Thursday of thunderstorms

Milan: First Impressions

Dolores and I took a two-hour drive north to Milan this weekend to build some contacts and familiarize ourselves with the town.  Dolores is hoping to do a series of features exploring how the town has changed over the past decade due to the creation of a meat-packing plant and the subsequent influx of migrants.

Centro Latino

A new health program at the Columbia Centro Latino that I've been reporting on for the Missourian and Adelante. There were two families and several couples at this first event to meet the new health workers. I snapped around a bit; such lovely fluorescent lighting...(sure). This little girl is from California MO. Her parents drive an hour to Columbia to attend the Centro's programs. California, although it has a large population of Latinos because of the Turkey plant, has no Centro of its own. To all those who cringe at kiddie pictures: I couldn't help it. I really couldn't.

Captivity

The Raptor Rehab Center, run as a club through the MU Veterinary School, handles and heals injured birds found by the community. They are staffed fully by volunteers from the community and university. A wide array of birds have been treated by the center: vultures, raptors, snowy owls...the ones who can heal are re-released while those who sustain permanent injuries must either remain at the center or me euthanized.

A Long Night at KOPN

The latest installment of Radio Adelante is put together each week at the community-based and volunteer run radio station, KOPN, in down-town Columbia. Recording sometimes goes late into the night or early morning depending on how the capricious editing software is feeling...

Chickens in Classrooms

Okay, so even though we watched the "Natural Cycle of a Chicken" today in class I had planned to shoot this event since last month. I am hoping to delve into a photo essay of local foods in Columbia and thought this a neat event and good way to stick my foot in the door. Farmer Julie Walker of Greystone Farms brought a crate of her chickens and several cartons of eggs into Lee School to show them a bit of her work. The kids were FASCINATED.

On another note, turns out Walker has been covered a lot already. Flipping through the archives I see that someone in our picture story class even wrote a story on her turkeys a couple years back. She did mention to me about a couple other interesting figures in the Columbia slow food scene, including a man who roasts his own chocolate...now for all who know me, that's something I'll have to look into!

Sequence: Conner's Cave

Conner's Cave is located at the mouth of the Devil's Ice Box cave in Rock Bridge Memorial Park. It is a popular cave for the public to visit as it is open year round and does not require guides for exploration (as is the case with the Devil's Ice Box). Visitors can travel some 150 feet before the cave becomes humanly impassible. The Devil's Ice Box system goes on for some 7 miles and includes sections only passible by boat, bat caves, and sensitive natural formations.

This slideshow only includes images from the mouth of Connor's cave, facing the entrance to Devil's Ice Box. Smith of Columbia was exploring the cave with her father and little brother on an unseasonably warm day off school in early February.

Russian Birthday, Italian Housewarming

Some images from this past Saturday; a dual housewarming and birthday party at Elise's new place on Broadway.

fishy.

Shameless but...enjoy!