Messages from October 2011
posted 10.31.11
It is so nice getting home early on Sunday's. I was able to finish up the results last night and get them posted before going to bed. Then I get to sleep in a little longer. We had such a busy weekend with the meetings in Dallas and hurrying back to Vernon but I think everything went pretty well.
Your junior high and high school directors put forth a lot of effort to represent Region 1 at the state board meetings. Ideally, we should not be scheduling a rodeo on the same weekend as these meetings, but we figured we could make it work with the proximity of Vernon to Dallas. We couldn't do anyting to alleviate the stress on the parents wanting to get back to the rodeo and support their kids, though. I hope you appreciate them because it means so much to me that they make the effort to attend these meetings when there are so many other regions who may only have one director show up. They make Region 1 look good and show that we care about what goes on in our association and want to have a say in how it is run. Thank you John Bland, Joel Kirkpatrick, Ted White, Cody, Custer, Steve McConnell, Travis Patterson and Kirt Espenson. And thank you to your families for working with us on the travel arrangements.
Thank you to the Vernon Rodeo Club for hosting our junior high members over the weekend. They requested this weekend specifically so we could go to the haunted house while we were in town. This is my first time to go the haunted house and all I can say is, I came... I saw...and I kept a safe distance from the scary "things" out front by watching from across the street. I was too scared to even get close enough for a good picture. This may be a multi-year project to work up the nerve to actually go inside.
All of the talk was about the haunted house but we also had two really good days of rodeo, too. It was nice to see so many of the members getting checks. That shows that anyone can win on any given day. Those checks were mailed today and I should have been at the bank late enough that your fees won't be deposited until tomorrow. I will work on points tomorrow and will get callbacks for our last rodeo of 2011 posted by late afternoon.
Thanks to so many of you turning in your raffle tickets early, I just finished sorting them to figure out who our winners were for the Yard Bird Bingo games. We had a lot of tickets that remained unsold. While the chickens were good to us this weekend by "choosing" several unsold squares, in the long run, all it does is diminish our overall profits. Let's try to remedy this problem with the spring games by selling extra tickets. I will gladly mail you more. All you have to do is ask. And now for the winners:
Game #1 ~ Saturday October 29th
1st place - #56 - $500 - Zack Kirkpatrick
2nd place - #397 - $300 - unsold
3rd place - #342 - $200 - unsold
Game #2 ~ Sunday October 30th
1st place - #73 - $500 - unsold
2nd place - #226 - $300 - Tina Carson (sold by Barrett Bland)
3rd place - #607 - $200 - unsold
Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who plays. Our next games are not until March.
Happy Halloween!
posted 10.24.11
The Cowboy Mounted Shooting Finals are in the dust for another year. Those of you who helped found out quickly that it is a major undertaking. I appreciate your hours of running and time away from school and/or work. And I hope you enjoyed it a little bit, too. It is hard work but we get to visit with other members and parents that we may not see at the rodeos and build friendships that can stretch past the boundaries of high school rodeo. We have an awesome membership. I hope you already know that but it is nice to be reminded of it from time to time. I got to witness it firsthand last week and it was great. Thanks again for all of you who volunteered your time and energy. I hope you aren't too sore. I'm getting around pretty well but will be getting my knee checked out in the morning. It needs some realignment. Thankfully, the stairs at Pampa weren't as painful as I expected.
Speaking of Pampa, they hosted two great days of junior high rodeo over the weekend. We had beautiful weather and fast-paced action. Not only did the Pampa club members help me set balloons on Thursday in the Bill Cody arena, but they made sure I didn't have to carry any of my office supplies up or down the stairs. :) Thank you!
Results and official scores are posted. I will mail checks this afternoon and deposit your fees in the morning. Once I get Vernon callbacks ready, I will start updating the points charts for junior high and high school.
This weekend at Vernon we may be a little late starting on Saturday. We have state board meetings in Dallas on Friday night and Saturday. Travel arrangements have been strategically planned to get everyone to Dallas and back to Vernon for the rodeo. The junior high general meeting is Saturday morning, so John Bland, Joel Kirkpatrick and Ted White will be getting back to Vernon around 2:30 or 3pm. The high school meeting isn't until 12:30pm, so Travis Patterson, Kirt Espenson and I will not be in until mid-way through the rodeo. I will be calling on the judges and timers to help get the draw ready and posted. (It is hard to accept that a rodeo can go on without you, but I know everything will be fine.) Kellie Macy will be leading a church service at 3pm to allow a little more time to make sure everyone has what they need to start the rodeo. Sunday will be the same schedule as Pampa, with church at 9am and rodeo at 10am.
