A Christmas surprise

No, this is not my puppy. But he is my parent’s, and they surprised us (and Hank) when we arrived in Colorado for Christmas!

Meet Remington (aka Remy), an Akbash puppy! He is the new ranch guard dog (to be) and will be very similar to the Great Pyrenees dogs my family has had in the past – only shorter hair!

Akbash dogs are native to Turkey and are great livestock guardian dogs. Remy’s parents lived with goats and thus thought they were goats, so I’m hoping Remy grows out of that to think he’s the pack leader!

Welcome to the family, Remy!

Beautiful Taiwan

Taiwan was the second country we visited on the 2010 Corn Mission with the U.S. Grains Council, after Japan. I was pleasantly surprised by this little island of a country – it was like a tropical mountain range. I felt like we were somewhere in between Denver and Dillon, CO, except there were no fir trees – all tropical trees!

The meetings and tours of feed mills were great as the people of Taiwan are so gracious and hospitable. Much more so than the strictness and formality of Japanese business men. You can read more about the meetings on my blog post on the Nebraska Corn Kernels that you can read here.

I want to fill this blog space with beautiful pictures from the Jianguo Holiday Flower Market that is only open this time of year on the weekends – good thing were were there! This flower market was over a mile long and was full of beautiful orchids, bonsai trees, poinsettias, roses, fountains, trees, and gardening supplies for sale. Enjoy these beautiful pictures!

{click on the small ones to make them bigger}

Technorati Tags: Taiwan,flower market,orchids,poinsettias,roses,bonsai trees

Japan Wrap-up

My trip in Asia trip seems to be speeding right along - we finished up with our meetings and tours in Japan yesterday and jumped on a 4-hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan (which felt very short compared the the 13-hour one!) I've been blogging for the Nebraska Corn Kernels blog and the The Grain Board blog, so you can read more newsy blog posts there about the trip. I'm just going to recap a little with some pictures.


Tommy and Larry enjoying Shabu Shabu Japanese Dinner



The "bullet train" we took to Sendai. Travels ~200 km/hr.

The beautiful Japanese countryside and agriculture as viewed from the bullet train.

The Ishinomaki City port. This ship was unloading corn gluten.