Fall Bounty

I took my first "vacation" shot a mile after we left home last week. Admittedly, I take a lot of photos. But unless it's a departure selfie of Randy and me, I usually get a little further down the road.

But, as we departed for a trip to Eureka Springs last week, I noticed the eastern sky and I just couldn't resist. I sent our kids a text to that effect. Our son-in-law texted back: "Pretty, but hopefully you can make it a few more miles before the next picture or it will be a long trip!"

For the record, I did make it to Independence, Kansas, before getting my camera out again. (I will have more photos from our trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in upcoming blog posts. I don't like to post photos to Facebook while we are gone, and it takes awhile to edit photos and write about our adventures.)

I had another reason for my premature snapshots. Randy had told me the milo would likely be cut while we were gone. And another confession: I don't take nearly as many photos of the farm as I did when we were actively farming. 

The milo field at the corner south of our house had been pretty for weeks, but I hadn't ever taken the time. It was now or never, so I had Randy pull over the at half-mile line for a few photos.

And, indeed, the milo was cut while we were gone.  

The average yield for milo raised on our farmground was 110 bushels per acre. Kudos to Tye and Todd: That's the best milo we've ever had.

Also while we were gone, our calves from the Class of 2024 were weaned and averaged 638 pounds apiece. Tye and Todd arranged to sell the feeder calves (ours and theirs) directly to a feedlot.

Pretty sweet, huh? We didn't have to deal with any breakdowns or other harvest issues with milo. We didn't have to round up the cattle from summer pasture and do the sorting of mamas and babies. This retirement gig is all right.

 

Faith and the Night Sky

October 15 - my first attempt at taking a photo of the visiting comet

Not long ago, I saw a devotional that suggested we read a passage of the Bible and then try to figure out who in the story most resonates with us.

Am I most like the Samaritan woman? Or am I one of the ones in the crowd, judging her? That will stop you in your tracks, right?

And poor Thomas. Say the name Thomas and ask how that disciple fits into Jesus' resurrection story, and the first thing we do is add a derogatory adjective to it. It's not simply Thomas. But Doubting Thomas.

I must admit that as Randy and I searched the western skies for the Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, I might have that same "Doubting" adjective attached to my name. 

From a Facebook post

Try as we might, we couldn't find it - not with our naked eyes. Not with Randy's binoculars. Not even with my iPhone, which everyone said was the easier way to find it. However, when we went back inside and I did the inevitable scrolling through Facebook, it appeared that others had figured out the "secret formula." They got photos of the comet. 

If we'd relied only on our naked eye, the same could have been said for the Northern Lights.

October 10, 2024

On October 10, news stations were saying that Kansans might again have the opportunity to see the Northern Lights because of solar storms. We had made a similar excursion in May. I thought maybe that had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I was glad for another chance. 

Just like in May, we struggled to see the Northern Lights with our naked eye. But when I looked through my iPhone, the camera's eye was able to see what I couldn't. (Interestingly, Randy's Android phone didn't provide that view.)

It reminded me of the poem, "Who Has Seen the Wind?" by Christina Rossetti.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by. 

Just like the wind that's "invisible" unless it's stirring the leaves (or unprotected fallow farm ground), the lights weren't visible without some help. 

As we stood in the cool fall night, I thought again about how that was a metaphor for faith. 

Hebrews 11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Following those initial verses, there is a whole chapter of familiar Bible names and the ways they carried out their faith.  

The New Century translation says it this way:

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.” 

 Hebrews 11:1 (NCV)

What is faith? Faith is believing when you can’t see it. People say, “Seeing is believing.” God says the exact opposite: “Believing is seeing.” Some things you’ll never see unless you believe them first. Every great achievement started when someone first believed it was possible. Faith turns dreams into realities. Nothing happens until someone first believes it’s possible.

We went out a couple of different times and a couple of different locations. The light patterns moved somewhat from the first time we looked to the second time. 

And there was a scientific explanation for why were were able to see the Northern Lights so far south. (Again, count on Facebook to help a girl out.)

 

Still ... as we stood in the dark with a kaleidoscope of color overhead, I couldn't help but think about just how fortunate we are to see the beauty in God's Creation - that we are able to witness "the universe  formed at God’s command." 

An update: 

We tried again to find the comet after seeing a graphic about where to look in the night sky on specific days and Googling information on changing my iPhone settings. 

It's still not an award-winning photo, but we did get to see it.

October 16, 2024

We got a little chilly. In January, we'll think that 50 degrees feels balmy, but our bodies haven't quite made the shift from summer temperatures to the autumn cooling. So once we found the comet and its tail and I "sorta-kinda" got a photo, we were ready to head back inside.

