as you can see, I've abandoned the blog in favor of Facebook. However, I do enjoy looking back over the blog, so I'm going to try to update it.

Teaching is going well... The main thing is trying to keep them busy, particularly the Highland class, where the students are all doing pretty well, and they are faster than I anticipated. I also thought I might have larger classes, so, I'm not complaining about smaller classes, but it leads to students being done and I have no other activities for them.

I've been freelancing to the Smoke Signal, and this weekend I had two great assignments. I'll try to post photos....

Very excited, and a bit nervous, to begin teaching at Manhattan Christian and at Highland. I'm teaching basic English comp at both schools. I went to school specifically to be able to do this...

I remember teaching years ago at Morgan County College in Fort Morgan. I really enjoyed it, and I'm assuming I'll enjoy this just as much. What impressed me at the community college then was that the students were really dedicated - most of them had "real life" experience, and knew the value of their education. They were highly motivated.

In other news, we had a good county fair. This whole poultry supervisor deal was more than I expected. But I survived, due to the help of Hannah, my granddaughter. I'll post some photos...

The grandkids got to show hogs, above is Hannah, then Paul with his pig, than Simon, who undertook the task of showing a pig without any practice at at all!

The middle pig, shown by Paul, received a good premium at the sale.

In addition to the fair, which is the big deal around here....

The Little Blue Pickup died it was an old Ford Ranger. My husband bought a new pickup for Paul, an old, but running and in pretty good shape, Chevy pickup. It will be useful on the farm, as well.

Photos from today at the Pott county fair.

Flush picnic and I'll post a story on There and Back Again.

These are my photos. They are not the photos that ran with my story in the Smoke Signal.

I've been so neglectful of this blog, as I've transferred by notices, etc, to Facebook. However, here is what's going on now!

Hannah is here, and we're getting ready for the fair!

As you can see, we have barn cats that are tame enough to be picked up....

I'm freelancing to a paper called the Smoke Signal, and I'll be teaching two classes in the fall - One at Manhattan Christian, and another at Highland.

I'd like to post some photos from the Flush Picnic. I hope I can figure out how to do it in the new format that Blogger has now. Perhaps I'd be better off to do it in the next post....

Some of the wildflowers on the walk

People visit with the Docent on the wildflower walk

Paul and I went on a wild flower walk last night on the Konza Prairie. Although I pretty much had to force him to go, it seemed that after a while, he began to enjoy himself. I'm glad we went. It was good to be among people who are interested in the same things that I am.

I was reflecting that it is three years since Paul and I came to Kansas. On the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend, Mike and I were selling hay to the Amish. I was packed and ready to go, and he came to the house, with Ellen and Paul's help, we loaded up the stock trailer (good to know that everything you own can fit in a stock trailer), and we left for Kansas.

What a great three years it has been. Paul has blossomed and I have my degree, and life is pretty good on the farm. I'm so glad to be married to Mike - he is really a nice fellow, even if he doesn't want anyone to know it :)

I remember telling myself - "God did not bring me this far to abandon me" and indeed, he hasn't.

OK, proof that "I are a graduate" as we used to jokingly say.

Ellen came for the ceremony, and I have to say that I'm glad I did it, and I wouldn't have except for her encouragement. Then, later, we had a little gathering. Over the weekend, we went to Casey and Chase Ebert's wedding reception. It was a great time, they are a lovely couple. She's is absolutely beautiful, but she is also kind and thoughtful, and sometimes those two things don't go together.

Ellen is on her way home, but it was wonderful to have her here.

We moved the little chicks to the outside shed today - They grow up so fast!

Many, many things happening.

First off, I passed my "exam" so I'll be able to graduate! I was all prepared to discuss my "companion pieces" as they are lovingly called by one of my favorite professors, Elizabeth Dodd. We spend a bit of time on them, but we spent most of the time on my the first three chapters of my novel "High Country." They asked so many specific questions about the "voice" of the piece that when I left so they could decide if they were going to "pass" me or not, I was in despair that they would want revisions. But they just Passed me and encouraged me to continue with the novel. I've also got one called "Wyoming Sunrise" that I also like a lot.

So, just one more paper to write in my graduate career and I'm done. Job hunting here I come!

Rayna's boyfriend raises pheasants, and someone ordered some and didn't pick them up, so she brought some over to our place. Aren't they beautiful! There were 3 cocks and 7 hens. They have adapted themselves to the windbreak, and one of the cocks came right up to the house looking for bird seed. This could be a problem for them, as they are more tame than a wild pheasant. I hope they won't be easily hunted. I say we had 3, one day when I was out watering the large area in front of the house, I saw a pheasant feather, then a large part of one wing,... and my detective skills honed by looking for the cause of death of chickens let me to believe a chicken hawk (Swansons) got a pheasant. I hope they don't get the idea that they can come here for a meal, as the chickens are out a lot, but they don't tend to be out in the open so much.

With any luck, the pheasants will have baby pheasants. Wouldn't that be wonderful?