I have 2 days
worth of blogging to do, so let’s jump right in. I want to fully disclose now that I did little to no proof reading because I am exhausted and have been working on this for upwards of 4 hours. Don't judge.
Part 1. Tuesday
If you can't read it, the bus is personalized. It says "Quinter Public Schools" and "Bulldogs"
I got to ride
the bus for the first time on Tuesday. The school bus. The only time I had ever
ridden the school bus before was once when I was in about 2nd grade,
because I wanted to know what it would be like. The bus got lost. I ended up on the bus for 4 hours on what was supposed to
be a 15 minute ride. I did not ride the school bus again after that, not
because I cared at all about how long the ride took I actually enjoyed it. But
my parents did not enjoy the fact that their daughter was MIA for hours on a
strange bus. So that was the end of that.
Anyways the
school bus is a really enjoyable experience, I just wish the ride was longer.
It’s very relaxing, I’ve always enjoyed long bus rides. I make an effort to sit
next to kids who look particularly loner-ish because then I know I can just
listen to my music, observe the flatness, and mentally prepare myself for my
day without them trying to talk to me. There’s only one stop after Caitlyn’s
house to get to school, and that’s only on the way back home. So on the one
hand the ride is only about 5 minutes, but on the other hand that means I can
sleep until much later than when I’m in school at home.
Mrs. Getz
Right when I get
off the bus, because the bus usually arrives just a few minutes before the
first bell, I go straight to Mrs. Getz’ class, which is American history.
American history is a great class to have in the morning because it’s material
I’m already semi-familiar with, and I like all the people in the class, as well
as the teacher. Her class has a very relaxed and peaceful atmosphere which is
perfect for starting off day my since usually the second part is some sort of
wild agricultural experience.
Bobbie
Plus another
great thing about my U.S. History class is that Bobbie is in it. Bobbie is a
Junior and her outfits match every day, which is just fantastic. Bobbie is
really funny and really friendly, and she had 10 siblings. Something else I
learned about Bobbie yesterday is on top of her awesome personality, she is
also an American hero. Bobbie is enlisted in the military and goes to basic
training in a few months. She took the ASVAB test today. I was going to take it
just to find out what I would get, but instead I went to shear sheep, which
I’ll cover in great detail later. The ASVAB test is a battery of testing that
basically tells you which job you would be best suited for in the military. It
was administered here in the library with a very official uniformed officer. So
everyone keep Bobbie in mind next time you hear we’re off to fight another war.
She wants to work in the medical field of the military in either physical or
occupational therapy.
I wasn’t in
classes for long on Tuesday, as I had to take off relatively quickly for the
WaKeeney Cattle Auction. I did not know cattle auctions were a thing. When I
thought about how big companies or ranchers bought their cattle I genuinely
expected they would buy them online or from a catalogue. Especially big beef
companies like JBS. JBS is one of the largest beef companies in the entire
world. They own a bunch of subsidiaries and sell to big name stores like
Wal-Mart. Lucky me, I got to attend the cattle auction with one of JBS’ most
prominent buyers, Gene. So when they said I would be going to a cattle auction
my first thought was it would be a giant outside fair type thing with pens of
100’s of cattle and you would just go up with your money and say “12 of that
color please.” And go on with your day. I had no idea that cows were so
expensive and were chosen with such scrupulousness.
Front of the Sale Barn
I also assumed
that someone who bought the cows was a numbers man, who took his pen, paper,
calculator, and three piece suit to the cattle auction and bought a months
worth of cows and then let the men with the trucks handle it from there.
I was wrong.
Cowboys
The above
picture is who I ate lunch with. Gene is the one in the blue on the cellphone.
For all you Northerner’s reading this, I can tell you first hand that, yes, he is wearing a cowboy hat. When he came to
pick me up in his massive Ford pickup I was stunned into silence, again. He had
on Wrangler jeans and a real cowboy hat and a pack of cigarettes and I was
completely sure I was either asleep or had been conned into being on a reality
TV show. I did not think there were men like this in existence anymore. I
thought they all died out in the 1800’s in Texas saloons watching cabaret
dancers. Nope.
