Lady Gators Fall to Eagles

Monday night the Lady Gators faced off against the defending East Regional Champion and State Runner-Up, East Bladen. The Eagles and their all-star center led from start to finish and pulled away to an impressive 70-48 win. B played a solid game despite having an off shooting night. B finished the night with 10 points, going 5 of 13 from the floor. She also had 4 steals, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 turnover. A few clips of her play (#14) can be found below. The Gators will be back in action on Friday night at West Columbus in their first conference game of the young season.

Gators Move to 2-0

Friday night The East Columbus Lady Gators moved their record to 2-0 with a non-conference win over South Columbus. The Gators played stifling defense from start to finish and held their turnover count to a minimum in route to a 44-18 victory. B had a very good game going 5 of 10 from the floor including 4 of 5 from the 3 point line. Along with her 14 points, she had 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 rebounds. The best stat she had on the night was ZERO turnovers. A couple of clips of her (#14) play can be found below. What looks to be the toughest task of the season will come Monday night when the Lady Gators travel to last years state runner-up, East Bladen.

Off to a Quick Start

The East Columbus Lady Gators got the new season off to a quick start Tuesday night with an impressive win at North Brunswick. After losing a starting guard and their spotlight post player to graduation, the Lady Gators came into the game as a concensus underdog with a young starting lineup that included two freshmen and a sophomore. Early on, the Gators looked to be filling that role as the Lady Scorpions jumped to a quick 7-0 lead. After shaking the early game jitters however, the Gators steadily fought back and pushed to a 25-23 lead at the half. The second half belonged to the Gators as they quickly pulled away to rack up a 55-38 win and put a solid "W" on the board to kick the season off. B played a solid floor game and despite a slow shooting start finished with 8 points as well as numerous assists and rebounds. A couple of quick clips of B's play (#14) can be found by clicking here . A TV news clip of the game is below. The next game is Friday night at home against in-county rival South Columbus. We can't wait to see these young ladies hit the floor again.

It's Hardwood Time Again

It's basketball season again and the East Columbus Lady Gators kicked it off by going 3-0 in the East Bladen High School Preseason Jamboree with wins over Clinton, Lakewood and West Bladen. As was to be expected, play was overall ragged and all teams envolved have much fine tuning to do before their season openers. My early assessment is that the Gators will have the edge on most anyone they play this year when it comes to raw speed. The general rule that speed kills is a basic staple of basketball, but it is only lethal when it is coordinated and controlled. Therein lies the biggest improvement opportunity for these ladies this year. B played well at times and showed the early season rust as others. Here is a couple of quick clips of some of her play (#21).With about two weeks till the opener, it will be interesting to see how much these girls can jell.

Missing Rocky

While sorting through some old cell phone photos, I ran across a couple of Rocky and was reminded how I miss him. Rocky was one of the occasional strays that seem to make their way to our farm. For a dog, or any other sizable animal, it's not as easy as you might think to simply wonder onto our property. Other than our lengthy and narrow driveway, the rest of the farm is surrounded by wire fencing and gates. Anyway, Rocky appeared from nowhere one evening in the summer of 2008. He was a pitiful sight. He had obviously not had a real meal in a long time and was suffering a number of injuries such as scrapes and lacerations. His left ear was split in two and infected. With his condition and him being a pit bull, we were initially worried that he may be violent or even rabid. As it turned out, he was one of the most gentle, large dogs we had seen. As with our previous strays, Rocky was well fed and his injuries and intense flea infestation were treated. It didn't take us long to settle on the name Rocky, as it seemed the best fit for his rough appearance. As best we could figure, it looked as if Rocky had been used (abused) is some sort of dog fighting. Anyway, Rocky stayed with us for several months. In the end, we had to find a good home for him as he was somewhat destructive with whatever he perceived to be play toys. He also liked to dig large holes to lay in, usually in the worst possible locations. C was able to place Rocky with the family of a co-worker. Although the end result was best for Rocky and us, I do find myself missing him from time to time.

Vacation??

One of our main projects while we were on vacation last week was supposed to be replacing a run of fence along the small pasture area that leads to our barn. The old wire fence along that run is way beyond needing replacing, as is many of the poles. On Monday, an overcast day held temps down so we jumped on the project. A couple of rain showers slowed our progress so we figured to finish it on Wednesday, since Tuesday was given to running errands and shopping for project materials.
By Wednesday however, we were well into what proved to be the hottest week I can remember. After Monday, the entire week produced a daily heat index in excess of 105. Ultimately, we cancelled the fence project and moved to some of the items on the barn "to do" list as a means to stay out of the Sun as much as possible. We did manage to install the piping for the automatic water system in the stalls. We lost the whole system to freezing this past winter and this time we installed it with insulation. I also installed a tap for future use when we build our wash room. We also got one more of the stall fronts replaced. Part of our shopping on Tuesday was to purchase our remaining four stall fronts. We found some at Agri Supply in Lumberton but they were mix-matched as far as the doors, some were damaged and all were pretty well weathered from being left to the elements, apparently for some time. After determining there would be a good bit of work to be done on the stall fronts for us to be able to use them, we managed to get a pretty good deal of about 1/3 off the posted price. Overall, it was a pretty productive week despite the extreme heat and humidity but I must admit I was pretty glad to get back to the real workday world complete with air conditioning and minimal labor.

One Down, Four To Go

We have been planning on replacing the stall fronts in our barn ever since we moved in 5-1/2 years ago. We did actually purchase a stall front from Tractor Supply about two years ago. Since that time it has sat under our shed. Today, we finally got around to replacing the first one. In planing for the task, I was convinced it would be at least a two day effort to tear out the old front and install the replacement. We actually completed the whole job in about six hours. I had been concerned about how we would secure the panel at the bottom, but setting a railroad tie for the footer and bolting to it worked great. We still have some final tie in to the existing poles, but that should be a piece of cake. It was exceptionally hot today and we were basically non stop on the project in a heat index over 100 degrees. It proved to have been too much for C as she struggles with high heat anyway. B stuck it out all day and we were so proud of how hard she worked with no complaints and constantly looking for whatever she could help do. When it was all said and done, I realized that during the day, which involved a couple of other small projects as well, I had consumed almost two gallons of fluid without ever needing a restroom break. That's a lot of perspiration. Anyway, we were well pleased with the look of the new stall front. It is certainly a nice improvement over the original. Hopefully it won't take us quite as long to get around to making more progress on our barn makeover. We are talking about making a significant dent in it by summer's end. But then, we have always been great at making plans. It's actually getting around to executing them that we struggle with.