :)  I tried to lift it, but I couldn't because it weighs 93 lbs!!!  What is my secret?  Horse manure!  I have an unlimited supply!  My goal was to beat my 59 lb watermelon from last year, but I really didn't expect to grow one quite as large as this.  I may have raised the bar too high for next year.  :)  I'll have to try to break into triple digits.  Here are some more pictures from tonight:

Spuds

Just as an update to the potato post, here is what the purple (or blue) potatoes look like chopped up.  Who wouldn't want to eat such awesomeness?

Meet the Family

Well, you've already met the cats a few times now, but I haven't introduced the horses yet.  (And since this blog does have the word "equine" in the title, I feel obligated to post about them some...)  So, I would like to introduce Strawberry, April, and Thunder.  Strawberry and April moved to North Carolina with us from Kentucky and Thunder joined our family last year.

Strawberry staying out of the heat.

April doing some ground work.

Thunder waiting to be ridden.

Happy Monday!

I'm sorry I've been a slacker lately and haven't updated my blog.  I guess I have been too busy living my life to write about it.  (Which is not a bad thing, I think.)  I've been busy in the evenings riding.  April and I are both taking lessons and it has been very interesting for both of us to unlearn our bad habits and relearn the good.  I never realized April is a pacer ( I knew she was gated, just not that she paced) until we started all of this, and I have been trying to teach her to trot.  I'm sure we are quite comical to watch since neither of us really know what we are doing.  But, we are having fun and getting in shape!

I don't have any pictures of April and me training, but I do have some funny pictures from this weekend of the cats.  Apparently, my cats like to hide and think they are doing such a good job of it.

Rex hiding the muscadine vine.  He is probably hoping to kill something.

Barnabus hiding under the grill cover.  (??)  I guess he thinks we can't see him...

Happy Monday!