05/13/2026
Good Evenings Members,
Well, this is going to be a difficult post to make and please understand where I am coming from. After much thought and consideration and with the encouragement of my helpers I've decided to put a pin in this year's barrel club. The memberships are extremely low as in maybe 9 or 10 so far and I need to be realistic about what it takes to financially run this club. We have a minimum rental fee for the arena, there is the tractor driver and water truck driver fees. I would need to have a minimum of 45 -50 individual members to make this club go. We are aware of the high price of fuel that for this year people are having to make difficult decisions about where they can spend their funds and that is totally understandable....believe me I know.
Plus when Bruce was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the 2024 season I refused to stop the club and last year 2025 after going thru the first year of not having him with me I still didn't want to stop the club. But unfortunately for this year of 2026 I feel that I need to take a little break for my own emotional health and well being. I need to put extra time into my new job, that I absolutely LOVE and I have projects around my place that need to be attended to since now I am a single lady. Also Paddy Griffith our tractor driver and the teacher/coach for Tim (our driver in training) is facing some serious health concerns of his own. Plus the other big reason was looking at the calendar it is going to be extremely difficult to get 10 races in by Oct 1st as there is strong possibility that our irrigation water will be turned off around first of October.
So, everything just pointed to this would be the time just to take a little time off but we will be back bigger for next year! I've been talking with both Paddy and Tim about doing 2 weekends of racing and using these as fundraisers for next year. If you have an idea for a weekend dates from July-Sept pitch them to me so we can plan on it.
**Anyone that has paid their memberships I will start refunding your money this Friday.
As I wrote at the beginning of this long post I hope you all understand why I came to this most difficult decision and I absolutely appreciate each and everyone of you!!
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call me at 509-840-1354
Thanks, Betty