Now the reason we didn't just have a later start time on Saturday is because the "Best Haunted House in Texas" is located in Vernon and we wanted the rodeo to finish up early enough for everyone to get there at a decent hour. There will also be a Halloween Carnival in the Exhibit Building for the younger kids. This is the building across from the outdoor arena. There is a lot going on this weekend. I will try to get details on times and admission prices so you can make plans.
One more time before I get back to work: Thank you to all of the balloon setters and to the Pampa Rodeo Club.
posted 10.18.11
Thank you to the Dalhart Rodeo Club for wrapping up our fall rodeos with a really nice weekend. We had good weather, good entries, good brisket and fast tractors. The performances ran off very quickly and that makes everyone happy, especially the club members who stayed up late working the team roping Saturday night. I'm glad they got an early start.
The combined 50/50 drawing for Sunday at Wheeler and Saturday at Dalhart was claimed by Clint Cornell. Sunday's winning ticket was not claimed at the rodeo. It is a red ticket # 617897. Since this is our last drawing of the semester, the winner will have until next Tuesday (October 25th) to claim their jackpot. If unclaimed, all money will go to the scholarship fund.
Results and official scores were posted last night. Checks will be mailed today and fees will be deposited today. I don't know if I will get points updated this week since I will be at the mounted shooting each day and still need to get ready for the junior high rodeos in Pampa. Please be patient with me.
I sent an e-mail this morning showing who was signed up for each day in Amarillo. Here is a copy with a few updates since then.
Wed 10/19 Thu 10/20 Fri 10/21 Sat 10/22 15 to 20 35 to 40 35 to 40 15 to 20 1 Boys Ranch Aaron McKee Alan Hennigh Bronc Embry 2 Boys Ranch Amanda Brown Barrett Bland (morning) Cabe Embry 3 Boys Ranch Amy Brown Bradley Guin Dylan Myers 4 Boys Ranch Ashley Jones (afternoon) Brenda Logan Jana Tippett 5 Boys Ranch Bradley Cornell (afternoon) Christi Bland Jason Moore 6 Boys Ranch Braxton Blue Denise Salmon Judy Thompson (till noon) 7 Boys Ranch Colt Cleavinger Emily Logan K C Tippett 8 Boys Ranch Colten McCarley Hannah Hughes Kanan Winders 9 Boys Ranch Colton Johnson Hayden Hughes Karla Moore 10 Boys Ranch Cordale Martin Jo Hughes Kelly Embry 11 Boys Ranch Corey McCarn John David Vaughan Kodi Myers 12 Boys Ranch Cory McCarley Kory McConnell Lauren Patterson (2pm to end) 13 Boys Ranch Dallyn Clements Linda McConnell Lynn Sims (10 - 12) 14 Boys Ranch Dave Johnson Lynn Sims (till 10:30) Payson Moore 15 Boys Ranch Haley Jones (afternoon) Mikey Duggan Sierra Thompson (till noon) 16 Boys Ranch Ike Brown Nixie Guin Ted Embry 17 Boys Ranch Janie Johnson Rhonda Kirkpatrick Wesley Sims (10 - 12) 18 Boys Ranch Joel Kirkpatrick Ronnie Salmon Wyatt Sims (10 - 12) 19 Matt Bennett John David Vaughn Sammy Jackson Zane Grigsby 20 Mikey Duggan Lydia Brown Stacy Skeen (8-12) 21 Mikey Duggan Tommy Guin 22 Missy Harris (10-2) Wesley Jackson 23 Myles Brown 24 Paige Clements 25 Rob A Brown 26 Shelly McKee 27 Sherry Blue 28 Talley Brown 29 Tuffy Thompson 30 Wendy Lacina (9-2:15) 31 32 33 Karl Vigil (6pm) 34 Karlee Vigil (6pm) 35 36 37 38 39 40
Since this is such a big fundraiser for Tri-State, my request is that the members who cannot attend help out by selling more Yard Bird Bingo tickets. I will be happy to send you more. Another alternative is to bring in buckle or saddle sponsorships. Those of us who are not any good at asking for donations will be running to raise money this week. If you change your mind and want to join us, please give me a call.
posted 10.12.11
If you bought 50/50 tickets from Janie Johnson or Hayden Hill on Sunday at Wheeler, hold on to them. They will be included in the drawing at Dalhart on Saturday.
