Kansafornia

I am passionate about what makes people tick and tock and forget about their internal clocks what’s coming up next, how much pressure they’re under, and knowing they probably need a break and some more coffee. Tick, tick, tick. Time short! Let’s get going!

Audra: Who is she?

If you’re here on Audblog, I am confident you’re not looking for an exhaustive biography. In my case, any bio of mine would exhaust you, trust me. Because I’m not Ultra-Oprah-Style famous, (yet) not even semi-famous, (yet) and some of you don’t know me, (you will soon), I decided to post a bio-blog here.

Audblog’s mission is to entertain and connect, now, in this current moment. Naturally, I thought it would help to give you some insight as to WHO I am. I’m not just another crazy, California Style big-city based Liberal. I’m from Kansas, my genesis, and I bring hard core common sense and pragmatism to the table, and to Liberalism, and to the blogosphere. With all my might, pragmatism and my Kansafornia World View…let’s SPILL IT…

Farm Story

I grew up in Western Kansas on a farm between two tiny towns, Cario and Preston, just off a blacktop road. Cairo and Preston were then, are today, semi-dried-up, one-whistle stops for the railroads. A few houses, a few trailers and wandering pets on dirt streets, no pavement.

Preston and Cairo are connected by an 8-mile stretch of blacktop road. This road, and the the 3 Mile Bridge in the picture below, is where I spend my child hood. And, it’s also where I got in great shape, running up and down, back and forth on that 8 mile stretch everyday. That’s right, I ran 8-10 miles per day from about 8th grade on. Just one benefit of living in the Wilds of Western Kansas.

8 Mile Road

8 Mile Road running across the 3 Mile Bridge over the Ninnescha River. I ran here everyday. Also, this bridge area is home to the local Great Blue Heron, and a family of Buzzards.

The Farmers CO-OP

Where was the action? Was there ANY action out there? Yes, there was a little action. A little spice, at the two local Farmers Co-op’s. where all the locals took time-outs drinking coffee and chugging pop, not soda!

The Co-op lobbies were the local hangouts, our meeting places. We drank Dr. Pepper, Grape Crush, Simba, and 7-Up, and chowed on old-school candy bars, like Zeros, Butterfingers, and Mr. Goodbars. With all this POP and candy, the co-op crew was sugared up and ready to solve all the world’s problems! Politics, the price of hogs, the price of wheat, (never high enough), football, and local gossip – all these issues were solved right here, in Cairo and Preston Kansas, in case you didn’t know.

Historically, both Preston and Cairo were obliterated by massive losses in their populations, and industries, from World War II and Vietnam. By the 1970s and ’80s, both towns were dominated by widows, and the children left behind, who usually became farmers and ranchers, often felt stuck and saddled by the burden of farming.

For most folks around there, this life, on the farm, was not a choice, but a destiny handed to them by fate, by loss, and by war. People, all of us in these tiny burgs, and neighboring farm communities, to me at least, seemed to be stuck, stuck waiting.

To me, everyone seemed to be waiting, with a vibration of expectancy—waiting for someone to return home, someone —- loved ones who would never arrive. Preston and Cairo were waiting places. I always felt a sense of being perched on a craggy cliff’s sharp edge, at sunset where I was waiting, looking, hoping…praying…waiting…for someone, or something to come running over the horizon, home at last.

Wide Open Spaces

We were a third-generation farm-family. Our farm and ranch land spanned 2,500 acres an enterprise founded by my great-grandfather, Jacob Dietz, a German Immigrant, back in the 1860s. For cash crops, we raised wheat, corn, milo, and soybeans. We often raised feeder steers, about 500-1200 head in the pastures down south.

Closer to my heart, on the homestead, I was surrounded by the noise of the Dietz Family Zoo: five horses, chickens, pigs, ducks, geese, dogs, and cats. There were and are way many pets to tell you about now…those tales are for another day. Here is photo of our homestead below.

Chickens Cows Pigs & Horses

Feel The Freedom

I found my real freedom with my ATVs riding & racing for hours over miles and miles in Pratt County. I loved my horses, but the thrill of the ATV was my true passion, a hobby I still enjoy when I can find the time and a good rental company!

Tractor Traction

Driving the tractor 8-12 hours a day, alone, listening to the radio, is where creativity and imagination happened. I had the time and the grace to think, dream, meditate, and time to just be. In reality, I had my dad install a Bose stereo system so it wasn’t that bad jamming out to AC/DC and White Snake while plowing up wheat stubble! #BackinBlack #HereIGoAgain #1980sHairBands

California Here I Am

After all that farm life, pets, livestock, and driving the tractor, I moved to California way back in 1990 and that’s how I became a Kansafornian…

Thanks for letting me SPILL IT! I hope this gives you a bit of insight into the Audblog. We’ll discuss more important stuff in our next entry. Until next time, when we SPILL IT, be cool!

Audra

Me in the pasture today

Me at the Wishing Tree in the South Pasture, over the East Hill