I was glad to witness it after a recent reminder from an email devotional:

A Time to Think

The simple act of stopping and looking at the beauty around us can be prayer.

-- Patricia Barrett, author

 

A Time to Act

 

Today notice the little things that make your day special.

 

A Time to Pray

Thank you Lord, that however small or seemingly insignificant our gifts, You can weave them into Your glorious symphony.   

Corn Harvest from the Jump Seat

 

Randy feels good about our decision to retire from active farming in August 2022. But there are times when he misses it, and he gets a little "itchy" - and that itch doesn't have a thing to do with the ever-present harvest dust. Harvest was always Randy's favorite time of the year. Well ... Until he had a breakdown. Or the combine got stuck. Or the employee didn't show up.

So maybe experiencing harvest in the combine's "buddy seat" is OK after all. Let's hope the combine operator was just as happy to have a rider as Randy always was when a kid, grandkid or curious guest showed up. 

 

He was able to ride for a little while as a custom harvester was cutting one of our corn fields. (The ride and the photos were taken September 27.)

 

Our corn averaged 80 bushels per acre. Todd and Tye Miller, who farm our ground, had some fields that had higher yields at other locations. However, Randy says it was a nice surprise after the field blew so badly after planting this spring because of drought and strong windstorms. 

 

The custom harvester - Frederick Harvesting out of Alden - was trying out an experimental combine, so Randy enjoyed looking at all the bells, whistles and cameras in the combine cab during his excursion. 

Tye and Todd still have some our milo to harvest this fall. We'll see if more combine rides are in Randy's future. 

A Golden Anniversary: Class of 1974

What happened in 1974?

And Randy and his classmates graduated from Stafford High School. Their celebration began last Friday night with a soup supper at the Stafford Senior Center. (How appropriate, right? There might have been a joke or two made about the location.)

 

 Friday night soup supper crowd

Back row: Jim Carter, Rex Hildebrand, Randy Fritzemeier, Tom Tuckwood, Dale Hearn, Gregg Blew, Terry McCune, Richard Brensing, Rex Hoskinson, Bob Howell

Front row: Gemma Austin, Nancy Hildebrand, Connie Harmon, Renee Salem, Marcia Bauerle, Jim Powell

Last weekend during Stafford's Oktoberfest, they celebrated their 50th class reunion. When you're 17 or 18 and walking across the stage to receive your diploma, you don't realize how quickly those 50 years will fly by.

Different people came to different parts of the reunion. This was Saturday night following the all-school alumni banquet. (The only one not identified before is Peggy Miller, second from the right in the front row.)

Randy's class has done a great job getting together every five years since graduation for reunions. I've been to all but the first one, so it kind of feels like I'm part of them, too. 

They've lost 12 of their 46 classmates, which I thought seemed like quite a few. Some have been able to be at all the reunions and others live much further away and were just able to get back for a few milestone gatherings like the 50th.

Photo by Julie McNickle

 

 They were also part of the annual Oktoberfest parade.

Photo by Dale Hearn - Getting ready for the parade

Some of the spouses got into the photo at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to Julie McNickle for the photo from Saturday night's alumni banquet (below). She does a great job in documenting events through her photography.

Hopefully, my Skyline High School Class of 1975 get-together for our 50th next year will be just as successful.

Them Thar Hills

 

"There's gold in them thar hills."

According to folklore, in 1849, from the steps of the Lumpkin County Courthouse, a Dahlonega, Georgia mint assayer, Dr. M.F. Stephenson, yelled to the townspeople, "There's gold in them thar hills." He wanted to keep people looking for gold in Georgia, rather than leaving for California.

We found some "gold" in the Flint Hills of Kansas during a recent golfing excursion. But the gold was in the form of wildflowers - not minerals. 

At a senior golf tournament Randy played in this summer, some of his golfing companions talked about playing the Wabaunsee Pines Golf Course. We had a day between tennis and volleyball matches while in Topeka, so we - like the gold prospectors - went west.

Of course, we weren't going as far west as California, but just to Wabaunsee County. 

 

Wabaunsee Pines is a nine-hole public golf course featuring limestone berms and native grasses of the Flint Hills. It's been called “The Gem of the Flint Hills” and we now know why.

The course was constructed and maintained with volunteer labor and has irrigated greens, tees, and fairways.Wabaunsee Pines Golf Association, Inc. was incorporated in 1993. In 2014, a group of patrons joined together and created the “Double Eagle Club” which funds the course's only employee. Before that time, it was maintained by all volunteer labor.

The beauty of the Kansas Flint Hills is just natural - no grooming required. 

 This time of year, the fall wildflowers provided a beautiful backdrop to a nice course.

