Many, many things happening.

First off, I passed my "exam" so I'll be able to graduate! I was all prepared to discuss my "companion pieces" as they are lovingly called by one of my favorite professors, Elizabeth Dodd. We spend a bit of time on them, but we spent most of the time on my the first three chapters of my novel "High Country." They asked so many specific questions about the "voice" of the piece that when I left so they could decide if they were going to "pass" me or not, I was in despair that they would want revisions. But they just Passed me and encouraged me to continue with the novel. I've also got one called "Wyoming Sunrise" that I also like a lot.

So, just one more paper to write in my graduate career and I'm done. Job hunting here I come!

Rayna's boyfriend raises pheasants, and someone ordered some and didn't pick them up, so she brought some over to our place. Aren't they beautiful! There were 3 cocks and 7 hens. They have adapted themselves to the windbreak, and one of the cocks came right up to the house looking for bird seed. This could be a problem for them, as they are more tame than a wild pheasant. I hope they won't be easily hunted. I say we had 3, one day when I was out watering the large area in front of the house, I saw a pheasant feather, then a large part of one wing,... and my detective skills honed by looking for the cause of death of chickens let me to believe a chicken hawk (Swansons) got a pheasant. I hope they don't get the idea that they can come here for a meal, as the chickens are out a lot, but they don't tend to be out in the open so much.

With any luck, the pheasants will have baby pheasants. Wouldn't that be wonderful?