The restaurant
had a board with specials. There was no fish, no vegetarian special, the only
thing without meat was salad. I thought this was just hysterical. I never
thought about it, but I don’t think a restaurant comes to mind back home that
doesn’t have either fish or vegetarian options. I had the chicken and noodles
over mashed potatoes. What they brought me was like a life-size recreation of
the Himalayan Mountains.
The
conversations I listened to these guys have were absolutely surreal. I loved
every second of it. Pretty much the first thing he said to me was, “So I understand
you’re from up North. Just for your information, incase you didn’t already
know, just about everyone you’re gonna run into in the Mid-West will be
Conservative Republicans.” There were a couple people at the table who had
never even left Gove County, Kansas. They quizzed me up about life in the
North, asked me outright if I came from money and if I was a democrat, and then
proceeded to tell me all about life when they were little. They talked about
the jobs they had, one person in particular had an interesting one. He held
pigs while they got vaccinated or whatever else it is pigs need to be held for
and he was paid about 8 cents an hour, if I remember correctly. He had been
doing it since he was 7. Another thing they were big on was talking about how
they don’t like the government, and all the laws they disagreed with.
The Meat Review Sheet they had in the lobby.
Gene talked a
lot about how expensive college is, but how he’s come to terms with the fact
that education is important nowadays if you want to get anywhere in the world.
He said he used to think poorly of people who had scholarships or took out
student loans but now that his grandson is trying to get into college his
thoughts on that have done a 180. His grandson got into either Fort Hays or
K-State College, I don’t remember which one. He is going to become an
anesthesiologist. It will cost for his 4 years of schooling, books included,
$150,000. Gene and his wife are helping to pay for some of it, and he’s getting
help from all sorts of other places as well, but Gene made it abundantly clear
that his grandson will go to college even if he has to come up with every penny
of it himself.
Another
interesting education related conversation was when he talked about what
college and higher education was like way back when. He said one of the reasons
he used to think it wasn’t necessary to get a student loan was because back in
the day people would get a job and work their way through college, and would
usually only go for about a year or so until they knew enough to hold down a
job (so basically vocational training.) But the college explicitly told his
grandson that he wouldn’t have time for a job while he was there. He was going
to go all in. So working his way through college was no longer an option.
I come from an
upper class Northern background, both my parents worked in academia, I grew up
in a college town, and this was a perspective I had never seen before. Gene’s
daughter attended college for $800 dollars a semester tuition. This included
her meal plan and most of her books. I didn’t even know that was possible.
To put this in
perspective, she was paying roughly $1600 dollars a year for a college
education. The Putney boarding tuition is $48,800. That doesn’t include books. Which
means if you attend Putney paying full tuition as a boarder for 4 years you’ll
pay about $50,000 more for your high school education tuition not including
books or clothes or anything, than someone only 20 or 30 years ago going
through college. Even at K-State right now the maximum tuition you could pay,
including room, board books, and all other campus privileges, is $16,000. One
year of full Putney tuition would pay for just over 3 years at Kansas State
College.
I grew up in a
college town, I’ve attended private school all my life, I come from an
extremely liberal upper class background, both my parents have been immersed in
the academic world, in my mother’s case for her entire life, and both value
education as their highest priority. I will never be able to fully understand
how lucky I am to have had the opportunities I have had, such as to go to
Putney and go on this unbelievable network trip. But I don’t think there are
many things out there that could have helped me put all that in perspective a
bit more than that conversation did.
Another thing
that stuck out to me about the WaKeeney auction was the fact that is was very
personal. Everyone knew Gene when he walked in, but I’m assuming that’s because
he frequents cattle auctions. But everyone who was selling cattle was in the
stands watching there’s be sold. The waitresses in the diner we ate in, (that
was attached to the cattle auction house) knew just about everyone who came in.
It was sweet.
