Everything is bigger in Texas

We have dozens of these spiders around the outside of our house and yard. They just keep getting bigger as the summer goes on.
-Thanks to The Texan for being my hand model. I sure wasn't going to stick my hand that close. These spiders are harmless, but still, look at the size of that thing!

Somewhere. . .

. . . over the rainbow. . . .

. . . bluebirds fly. . .

Ok, I'm done singing. Time for the riddles. What kind of rainbows are there in Texas?

Big rainbows. . . . . Everything is bigger in Texas. . . . Big skys. . . etc. . . get it? ha ha? Anyway. This rainbow was so big I couldn't fit it all in on shot.

Rodeo!

The cowboys and cowgals get the best view at the rodeo. Those of us walking around on our own two feet, get a good view of the horses' behinds.

Our local rodeo is held in an outside arena. It doesn't start until the sun goes down. So if blurry photos give you a headache, you may want to skip the rest of this post.

 We were walking around checking out the booths and people watching during the breakaway roping. When we sat down the tie-down roping was about to start.

Next came an event that may shock some protective parents.

All the children in the audience under age 12 were invited down into the arena.

The kids lined up and. . .

several calves with ribbons tied to their tales were released at the other end of the arena.

The goal for the kids was to be the first one to grab a ribbon and run it back to the announcer. That kid won a bike.

Back to the professionals. . . actually,  not quite professionals. As the Texan pointed out- in rodeo events at this level more contestants fail then succeed. But I can't judge, I've never even ridden a horse.

What is a rodeo without clowns?

They had a skit that involved small explosives and some political jokes (which didn't lean the way I would have expected at a rodeo).

Then some team roping. Did you know that roping teams can be co-ed.

None of these teams were.

But then came barrel racing, which is all ladies. This is my favorite event. It is fast and the horses are amazing athletes.
Oh yeah, there was one more event. That one that everyone thinks of when you say 'rodeo' - bull riding. There was some of that. As I mentioned this is a fairly small local rodeo (not that I have anything to compare it to). Most of the contestants are from towns within 200 miles of us. The guys that can consistently ride a bull for 8 seconds aren't doing it in small town rodeos. So no impressive pictures of that.

Horse Parking

Seen in my local grocery store parking lot. There were actually two horses and I would have taken more pictures, but I didn't want to look like some city slicker who had never seen a horse before. ;)

(Please note the bumper sticker on the truck.)

Hay!

Boars

I finally got pictures, too bad it was almost dark and they were a ways away.

I am guessing there were about 8 of them, all fairly small.

Garden Update

I spoke too soon when I said that I was having a good gardening year so far. The plague of grasshoppers continues.

I read somewhere that grasshoppers don't eat tomatoes. Well they do in Texas.
Here is a  picture of an herb/flower bed by my kitchen window. It was taken on May 21.

Here is a picture taken on June 11.

Notice anything missing? Yep, the grasshoppers ate my chive plant down to the ground. In case you are wondering why I don't fight back, trust me, I've tried. Since these are herbs and veggies, I don't want to put anything too toxic on them. I applied Nolo Bait to my whole yard earlier in the spring, when the hoppers where little. More recently I have been applying a plant oil based insect repellent that was recommended by my local gardening center guy (sorry, can't remember the name.)
It's hard not to take it personally, when there are 100 acres of hay for the little punks to nibble on, but no, they want to eat my tomato instead. I  guess the one upside to the whole thing is that they eat Johnson grass (a weed that grows in the hay field.)