Ranchin' in Russell

This past weekend my friend Dave invited me and the other guys from high school out to his family's ranch in Russell, Kansas. Needless to say we had a blast checking out the whole property and floating the river that goes through it. There's even an old group of abandoned buildings called "the town" and an abandoned one-room school house.

Old Theatre

Found this old theatre in Coffeyville, KS this past weekend. When my Mom was growing up her parents would take her there and a woman that looked and dressed just like Joan Crawford would be working the ticket counter... back when going to the movies was a grand experience.

Osawatomie Asylum

We had a family wedding this past weekend in southeast KS, and so we traveled the familiar path down highway 169. My cousin, Kerri, and her husband, James, mentioned how they had stopped off in Osawatomie, KS to check out the eerie site of the State Mental Hospital. It still operates as a mental hospital, and there are still some of the older buildings standing from when it was known as the Kansas Insane Asylum. I thought it would be interesting to see as well so we stopped off for a minute. It was pretty fascinating. The look of the place was right out of "Shutter Island."

Near the grounds we found a cemetery with 346 headstones marked only with numbers. According to an online article by the Pitch, these headstones all belonged to patients who went unclaimed by families. People were buried there up until the 1950s. It was disturbing and intriguing all at once.

New Work: Breathe Fire Logo

Logo for the Presbyterian Synod of Mid-America's conference, entitled "Breathe Fire." The idea behind the conference is that people will become passionate about their faith. As the Holy Spirit comes to them they will be energized into acting on their beliefs.