Mutton Wrangling at Burton Cotton Gin Festival
Phil and I spent the day in Burton, Texas as part of the folk life demonstration which is held every year to celebrate King Cotton and the cotton gin which built this small town. The gin has been restored to running order, and the highlights of the festival include watching the steam driven vacume device suck the cotton out of the horse drawn wagon, and then following the cotton's progress through the gin until it emrges in 100 pound bail.
In between following the progress of the cotton through the gin, we spent a pleasant day chatting with visitors to the gin and demonstrating spinning and weaving. We also introduced several people to hand spindling.
Other highlights included mutton wrangling which involved children 10 years and younger, riding and staying on a sheep for as long as possible. One young gentleman, all of five years old, complete with satin cowboy shirt, leather chaps and cowboy boots was a real bronc buster in the making. He rode his sheep as it galloped around the ring, stagered out from under it when it sort of sat down sidewise, walked around the ring once shaking it off with suitable grimaces and rubbing his butt until he heard his name announced as one of the winners, jumped straight up, punched the air with his fist, yahooed, and turned a cartwheel
before boogying out of the ring. The sheep recovered it's dignity,sprang to its' feet and jumped over the fence to join the other sheep in the holding pen.
In between the mutton wrangling, the organizers also ran stick horse barrel races for the younger set which were great fun to watch.
At the end of the day, screaming, over excited children left with their parents,and before the midway rides got going, the crowds quieted and listened to bands started setting up and doing sound checks. The smell of tractor exhaust from the tractor pull and the smoke from the blacksmith's forge were replaced with the smell of bar be que and everyone agreed that the day had been a resounding success.
Driving back through the foothills in the westering we saw Texas wildflowers in glorious abundance. Almost every field we passed was covered with dense swaths bluebonnets, evening primroses, thorny poppies and various daisie and black eyed susan type flowers.
This week was another personal best for me in terms of mileage. Next week will be lower as I will be going up to Denton for my daughter's brass concert, and then taking a tapestry weaving class at the upcoming Contemporary Handweavers Conference here in Houston. After that I will have one more full week for training before heading off to New Orleans for the ride. Whoo Hoo!!!
Biking Weekly Summary since last Sunday 4/14/07
Time in the saddle 13 hours
Mileage: 175 miles
Average speed:13.5 to 16.3
Highlights- actually getting to coast for 1.5 miles in a brief tail wind on Wednesday. Occassionally having a quartering wind which didn't help but at least didn't hinder on Thursday. Riding right after a gym work and beating out two rain storms. I didn't make it home bone dry but at least I wasn't as wet as I might have been. Being able to add my favorite biking break spot to my sponsor list for the upcoming breast cancer ride.
Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next |
1 comment:
175? Wow! Are you going to put a link up so we can sponsor you for the ride? Pretty Please?
Post a Comment