I’m pretty sure
Gene was about 60, and although he could retire, he says not only does he love
buying cows but he also doesn’t know what he would do with himself if he
couldn’t buy cows. If you’re a beefeater in any part of the country there’s a
99% chance you’ve eaten beef that Gene purchased.
All of JBS' Subsidiaries
The actual
auction wasn’t anything to write many pages about. It was thrilling for me, but
it’s very much a “you had to be there” type thing. If I describe it, it will
seem underwhelming but I assure you if you were sitting there with me you would
have been on the edge of your chair the entire 3 hours I spent watching this
same process over and over and over again.
It was a room
that smelled so thickly of cow you could practically grill the air. There was a
cow ring and behind it an elevated platform with a screen telling you how many
head of cattle were up for grabs, their average weight, and their overall
combined weight. There was a whole range from people just selling one cow to
people selling 50 cows at a time. They would all run in and the auction caller
(yes a real auction caller, with the fast talking and everything. Check out the
video to hear for yourself.) would say a lot of things. I don’t know exactly
what. I’m assuming it was height and breed and whose ranch it came from.
Everybody knew whose ranch it came from, there would be hushed conversations
of, “Oh those are Smith’s steers. That’s a mighty big heard to be coming down
from ol’ Smith…” It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was truly a
taste of the middle of the country. I just don’t even know what to say, looking
at that lunch table and how Gene knew literally everybody in the stands of the
WaKeeney auction, again, stunned me into silence. (Anyone who knows me well understands
that for anything to make me silent it must be pretty stunning.)
The day marched
on as normal after I returned.
I played some
Wii tennis with Caitlyn, she’s amazing
at Wii tennis. Thank goodness she has other interests or she could become one
of those shut-ins who just plays Wii and travels around going to tournaments
and stuff, because that is the level she is on.
Although I
haven’t actually had the honor and privilege to see Collin play videogames yet
I understand his skills are a step above epic. Collin is good at a lot of
things, especially spelling, and he shares my affinity for skulls, which is comforting. He is funny,
outgoing, and talented and unfortunately that’s not helping him with the kids
at school. I guess if you’re too excellent you intimidate people without even
trying, and it sounds like that’s what’s happening to Collin. He really doesn’t
think many people in his grade like him, and unfortunately I believe him. 5th
graders are intimidated easily. If there’s anything that chips away at my faith
in America’s youth it’s when I hear about kids shunning the smart ones instead
of embracing them and trying to learn from them. Collin is one of the most
gregarious, friendly 11 year olds I’ve ever encountered. Yes, he has his
moments, but that’s because he’s 11. He’s destined for something greater than a
group of middle schoolers, so keep your eye out for him over the next few
years, because he’s going to do something spectacular.
Yes, it is blurry, let's see you try to get an 11 year old boy to be photographed.
That night I
went to my first, and unfortunately as it looks now, last, Quinter sports game.
It was a basketball game, three games were played that night, two of which went
on simultaneously, as Quinter has two gymnasiums. When Caitlyn said they took
sports seriously in Quinter, I thought maybe that meant a big crowd would show
up, maybe. Nothing anyone could have told me anything that would have possibly
prepared me for what I saw. When we got there they were selling snacks, the
tickets cost money, and the entire school just looked transformed. The teams
had official outfits, they had a school band play the National Anthem before
the game (I didn’t think they did that at un-televised high school events) and
there were cheerleaders for both teams. The coaches were wearing dress shirts
and ties, and there was A TON of people. They even have shirts to support the
team, with slogans and everything. The Quinter mascot is a bulldog and the
bulldog can be found everywhere at the games.
