Fair Fare

 

Randy in 1967, a 5th grader and his first year in Stafford County 4-H with his first 4-H beef project.

 4-H is "very fun." Just look at any beginning 4-Her's permanent record book.

Randy's record book from his first year as a Stafford County 4-Her in 1967 said:

This year is my first year in 4-H. I have enjoyed it very much. Going to the 4-H things has been very fun. I really enjoyed the refreshments very much. I am looking forward very much to next year in 4-H. This year, I have enjoyed 4-H camp and have got lots of ribbons. 

My first 4-H story was also written in 1967, as a fourth grader. (The photo at the left was the one attached to my 4-H permanent record.) My story was longer. (There's a big surprise, right?) I used the word "fun" six times to describe my song leading job, picking out ingredients for my Snacks and Little Lunches project, 4-H Sunday and assorted other 4-H events. I also "enjoyed" things twice and "liked" 4-H another time or two. A glance at Jill's and Brent's record books mirrored our family's outlook that 4-H is "fun" and very likeable.

4-Hers - and their parents - have been "liking" the youth program for more than 100 years, long before there was a "like" button on Facebook pages. On Friday, we went to the Shawnee County Fair in Topeka to see Kinley's and Brooke's 4-H projects. Kinley and Brooke come from a long line of 4-Hers, including their maternal great-grandparents and their paternal great-grandmother (Bonnie Ladd). 

 

Bob & Janis Moore - Pratt County Fair service award recipients

 in 2011

 

My family's involvement with 4-H started with my parents back in the 1940s. Both were members of the Lincoln Bluebirds 4-H Club in Pratt County, the club that my siblings and I later joined. (That club later merged with another, and we became the Lincoln Climbers.) 

 

Eric's family is similarly entrenched in the 4-H program. These days, Eric is one of the community leaders for the Auburn 4-H Club in Shawnee County. His dad, Alan, worked in both Kansas and Iowa Extension before retirement. Grandma Christy still judges her fair share of hand pet projects at county events.

 

Participating in county fairs is second nature to all of us - including Kinley and Brooke. This year's fair for the girls wrapped up on Sunday. 

 

But the girls excelled in the foods division. Kinley's Apple Cider Doughnut Cake with caramel frosting was Best of Show, giving her a chance to sell in the premium auction.

 

Kinley also had the top ribbon for decorated cookies or cupcakes.

This year's entry was a beach theme. The decorating/artistic part of food preparation appeals to Kinley, and she's had a purple ribbon in that category every year of her 4-H career.

Here she was in 2021 and her decorated watermelon cookies at her very first Shawnee County Fair. We all think she could sell the cookies professionally, but she'd have to get faster to make it economically feasible. Bonus: The leftover cookies were delicious!

 

Brooke also got to sell during the food premium auction. Her braided Everything Bagel bread got the champion ribbon in intermediate foods. 

 

I had to show the full balloon display created as a backdrop for this year's fair. 

Brooke had a great first year in photography. Two of her photos got champion and reserve champion in beginning photography for color photos. Until this year, I'd helped Kinley mount her photos for the fair. But this year, Kinley mounted her own and taught her younger sister. That's what 4-H is all about: Learning to do something and then passing it along to another 4-Her. 

Brooke also got a champion ribbon for her educational notebook on book genres, which helped complete her 4-H reading project.

Kinley and Summer were back in the dog obedience and agility competitions. 

Summer made it through the agility course with no errors, a first for this duo, which qualified for a purple ribbon. 

 

   

We did plenty of laughing getting Summer to the fairgrounds for the show. Kinley and Eric had to go early to help set up. Eric asked us to bring a wheelbarrow to help move all the paraphernalia after the show, so Summer couldn't sit in her customary spot in the back of the SUV. She invaded Brooke's personal space.

 

 

And she probably caused some second glances from other drivers at stop lights as we drove across Topeka to the Expo Center.

 

The fair ended on Sunday after the style show. Both girls earned purple ribbons in that competition and both qualified to compete at the Kansas State Fair fashion review in September.

The girls definitely had a better outcome at the Shawnee County Fair than I did at the Stafford County Fair the week before. But that's OK. I definitely have had my share of champion or reserve champion photos in open class in the past.

And I did well with the extra photo contests - one sponsored by the Kanza Chapter of the D.A.R. and another contest sponsored by Stafford County Economic Development. 

