Greensburg, Kansas

Many of you may remember the F5 tornado that swept through Greensburg, Kansas, almost 2 years ago on May 4, 2007. This massive 205 mph tornado left a trail of debris over 22 miles long and a mile and a half wide, touching down 75 times and killing 12 people. It leveled 95% of Greensburg, leaving virtually the entire town homeless. I can't imagine what emotions these people must have felt the next day, seeing their beloved town destroyed, everyone homeless.

Greensburg is about 2.5 hours west of us, so I drove there last week to witness the rebuilding efforts. Their goal is to build a "greener" Greensburg. I was stunned to see how much of the town is gone. They have rebuilt some homes, there is a new bank, and there was one gas station (new) with a mini-Dillon's grocery store attached. They were just stocking the shelves when I visited. You may remember in many of the newspaper photos at the time, the one thing left standing were the grain silos at the farmer's cooperative. Those silos became an icon of the resilience of this town and their determination to rebuild a better town.

Here are some photos from my visit.

Abandoned old Ford truck with the iconic grain silos in the background

dare to dream...

The infamous grain silos still standing

Abandoned car - note the new growth on the trees, which appears "fuzzy"

This house somehow missed the wrath of the tornado, although still unfit to live in. Note reference to "Auntie Em" scrawled to right of door

Boy Scouts lodge, er, what's left of it...

A few new homes, but the street looks quite desolate still

My Photography Products on Zazzle

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I'm working on my Zazzle product gallery again. Basically, I can create cards, postage, and almost anything else you can think of using my photography, and you can buy them at Zazzle! For example, here's my photo below:


and here's the same photo as a greeting card, below. If you like what you see, check out my other products on Zazzle. Some of the greeting cards have matching postage. I will be creating smaller note card versions of my greeting cards later this week, so they can be used for simple thank you cards, or thinking of you cards. I'll be adding lots more to my Zazzle gallery in the weeks to come!

Horse On Loan

We have a beautiful quarter horse mare on loan -- she has awesome potential for team roping, and Tom is VERY excited. We picked her up Friday and he gave her a whirl on Sunday. He's going to work with her this week, and if she seems promising (which she does so far!), we'll take her to a guy in Ark City who will finish her for roping. Tom's friend said she has been used in roping and shows great potential! However, Stormy's a chunky monkey and she DOES need to lose a few pounds!



My Fav Black & White Photo Conversions

These first three Kansas shots are recent photos taken with my brand new Nikon D60...



These next three were taken with my old Fujifilm camera, but they are still favorites of mine!

My sister in old town San Juan, Puerto Rico

Historic El Morro fort in San Juan

End of the drive in South Haven, Kansas

Trixie Lou the Cuddlebug

Trixie Lou is always where I am. Unlike Ms. Independent Tori Mae, Trixie craves and loves every bit of attention she can coax out of any human within sight. She loves scrunching herself up behind my legs on the couch in the evening to take her nap!

It's a New Year!

Tom just left to get me some milk..... I ran out of milk yesterday and we kept waiting for the satellite dish guys to get here, you know, the 12-5 p.m. window thing..... well, they didn't get here until 5:30-ish and didn't leave until 7:30-ish and by the time we got on the road to get my milk, it was terribly foggy! Not worth the risk to drive 20 miles for milk so we headed back home, which of course made me pissy for a lil bit... those who know me, know that I CANNOT be without my milk!! I'm ok now.... lol.

But while I'm waiting for Tom to get back (with some McD's breakfast too!), I headed outside to get some early morning pics. Some are from yesterday too. Just got my new David Busch's Guide to the Nikon D60, so I will be learning many new things about my camera over the next few weeks. :)

Round bales of hay in field behind our pasture

Ringo, the famous lounge rat

Ringo and Boogie just hangin' out

Shiny chrome vs old & weathered

Rural route

Kansas pasture near pond dam

Sunrise as fog burned off