Our CHI-cago Friend Visits Kansas

I love entertaining friends and family.

I’m not sure if it’s my nature, or if it’s the never-ending longing for my close friends and family in Florida to visit the gorgeous Kansas Flint Hills.

I just love it.

Kansas Flint Hills at their finest.

So when Kelly messaged me and told me she was up for a trip to Manhattan, I jumped on the opportunity.

You see, Kelly is not only a really cool gal, she is also a friend I met via social media. We had spent very little time hanging out outside the confines of business meetings until a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to get to know her better and get in a little #agnerd talk.

For those of you not familiar with #agnerd talk, don’t sweat it. It just means we talk about things like Facebook statistics, search engine optimization, YouTube videos, etc. 

Her visit was so much fun. I had a blast.

In true Oleen style, we put Kelly to work upon her arrival. She was up to the task and she couldn’t have been more of a trooper.

She helped catch a calf, rode around in the truck during chores, helped with feed chores, watched as Brandon and I argued about opening and closing gates….um. Oops, I got carried away.

But she sure did hang in there like a champ!

We also squeezed in a little fun at The Little Apple Brewery with Brandi and Sheridan.

Image borrowed from kellyrivard.com.

Side note: Why don’t I spend more time with these super-fabulous gals?

Anyway, I think the trip was a success from our end. Brandon and I couldn’t have had more fun and we can’t wait for Kelly’s next trip to see us.

On that note, the next time you are in the Flint Hills and want to bottle feed a calf, spend a good 4 hours in winds up to 30 mph, listen as newlyweds have minor disagreements about things that don’t matter, or talk about Facebook statistics- send me a note on Facebook. We’re always up for a visitor

Real Friends Make You Work

If you’re my friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you might have seen a few post over the weekend about my trip to Ohio and Tennessee. The fun filled, fact filled, flurry of a trip consisted of two major parts that came together perfectly.

You see, a few months earlier I had worked up a plan with my fascinating, intelligent {and slightly crazy} friend, Jennifer (Twitter) to fly into Ohio and hang out at her house for a day. The visit would work perfectly into my trip to Nashville for the 2011 AgChat Foundation Conference and give Jennifer a driving buddy to the conference.

The plan was perfect really-until I learned that “we” had an event on Saturday.

So, I did what all people do that hang out with Jennifer-I worked.

I just giggled typing that.

If you know Jennifer, you know why- don’t worry, she’s probably giggling too.

On with the story.

Jennifer picked me up Saturday around 2 p.m. at the Columbus International Airport and off we went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) for their annual Farm Day’s celebration . For those of you {like me} who are not from Ohio, COSI is a non-profit organization that works prepare children for success in school and in life. They have hosted Farm Days: Little Seeds and Big Tractors for seven years inside the Columbus downtown district.

The event included education centers, combines, tractors, games, animals for the kids to pet and tons of fun giveaways. It was a neat opportunity to see what’s being done in other states by farmers to reach out to children.

On the other hand, there was some pretty fun humor there, if you have a good since of humor.

Don’t we wish everyone would follow this rule?

If you don’t laugh at that, I feel sorry for you.

Just curious, what’s being done around your community to connect more of us city-folk to farmers?