This composite photo was chosen by the D.A.R. as the winner in a contest celebrating America's 250th birthday. I created it several years ago and have used it on notecards, but I thought it was perfect for the sesquicentennial. 

This photo taken in a milo field last October got the top award in the commerce category from Stafford Eco/Devo.

That photo is now on a conference room wall at the Staley Leadership Building on the campus of Kansas State University. (Story HERE.) It will also be used for the South Central Community Foundation Match Day campaign this fall. The photo also got a blue ribbon in the fair's open class agriculture category. 

A cropped version of this panoramic sunset shot taken last December at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge was second in the Stafford County Places category. 

A story and photo about the Trojan Pop Shop in Stafford operated by three sets of sisters won first place in the business owner/blog category, a new category for the fair. I'll post that story in an upcoming blog. 

Other blue ribbon photos in open class were this one, taken on the Durango-Silverton train in Colorado last October ...

... And this photo I took when we were on vacation with the girls earlier this summer in Omaha at the Lauritzen Botanical Gardens. 

 

I had several other photos which were second- or third-place in their open class photography category and some that didn't place at all.

 

My online scrapbooking entry in arts and crafts got first place in its category. I try to do a book after our trips to collect the photos and the blog posts I write following the trip. 

 

While it wasn't a banner year for me at the Stafford County Fair, that's not why I do it anyway. I've been part of county fairs in one way or another for my entire life. It's a tradition that's worth preserving. 

 

And while it's great to collect purple ribbons and extra prize money, I hope what the girls ultimately collect from the 4-H experience is to take the 4-H pledge and the 4-H experience to heart.   

 

 I pledge my head to clearer thinking 

 My heart to greater loyalty

 My hands to larger service

 And my health to better living

 For my club, my community, my country and my world.

 The 4-H Pledge, Written in 1919 by Kansas 4-H Leader Otis Hall

 

It would probably be a better world if all of humanity would think about the principles that 4-Hers vow to uphold: Clearer thinking, greater loyalty, larger service, better living ... those are all attributes that would do this old world a whole lot of good.

For 120 years, 4-H has been changing lives. Back in 2006, we celebrated 100 years of Kansas 4-H. The youth program has been part of the national landscape since 1902.

 

The 4-H website says:

The 4-H idea is simple: help young people and their families gain the skills they need to be proactive forces in their communities and develop ideas for a more innovative economy. That idea was the catalyst to begin the 4-H movement and those values continue today.

 

No wonder it's stuck around this long.    

America: Celebrating 250 Years

Last evening, we went to Sterling Community Theatre's production of the musical, Come From Away. It tells the true story of how the people in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, opened their homes and community to strangers when American airspace closed during the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately, 38 international planes carrying 6,579 passengers and crew were diverted to an old air base in Gander.

The airline passengers were from all over the world, speaking different languages and practicing different religions. But local residents opened their homes, schools, churches, community buildings and hearts to thousands of travelers they had never met. While the musical acknowledges some misunderstandings when the various cultures collide, the overriding message celebrates how ordinary people can find common ground and care for one another with hospitality, compassion, and human connection during difficult times. 

 

Photo from the Theatre Kansas Facebook page

 

I'd never seen the musical, but I read the book on which it was based, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, by Jim DeFede. The Sterling Theatre Troupe is chock full of talented singers and actors. The musical has a 12-member cast who portray more than 150 characters. There aren't elaborate sets. Only a few chairs and tables are shifted to create the illusion of being inside an airplane, at a local pub or finding shelter at a school gym. (If you're near Sterling, there are still two opportunities to see the musical at Sterling High School: 7:30 Friday, July 3, and at 2 PM on Sunday, July 5. There is no July 4th performance. Tickets are available at the door.) The production also includes a talented nine-member band that almost made you believe you were in a pub in Newfoundland with their whistles, mandolins, fiddles, accordion and more.

 

The musical's central message is this: Despite our differences, we are all connected. And isn't that a good message to remember as we celebrate our nation's 250th birthday?

 

Display along Highway 50 in Stafford, KS

 

It may be hard to remember that, if we're only relying on news programs or scrolling through our social media feeds with the plethora of contrasting opinions and points of view ... and the viotrol that often accompanies those sources. 

 

This morning, I picked up a little book that has been decorating my mantle from Flag Day to the 4th of July. It was one of the "treasures" from my Grandma and Grandpa Neelly's house. It's called We Love America: Simple Stores of American Living. The back cover says it is part of the Patriot's Series. I don't remember my Grandma reading this particular book to us, but I loved the illustrations so I brought it home anyway. 

