the new kid in the garage

well, my sis bought a new truck without really checking to see if it would fit in the garage.
as you can see it just makes it. i told her she could not add on to the garage for her truck, nor could she cut little side openings for the mirrors to go through. it just barely makes it.

she tried to fold back mirrors, but didn't know the trick until she called her son. you can see there is not much room in the back and in the other picture you can see how much space there is from the front bumber to the step into the house.

bertie looks like a hobbit next to the new truck. i keep trying to tell her that she should name it thor, but i think she wants to think up her own name. it is big. half ton extended cab.

it really is nice. we took it up to the local variety store and bought some plants to put in the back to break in the bed of the truck.

but, it really won't be broken in until someone spills a drink inside.
she was babysitting her grandchildren today and when she took them out to taco john's for lunch, she made us all eat inside instead of in the truck. we will see how long that lasts.

center of the nation dedication

i went to the dedication of the monument for the center of the nation. it was supposed to be televised by abc, but their cameraman got sick. ha i bet. he probably didn't want to come to a tiny town. well the flags look really nice and the cowboy band played. they are really good.

i stopped in at the little log cabin museum. i took a picture of the 'master bedroom' with it's loft. it is bigger than my bedroom. but i bet that it was really really hot in the summer time.

my sister and i had an attic bedroom in our jones street house in omaha. i remember that sometimes our folks would let us come downstairs and sleep on the living room floor because it was so hot upstairs. it was before air conditioning. the house had a strange layout. the kitchen and the bathroom had been added on. there was a dining room, living room and one bedroom downstairs. small by today's standards, but it worked. it was certainly a lot larger than the tiny log cabin with only a kitchen/sitting room and tiny office on the first floor.

horse pull at the fair west river style

the paper listed events for the 2 weeks of the fair in rapid city. hidden among all the events i found a horse pull. when i called to confirm time, the ticket person, said, "What? We have a draft horse show?" but she found it. i was so excited because i used to go to the horse pull at the boulder county fair and the big pull at the end of the national western stock show.

well, it really wasn't a pull, it was a demonstration put on by a club. it consisted of 2 farm teams of draft horses, not the heavy weights you see at the nws, plus a team of mules and a team of shetland ponies (the old breed, not the jazzed up breed that looks like miniature hackneys).

the big teams shared the hookup, but the shetlands had their own. they were the best. the little dark chestnut really put all his muscle into it. you didn't need to ask him twice to go for it. the pulled the sled which was about a thousand pounds plus another hundred.

it was easy to see the other teams were really ambivalent about the whole thing. if it was a real contest the horses take off the minute they hear the joining of the metal.

so after sitting in the sun without my hat which i left in the car and without my sunglasses which i left at home, i went home. it was really hot.