Pony Penning Week Activities Through 28 July 2018

This is actually the third day of Pony Penny Week activities on Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia.  And today, the fun and sun and sand stuff will begin by 6 o'clock this morning...  The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge will open its gates at 5, so folks can be in place along the North Beach to see the annual Dawn Beach Walk.  The Saltwater Cowboys will have their mounts trailered over to the North Holding Pens, and will drive the combined northern herds down Assateague Beach to the CNWR beach parking lot, and then west along Beach Road to the Southern Holding Pens.  There will be fights between the stallions as the northern herds are combined with the southern herds inside the corrals...
  On Saturday evening, sometimes in a driving rain, the Saltwater Cowboys rounded up the five distinct southern groups - Surfer's Riptide and his mares and foals; Maverick with his harem and progeny; Don Leonard Stud II and his ladies; "the '17's," the group of Buy-Back fillies and colts from last year; and "the Misty's," a small cadre of donated mares that are related to Misty of Chincoteague.  All ponies known to be in the southern compound were brought in.
  Sunday, the Saltwater Cowboys had to cover a much larger territory and gather up the herds on the northern end.  These included the herds of:  Chief Golden Eagle, Prince of Tides, Neptune (aka Little Dolphin), Rainbow Warrior, Hoppy (aka Effie's Poppa Bear), Ajax, Puzzle (aka Archer's Gambit), Ace (Ace's Black Tie Affair), Wild Thing, Ken and Tornado's Legacy.
   Already at the Carnival Grounds pens are:  Bay Girl with her adopted mystery colt; Lyra's Vega, who is recovering from a badly cut fetlock; and Saltwater Renegade (aka Beach Boy), who is there to keep the ladies company.  We have lost three of sixty-three foals born this year - for ponies that run wild, that's a very low mortality rate. One was seen soon after birth and was never seen again; Bay Girl's foal did not thrive and passed away, while both were under veterinary care; and Poco's Starry Night's black filly disappeared after 1 July.   The mystery foal was spotted trying to nurse and attach himself to a mare who was still pregnant; he was brought to the Carnival Grounds and was bottle-fed until Bay Girl's colt died.  Then the little pinto colt was adopted by the bay mare who still had lots of milk and love to give...
   Once all the ponies are in the Holding pens on Beach Road and settled in, the Saltwater Cowboys, the Pony Committee of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, and the CFVC veterinarian, Dr. Charles Cameron (and his associate veterinarians and vet technicians) will check every equine entity in the corrals.  This will occur Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.  All foals will have their blood drawn and tested for communicable diseases, so their traveling papers and health certificates will be available on Thursday after the Pony Auction for the new owners.   Dr. Cameron will decide which ponies should not swim across Assateague Channel at slack tide Wednesday morning - this usually includes Unci, whose genetic sway back makes swimming long distances difficult for her - and those ponies and/or foals will be trailered to the Carnival Grounds on Chincoteague.
  Wednesday morning, between 8 and 10 o'clock, the US Coast Guard will send up a red flare to indicate slack tide - an interval when the tide is running neither north or south, which can sweep the ponies away from their swim arrival spot.  Earlier, the Salwater Cowboys will have rounded up all of the ponies from the holding pens and driven them west on Beach Road until they reach Black Duck Marsh, where they will cross over to Old Dominion Point.  There, they will rest the ponies and allow them to graze until the flare goes up.  Then the ponies will be herded into the Assateague Channel to swim over to Chincoteague Island.  ** The Pony Swim will have live streaming footage on Facebook via WBOC-TV, Channel 16, from Salisbury, Maryland. **  Once the ponies have made the crossing, they will be allowed to rest for 45 to 60 minutes and then once again will be on the move - going along Beebe Road to Main Street and then north to the pens at the Carnival Grounds.
   Thursday morning, the Pony Auction will begin at 8 o'clock.  The price for a pony can be as low as $400, or as high as $25,000.  The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company accepts cash, traveler's checks, Visa and MasterCard.  Personal checks or other types of credit cards are NOT accepted.  -  And, if you purchase a pony (other than a Buy Back), it must be removed from the Carnival Grounds by 5 pm Friday.  If you plan to purchase a pony, make sure you have your travel arrangements for it made ahead of time.  You CANNOT take it a foal home inside your van, SUV, or station wagon.
   Friday morning is the swim back to freedom, from Chincoteague to Assateague.  The viewing crowd is greatly diminished.  The ponies living on the southern end of the island make the swim back.  The herds from the northern end are trailered back, so they do not have to cross Beach Road on Assateague, impeding traffic and possibly being struck by a car.
   23 July through 28 July, Monday through Saturday evenings, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company's Carnival is open from 7 until 11 o'clock.  Sandwiches, pizza, fries, funnel cakes, drinks, music, bingo, and rides are available.  Go and enjoy a small town event!

