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Published: August 6th 2011
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Sunday, July 31, 2011 Furlong Bay Provincial Park, Lake Lakelse. 53 degrees, foggy with some blue and some high clouds.
Since we all had various chores and activities we wanted to do before leaving in the morning, we agreed to meet at the Wal-mart parking lot after the first activity which we expected to take about the same amount of time. Jim, Diane and Rocky went to church and Valerie and I went to a cattle sort, an event for River Boat Days.
Let me see if I can adequately explain a cattle sort. We drove a couple miles out of town to what looked like a very small fairgrounds type facility for horses and went into a covered arena. In the center of the arena they had constructed a good size figure 8 with metal fencing. The center of the 8 had a “gate” opening so cattle could move from one side to the other. The cattle had numbers on their backs from 1-0 plus one animal added to the herd, that was not to be sorted, was not numbered. If he got through then the team was disqualified.
The object of the “game” was for a team
of three riders to move the cattle one at a time, in numerical order, from one side to the other within a certain time limit—in this instance in a minute and ½. To make it more interesting, the time keeper called out a starting number as the game started. It was quickly evident that the good players relied on team work and the horse and rider who was “keeper of the gate” was never pulled out of position. It was really fun to watch as the cattle would do what they wanted and even the best team would have an animal slip through with another one. The team was given points for the number of animals they got through in numerical order within the time limit. They all played three rounds and the team with the highest points won.
The riders were all supportive of each other and they looked like they were having lots of fun. We watched some of the older, more experienced riders, coach those who obviously had never played the game before. One woman we spoke with at lunch time [we had watched her horse roll his eyes and shy at the cattle in the
arena] said neither she nor her horse had ever seen cattle up close, and yet she was really enjoying herself and said the game was addictive. Of course her friends had egged her on to try it in the first place. We watched from ten until they broke for lunch. Our bottoms had had it with sitting on the hard bleachers without a back. It would be fun to find this game played closer to home so we could watch it occasionally.
We met Jim and Diane at Wal-mart and after deciding to spend the night in their parking lot, ate lunch and then split up to go to different events and do our list of chores. We went downtown to the park and listened to some gospel singing until there was a band change and it started to rain, both happening at the same time. We moved Rosie so we could be out of the rain but still hear the music. The new band, who were the headliners, played something, Valerie thought it was rock gospel, but I heard nothing but loud percussion noise. So left there, and went to shop at another grocery store we thought might be cheaper, it wasn’t. Got gas at Safeway and then did the laundry.
Met back at Wal-mart, fixed dinner and called it a night. Course, before we did, we had to put away all the clean clothes and stuff and make up the beds.
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