The book's copyright is "MCMXLI." I'll save you a Google search. That's 1941.

On the inside cover, it says: Janis Neelly from Your Sunday School Teacher. It's Grandma Neelly's handwriting, so it was really to my mom from her mom masquerading as her Sunday School teacher. (We moms are always wearing multiple hats, aren't we?)

It had been awhile since I'd looked inside. But this morning, I picked it up and looked through it. 

The book "visits" different children and tells about their homes - everything from the "big city" to an "Indian pueblo." I've shared a few of the pages on the blog before.

 

Some of those children live on a farm: I couldn't help but contrast the hay found in the book with some photos I took a couple of weeks ago in a neighbor's hay field.

  

I liked the patriotic wrap against a dramatic sky.

 

But, back to the book. Other American children live on a ranch:

It's not surprising that the farm and ranch pages appealed to me. But this time, I noticed some other pages. In one, three little boys watch a parade. But they don't all look the same. 

  

  

"They do not all have the same ways. But they all like parades." 

 

The same is true for three little girls at a circus:

 

"Do you know something? American girls do not all look the same. They do not all have the same ways. But they all like to go to the circus."

 

A little boy discovers he can go to school, even though he doesn't have any money. 

 

Sammie learns that American libraries are free. 
 

One of the pages reminded me of the message of Come From Away: "It's fun to be friendly, wherever you go."

 

Perhaps those are messages worth remembering as we celebrate our 250th birthday. May we - like those Newfoundlanders - find common ground in our differences and respond with compassion and understanding.

 

Happy Independence Day weekend everyone!
 

Catch and Release

"Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything."

-- Henry David Thoreau 

I often see inspirational posts, touting the healing powers of the ocean. And while I would never dispute the beauty and majesty of the seashore, it's little more than a pipe dream for someone who spends most of their time in land-locked Kansas.

While it may not be as mighty or awe-inspiring as the crash of waves along a rocky shore or the ebb and flow of water racing toward a sandy beach, a trip to a favorite fishing spot along the Ninnescah River also provides that calming sound of moving water. (Be sure to have the sound on as you watch the video.)

For weeks, our home along the Stafford/Reno County Line had been in a slash of red on a map right in the middle of Kansas. That red signified an area of extreme drought. 

But last week, 5 inches of rain improved our drought status here. And Randy was anxious to visit the Ninnescah pasture for a fishing trip.

The Johnson pasture along the Ninnescah has long been a "summer vacation spot" for our mama cows and their calves. On that summer evening, the cattle were grazing in another part of the pasture. They might have been missing out on the beauty, but it was there for the taking for a couple of interlopers in a Gator. 

Randy is the fisherman. I'm more along for the ride and the natural beauty. I may hold a fishing pole for awhile, but I'm usually more interested in holding the pages open on my book, competing with inopportune page turning from the Kansas wind.

And let's be honest: Randy does the hard work on these expeditions. He gathers the supplies and equips the Gator and baits the hook. I guess he finds the companionship worth it? Or maybe I'm there to be the cheerleader? Or official photographer to prove his mighty fisherman status?

That night was a "catch and release" night. He weighed the catfish, reported its 3-pound heft and then tossed it back in the water. 

I'm also content to wander around and find the splashes of color provided by the wildflowers.

There were yellow cone flowers.

The lavender of the wooly verbena is always a favorite for this K-State fan.

And the purple poppy mallow almost mimicked a rose. (I personally think they should be called pink or magenta poppy mallow, but nobody asked me.)

But the "music" of the evening was provided by the river as it tumbled over the dam and crashed into the rocks below.

The frothiness looked like suds on top of an ice-cold soda pop, which might have made the humid June evening a little more tolerable.

When Randy first felt a tug on his line, the froth covered up the "prize" until he reeled it in. It wasn't a catfish. It was a turtle, which he unhooked and sent on its way.

After a precarious slide down to the water's edge when he caught the catfish, I am adding another tool in Randy's fishing arsenal. I ordered a fishing net with an expandable handle. It will go right along with the retractable/expandable golf tool I bought him a few years ago for Christmas that he uses to retrieve balls from underneath trees or in water hazards.

 

While the water is great and all, taking an unexpected swim isn't in the plans - even if it might have felt good on a warm June night.