A Week of Oklahoma Country Fun

 

After a faster-than-planned departure from our summer travels, we settled in for a week of Oklahoma country family time. Mark's mother got out of the hospital the day after we arrived, so Mark escorted her home. Denisa's mother had an appointment with a specialist to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from her eye lid, so Denisa and her sisters escorted her to Garden City, Kansas. Between doctors' visits, the Beaver County Fair was also in full swing. On the day that Mark's mother got out of the hospital, she was back at the fairgrounds to see her great grandson (and our great nephew) and his wife perform at the fair.

Mark's mother was also at the parade the next morning. This year the Beaver County fair was combined with the the annual Cow Chip Festival that usually takes place in the spring. For those that don't know, a cow chip is dried cow poop, and Beaver hosts the "World Cow Chip Throwing Championship." The parade had to include the town statue of the beaver holding a cow chip. We had a family friend bring his children to visit, and their young daughter asked, "What's with the statue of the squirrel eating a cookie?" 

You've got to love a parade that includes a ten-foot-fly-covered-cow-chip zooming down Main Street, throwing candy to the parade watchers.

After the parade we went to a shooting competition hosted by our nephew, in which several more relatives participated. This wasn't exactly a good spectator sport with the action happening far from where we were parked. But it was interesting to see how they organized a competition.

Denisa's mother was recuperating from her eye procedure, and she announced that she was ready to go to church on Sunday morning. So Denisa took her to church, where we learned that the pianist had called in sick that morning. After they announced that we would be singing a cappella that morning, Denisa whispered to the preacher that she could play. Denisa probably should have checked to see what hymns were planned, because she ended up sight-reading all the songs at the Beaver Methodist Church that morning. Then the preacher asked her to play for the nursing home services that afternoon!

While we stayed with our mothers, our motor home was parked at the ranch. The resident guineas and their babies were patrolling the parking area.

Several of these big-body-small-headed guineas had been missing, and they assumed that they had fallen prey to a bobcat. But they showed back up a couple weeks ago, leading these babies they had hatched.

Speaking of babies, it is calving season on the ranch. This little guy was born prematurely, so he's in the corral near the barn for some extra care. 

The main care is actually for the mother cow. This baby was too small and wasn't strong enough to suck properly. So he needed some guidance, and the cow had to be milked because her teats were too full. Life on the ranch is never boring.

The panhandle has been blessed with good moisture this summer. While we normally see a few sunflowers that grow waist-high, the rains have caused them to grow to monumental heights this year. They were twice as tall as Denisa!

Those rains have also brought green grass in the pasture. After having to sell off much of the cow herd during the drought, it's time to buy cows to replace them. We were there to help push a few cows through the shoot to welcome them to Cap-o-Ranch.

So that's a wrap-up of the week we spent in the Oklahoma panhandle. We were here to check on our mothers and help them. But as you can see, this was a happening place to spend a week enjoying family time and Oklahoma country fun.