With 18 percent of the land but only three percent of the population, what's not to like about the Great Plains? A Census demographer reviews 57 years of population change in the Plains.

Your Yonder editors visited the church picnic in Dubina, Texas, Sunday. Dubina is in Fayette County, the heartland of Czech Texas and so there was lots of polka music and kolaches up for auction at the church fundraiser. 

We know the ground is too wet in parts of the Midwest, but here ranchers are suffering through a brutal drought. Central Texas has run out of categories for bad when it comes to a lack of rain. We went into Dubina's beautiful Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church (interior photo above) and found copies of a "Prayer For Rain" in every pew. It goes, in part, like this:

"We come now with You in our hearts, to pray for rain. We are firmly convinced that You, according to the measure of Your wisdom, goodness and love, have the omnipotent power to send us the rain we need. We ask this in humility, knowing Your great goodness. We also ask of You to guide us in the right path, to restrain us from evil, and to preserve us from misfortune of soul and body. We ask that we may be made worthy of Your great kindness in granting our request. We beg Your assistance, remembering Your words,'Ask and you shall receive.' Amen."

This weekend the Yonder editors attended a rodeo in Bulverde, Texas, which is not as Yonder as it sounds. Bulverde is a small town just outside sprawling San Antonio. The folks at the Tejas Rodeo put on a rodeo every Saturday night through the summer and fall. It's kind of a mini-tour for the big professional rodeo. Lots of kids and horses and barbecue and beer.  It was a reminder how life can be tied up with animals in a way that's healthy, fulfilling and fun.

Then late yesterday we received a note from John Killacky of San Francisco. The newspaper there interviewed him about how he has revived a "youthful passion" for Shetland ponies. As Killacky tells it, he was the son of a cattle raiser in Illinois. In 1962, he says, "I witnessed a Shetland pony mare give birth to Raindrop, a beautiful roan filly. I had never seen anything so miraculous. For years afterward, I ran with Raindrop in the fields, groomed her in the barn, and rooted for her at county fairs. She became the best friend I never had."

Killacky grew up and left his love for Shetlands behind, only to rediscover the animals three years ago. He found Fog Ranch in Moss Landing, California, where he learned how to harness and drive a pony cart. Now Killacky (above) is entering competitions, which isn't easy for him. Spinal surgery 13 years ago left him a paraplegic. Shetlands don't care, of course, and Killacky has been accepted by ponies and those that raise them. "There is nothing like pony breath and velvet nose nudges," Killacky says — which is true in California and Texas. 

Thousands of poor Appalachian students have found a way to Berea College. I was just one of them.