Life as I know it

Wow...it has been a crazy month or so...I have thought about putting up a blog post several times, but have never had the chance to do so. 

The weeds on the farm have gotten out of control recently....

Once a year in the summertime, all seven of us "Keckler kids" will go over to our grandparents house for a Sunday afternoon cookout.  It was so funny this year because there were more children than any other year. Soon my nieces and nephews will outnumber all of us! 

This is Katie, my oldest sister, with her son Reuben

And my sister-in-law Tamara, with her son Eleazar. 

Me and Tabitha...she is getting so big!

Daniel is giving Hudson a ride on the tractor

And Sarah was playing with Abigail

And yours truly, holding Eleazar :) It's so hard to believe that it is nearly time for me to head back to California!! I am getting ready for a great year

I will try to post more on here soon. I have a lot of great pictures to share soon so keep watching!

ROADTRIP to CA

I made my first roadtip across country alone!  It was awesome.  I began traveling on the 4th of July, and arrived in CA on the 6th in the morning, so I was booking it. :)

 

I tried to get pictures of all the state signs I passed, but I couldn't get Oklahoma because it was dark.

 

 

 

I took a short break at an indian trading post and visited with some buffalo.

 

I saw the most beautiful rainbow in Arizona on Sunday morning...

 

I tried to get a picture "eating" the rainbow.  But it was hard...

 

It was a fun roadtrip.  I have decided that next time I do it, I will travel the old historic route 66!  It will take longer and be really fun since there are so many cool historic little towns and sights. 

I have been in CA now since the 7th of July.  My masters program has been going well, but it is very intense; much harder than college. :) 

I finish up this Friday!  I will post some more pictures later! 



Camp Michaux POW

Where to start where to start? It has been a month since my last post which promised to be more in touch with the blog-world.  Since I utterly failed at any attempt to keep my promises in this regard, I find that it is easier to simply post when I DO have the time.  Not that I am bored right now...there are plenty of things I could be doing besides writing on my blog. 

But anyway, I realized that I never posted about my visit and exploration of Camp Michaux.  Considering it is only 15 minutes from my house, I find it sad that I never knew it existed before now!  It is an old WW2 Prisoner of War Camp.  Of course, with my obsession to exploring ghost towns and my fascination with world war two history, it was the perfect visit.

 

 

There aren't many remains left of buildings.  Just foundations and stuff...

 

There is a large what appears to be a man-made swimming pool.  But it was probably something else before water filled it in.  Perhaps a shower house?

This underground tunnel or passageway was just a little bit creepy.

 



 

There was a pretty intense man-made dam and waterfall along a canal-like river. 

 

Prisoner of War= May 22nd, 1945

 

Across the street, there is what remains of the farm which ran the camp. 

 

And these are the bunkhouses (or at least the foundations of the bunkhouses) where the farm workers stayed. 

 

It was a fascinating discovery!  I was so glad to be able to go.  Keep your eyes on my blog as I am hoping to come by a lot of cool ghost towns in the nearby future!

Back to summertime

I should definitely just make a post at the beginning of every summer stating that I will barely be keeping up with my blog and will be back in September. BUT I cannot bring myself to make a post like that, since the summer is always full of so many events and special times...I have to just carve out a moment of time every week to post about my exciting life. :-)
So...what's new you might ask? So much it's hard to know where to begin!
I am home again, in Pennsylvania, working on the farm. The season started off at a nice slower pace, but just this week was the beginning of our CSA program, so life got crazy really fast.
Just a few pictures I have taken since being back: it's nice to be back on the farm!

The most amazing day!

Sunday I had the most amazing day ever! There were a few complications with my extension group, so me and Kelsey were picked up by some church members and taken to the church from their hometown.  While we were driving, they asked us if we had ever been to Palm Springs, CA. Of course we hadn't been, and when we admitted we had not been, they mentioned that maybe we could go that afternoon. 

The afternoon rolled around and we left after the first church service was over.  It was only about an hour drive.  They took us to the tram! We went up the tram, which is sort of like a huge ski lift but with a tram car instead of the little ski seats. 

It was pretty much amazing! I am looking forward to the next time I can go there.

Life post-graduation

This photo was taken before graduation! I'm still so excited to be a graduate, but I wish I could have taken a few more pictures...I was so busy saying goodbyes that I didn't really have a chance to take pictures. 

I was able to say goodbye to my church family at MVBC on Sunday though. I had my last piano lesson with my student and she gave me this note. It absolutely made my day. I love teaching so much!