At That Awkward Stage

What do ripening wheat fields and junior high students have in common?
They both go through an awkward stage.

A week ago, I told Randy that the wheat was at that ugly duckling, in between stage. Earlier this spring, the fields were vibrant, verdant green. Soon, they will be a striking golden sea of movement in the Kansas wind.

But, for now, they are a motley mix of green and gold.

On Saturday, against a blue sky, they were already making the transformation. Just like with junior high kids, you think that awkward stage will never end.

Then, all of the sudden, they blossom with newfound maturity. 

Still, the wheat has a little maturing to do. When Randy probed the kernels, they were at a soft dough stage. After a dry winter, we had thought that the harvest would be early. However, abundant spring rains and cooler temperatures have slowed down the march toward harvest in our neck of the woods. It doesn't look like we'll be cutting this week. That's good, since I'm scheduled to go to Nebraska for a church conference later this week.

Even with the mix of green and gold lending a kind of "grungy" look to the wheat head, it was pretty against a stormy sky as I came home from church meetings last Wednesday evening.

It was the very definition of beautiful, don't you think?

Montana isn't the only Big Sky Country!

Happy Anniversary, Rayl's Hill!

September 2011

A faithful sentinel has provided a backdrop for all the Kansas seasons for 100 years. Since 1915, the Rayl's Hill elevator has been a landmark for travelers on 4th Street Road just west of Hutchinson.

The elevator has "Thos.Rayl, 1915" embossed on the south side.

Thomas Rayl was 3 years old when he arrived in Hutchinson, Kansas from Indiana in the back of his parents' covered wagon. In 1898, Rayl, 24, married 16-year-old Clara Page. The young couple moved to a home on a small "hill" west of Hutchinson. In other parts of the country, the small "rise" probably wouldn't be considered much of a hill. But the definition was different in the plains of central Kansas.

Rayl became a successful farmer and needed a place to store his grain. In 1913, he began designing the elevator, but it wasn't completed until 1915. He had plenty of children to help him put up his harvest. The couple raised 13 boys and a girl on their Reno County farm.

According to an article in The Wichita Eagle, the Rayls' youngest child, Willard Rayl, said cement was 10 cents a sack, adding that his father used "lots of cement and rebar." The elevator cost $2,000 to build. The family used it was wheat storage initially, then used it to store silage.

June 2010

Near the elevator and across from a cemetery on the hill, there's a granite historical monument. It marks the June 23, 1923, visit to the farm when President Warren Harding helped cut a wheat field. Harding had stopped in Hutchinson to address the nation's agricultural problems. Harding spoke to 8,000 students, then made a trip to the state fairgrounds to deliver a speech. He was guest of honor at a public reception at the Bisonte Hotel before taking the five-mile trip to Rayl's Hill.

 

Harding was reluctant at first to climb up on the tractor and operate a wheat binder, according to an article in The Hutchinson News. However, First Lady Florence Harding prodded him, saying, "Oh, go on, Warren! Don't disappoint the newspaper boys. You know they want a story!"

The News praised the president: "A friendly smile, a hearty handclasp, a word or two of greeting."

September 2009

The family farmed the ground until the 1960s, when it was sold. The elevator hasn't been used for years. But it still is a substantial reminder of days gone by, when elevators dotted the plains, accommodating the horses and wagons hauling wheat and other grains in from the surrounding fields.

 

The elevator has certainly been the backdrop for many a Kansas landscape photo, including several for me. I doubt these will be my last.

Fall Wildflowers: Snapshot Kansas

It makes sense that a place like this is called Peace Creek.

I love this time of year, when the goldenrod casts its yellow happiness over the landscape as it prepares for fall.

 

The moths find nourishment from the tiny yellow flowers ...

... and caterpillars await their transformation to winged beauty. 

The Monarch butterflies pause briefly in our Kansas plains as they make their way to Mexico for the winter.

The yellow in their stained glass wings mirrors the landscape as they dine on the prairie's nectar.

 

Last week, the Snapshot Kansas challenge was fall wildflowers. Our alfalfa isn't wild, but it does provide a pretty backdrop for winged creatures who flit and float above the purple-dotted green fields before the fall freeze that's sure to come in a matter of weeks.

Even the grasses are like flowers when lit with the soft kiss of sunset.

Looking at these photos just confirmed the message from a Guideposts email devotional that I saved:

A Time to Think

The more I study nature, 

the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.

 –Louis Pasteur, French chemist

A Time to Act

Take notice of the changes that are blooming around you.

A Time to Pray

God, thank You for the moments that wake me up to this perfectly beautiful world.

God's Parables

Every happening, great and small, 

is a parable whereby God speaks to us, 

and the art of life is to get the message.

 –Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist

There's nothing like a field of sunflowers to turn a gloomy day around.

I wasn't having the best of days. My mood matched my melancholy. I don't like to admit it, but it's true.

And then I saw them: The giant sunflowers along 4th Street Road just west of Hutchinson had bloomed in all their glory. The cloud-filled blue sky provided the perfect contrast to their cheery faces.

I turned down the dirt road and trekked out into the field, even though I had on going-to-town shoes instead of my dirty tennis shoes. I decided I'd beg forgiveness instead of ask permission if the farmer came along and wondered what I was doing.

I was just admiring the view. And I must say, the view lifted my spirits.

Not many farmers grow sunflowers around here. We don't. This summer, I've only seen this one field of sunflowers in the 35-mile trip to Hutchinson.

Sunflowers turn their "faces" to the sun. Since it was nearing evening, the sun wasn't in the right position to take photos of the whole field and get their beautiful "faces." But, on Friday, I had a dental appointment in Hutchinson and allowed a few extra minutes so that I could take photos from the east road. 

But even though I liked seeing all those petals turned my direction, I still kept my eye out for the rebel. I drove slowly down the dirt road, looking for a sunflower turned to the west instead of the east.

And I found it. I also have to admire the one that doesn't always go along with the crowd. 

Yes, God's parables can even be found in a sunflower field, I think.

***

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