We are one week away from the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Finals in Amarillo and I am getting a little nervous about our labor force. I will be sending an e-mail with details later today.
If you are a member of Region 1 are sad that our high school rodeos are wrapping up for the fall semester this weekend, keep in mind that you can rodeo in other regions and states as a non-member. You will be included in the payoff but are not eligible for points. I will send an e-mail with contact information today, also.
I just saw this link on facebook and thought I would share it with our seniors who are hunting scholarships. Don't ever limit yourself to only applying for rodeo scholarships. Apply for any scholarship that you meet the criteria for. This one is for books and is sponsored by James Patterson. Deadline is in December so don't wait too long to check it out.
http://www.jamespatterson.com/college-book-bucks-entries.php
posted 10.11.11
I observed Columbus Day yesterday by taking a half day off. Okay, it was probably closer to 3/4 of a day. As much as I needed the sleep, I don't know if it was worth it to be this far behind now. I'm going to try to get the Dalhart callbacks posted as close to 5pm as I can but it all depends on how hard it is going to be sorting and opening the envelopes that got stuck together from the moisture.
Wheeler...where do I begin? It was definitely an interesting weekend. I don't think it started raining until 6:30am Saturday but it didn't take long to make a huge impact on our rodeo. The lightning detector borrowed from the high school kept us informed of any potential dangers and prompted a one hour delay to our start time. I must say, it was fun observing the action from a safe - and mostly dry - distance from the mud. Thanks to everyone for their paitence and good attitude towards slopping through the mud for two days. I can only imagine how tired and sore you and your horses were. The photos I've seen on Facebook and the RodeoMomPix website are fun to look through. Hopefully, these will be memories you will look back on and and tell again and again with a smile on your face. Our hats are off to the members of the Wheeler Rodeo Club and Wheeler Chamber of Commerce for bringing much needed rain to our area and hosting two days of rodeo in the process. Producing an outdoor rodeo in good conditions is not easy (and doesn't happen very often) so having the added chore of dealing with that much water just adds to the the stress. I think they did a great job keeping things moving as well as possible with no complaints. Who can complain? We've been waiting for almost a year to see that much rain.
posted 10.3.11
When I left Gruver last night, I didn't think there was any way I was going to get checks in the mail today. I set my alarm determined to get an early start on the day. It didn't happen. I am pretty good at ignoring my alarm on weekdays.
But apparently I got more work done at the rodeo than I thought, because checks were in the mail by noon today. I am still a little surprised (and even a little impressed.) Hopefully, it is a sign of good things to come this week. :)
Thank you to the Gruver Rodeo Club for hosting both junior high and high school rodeos this past weekend. You never know what kind of weather we will get to experience in Gruver but I can't imagine it ever being worse than a few years ago. So, what's a little dirt when it is 85 degrees? Well, it's still a nasty mess, so I commend all of you who had to work in it for two days. I only got small portions of it and it still made me pretty cranky.
Gruver has some outstanding sponsors who really stepped up this year allowing them to award saddles to the Tri-State All Around Champions, buckles to each Tri-State event winner, as well as awards to the Region 1 Junior High All Around Champions. That's pretty cool!
Congratulatons to Rilee Didway and Zack Kirkpatrick, our Region 1 Junior High All Around Champions!
Congratulations to Janesa Garcia and Brent Ivy, our Tri-State All Around Champions!
Results and official scores are posted. I will update point standings after I get the Wheeler callbacks posted tomorrow.
The winner of the 50/50 ticket is Mindy Johnson. Just 4 more rodeos over the next two weeks which means only 4 more chances to win (or lose, in my case) the 50/50 this semester. Good luck and thanks to everyone who plays!
