How to See Rome in 2.5 Days

I posted a few weeks ago about our whirlwind, trip-of-a-lifetime to Europe in December. Well, I'm back with a recap on how you can see Rome and the awesome architectural attractions in only 2.5 days.

 

Our half day was the first day we were in Rome - we left Australia and after three long flights we landed in Rome at 12:30 pm. So, here we go!
Read more »

Grocery Markets Around the World

The Ninja admiring all the dried meats and fancy cheeses at
 the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia

 One of my favorite things to do while traveling abroad is visiting grocery stores and food markets. Not only are markets a great venue for people watching and experiencing culture, they also provide me with a valuable lesson in food diversity, value and, most importantly, they remind me to be ever-so-thankful for our American food supply.

It's always fun to peruse a foreign grocery store to see what kinds of different products are available that we don't have in the U.S. For example, I was in Poland for a short time in December and saw many unique things in the store. Live carp were available in the fish section and the produce section featured a wide variety of pickles and sauerkraut.
Read more »

Around the World in 35 Days

Backpacking was quite the adventure!

I have just returned from a whirlwind trip that took my boots to eight countries and 10 cities in 35 days. And I did it with a single backpack (mostly) and only three pairs of shoes. No hot air balloon involved.

How? Why? Where? Great questions!

As you may have noticed in my Instagram feed, the Ninja finished his PhD in September 2015 - a goal that he has been working towards for 10 years. Ever since we went to Australia for 10 months in 2011, he has wanted to go on a backpacking trip around Europe to celebrate the completion of his PhD. So when May rolled around and the end was in sight, we started talking about bringing the dream to fruition.

Fruition turned out to be the trip of a lifetime with an equally adventurous, flexible and fun-loving husband! I cannot adequately convey the magnitude of fun we had on this trip, but I will try. It was so relieving to be away from the stress of our daily lives and just be with each other while soaking up as much history, fun and food as we could. I affectionately call this trip the "Art and Carbs Tour of 2015."
Read more »

A Picture is Better Than Words

My "blog every week" challenge blew up in my face during week two - but at least I'm back now. Hooray!

 

I take a lot of pictures and am an Instagram addict (@brandibuzzard) so here are a few of the pictures I've taken lately (some were on my feed, some not) since I haven't been able to fuse more than three words together for a blog post this past week.

 

Almost as gorgeous as a wheat field - a hay field in Kansas.

 

I got to visit Ellensburg, WA last week - not only was it gorgeous but I got to see these little SimAngus cuties!

 

See what I mean? Washington is GORGEOUS! I told the Ninja we could easily move there tomorrow. It was 65 and rainy the whole time - boo hiss to this 100 degree weather in Kansas.

Kids love the Ninja

This little fart bucket is getting huge - he's already 50% larger than he was when we got him!

I went to the Kenny Chesney, Eli Young Band and Eric Church concert at Arrowhead Stadium. It rained. A lot. Melissa was not thrilled with her umbrella's performance.

 

Alright, that's all I've got for now - whatcha been up to this summer? 

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Decorating the Blog with Diversity

I struggle to keep this blog ag, K-State and rodeo centered. Because I like random things like decorating and cooking (sometimes) and I always love clothes and would love to be able to do what Sheridan does over on Stitches Without Riches but I don't want to deter from my real purpose for the blog. So while I will probably start to put more random domesticated blogs in here, never fear because K-State, ag and rodeo will always reign supreme.

See how I put decorating in the title? I bet you didn't know this was going to be about decorating. I tricked ya.

I have put a lot of time into decorating our trailer house for fall, especially since it's the first house we've had room to decorate in since we've been married. So, today you're getting a splash of fall decorating in and around our trailer casa and also some excitement of DIY. Very domesticated I have become (that was Yoda speaking). Oy, marrying a nerd is rubbing off on me.

Ok let's kick start this with some DIY excitement - I have a lot of jewelry and nowhere to put it all so I can choose what to wear.

See this right here? That's a jewelry board with cool vintage-y knobs from Hob Lob that I made using a piece of barnwood from the old barn across the road. Total cost: $8 - I saw one on ebay selling for $40. I am such a saver.

And this?

Oh, just a burlap monogram letter of the family name. No biggie - knocked that DIY project out in one night. Easy peasy.

And this lampshade?

Purple spray paint is the bomb.

I made those things, folks. With my two hands. And some power tools. and a flame torch.  Also, I did some fall decorating on that table with the wooden duck and a pumpkin candle. Ba-zing.


And now for the decorating portion of today's random blog post:

 

This is in our living room - I found the barnwood shelf/cabinet on Craigslist and the framed copy of A Tribute to the Stockman by W.H. Mumford is a gift from my sister-in-law, Hallie. The wooden dish is made from eucalyptus wood that we bought it in Australia. Glammed up pumpkins are from Michaels, as is the hurricane jar and candle. Wine corks were already on hand ;)

Next up the mantel top of the entertainment center

 I don't like to buy a lot of things to decorate, because I'm cheap. So I use whatever I can find in our house or stuff we have purchased on different trips. I like to incorporate items from our international travels - like that bowl (which needs to be dusted) with the colorful orbs and string. Both the bowl and the orbs are from South Africa and so is the pronghorn horn. See the homemade monogram sign up there? Forgot to mention that cost me all of $3.50 to make since I only had to buy the spray paint. Which I also used to spray paint the lamp shade and a small ceramic dish that is hiding elsewhere in the house.

Oh and check out my friend Ernie, perched atop some fall colored books - all but two of the books are from international trips we have taken.

