Thursday's Pony Auction

In the early 1920s, most buildings on Chincoteague Island were made of wood. Then the Big Fire occurred, and more than half of the residences and buildings in the downtown area were lost. Yesterday's Pony Auction raised money for the Chincoteague Island Volunteer Fire Company - proceeds from the month-long Carnival and the sale of the Chincoteague ponies goes to fund, equip, and train the volunteer fire-fighters on the island. According to my sources, which are not official, 67 foals and yearlings were sold yesterday, for a total of $93,900.00, which is down from last year's sale of 104-thousand-plus. But considering the economy, I think it's still a good amount for the ponies to raise. ** I misidentified the photographer yesterday - he's the same photographer I used for today's shots - his name is Jay (not Ray) Diel, and he is from the Salisbury Daily Times newspaper. Again, I thank him for the use of his photos in my blog. ** I still want to be on the island - heat, humidity, mosquitoes, crowds, and all.... And today is the swim back to Assateague, during slack tide. There will be less than half of the crowds today to watch the swim back than there were on Wednesday.

Here in Boulder, we reached a high of 62 yesterday, with intermittent rain and mist. It was 47 this morning when I took the kids for a walk, and I have to admit that I had on jeans and not my shorts - especially since the humidity was 87 %. At least I haven't had to water all the flowers in the yard because of the heat! But we are (supposedly) to reach the lower 80s today, with thunderstorms in the afternoon - and that's the forecast through Tuesday. And starting today, I have charge of Suki and Boo until Monday evening. I think the girls will visit the red kids in the afternoons, and the red kids will visit the girls in the mornings... ** More horse info - On Sunday, Rachel Alexandra will race against 6 males her age in the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational. She is currently the favorite to win. ... At Del Mar, Bing Crosby's track, they have had 6 catastophic break-downs (resulting in the death or euthanization 0f the horse) in a space of 10 days. Three occurred during morning training on the PolyTrack; two occurred during races on the PolyTrack; and one happened during a turf race. What's happening at Del Mar? ...
** And, finally, two studies have been released showing that cats train their humans (as if I didn't know that!) to do as the cats wish - if you're interested, please visit the following URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32178794/ns/health-pet_health/ .... Have a great Friday!