30 Days of Ranch Memories: Wordless Wednesday

Guess who found her 4-H Record Books over he weekend? Yep, those pictures are good for a few smiles. Since I'm traveling this week, I'd thought I'd share some pictures instead of words. Please control your laughter!

The first picture is a page of my first record book, complete with my club name, and project leader, whose family I still keep in touch with.

Next, you'll see the fashionista I was at 9, with my heifer Holly.  More about her later this week! 

The next two are pictures I took my first year of photography...yep, I was destined to be in ag communications of some sort.  The dog, Wrex?  I don't remember him...my cocker spaniel's name was Pogo Stick. 

My first camera was a Kodak 110 - and I loved it.  I don't think my mom loved all the film processing, but it definitely fueled my passion for photography!

Stay  tuned tomorrow for more Ranch Life Memories, and if you haven't check out my friend Holly's blog: 

Kicking off 30 Days of Ranch Life Memories

Welcome to 30 days of Ranch Life Memories.  Thanks to Holly Spangler for the challenge to blog for 30 days about a rural topic. Holly is compiling a list of five things daily about rural life.  Visit her blog:  My Generation I just hope I can remember 30 stories from my days on Nebraska ranches.

Thanks to my great parents I had a pretty good upbringing. We did move around fairly often, but some of my fondest memories are from the two Hereford ranches my dad worked on as a herdsman back in the 70s and 80s --Iodence Herefords at Hemingford and Cox Ranch north of Mullen.  It seems like for the longest time I thought every kid got to ride in a feed pickup with their dad or be with their dad while making fence or just run around on the gravel road.  Those were a little more carefree times. I didn't know what a latch key kid was; we never lead to lock our doors. I thought it was normal to ride a bus that was a four-wheel drive suburban or a little bit later in life to go to a one-room school.  Yes, life was simple.  And life was good.

Since my blog is a place I share my random thoughts and life experiences I thought it would be good to get some of my childhood  ranch memories on paper, so to speak.

And speaking of putting the pen to the paper, I think I always knew I would be involved in communications and travel.  My first words were bye-bye and at my first 4-H meeting I was  elected reporter of the Sandhills Hillbillies 4-H club.  I remember how excited I was to record the happenings of each monthly meeting and submit my report to the Hooker County Tribune.  Think about most 8-year-olds writing --penmanship was not pretty, but later in the year, I started using my mom's typewriter.  I don't think that was very pretty either.  But  there was nothing  more exciting than to see my byline in the news as reporter.  I'm sure the older kids knew there was monthly work and were glad to see  the little kid get excited about writing.

I'll probably talk about 4-H a lot I  the next month because it seems that youth projects and rural living eventually lead to 4-H projects and ultimately careers. 

Today has been just a preview, and I'm excited to share more ranch life memories with you in the next month. 

Back to the "W"

Last week I addressed the Global 4-H Conference in Kansas City, for about the fifth or sixth year. The conference is geared toward high school students and focuses on career exploration. I remember going to it myself as a young 4-H member from Northwest Kansas, and this year, I had about 32 youth from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma in my group.

Normally I give a two-hour presentation on Ag Journalism and Public Relations; but since my role at the Association changed slightly in August, I felt it somewhat hypocritical of me to talk only about journalism since I primarily focus my efforts on event planning and show management--still aspects of PR. So I made new slides, titled the "ABCs of Public Relations, Ag Journalism & Event Planning". I had at least one slide for each letter of the alphabet, and by the time I got to "W" I was running out of creativity. But my talk isn't just about career development, it's about personal development too, and I even talk about goal setting and have the individuals set short, medium and long range S.M.A.R.T. goals.

But, back to the "W". I made a slide about Words that always Work--you know the ones I'm talking about--Please, Thank you, How can I help. Well, this week I have received several thank you notes in the mail from these kids, and here are just a few excerpts from them:

"You really helped me because I want to do journalism, but never knew what it took. Now I know & I'm very glad that you came and helped me understand the things. Thank you."

"I learned a lot about of this workshop that I can use in my future career. You are a very talented and educated person and thank you for being involved in the 4-H Global Summit."

"It was so full of fun & info. It was the best workshop in my 3 years of coming to the KCGC!"

And, speaking of "Words that always Work" I would like to give a huge shout out to all those who read this blog regularly or are reading for the first time, encourage me in my writing and other endeavors and support me in all I do! I know I don't say it often enough, but thank you!

If you are reading this now, you have made a difference in my life at some point, and I appreciate you.