Passages

Introducing... Dr. John Bragg!

This is the season for graduations, and one (grateful? relieved?) grad is my "little brother" John, who recently earned his PhD in history from UW Madison.

John's focus was on the 19th century Ottoman Empire. He wrote his dissertation on Tokap, a small town in eastern Turkey. He did much of the research while actually living in Turkey, where he poured through court records dating from 1858-1876 (sometimes wading through bureaucratic red-tape to access to those records!).

The documents were written in Ottoman Turkish-- an ancient, now defunct form of the language written in Arabic script. John had to painstakingly translate the material first, in order to do the research. He wanted to know how local government in Tokap was reformed during this time period (Turkey was only then starting to become a centralized country).

If you want to know more... you'll have to read the book! John's dissertation will eventually be published. Meanwhile, John is job-hunting and planning a celebration with family and friends on June 19th. We'll be there!

Another recent graduate is my niece Beth, who just completed her preschool program in Monticello, Arkansas. Emma had a similar ceremony a few years ago, though I don't recall actual caps and gowns being used. That's pretty fancy.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch"...


This weekend was all about YARDWORK. Following a week of sunshine, warm temps, and the occasional rain shower, everything here in Colfax is lush, green and growing-- including the weeds.

At right: John scattering grass seed over a patch of black dirt in our front yard. He used his Bobcat to pull out a sickly maple. You can see its replacement (a sapling cherry tree) in the foreground.

It was MUGGY this weekend, but we still managed to get quite a bit done. We weeded, mowed, and cleaned out the chicken coop. Through it all, Emma was a big help. She's an "outside girl", just like Dad.

You can see her at left enjoying the cool spray of a garden hose.

Leila got sprayed by the hose too... and as a matter of fact, so did I. Luckily I don't have pictures of that shenanigans.

I do have a picture of Leila and Emma sitting in Jon's Bobcat.

One important accomplishment was rototilling our garden (or, to be more specific, getting Jon to rototill our garden). We'll start planting next week, after our big trip to West Virginia.

We're all excited for that trip. The kids will miss a few days of school for travel, but everything's okay'd with their teachers.

Our wonderful neighbor has agreed to come over daily while we're gone, to check in on our pets and make sure they have a little food, water and attention. The chickens will be free to roam our yard and peck up that grass seed Jon just laid down.

Lots of good stuff going on. But not everything that's happened this past week has been happy.

I always struggle with this aspect of my blog. On the one hand, I want my blog to be an upbeat, informative newsletter for family and friends. On the other hand, I don't want to completely ignore the harder side of life... the ups and downs that naturally come to people living ordinary lives.

Also. I hope no one's offended by my having happy and sad things together in the same blog. Life's kind of like that, isn't it? There's the good stuff-- accomplishments, inspiration, fun, love, and laughter-- right alongside the bad.

It's up to each individual person to make sense of it in their own way.

One of the worst things is living through the loss of a loved one... especially someone young.

There's a corner of our yard where a rustic birdhouse, made of barn wood and found items, sits.

This birdhouse was one of many donated items raffled off during a fundraiser for my nephew Nick Meyer's fiance, Angie. 22 year-old Angie had struggled with cancer and almost daily pain since October of last year.

A couple of weeks after we took home the birdhouse, Angie passed away in hospice at her parents' home. She had endured every possible medical intervention, including chemotherapy and radiation. She was sick and miserable through most of it.

She's no longer suffering. But this is an incredibly sad time for her two families-- the one she was born with, and her fiance Nick's family. She will be very dearly missed.