Christmas Letter 2016

After a brief pre-Christmas cold snap with a tease of snow, the temperatures have rebounded and we're expecting a warm and wet Christmas.

Trish is now a certified Tallgrass Prairie Preserve docent.  She got to learn all about the prairie ecosystem, the history of the Preserve, the bison, and other ongoing projects.  She has fun explaining this to the visitors at the Preserve.

Trish continues to enjoy her chickens and now has  instagram and facebook accounts dedicated to all things fun with chickens.  She enjoys surfing the web looking for interesting items to post along with her own pictures.

Trish and Jami played "Thelma and Louise" (sort of) last summer.  Her account, "Jami and I took a road trip in June to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.  We took as many roads less traveled as we could.  We visited Laura Ingalls Wilder's last home, Rocky Ridge, in Mansfield, Missouri.  We spent a couple of days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and many hours on windy roads that provided beautiful scenery.  The highlight of the trip was a ferry ride that we just happened onto on our backroad jaunt.  The ferry took us across Bulls Shoals Lake and was free because it is managed by the highway department.  We enjoyed the trip so much that we are already planning our next one."

In the fall we took a mini-vacation over to Bentonville, Arkansas.  There were a number of things we've wanted to see and do for some time in the area. We visited a small out of the way cemetery to dig up ;-) information on her ancestors and also visited Pea Ridge National Military Cemetery where some of her ancestors fought.  We visited the well known War Eagle Craft fairs and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  We also got to sample quite a few craft beers in the local micro-breweries.

Later in the fall we went up to the Preserve and watched their annual bison roundup.  It was bison bison everywhere.

The big news of the year, Pawhuska-wise, was the long awaited opening of the Pioneer Woman's restaurant/deli, bakery, and gift shop.  Everybody's hoping happy times are here again.  For more details click on the "Pictures" link at the top of the page and then select "Landscape Pix."

We hope you all are doing well.  We wish you a Merry Christmas, a joyous Holiday Season, and all the best for the coming year.

Farm Report

We had a tragedy earlier in the year when we lost our two baby chicks.  We'd overly relied on an electric fence to keep predators out and it looks like one was able to get in via the network of trees surrounding the pen.  It is sad when you've raised them by hand from little balls of fluff only to lose them before they have a chance to lay their first egg.  We think we caught the predator a few days later.  We also lost two of our hens, Sheila Honey and Ida Red (aka the Devil Chicken), to old age and/or the diseases thereof.  It's always sad to see them go, but chickens are relatively short lived.  Currently we have four head of chicken:  Oneda, Lily, Bunny, and Darla.


Construction Report

After our tragedy with the babies earlier in the year, we substantially upgraded the security of our chicken coop and baby house.  We fully enclosed both in chicken wire and field fence and strengthened the doors.  Hopefully now they're as critter proof as possible.

Music Report

Music wise it was a rather quiet year.  Due to illness and accidents on both sides of the family we really didn't have the time or the energy to host a rendezvous.  We also took a year off from our usual festivals.  We just jammed at a few parties and had one serious gig:  playing with Indocent Exposure at the Docent Appreciation Day at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

I've updated the Cowell Cinema and Cacophony page for the tone deaf and harmonically forgiving.  Music lovers will definitely NOT want to go there!

Anyone passing this way is always welcome to drop in and sit a spell. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season and we wish you all the best for the coming year.