 

The course is adjacent to Lake Wabaunsee.

Kansas may have a reputation for being flat. But the Flint Hills are just one exception to that rule.

My golfer would recommend it. 

On the way back to Topeka, we had lunch at the Sommerset Cafe in the tiny town of Dover. 

Photo by Taylor Hunt from Facebook photos

 I didn't take any photos (believe it or not.) But we would recommend it, too. The cafe is housed in a 19th-century clapboard building and serves homestyle cafe fare and classic pies. Yes, we had the pie. Randy had banana creme and I had Dutch apple. Yum! We would definitely make a return visit, if the opportunity arises.

 

 

Life Lately

 

I guess I've been too busy living to do much writing lately. It's ironic, I suppose. Theoretically, retirement implies that I'd have more time. But farming kept us closer to home. If I was at the house waiting for my next "go-fer" duties, I took the time to write. (I am still doing my Central Kansas reporter gig for KFRM 550 AM farm radio, Monday through Friday.)

But now, we are keeping the road hot to Topeka or Manhattan or to where ever our heart desires. 

I just commented to Randy last week that our frequent excursions to Topeka to watch tennis and volleyball wouldn't be possible if we were still actively farming. There would be corn to cut and wheat to plant and milo soon ready to harvest. 

Harley Day at K-State Football game - September 13, 2024

Even though we have been season ticket holders to K-State football games for years, we often missed at least one game each fall to stay home and plant wheat. 

August 31, 2024 game - Touchdown!

September 28 game - K-State vs. Oklahoma State

Some of our favorite trips lately have been to cheer on our granddaughters.

This is Kinley's first year in junior high tennis. As a 7th grader, she earned a spot on the A team squad for Washburn-Rural Junior High.  (As I told Jill and Eric, all those lessons at Genesis are now paying off!)

It's been so much fun to see her success. It's also been fun to join the other grandparents (and our friends) - Alan and Christy - as No. 1 fans.

She's gotten to play singles ...

and doubles with fellow 7th grader (and Genesis afficiando) Karmyn. She's had success with both.

We're looking forward to more matches this week. It's a short season, and I hate that it's almost over already.

 

We don't need any distractions during tennis tournaments. However, sometimes little sisters prefer to find something to do between matches. Brooke could have started a little bracelet business during a Saturday tournament.

Thankfully, the schedule has also matched up with with Brooke's first session of volleyball this fall.

We're rather fond of the coach, too. Jill has taken on that duty for the Attack Pack.

It's amazing how much all the girls have improved since they began last year. Several of them are serving overhand - though they all will get more consistent with time. And there are actual volleys happening these days. Once in awhile, they even set each other up.

KANSAS STATE FAIR

We missed the Kansas Master Farmers Day at the Kansas State Fair this year. For years, we were rotating through the offices or had some other committee assignment that required our presence. And while we love reconnecting with our farming friends from across the state, this year, tennis and volleyball with the granddaughters prevailed.

We did stop at the Kansas State Fair on our way home from Topeka. Randy had his Pronto Pup (with Dorothy and the Tin Man and gang looking on.) OK, maybe he had more than one corn dog.

He rode on the State Fair railroad.

And we saw all the attractions - including the giant pumpkin in the Pride of Kansas building. We also got my favorite fair food - an apple dumpling from Wheatland Cafe. I didn't take a photo before digging in.

We'd thought about staying for the evening concert, Casting Crowns, which is one of my favorite contemporary Christian recording groups. However, it was hot, and we were tired. All this running around is exhausting - ha!

NEW INTERNET

We live in Never Never Land for cell phone service and fiber optics internet. I wasn't looking to replace my internet provider. But, when I had a few problems and a technician told me that they were going to phase out the equipment I was using, it was time to look for something else. (I loved my previous company, but there were no options to upgrade for me, since I lived on the very perimeter of their coverage area.)

Anyway, I had new internet installed last week.

When I initially called, the sales representative said, "Wow! You have a lot of trees. I don't know. ..." However, she promised a site visit to see.

Thankfully, the installer could get above the trees by attaching it to the old windmill. Whew! And, so far, so good.

COMMUNITY CONCERT

We had the first Hutchinson Community Concert of the season. It was Legendary Ladies of Country with Lisa Brokop, who sang the songs and told the stories of female country music pioneers like Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, Anne Murray, and others. 

Community Concerts are a great value. It's only $50 a ticket for quality entertainment. While they aren't headliner stars, they are talented performers. Lisa Brokop was excellent, and we weren't the only ones to think so. Next month, she's getting inducted into the British Columbia Country Music Hall of Fame. The pianist, bass and fiddle players were talented, too. 

 Next time: Trying out a new golf course - and some beautiful scenery.