I still couldn’t get over how great the
cheerleading was. The uniforms looked out of a movie, they had pompoms, they
were all peppy and it was great. I’ve always dreamed of being a cheerleader. I
took a cheerleading class at a community center when I was younger, but it
wasn’t the real deal. I abandoned my dream of being a cheerleader when I
reached 8th grade and knew my middle school wouldn’t have one any
time soon and my high school didn’t have one either. But since I’ve arrived at
Putney and realized it’s different from any other school I’ve been in, I’ve
decided to take some initiative and try to start my own cheerleading squad at
Putney. We can wear green and white and represent the Putney…Trees, or whatever
our mascot is (I don’t think we actually have one.) So People of Putney email
me if you too have any interest in a cheerleading squad.
During the game I
mostly watched, sat and talked with Caitlyn and her friends. They were playing
a team called The Hill City Ring necks. How do I put this delicately… The
Quinter bulldogs ran out enthusiastically into the road and proceeded to get
run over by a convoy of 18 wheelers. But Quinter actually produces a staggering
amount of winning teams. They’ve sent plenty of teams to state, they’ve won
state multiple times, and their forensics team kicks ass and takes names on a
regular basis. Ms. Tebo’s room is wallpapered with trophies and plaques for
forensics, and the hallway with trophies, plaques, and news articles for their
outstanding athletics.
I went back to
Caitlyn’s and immediately crashed. I’ve been so exhausted these last few days,
it’s only an hour’s time difference but I wasn’t even this jetlagged when I
went to Bora Bora (12 hour time difference.) I was so tired yesterday I
actually took a nap. That’s the reason you haven’t seen a blog post in the past
few days. I usuallay write them in the evening but I’ve been way to exhausted.
I’ve taken tow writing them in school now to be sure they’re timely so I don’t
forget too much.
Part 2. Tuesday
Christopher Marlowe
The next day I
presented my oral report on Christopher Marlowe in Ms. Tebo’s class. It was a
bit embarrassing because I wasn’t nearly as prepared as I would have liked to
be. For those of you who know me, especially who have been in classes with me,
you know I like to go all out with that sort of thing. I think I mentioned in
my last post that I bought and wore a Renaissance dress and a powdered beehive
wig for a 2 minute recitation. I recently presented a PowerPoint on maple syrup
with some of my best friends at Putney, and we handed out actual samples of
maple syrup and conducted a taste test. I like to take things to the extreme.
Never the less, here’s a brief synopsis of what I learned.
-Christopher
Marlowe was a playwright in the 16th Century.
-He worked
secret service for Queen Elizabeth I.
-He pretty much
invented dramatic verse (iambic pentameter that doesn’t rhyme.)
-Marlowe was
supposedly stabbed to death in a restaurant due to a dispute over the bill.
-Many people
believe Christopher Marlowe actually wrote most, if not all, of Shakespeare’s
plays.
So I rambled
about him for a while in English (I’m trying to rep for you Putney, I really
am.) And then after English I took off for one of the cutest experiences I’ve
had so far…
THE MINIATURE PONY FARM!!:0
I went to
Porter’s Pony Farm and saw her 16 adorable ponies. They’re very miniature, the
largest one barely came up to my waist. She has a massive guard dog that’s the
size of most of the ponies and he’s very sweet. His name is Bear. I love him.
Bear<3
Her ponies are gorgeous, she showed some of them in the World Pony Competition
(I don’t know what the exact name is.) But basically the biggest miniature pony
competition in the world. Her gorgeous show horse took 3rd. She
doesn’t plan on showing this year, however, as whenever she takes her horses to
shows they come back with an illness that they then pass along to the other
horses. She plans to take this next year to just sit back and enjoy them. They’re very soft and very friendly. She has
mostly mares, and several stallions.
Pony Selfie <3<3 With Spider the Pony
I had so much
fun at the miniature horse farm. There were plenty of things that seemed
surreal to me because of the huge cultural differences that are right here in
our country, but this seemed surreal to me for the sole reason that THEY WERE
SOOOOOOO TINY!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D
There’s not
really much more to say on them. The owner, Peggy Porter, was very friendly and
informative about her horses. For more information about the miniature horses,
more pictures, and more fun, visit their website.
