The Diary Game Season 3/16 January 2022/Pigeon Race

Hallooo Hallloooo! Greetings to you all my fellow Steemians.
This is my first post for this year 2022. Been busy since the beginning of January that I had no time to write my post.
I said last year after I did my power up. MY goal is to reach 500sp and more. Hopefully I will be able to achieve it this month.

I am happy we have another round of our diary game contest.
So, allow me to share to you my diary which transpired last January 16 just this Sunday.

My husband and I ran a building maintenance services company. We offer our services mainly to the local water district here in our city. Also to other private clients who needs home repairs be it through welding works, masonry, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, we also do ground maintenance like grass cutting and tree trimming and cutting or tree removal if needed. Hubby also does some vehicle repairs. We started our business since 2018 up until now.

Last week was really a busy day for us. We had a week long work of doing manual desilting on one of the fresh river water source. Hubby and I had to oversee what our team are doing in order for us to meet the desired amount on the removal of the deposited sand and silt and rocks from the river to get around 100 cu m of sand out from the mini dam.
The process of removing the silt and sand and rocks from the river is called desilting. Since no equipment can fit in the area due to its location we need to do a manual desilting. Meaning we have to remove all the accumulated silt and sand manually through labor.

Aside from overseeing we had to go to other site areas as well because there are other works that are ongoing in other site areas. So hubby and I are always on the go, on the move and on the road. We take turns in driving since we are hands on our business and since we are not that big a company yet so hiring a driver is not yet necessary since both of us can drive.

Sunday is really our rest day. So it is my time for doing house works. The endless house chores. I started early by giving our two guard dogs their bath. My husband is into pigeon racing as well. That is his hobby. Have you heard of pigeon racing before? or perhaps you are a fancier as well. A person who engage in pigeon racing is called a pigeon fancier. They have a pigeon club here in our city. Well, there are many now compared to way back 2009 when there are only two but now there's almost 10 of them here because of the increasing numbers of fanciers who wish to join that's why others put up their own clubs.
They have an on-going race now. Every race has a series of tosses. Usually it will start as a training like 10 tosses from different places at first the tosses are just near then eventually it will become farther and farther until they have what you call the race proper. In the race proper there are another 7 tosses until the last toss which is really very far like in Aparri. The pigeons will fly very long distances and have to compete for their number of complete clocks during every toss. Here is a map so you can see how far the travel distance a pigeon has to fly just so they can come home.
They started from Subic then will be brought in Sta. Ana Aparri for their final toss. Those places with circles are usually the race proper tossing points for each lap before the final lap in Sta. Ana, Aparri.

Imagine how far that is. I kept saying, wow! our birds have been all over the Philippines while me the farthest I have been is in Manila...... haha.

Every race starts with the what you call basketing. A basketing is the term used when you bring your birds to the club for registration then they will be placed in cages which will then be transported to the designated places where they will be tossed. The fanciers will wait for the arrival of their pigeons. They have a clocking system which they used to know the speed and the time for each pigeon during their arrival. Pigeon racing is not gambling. It is not the same as cockfights. In pigeon racing it is almost the same as running a race or marathon but instead of running and done by people it is done by flying and by pigeons. These are not ordinary pigeons and not cheap. They are all expensive and have very smart and good bloodline. Pigeon racing is considered a sport.

The prize money or the pot money depends on how many rings were sold because each contender or bird will wear a special ring which has a sticker and will be used during the clocking for their arrival.

The first prize on their on-going race now is Ninety Thousand Pesos (Php90,000.00). More than a thousand birds are competing for this pot money. That's why it is so exciting. My husband currently holds the number of many over all champion holder. He won seven times already as the first over all plus always on the top ten. The biggest prize we got from winning was One Hundred Twenty Thousand pesos. So I have to support hubby's hobby because it is not just a plain hobby but it has a very big return. He is known in the pigeon racing world.

So, Sunday we waited for our contenders. This was their race proper 3rd from the last lap. Last week we came in 5th place and this week, like this Sunday our three contenders came home made their clock because there is a cut-off time.
They arrived early from Bulan, Sorsogon. They were tossed 7am and they arrived at 2pm, Imagine flying for several hours non-stop just to get home. Bulan is near Albay where the Mayon volcano is situated. The distance from our city Olongapo city to Bulan Sorsogon is 735.2 km around 15 hours travel time if no traffic but if there's traffic maybe additional 3 to 5 hours. Imagine our pigeons flew it for just 7 hours non-stop. Wow! Imagine flying non-stop for seven hours. Oh man!

My husband had this two-storey loft house built for his pigeons. This is his way of showing gratitude to them. He said a bird will really perform very well when they have a good homey space of their own. He is so devoted with his pigeons. He is the one taking care of them, cleaning their loft.

From 5th place last week, we came in third this week. We still have another 2 laps. The next toss will be in Allen Samar, so they will cross the ocean just to get home. This part is very crucial because only few can make the journey home. The farther the distance few birds make it back. Usually from the start they are around more than a thousand but during the final laps they will go down to a hundred plus birds. So this is the survival of the fittest bird. Imagine winning it!
Praying this week our birds, our warrior birds can still manage to fly back home within the allotted time. So they will be declared winners. I pray they will make it home safely and will bring home the bacon.

I hope learned something from my post about pigeon racing. I still have a lot to tell you about this very promising hobby. In other countries like in Taiwan, overnight a fancier can become a millionaire from winning the pigeon race.

Thank you for reading up until the end. Hope you enjoyed my very long post.
Until my next blog. Do take care

Much love,
@aideleijoie

I wish to invite @jewel89 @ladyada @chy to join in the diary game contest.

20% of this post goes to @steemitphcurator.