Horse Racing in Waterville?

I wonder how many people don't realize that there is horse racing in Waterville during the fair? And, by horse racing I mean the tiny saddles, knees to the chest, real jockeys kind of horse racing! We had no idea until we moved up here.

I remember going to the fair that first year and being disappointed at how tiny it was. Of course, I should have expected it. I mean, how big did I really think a fair in Waterville would be? Adam and I slowly browsed the exhibits, stopped to hear a little live music, looked at all of the animals and before we knew it, within minutes it seemed, we had seen everything there was to see! Or so we thought...

We learned that there was a rodeo/horse race scheduled for later that afternoon, so we decided to hang around. I had expected it to be very small and amateurish but it turns out, we've got an actual rodeo up here! It was so exciting! There were broncs and bulls, calves and steers and even some impressive barrel racing! The most thrilling thing for me, though, was when they guided the first set of horse racers onto the track. I remember grabbing Adam's arm and squealing, "Oh my gosh! THEY'RE ACTUAL JOCKEYS!!" I had never been to a "real" horse race before and I was absolutely giddy! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they topped the evening off with a crazy horse race that I had never heard of, the Indian Relay. One rider and three bareback horses per team. It was amazing to me how the riders could leap off one extremely tall horse and onto another so quickly!

The Big Bend Roundup and Horse Race, like the demolition derby, is an event that Adam and I look forward to every year. We were so disappointed, this year, because while we made it to the Saturday show, we neglected to double check the schedule and ended up missing the Sunday show completely! Oh well, there's always next year, right?

Want to meet new people? Paint your house!

In this town, old houses are often referred to by the names of their long-time owners or their former owners. Ours, built in 1910, is known as Old Mrs. Petesorich's house. How sad that a neat old home, worthy of its own personal identity, could be given over to long-term neglect and abuse. 

We were told that the person who sold the house was essentially a salvage-lord who bought dumpy homes and either rented them out cheaply or sold them for much more than they were worth. It made me sad, because Adam and I could see potential that nobody else seemed to be able to see and I thought, even with all of the work it would require, it was worth every penny. We didn't realize, when we bought the home, that fixing it up would evoke a sense of pride in those who knew and remembered it's former owner. 

 Little by little, Adam and I began making improvements. We started with some minor low-cost interior projects, just to make the place livable and planned to save the more expensive exterior projects for later. Unfortunately, we sprung a major leak in our roof, quickly forcing our attention outside. We reluctantly had our roof replaced which, to our surprise, made a huge improvement to the appearance of our home. It also exposed, in more detail, just how wretched the exterior paint job was. We decided then that we would devote the following summer to painting our house. 

We were amazed at how people came out of the woodwork to see what we were up to and to watch our progress. Daily, people would slowly drive by and give us thumbs-ups. Many people rolled their windows down to shout compliments while others simply walked up to offer their praise. Now, here's where the story gets really, awesomely small-townish: People we don't even know, talked about our paint job to other people we don't know (who apparently know us), who told Adam's sister that she had to come up and see it! She thought it was hilarious that everyone in Waterville seemed to be interested in the fact that we were painting our house! We even got a visit from the Mayor! (It was very nice to meet you Mr. DeVaney!) 

Thank you for all of the encouragement, everyone. You made the tedious task of house painting really fun for us and we are truly glad that you approve!

Weeds!

Why must there be Morning Glory and Creeping Charlie absolutely everywhere, and who decided that the things that are the easiest to grow are the things we don't want in our yard?

After more than two years, we finally have some grass growing in our yard! From a distance, when it has been freshly mowed, one might think that we have a fairly lush lawn. However, at closer glance one can see that a majority of what is green are weeds. They relentlessly creep their way throughout our yard, spewing their ugly vines into my flower beds. They thrive under the leaves of my veggie plants and reproduce at an obscene rate. I pull them, Preen them, hoe them and blast them with Roundup, yet they always return in greater volume than before. I know that it will be years before I make any real headway in this weed war.

Adam and I visited Ace the other day to pick up some supplies and noticed that there were flower seed packets for sale at the checkout stand. There I saw, to my amazement, prominently displayed on the top of the pile, a packet of Morning Glory seeds! Here I am trying to get rid of the awful stuff, and there are people out there who actually plant it on purpose?! Really?! People, take my advice. If you know what's good for you, never buy those seeds!

Listen and Learn

Note to Self: Listen to the locals and take to heart what they say.

I decided to try my hand at a vegetable garden this year after having wild success last year with a couple of zucchini and tomato plants. I began tilling the soil fairly early in April because the weather was so unseasonably warm and I just couldn't wait to get planting! As I was digging, hoeing and sifting, a neighbor stopped by, and said, "Looks like you're going to have quite a garden here! You know, it's still a little too early to plant. Up here, people usually wait until around the 10th of May to avoid the threat of frost." I smiled and nodded, but I had a hard time believing that Waterville's planting season could be so far offset from Wenatchee's. I did consider her advice, knowing that she would obviously know better than I, but ultimately I made the decision to plant a little early, thinking that this year, as warm as it had been, would be different.

I planted corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, sunflowers, blueberries, lettuce, broccoli, onions, carrots, squash and pumpkins! I eagerly watered and watched over the next couple of weeks as little sprouts began to emerge. Things seemed to be growing beautifully in my proud little garden until the first week of May when lo and behold... we were hit with frost! The little frostbitten leaves wilted and the stems withered leaving brown sticks where many of my baby plants had been. I was able to nurse a few back to life but ended up having to do a lot of replanting.

In short, my hastiness did not pay off. Thankfully, I now have a pretty decently thriving garden, but taking my neighbor's advice would have saved me quite a bit of work! Lesson learned. Next year, I'm picking up a Farmer's Almanac and I'll wait until the 10th of May no matter how deceptively warm and beautiful the weather happens to be!

Summer Thunderstorms

I wasn't always a thunderstorm lover. I remember being very afraid of them when I was little. I don't know when I crossed over from being a "storm avoider" to a borderline storm chaser but if there's a storm nearby, I pretty much drop everything to go and watch it.

Living in Wenatchee, I felt a little deprived because most of the good storms seemed to slide around us. Imagine my disappointment, Wednesday night, when I hopped on Facebook to find that Wenatchee was being pelted by a direct-hit severe thunderstorm! I wallowed in jealousy for a short time, thinking that once again, I had missed a big one when in the distance I heard the thunder. I must say, though it did not hit us with the ferocity that it did Wenatchee, it was a pretty fantastic storm. We experienced two more thunderstorms over the next three days, which was like heaven on Earth for me!

I, apparently, am not the only storm lover up here. Adam and I noticed that each time a storm hit, traffic in town increased. People all over town hop in their cars and drive to the outskirts in order to find a nice wheat field road parking spot, taking advantage of the endless, treeless plateau view. It's like a massive, panoramic drive-in theater.

One of these days I'm going to have to take a trip to Colorado so I can experience a "real" plains thunderstorm. I've been told that not even the most magnificent Northwest storm can compare.