BACK AT FUN N SUN--NELSON'S NOTES #52

San Benito, Texas, Oct. 27, 2005

SONS OF THE BEACH SAND CASTLE CONTEST

Last Saturday, we watched sand sculptors make deluxe castles and other creations at South Padre Island.  Experts and novices alike spent hours shoveling, watering, stamping, tamping, molding, scraping and brushing until every last grain of sand was in place. Then they mixed Elmer's Glue with water and sprayed just enough of the adhesive to make the creations stick together.

Tamping is one of the first steps in sculpting sand.
This finished work will look like the Halloween pumpkins on the sculptors' shirts.

While one sculptor gently scrapes grains of sand . . .

another carefully brushes each grain in place.

Sand castle specialist, Amazin' Walter, happily at work.

TEAM PENNING

Team Penning has been labeled the fastest growing equine sport in the nation. Anyone can participate because it doesn't take a special horse or great riding ability to compete, and it makes no difference if the rider is young or old, male or female, a novice or a professional.

The object is for three team mates to cut out and drive their three head of assigned cattle to the pen faster than any other team. Each team penning heat goes like this: there are 30 cows, numbered 0 through 9, at one end of the arena, i.e., three number 0's, three number 1's, etc. Three riders enter the other end of the arena and proceed to the start line. When the timekeeper calls to start the event, a number is called out, 5 for example. Then the three riders have to remove all three number 5's from the herd and move them down to the other end of the arena and put them into a pen. Sometimes the cows cooperate and stay where the riders want them to be, but often they don't.

Of the 235 still shots of team penning that Bruce took with his digital camera, only one action shot came out really good.  Action shots with our digital cameras are difficult to capture because of the time delay.  Even though the button is depressed at the height of the action, by the time the shutter clicks the subject is doing something else.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

1. "Two thirds of all the people who ever lived over age 65 are alive today." (From The Motley Fool, Sirius satellite radio, Sept. 30, 2005)

2. "One of every eight people in the world today is a peasant in China." (From a Paul Solmon special on China's economy, The Newshour With Jim Lehrer, Oct. 4, 2005.

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Photos by Bruce and Marianna Nelson

Text by Marianna Nelson

Special Thanks to Ken Roberts who "hosts" Nelson's Notes at www.web.newsnotes.us

Check out our home page, On The Road With The Nelsons