I'm happy to say the hoedown did not disappoint! Orion roots music band, great food (can't get enough of that mancattle! Mancattle ribs, mancattle flank steak... sentient beans...) and group dancing is actually really really fun why don't we do that more back home? It was four-dimensional hypercube dancing, but you gotta be careful not to brush up against the slicegrass bails.

@Shae there was a shy girl there with red hair, freckles, pale skin, and void eyes. Maybe that's your friend?

@Roth Waxing
That's right! That's exactly what she looks like.. She's rather quiet and doesn't speak much.. But hopefully you can convince her to come back to me again! Some other students said that they caught some glances of her, but they never actually told me where she was.. If you know, Could you tell me where she is?

I have to attend a personal matter at the Orion Ranch that will be undisclosed. I more than likely will not be participating in the main activities though. I'm well aware that one of my friends may or may not be worried about this disappearance since I have not informed her, but hopefully this event will distract her from what I need to do. If a teacher or administrator is worried or concerned about this, I can assure you that I will return safely and work more efficiently on my assignments from then on. Thank you and goodbye.

--Claire Rowan.

It was hard to get accepted into the Alien Animal Husbandry program on Orion Ranch. The Fedge have real old fashioned ideas about letting girls "see how it's done" but my grades in AP exobiology must have convinced them.

I'm not squeamish about the mancattle's tackle (if you know what I mean). I'm a big girl and all. But really they rarely ever let them do it the old fashioned way. The mancattle are too special, and the last thing you want is to have one get injured.

So yeah there's a whole lot more to it than that. Very excited to learn!

I wasn't any good at hypersonic yodeling or talking to the telepathic Larabbits or even slicegrass sowing but the Hobbosses said they could really use me in the mancattle! Yeehaw! Get to go to their big off-limits roundup center and get initiated to all the secrets. Nothing like this ever happens to me I am so stoked.

I thought my yodeling skills might keep me out of having to work the mancattle drive but no such luck. The Hobbosses must be sweet on me, and now they keep needling me to yodel around the campfire at night. The Hobbbosses laugh and their big rolls of fat jiggle like jello.

I feel like I'm getting too attached to the mancattle though. How much longer will I enjoy eating them? They look up at you with their two heads and their dopey eyes and I swear they look almost human.

But that mancattle meat is mighty sweet.

The Fedge have some incredibly advanced technology. They've got genetic samples from half the galaxy, which have all been sent in voluntarily. There's a contest where you send in some tentacle fur or an extra eye or whatever you have and they pick one every month and send them a side of mancattle. Mancattle is very popular. Everybody loves the mancattle.

So then they map the genetic sequences and synthesize the tastiest tendencies and use them to help make the mancattle even tastier. I've been working on the intake line, breaking down the sequences and tagging them. Pretty soon they say I'll get to go to the "big room" where the real magic happens. Can't wait!

Has anybody seen my bunkmate @Nip Tucker? Goofy looking weirdo? We're supposed to clean out the kpony stalls together but I've been stuck with doing it myself every day. Worst. Trip. Ever.

Couldn't sleep tonight, curled up on my bedroll around the dying campfire. Louise 6e was looming large, and you could see a good six moons doing their dance. I think it was the lowing of the mancattle woke me up. Sometimes they make those noises at night, but tonight it was especially odd. And then I noticed all the Hobbosses were all missing. Usually they snore up a storm, but there weren't any to be seen.

So I picked myself up and followed the lowing, and over a small rise or two I saw the strangest thing I've seen so far on the low gravity prairie.

The Hobbosses had the mancattle all rounded up, but the mancattle were acting real strange. Lined up in circles, concentric-like, each ring walking in the opposite direction. But the worse part was THEY WERE STANDING UP ON TWO LEGS!! Kind of swaying back and forth, lowing in a rhythm, their big pairs of horned heads bobbing back and forth.

The Hobbosses never mentioned anything like that before, and I had a feeling there was a reason. I snuck back to my bedroll and closed my eyes and pretended to sleep till dawn.

But seriously WTF???

Looks like I passed all the tests at the roundup center and the Hobbosses say I'm ready for the big one. We did the salt lick, and the three-eyed sheep dip, the cactus milk blinding taste test, and rutting.

They've given me a special bunk in the roundup center and say I can eat all the food I want, and boy do they have a fancy banquet set up: mancattle short ribs, sundae bar with underwater nuts, pots and pots of those dancing beans.

Is a little bit lonely though. I'm asking the Hobbosses if I can't bring some friends along! I miss my old bunkmate @Pexli Dume.