Something about
Peggy Porter worth mentioning though, is Peggy Porter was not born and raised
in Kansas unlike just about every other farmer I’ve encountered. She’s from San Diego. There’s no spectacular story
about how she got here, I expected her to say something along the lines of “And
after the plane wreck I was wandering around the flatlands for days, until I
stumbled upon Quinter, and by God I won’t leave this town until I find my
daughter again!” But no. That was not the case. She met a farmer, one thing led
to another, now they’re living in Quinter, Kansas.
Quick interval…
Almost all the agricultural people I’ve visited have religious paraphernalia
all over their house on display. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t know many
conservative people, but I had never seen that before, or if I have I didn’t
notice. It just was interesting to me, it stuck out, so I’m mentioning it.
Another quick interval... Yesterday they were serving this at lunch.
It's called hamburger gravy. Even thinking about it made me almost throw up cake from my 3rd birthday. So I only got apricots and a bun. Apparently there is a law about how much food each student has to have on their trays. They actually had to come up and make me take these whopping 6 extra pieces of vegetable to meet these requirements. I'm not sure if this is the country being healthy or being a tad bit OCD.
But I digress…
That night we
ate pizza from The Pizza Station. I love
the Pizza Station. Not only was their pizza cheesy, thin crusted, and
delicious, but they have quite a personality. Talking to people about the pizza
station I learned these two outstanding facts that earned The Pizza Station a
special place in my heart.
-The Pizza
Station is in the owners house. I don’t know if he lives in his business or
runs his business out of his home, but if you go to the pizza station you’ll be
in the owner’s place of business and his cozy Quinter home.
-The Pizza
Station does not have set hours of any kind. They could be open, they could be
closed. 50/50 shot.
I highly enjoyed
The Pizza Station.
Part 3. Thursday
(today)
I woke up and
ate delicious Pillsbury crescent rolls. I got on the bus. I drove to school. I
went to library. I went to a sheep ranch.
Yep, you read
that one right too. From Art Basel Miami to a sheep ranch in Kansas, I’m doing
it all.
Before I start
talking about factual things, introducing the various characters of the sheep
ranch, etc. I want to start by saying, all the people in Kansas are awesome. I
think something Gene said about people in the Mid-West sums it up pretty
perfectly “We’ll go out of our way to help you if you need it. If you don’t need help you won’t get any help.”
This is definitely the vibe I’ve gotten. Everyone here is really friendly and
welcoming and helpful, and they’re also super hard working and dedicated to
what they do, and if you’re not dedicated to what you’re doing and giving it
110% then get out of the way. This has come in handy for me, as I came here to
immerse myself and be involved. So it has helped me tremendously that people just
expect me to be hands on when I visit their farms, ranches, etc. because then I
don’t have to ask to be immersed, it just happens. But the friendly helpful
piece of them is the part that makes the other part work.
I would not have
been able to do the things I did on the sheep farm today if it wasn’t for the
help of Ashley and Debbie and everyone else on the sheep ranch. This sheep
ranch was the first up-close experience I’ve had so far with a real profitable
farm, one that isn’t a hobby farm. They make their living raising sheep. That
is what they do. They also own some crops, but they make their living off
agriculture. I didn’t fully process what a huge deal that is or how difficult
it is to pull it off until I saw it first hand. Ashley is a Junior at Fort Hays
college, she wants to get a degree in textiles and open her own fabric store
some day. She knits prolifically, but I’ll get into all that later.
When I arrived
at the sheep ranch (no I didn’t get the name of the ranch out of all the other
questions I bombarded them with) the first thing I noticed was I was basically
standing in the kitchen every fairy tale involving a kitchen was based on.
There was little beautifully wrapped candies and bowls of chocolate and spices
all lined up and an old fashioned oven and I was just glowing with happiness
that those kinds of kitchens actually existed. I talked to Ashley, Debbie’s
niece, for a little bit. Then we headed outside.
I was a bit
dismissive of my Carhartt work boots at first.
Not any more. Not
at all.