 These fall flowers are actually kind of recycled - I bought the orange and red one but the ceramic vase with raffia and the yellow flower are from my sweet friend Lindsay. In the spring, the whole thing is full of the yellow flowers that she gave me for my birthday a few years ago.

We live in a trailer modular home with an open floor plan so there isn't a lot of designated space for a big kitchen table or other shelves but this woven bowl from South Africa filled with gourds is doing a great job of looking fall-ish on table that we rarely eat at.

 And now we've come to the outdoors portion of the tour - from left to right: our front door with pumpkins, gourds and some corn stalks; close up of pumpkins (purchased from East Side Market); the porch at the back door (aren't my yellow mums pretty?). 

And if, for some reason, you all like this kind of stuff  please let me know. Maybe I'll do a 'house tour' or something. Or recipes I am going to use in my new crockpot that I finally got from Hyatt. Show me some comment love!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Live Export Ships

You may have read my blog posts about the Live Export Ban in Australia and the conditions that led to its initiation. If you haven't, you may want to familiarize yourself with the issue. Read this first and this second.

Ok - now that you're caught up. Hubsy and I have had the privilege of being hosted in Perth for the past six days - he was asked to speak at the APL/CRC Pork Roadshow so we've been socializing with western Australian swine producers, attending dinners and doing a little bit of sight seeing. On Saturday we went whale watching with some family friends and saw two of these: one docked and one at sea.

Live export ship docked in Fremantle, WA, AUS.

Live export ship on the Indian Ocean - Fremantle, WA, AUS.

I tried to zoom in and see if there were any animals aboard but I couldn't really tell and hubsy couldn't either.

It was interesting to actually see a live export ship up close - the trip from Perth to Indonesia takes about a week and a local cattle producer told us that the goal is for the cattle to not have any shrink. They said, for the most part, that they reach this goal often. It's one thing to hear and talk about something, but quite another to see it in person.

What's your opinion on the live export issue in Australia?

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

101 in 1001 Update

Ok, it's been quite a while since I last gave an update on my 101 in 1001 so I thought I'd do some blog filling and catch you up.

Since my last update, the goals I have completed are:

5. Go to bed before midnight every weeknight for two weeks -
  This was really hard because I'm a night owl but I managed to pull it off by scheduling it the same time as Ninja's project when I was getting up at 5-6 every morning to weigh, sort or slaughter pigs.
38. Consolidate/forward all email accounts down to 2
24. Refrain from purchasing any item of clothing, accessory or footwear for 1 month - today is one month since I purchased anything and I am in Perth currently and likely won't buy anything while I'm gone soooo... success!
51. Muster the courage to play blackjack in a casino - preferably win - Only won about $20 total and then lost it all back but still, yay me. This was in Calgary when I attended the ILC 2011.
59. Find the perfect cocktail dress - color insignificant I may have gone overboard - I now have two. A grey one and a black one. Here is the black one:

At my bff Rebecca Tokach's wedding (rehearsal dinner) with two great guys. This picture doesn't do the dress justice but you'll have to trust me on this one.

57. Scuba dive somewhere exotic - Great Barrier Reef 7/2011

This is me and the hubsy after diving the Great Barrier Reef. To read more about that trip, click here.

69. Watch the sunrise and sunset in the SAME DAY - Lamington National Park - 6/2011

I'm not an early bird, so this was difficult but it happened on our roadtrip with Andy, Mandy and Kristen to Queensland. Read more about that trip here and here. This was in Lamington National Park - I didn't get a sunset picture but take my word for it that I was awake for that occasion.

70. Attend an opera, symphony or musical - Love Never Dies 9/2011

Ninja took me to see this opera the day I got back from the states. Read more here.

25. Eat 5 exotic/uncommon foods (Thai seafood 4/12/2011, Tofu Steak 5/2011, Kangaroo 6/2011, Crocodile 7/2011, Octopus 7/2011)  -- Crocodile is chewy but good. Octopus is mediocre, at best. KANGAROO IS FREAKING AWESOME - as good or better than venison.

and these are the goals that are currently in progress:
9. Celebrate one of life's little achievements once/month for 12 months (1/12)
12. Watch 5 movies that Ninja loves that don't interest me (Apocalypse Now, Papillon)
27. Call /visit my grandparents once/month for 12 months (3/12)
29. Attend 6 of Kristy’s sporting events/school events/4-H stuff - (Bourbon Co. hog show, Bourbon Co. beef show - these were on separate days so they are separate events)
49. Pay off my small credit cards - Maurices, Victoria's Secret
55. Face 3 fears (claustrophobia 7/2011, heights 8/2011)
58. Create a wardrobe I love. (This is defined as a closet full of clothes I am equally happy to wear).  This will be complete when my closet is full - it's currently about 1/2 full ;)
68. Purge and donate old clothes from closets at least three times (1- 7/2011)
72. Learn how to make Grandma’s fried chicken, chicken n’ noodles and divinity candy  -- Grandma taught me how to make fried chicken and I practice the art when I got back to Aus. The Ninja loved it and I must say it was purty tasty.

77. Volunteer once/month at a breadbasket, food pantry or other comm. service 6 times (5/2011 - Red Shield Appeal;)
79. Donate 25,000 grains of free rice through Freerice.com (4010)85. Say 'I love you' EVERY day for entirety of 1001 days
88. Attend church once/month for 12 months (6/12)90. Read the books from this list98. Post every day for 1 month on From Oz to Aus - I've posted 22 days in a row - another 8 days and this one is done!
In summary:
Goals completed- 14  (it seemed like a lot more than that)
Days until end of 1001 - 824