Chincoteague Island - News, Happenings, Approximate Swim Time

You can't tell that I love my Mother's hometown, can you?  How can you find a better place?  It's an island; the local seafood and locally grown food is totally fresh; there is the National Seashore on the next island; there is a National Wildlife Refuge on the next island; one can easily use a bicycle to travel all over both islands, Chincoteague and Assateague;  there are museums, a library, bookstores and wonderful shops available; one can rent a bike, a boat, a kayak, a canoe, or a moped to get around; the island trolley service is available; one can bird-watch, pony-watch, or people-watch; one can camp out, or rent a house, condo, motel or hotel room, or stay at a bed and breakfast; swim at the beach, or at your motel/hotel....  read in the shade or the sun; listen to the waves or lap of water against a bulkhead and hear the cries of the seabirds; catch your own supper; eat in or eat out....  Your choices are endless.
   Besides being named the "Happiest Seaside Town" by Trip Advisor.com, Chincoteague can also claim, as of yesterday, to be the home of the Best Ice Cream in the United States - Kelly Conklin's Island Creamery has been named as having the best ice cream, again by TripAdvisor.com.  Of course, I highly recommend several businesses on the island, besides the Island Creamery...  The Horse With No Name Studio and Gallery on Main Street, The Purple Pony, each and every established restaurant, Captain Barry's Back Bay Tours (and Sunset Cruises), Pony Tails Salt Water Taffy, and Sundial Books, to name a few.  I usually stay with relatives, when I'm on the island, but having stayed at two establishments, I can highly recommend the Refuge Inn and Dove Winds.
  The Pony Auction will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, a week from today.  Consulting the tide charts, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company and the US Coast Guard are advising visitors that slack tide, the only time it's safe for the ponies to swim the Assateague Channel, will occur between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 July. That means a long wait in hot sun and high humidity for those waiting on the Chincoteague shore to see the Pony Swim.  If you decide to go early to get a good viewpoint, please remember to take plenty of sunscreen, mosquito and/or fly repellent, a shady hat, sun glasses, and plenty of water and/or Gatorade (or an equivalent) - drink frequently, and hopefully you won't need an ambulance ride due to heat exhaustion.
   The 27th Annual Chincoteague Blueberry Festival will begin tomorrow, 25 July, and will continue until Sunday evening.  Admission is $5 per day for adults, $8 for a two-day pass, or $10 for a three-day pass.  Children under 12 have an admission fee of $1.  Any thing and everything you can imagine that can be prepared and cooked with blueberries will be available.  There are also more than 100 artists who will be displaying their arts and crafts for sale, as well as day-long musical entertainment and the wandering Jamel the Magician.  The Festival is open from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and is held at the Chincoteague Community Center.
   With Pony Penning happening on July 30, 31 and August 1, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company's Carnival will be open every evening (except Sunday) from Friday, 25 July,  through Saturday, 2 August.  Most folk call our Carnival "quaint" - there are lots of  food booths (fries, hamburgers, clam and oyster fritters, pizza, hotdogs, pies, fried softcrab sandwiches) - and lots of booths with skill and chance games, there's a Bingo area, and the Carnival rides - a Ferris wheel, The Whip, a carousel, and many others.  There are also a lot of raffle items up for grabs - a quilt, a Chincoteague pony, usually a boat, motor and trailer, a motorcycle, riding lawn  mower, and more.  For many years, the Carnival was where cousins held reunions and caught up on family news, because it was regarded as "Homecoming Week."
  (Can you tell that I want to be there?)

Colorado Wildfires; Opening Night of Chincoteague Carnival

Oh, my....    Aaron Hernandez is charged with murder, and is being looked at as a suspect in a drive-by shooting where two men were killed.  Such a sad report to read about an ex-Gator!  He has disappointed me entirely.   -   And I am feeling great sympathy for the divorce and feuding parents of Dylan Redwine.  The young teen disappeared from his father's home at Thanksgiving last year. A few of his bones have been identified via DNA testing this week - they were found scattered in a forest about 10 miles from the father's house.
  Our wildfires here in Colorado continue to grow.  Several are completely contained, and the Rocky Mountain National Park was surprised, but pleased, to announce the Fern Lake wildfire is completely burnt out.  We've had several local fires that have been less than 10 acres and have been quickly put out.  The Wild-Hacking Complex fire is still burning, as is the Strontia Springs-Waterton Canyon fire.  The Brush Creek fire is 97% contained.  The East Fork fire (on the western side of the Divide) i sat 447 acres, while the East Peak  fire is 75% contained, having burned over 13,500 acres, 12 homes and 4 out buildings.  The Trickle Mountain fire is 85% contained and had burned 277 acres.  The Ox Cart fire has burned 150 acres, and the Jefferson County Lillis Lane fire is 75% contained and has destroyed one house.  That leaves the West Fork Complex fire, which is still zero percent contained, and has burned over 83,000 acres so far.
   The forecast is for rain and thunderstorms for the next four evenings.  I would love to see it rain, rain hard. Not enough to flood those places that have just been burned, but enough to ensure that the current fires are extinguished - but I doubt that will happen.
    And tonight my heart is on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, specifically at the Chincoteague Island Carnival Grounds, because tonight is the Opening Night of the 88th Annual Chincoteague Fireman's Carnival!  How I wish I was there!