I wouldn’t have
any toes left if I hadn’t had these boots. It was cold today. I had gloves that I brought from Caitlyn’s but the
sheep people didn’t want me to destroy those gloves with sheep oil, so they
loaned me a pair. I slipped them on, even though I removed them every 10
seconds to take a picture or write a note about what they were saying.
Some basics
about their farm…
Their family
purchased the land, including the house, in 1920, so in 6 more years it will be
a century farm. They have 800 ewes (mother sheep) and 30 rams. It takes 3 rams
to produce 100 ewes. During the height of the lambing season (the season all
the ewes give birth) they could be birthing 80 lambs a day. Debbie, being a
night person, usually works until 12 or 1 in the morning during that season
since she’s a night person, and her husband will wake up at 3AM to trade off
with her.
Lambing requires
round the clock work. Only 50-100 of their ewes need help lambing (they have
800, so that’s not a lot) most give birth on their own. It’s when they’re
birthing twins or triplets that things could get tricky. It’s not uncommon for
the ewes to have twins, many pull it off flawlessly, but some need help. They
take very special care to match up the ewe and it’s lamb using an ear tag on
the ewe and it’s lamb with a specific color and number.
One important reason to
do this is because some ewes who may not have had their lamb yet may take
another ewe’s lamb since her udders are full she knows she should have a lamb
under her care. But then she has her lamb and she doesn’t want it because she
already had the one she stole, and the mother who had her lamb stolen won’t
take it back, so they end up having to be bottle fed. Bottle feeding is a lot
of extra time and work that would best be avoided.
Another way they
avoid having to bottle feed the lambs or the ewes getting their lambs mixed up,
is by keeping the mother and baby in an enclosed space (4 by 5 feet) for the
first few days to be sure both are healthy and the lamb knows it’s mother and
drinks her milk, etc.
Her son recently
moved back to Kansas from his job in telecommunications where coincidentally
spent most of his time in Providence, Rhode Island. But after growing up on a
farm in Quinter I’m sure it’s nearly impossible to adjust to spending your life
behind a computer screen, so he’s back. His tech skills have come in hand,
however, as he designed a computer program to coordinate the feeding of the
sheep (what type of food, what amount, what time, etc.) This is useful because
they feed the sheep a variety of grains and plants from their sustainable
seeding machine that acts as a mini greenhouse growing barely grass
hydroponically. But different sheep need different feeds and amounts, for
example a pregnant ewe needs more nutrition than an average sheep, and a lamb
is smaller so it needs less.
As I toured the
grounds, I saw two freakish looking sheep. Come to find out the freakish
looking sheep were a donkey and a llama. They can’t keep the donkey in with the
lambs because it would kill them, but they have a guard llama that scares away
coyotes with the help of the guard dogs. He just lives with the sheep, towering
over them in their pen, keeping watch.
So then we went
into the lamb pen. Have you ever heard the saying “as gentle as a lamb”?
Lies. Blatant,
harmful lies.
They had about
200 sheep in a big pen. Because I made it very clear I wanted to be hands on,
Ashley (who overestimated my ability at first) said, “Alright, you take that
gate, and I’ll take this one, and one on the count of three swing it as wide as
you can.
1…2…3… BAM.
Internal bleeding. I pushed the gate in the wrong direction. I was immediately
overpowered by 200 huge sheep. If I hadn’t had the gate to cling onto they
would have trampled me to the ground. The metal gate smashed into my vital
organs, puncturing them all, I’m sure.
Next we had to
get to the barn, and she just hopped over this super tall metal fence like it
was no big deal. However she now realized she was dealing with biscuit dough
from a big city, so she had lowered her expectations a little (thank God.)
“It’s an art form, you’ll get it.” She reassured me. The gate at that moment
looked like it was a good foot above my head. Once I was over it I found out it
was at about waste level. But that doesn’t matter. Because I did the gate thing
wrong. I climbed into it the wrong way, and to make a long story short, I don’t
think I’ll be able to have children anymore.
