Almost Gypsy Soul

I really enjoyed Puerto Rico, but some of my all time favorite things from my time in Puerto Rico. COFFEE! Puerto Rico is known for its coffee, strong and black! I loved it and had to buy another suitcase to get it all back to the States with me. Cafe Oro, resturant, cafe and processing, Lares Cafe Lareno, Lares   Flowering Trees We were told that the trees were just starting to flower again in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. I loved the beautiful vibrant colors that were everywhere you looked. The orange flowers of the Flamboyan were some of my favorite! Flamboyan   The farmers and Puerto Rican FSA staff. Although I struggled to communicate with a majority of the farmers that I worked with without an interpreter, I found many of them to be just like home. Salt of the Earth. They were a joy to work with and so grateful for us to be there helping them get back on their feet. This was one picture shared with me by a grower, a mango tree left in ...

Hotel accommodations were a problem during my tour of duty in Puerto Rico. Often times, we were driving back to San Juan over the weekend to have a place to stay for a night or two. We tried to plan our meals around things we wanted to see/do on our route. These are some of the sights we managed to squeeze in on our drives or for dinner. Sometimes dinner was a nice restaurant on the beach, sometimes it was a granola bar and a beer in our hotel room. Birth of the New World, Arecibo Dinner view at Playa Brava Restaurant, Arecibo Las Salinas (Salt Flats), Cabo Rojo Gozalandia Waterfall, San Sebastion La Cordillera Centra (drive between Utuado and Adjuntas) Playa de Hilton Beach at Ponce

Teaser The work part now on to the fun part....my 200 hours of "See Puerto Rico" Fajardo Its safe to say that Fajardo is exactly what one thinks of when they see the postcard perfect pictures of Puerto Rico. Beautiful, crystal clear waters, sun shine and sandy beaches. Our first Sunday we opted for a catamaran cruise to an island complete with rum punch, snorkeling and a sunburn. After a very stressful first week, it was exactly what the Dr. ordered. Our vessel was the Catamaran Spread Eagle II. El Yunque National Forest El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the National Forest System and also one of the smallest at 29,000 acres. Parts of the forest were still closed due to damage from Hurricane Maria, but some parts had been recently opened. It was beautiful, trees as far as the eye could see and waterfalls gurgling around what seemed like every corner.    After dashing to the El Yunque, the plan was to grab some dinner and then head out to ...

Let's be honest, I've got some serious catching up to do. I'm going to attempt to hit on all the highlights of the last several months since I've shared my life with you. Of course, these shares will mostly be fun, awesome stuff because who really want to hear/re-live the not so awesome parts of life...can I get a Heck Ya!? I was feeling pretty blah last summer and thought that something out of my comfort zone might be just what I needed to get back on track. Read my teaser here .... I signed up to head to Puerto Rico on a Hurricane Maria Relief detail with the Farm Service Agency. I was gone for 4 weeks, worked in 4 offices for an approximate 275 hours of work. I worked exclusively on a new program for hurricane relief called WHIP. WHIP provided growers assistance who lost both crops and a means for production. The most common crops we dealt with were coffee, plantains, bananas and mangos. Most of these crops do not produce the first crop until 18 months to 3 year...

  I just wanna go on more adventures. Connect with good people. Learn new positive things. Grow strong. So it was a Tuesday and I was sitting at my desk with a pretty bleak outlook on the day, mainly because of the state of my to-do list. I was talking with an Oklahoman co-worker when he said...."They need CEDs in Puerto Rico to work on hurricane programs." Four hours later, yes four, I was tentatively signed up to go to Puerto Rico on a hurricane detail. So for future reference, the government can move quickly when they want to.  Since those first four hours, planning has slowed quite a bit. I haven't received my temporary duty location, so I'm still not sure where I'll be headed, but I have dates....so its pretty official.  I'm really looking forward to working in Puerto Rico and being able to help the agriculture community that was ravaged by Hurricane Maria last year. I've been warned that the work is long and hurried, bu...

I've been in a funk at work, not really knowing what the problem was....then I realized.....ITS FEBRUARY AND I HAVEN'T BEEN TO A SINGLE SHEEP CAMP. doh, easy fix right there! So I spent my day off in coveralls on the desert and just like that I feel better! I love it, I love spending time with my ranchers, I love meeting the herders, I love the dogs, I love the sheep and I love being in the wide open spaces. Hours melt into minutes on the desert and I honestly can't think of much I'd rather be doing than helping move camps, deliver groceries and making sure everything is ok. Q: I know most of your dogs aren't aggressive towards people, but this one is extra friendly...what's his story? A: Usually we put the guard dog puppies in a corral with sheep so that they will bond with the sheep and not with humans. Fugo didn't spend as much time in the bonding pen as he should have ie, he was "adopted" by humans. Fugo is not only a guard dog, but...

Minute to Win It , Round 1 was such a hit that we had to follow it up with Round 2 for our WYASCOE sponsored event at a work training in Casper. Everyone has so much fun with these games and of course there are always a few corny trophies up for grabs! I highly recommend putting together a M2WI game for your next gathering of friends, family or co-workers! Its best to get the boss to do the best game too! Stick 'Em Suck It Up The competitors The Champions

As 2016 comes closer and closer, I am reminded that I've got to get all my posts done that have happened throughout the year that I never actually gotten posted....because I'm a slacker.   If you remember back when we decided that our evenings at training shouldn't just be sitting around talking about work and knocking a few back with our coworkers and we decided to spice it up a little bit....by hosting Minute 2 Win It ! Well it was a hit! And we hosted a second Minute 2 Win It (which I realized I never blogged about....I'll get on that). Minute 2 Win It games are fairly simple, but we've found out they do take a surprising  bit of planning. Especially when you have somewhere between 20 and 30 people to play. Since this training happened to fall the week before Halloween and I was unmotivated to organize another game night, one of the girls suggested a corn maze and Halloween costume contest. While the corn maze didn't work out, the costume contest did. We ...

something big is making a difference. Here is an article from Forbes , I just copied and pasted it for your reading convenience. Why Millennials Keep Dumping You: An Open Letter to Management Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. This post was cowritten with Elizabeth McLeod, a millennial and cum laude graduate of Boston University, and daughter of Lisa Earle McLeod. Attracting and keeping top millennial talent is a burning issue for leaders. Millennials are 35% of the workforce. By 2020 they’ll be 46% of the working population. Some of our most successful clients — organizations G Adventures, Google, and Hootsuite — are filled with millennials who are on fire for their jobs. Yet many organizations struggle to attract, and retain, top millennial talent. One of us, Elizabeth, wrote this letter, to share insights about what top-performing millennials want and how leaders can ignite the “energy of a thousand suns.” ...

I am the state president for our employees' association. Each state throughout the nation has a state chapter and then we are also divided areas. Wyoming happens to be in the NorthWest area which consists of Washington/Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. I was volun-told that Wyoming would be hosting the NWA Rally this year and I would be in charge of the even as the President. Keep in mind that I had never planned an event larger than an about 20 person bridal shower....and I could expect somewhere between 40 and 90 people to attend Rally. Yikes! I joked that if they made me do this I was going to have it in Rock Springs....suggestions to alternate locations came rolling in....instantaneously. The most popular suggestions? 1. Jackson, I squashed this one almost as instantaneously. Jackson is ok, but its the only place people ever think about when they hear Wyoming. Its expensive and there are so many other places in Wyoming that ...