Back Home, Back to Reality & Packing Up

We were awake early, coffees made, dishes washed, floor vacuumed, and out of the trailer and on the road home before 8. After a full Stampede weekend, there is something very satisfying about waking up and knowing you're headed home.

The first thing we noticed was the burning grass and the overall dryness of everything.  It’s clear things have changed over the hot, windy long weekend.

Harley had spent the night alone but didn't seem overly concerned to get outside when we walked through the door. I watered the indoor plants, threw a load of laundry in, tossed hay to the ponies, and then we headed back out to load up the trailer.

Happy birthday to Auntie Candace!!

We had a second coffee while visiting with our friends. One of them had been kicked in the face by a downed chuckwagon horse on Saturday while helping out. The poor guy had two very impressive black eyes, a stitched-up chin, and a broken nose to show for his assistance in the sport. Definitely a reminder that there can be a very real price for being there to help when things go wrong.

There is always so much stuff that gets taken to the campground and spread out over several days that packing it all back up is a job in itself. We finally had the trailer loaded and headed home, dumping the tanks along the way and getting everything unloaded here before 11.

Lunch was leftover food from the directors' booth—a pretty good way to avoid cooking on our first day home.

After eating, S headed back out to pick up the Ranger and dump trailer, only to get recruited to haul bales and a few other things. So much for a quick trip! He didn't make it home until 5.

I kept busy with laundry, unpacking the trailer, packing for Kelowna, and trying to keep the robot vacuum on task as it worked its way around the floors. I was also desperately trying to catch up the blog, which was almost a week behind. Thursday's post finally went up, and I worked away at everything else that had accumulated while we'd been busy with Stampede.

After a week of rushed, late, and sometimes completely missed meals, supper was healthy, delicious, and very welcome. It felt good to sit down to an actual meal without having to eat it in a hurry or wonder what was available at the campground.

I was out giving the ponies some of the damaged apples after wrapping a bunch with netting and doing a little garden weeding when B arrived. She fed and sprayed all the horses while I carried on outside. S eventually unloaded the Ranger and parked the dump trailer.

B texted me to come catch Hank so she could spray some bug bites. She also weight-taped him while she had him standing there, and he clocked in at 197 pounds. Apparently even the smallest members of the herd need regular weigh-ins around here as to not get too fat.

The day finally wound down with a hot tub soak and a couple of episodes of Little House on the Prairie before S nodded off. I tried to finish the last episode of Elle, but after the marathon of Stampede weekend and a full day of catching up at home, I eventually turned the light out too.

It was good to be home.

The trailer was unpacked, laundry was going, the animals were cared for, the garden was getting some attention, and life was slowly being put back in its usual order. After a week of rodeo chaos, maybe the most welcome part of Tuesday was simply getting to bed early enough for some much-needed sleep.