Next we went to
the big sheep barn where they were shearing all the sheep, two at a time. There
was a giant bag of wool, about 8 ½ feet, on a rickety looking metal holder.
They were collecting the yarn in a red bucket and putting it into the bags
until they filled them. There was a fence here up to my chin. It was just a
sheet of metal. It looked like the kind of fence Jackass would smash a shopping
cart into. Yes, they did expect me to climb it. I think the look on my face
said it all, because they showed me how to walk around to the other side so I
wouldn’t have to climb it.
I could go on
for pages and pages about how different things are here, you know I can because
I already have, but let me just say this reinforced that I am completely
ignorant about what goes on in a huge part of our country. I thought most of
these things were only in movies about life in the 1850’s. All those movies old
people watch and say things like “Now that was a time when people had some
morals and common decency! You can’t find a work ethic like that any more!
Sodas were so much cheaper back then…” And all that good stuff.
It was my job to
collect the wool out from under the tarp block off the shearing area. The sheep
think the tarp is a wall, until they let the sheep go, then it runs straight
through it. So if you didn’t already get it from what I said above, the scared,
bald, aggressive sheep run right through the tarp I had to stand directly in
front of to collect the wool. So every time I went up to it a mental image of a
sheep running through me and my doing a backflip landing either on the shaving
razor or on my spinal chord flashed through my mind. Nonetheless, I had a lot
of fun. I would fill the bucket and pass it up to Ashley who was standing on
the rickety looking contraption holding up the giant bag of wool. Eventually I
got to stand on the rickety bag of wool, despite the fact every rational bone
in my body told me not to. And it was awesome.
I would never have done it if Ashley hadn’t been so reassuring.
On the subject
of Ashley, Ashley makes the most adorable hand knit stuff. Especially hats for
babies that look like cupcakes. They are absolutely adorable and reasonably
prices, and knit with the wool from these pretty sheeps! She sells all sorts of
great stuff on Etsy and for prices that cannot be beat. If you want homegrown
Kansan wool, definitely check it out. I can tell you first hand they’re really soft.
http://www,etsy.com/ca/shop/craftyAshley93
I also got to go
to Debbie’s sons house, the one who just recently moved back here and has a 15
month old son, and see the rams that live at his house. I watched him feed them
and check that their water hadn’t become one giant ice cube. It was very
entertaining. I made the same mistake I made at the cattle auction and accidentally
disclosed that I was up until very recently a vegetarian. On the way back
Debbie said, “So I heard some bad news about you already.” I had no idea what
she was talking about and I had a moment of shear and udder panic (pun very
much intended.) “You’re a vegetarian.” I exhaled a sign of relief. I explained
how I was a vegetarian etc. Everyone
I’ve told this too, especially the ranchers, all asks me what I eat. I even had
someone ask me what I ate as a vegetarian and I said, “Everything but meat” and
hand to God the response I got was “But how do you chose what to eat with your
meat if you don’t eat meat?” Apparently the cultural norm is to choose the meat
and then build the rest of the meal around the meat. To each his own. You
choose your meat and build your meal around the meat, I choose my shape of
pasta and build from that.
Before I close I
want to give someone credit.
This is Inga.
Yes, she is sideways. No I don't know why, or how to fix it.
Inga is spending
the year in Kansas from a city in Germany. I am having such major culture shock
and I’m only here for two weeks, I’m mentally overloaded, but I’ve only been
here for 5 days. Inga is truly a pioneer and a anthropologist, and I respect
her so much for just letting an organization choose a school seemingly at
random and just go there for an entire year. A year. Go Inga.
Now I’m sitting
in the Quinter library where I’ve been writing for a couple of hours. I just
had a bit of a panic attack once again, because my laptop is an hour ahead and
I thought I had missed the bus, but that is not the case. Now I will go back
through my post, edit for spelling mistakes, and add pictures. The souvenir I
took home with me from the sheep barn is the smell of sheep, so I think
promptly after this a shower is in order.
Thanks for
reading, keep checking for new posts, and smile at this picture!
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