Imagine opening a shipment box filled with these (P.S.and a life update)

I worked with a fun, gregarious fellow last year who called the one adult Polish Crested chicken we had at Overlook "Eighties Rockstar Chicken". Unfortunately, the day we moved the 26 goats and kids to a new pen the crazy chicken was trampled to death. It was my day off that day, I remember that. Anyway, the chick barn at Alaska Feed is almost completely full, and I'm also enjoying some hours on the weekends where I am the unofficial 'poultry info, petting zoo, and chick packaging moderator'--able to i.d. a gosling breed from six feet away while rescuing banty chicks from an untimely death-by-drowning in the water dish. I've asked for higher management responsibilities in this company and The Big Boys are still navel-gazing and wondering "where did SHE come from?" while reading a barrage of recommendation letters from my wonderful friends and staring at my resume. The manager they may or may not replace is great to work with and he believes in me. The Big Boys just need some time, I think. In the meantime I accepted a summer position with the Fairbanks Borough as a 'Summer Youth Supervisor' at Pioneer Park. I get a running crew of young men and women in our city's "Alaska Disneyland" where major public events are held throughout the season. It should be fun. It's not even three miles of my house. Alaska Feed is a ten minute walk from my house. I just got a bike and my commutes are minutes long.

I won't be going to graduate school at UAF this fall. Instead, I'll be getting a dairy science certificate through University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through their distance ed program. It's sad that until recent years I felt that all things exciting, interesting, and fun were happening at UAF. Now the more I deal with them and hear about their dealings through others employed there, I just get the stark feeling that they are part of the overarching over-mechanized problem in our community. In March I went to a sustainable agriculture conference here in town and the schism was real. UAF researches and CES people were suited and dressed to present grant-funded research on fruit trees that none of the rest of us--namely the growers selling crop shares at the Farmer's Market--could find applicability in. The reality is that real original and creative thinking just isn't finding its place at UAF these days. My rejection from their graduate creative writing program for the second time (after the first time I met with a department member who told me what I could do differently and I did THAT this time) is the personal testament to this. I spent January writing an original critical paper on Toni Morrison that went with my creative writing submission. It was good.

I've also been doing some vet teching out at North Pole as a temp. Last Wednesday I partnered with Tom from Calypso Farm to bring a sheep, goat kids, chicken, rabbits, and his sheepdog to Arctic Light Elementary to do a day-long ag-ed program. We had great fun. It furthered my dedication to that kind of educational programming and I'll be going back to working on my non-profit farm drafts soon. Of course, there we were with livestock on the playground and it was military firing practice day . . .
Gotta go, chick barn needs to be cleaned before the Saturday rush.