A Trip to the Pyramids: Kansas Staycation

We took a trip to the Pyramids. And we didn't even have to pull our passports out of the safety deposit box. In fact, we didn't leave the state.

Contrary to those who think Kansas is a "flyover" state or who believe it is simply a boring, flat landscape on the way to Colorado, our state offers a diverse topography. Drive through the Flint Hills on a spring day and enjoy a rolling green carpet of native grasslands undulating over the gentle rises. Travel west of Medicine Lodge and experience the Gyp Hills, also known as the Red Hills, a nod to the iron oxide or rust in the red-tinged soil. They are the rolling hills, mesas, canyons and buttes of central Kansas.

The Chalk Pyramids -- or Monument Rocks -- rise out of the western Kansas prairie. On more than one occasion, I've longingly looked at the sign off of I-70, pointing south toward Monument Rocks. But we've always been on our way to somewhere else or hurrying to get home, so the big brown highway sign soon faded away in our rearview mirror.

The Kansas Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemaker group took a Discover Kansas trip to Scott County the final weekend of April. (More on that in this post.) But our hosts - Millie Dearden and Jim & Eilene Minnix - also included a trip to Monument Rocks. We traveled up US-83 and then bounced along gravel roads to the site in the middle of a pasture in western Gove County. 

 

I'm so glad our hosts made a little time in the schedule for us to travel to this hidden Kansas treasure. Seeing how these formations towered over us and up toward the clear blue Kansas sky filled me with awe of God's creative hand. 

In 2007, the Kansas Sampler Foundation named Monument Rocks as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas. The 70-feet-tall sedimentary formation of Niobrara Chalk were created 80 million years ago when the area was part of a vast inland sea. The site was the first National Natural Landmark designated by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1968.

They were created during the Cretaceous Period of geologic history when the area was covered by the Niobrara seaway, which extended from the present day Gulf of Mexico north through Canada.
When the sea evaporated, it left behind fossilized sea organisms that became chalk deposits. Monument Rocks, as well as nearby Castle Rock, and numerous sandstone bluffs in the area are today collectively known as the “Badlands of Kansas.”

Many of the fossils discovered in Kansas have been unearthed from these chalk beds. The material was perfect for trapping and preserving the remains of animals that lived in that ocean, such as fish, turtles, sharks, swimming reptiles called mossasaurs and plesiosaurs, swimming birds, gliding reptiles called pterosaurs, as well as invertebrate animals such as giant clams. Probably the best-known fossil from these beds is the famous "fish-within-a-fish" on display at the Sternberg Museum in Hays. (More on the Sternberg Museum in an upcoming blog post.)

The site was first noted by explorers when John C. Fremont made his famous expeditions in the 1840’s. Later, when the Smoky Hill Trail was blazed through the area to the Colorado Gold fields in the 1860s, pioneers were also, no doubt, amazed by the towering formations sitting quietly on the mostly unbroken plains.

From the Legends of America website

One of the most photographed locations at Monument Rocks is the "Keyhole" or "Keyhole Arch."  Folklore has that this arch started to form many years ago after someone started shooting at the rocks and a bullet went through a thin part of the formations starting what would eventually erode to this  arch formation.

Seeing Monument Rocks has been on my bucket list. But I still want to make another trip and witness them at sunrise and sunset.

We've already been talking about how to make that happen.

The formation below is called the camel. Can you see it?

You can if you travel off of I-70 and along the back roads of this wonderful state I call home!

Even though it's been a few weeks since we toured Monument Rocks, it's a great idea for a summer Staycation in Kansas. See more ideas for Kansas Staycations in upcoming blog posts!

Live. Learn. Bloom.: The K-State Gardens

A Wildcat Victory is said to come from rubbing the nose of a bronze wildcat in the K-State Gardens. The wildcat's nose is bright and shiny, so Randy and my dad weren't the first to test the theory.

And it must have worked! Our men's basketball team made it all the way to the Elite Eight. However, the luck must have worn off. We should have made another trip to the gardens for a little more luck before our game vs. Loyola last Saturday. (Of course, they had Sister Jean on their side, and she evidently has a direct line to God - or so the national media contends.)

The wildcat was one of the important stops on the Master Farmer-Master Farm Homemakers tour of The Gardens at Kansas State University. The garden tour was an "extra" before the annual meeting earlier this month.

The gardens' motto is Live. Learn. Bloom.

 

I'd venture to say it's a motto that resonates with this bunch of farmers and farm wives, even though in early March, there was not a lot blooming outside.

Photo from the K-State Gardens website

Originally, the Gardens Visitor Center was the K-State Dairy Barn and Milk House. It was built in 1933 and housed students workers that lived upstairs and milked for their rent. The first floor contained a weighing room, milk room, refrigerator, washroom and the herdsman's office. In 1976, due to inadequate facilities, the actual dairy production was moved to a new site north of campus.

Today, the milk house serves as a Visitor's Center for the gardens. A few spring blooms were beginning to poke out.

As I leaned closer to take a photo, I noticed that the blossoms were coming up through the debris of fall and winter. New life was being nourished by the dying organic matter from a different season.

There's a lesson there, isn't there? We may feel like we're being consumed by the things that weigh us down. But we can still bloom and overcome obstacles in our way.

Several of the people in our Master Farmer/Homemaker group have had to do that through the years. Most of them lived through the farm crisis of the 1980s (and the less publicized ones that came before and after). They've had crop disasters through no fault of their own. They've lived though family joy and pain. 

 

 And, still, they put on their boots and got busy.

They've "bloomed where they were planted," so to speak.

They've burst through the hard ground and made a life and a living, despite the circumstances.

The light has overcome the darkness of life's challenges.

Our tour through the greenhouses was led by a horticulture student. Through their research, they are trying to come up with new and improved ways of doing things. 

Their research builds their own resumes, but it also provides new ideas for the world though things like aquaculture.

Adapting to new ways of thinking is vital - whether we're talking about a greenhouse or a farm or the world in general.

Air, good soil, light and water may be the fundamentals. But so is the willingness to adapt and change when needed.

It's what makes us bloom as individuals.

For some photos from a fall visit to the gardens, click on this link. I hope to get back to the K-State Gardens at other times of the year.

(I couldn't decide whether I liked this photo with the light and shadows better or the close-up of the bloom. I'm sure if I polled people, there would be a number of different opinions. And that's what makes the world go around!)

Ag Day 2018: Farm Partner? Farm Wife? Farm Homemaker?

"Farm Homemaker:"

At first glance, the terminology may seem as archaic as wearing pearls, a perfectly-pressed apron and high heels in "Leave It To Beaver"-style while making dinner for the family.

But on this Ag Day 2018, I will wear the label with pride.

I started life as a Farm Daughter. I moved into my role as Farm Wife and Homemaker almost 37 years ago. But I, too, can get caught in the trap of thinking maybe farm women should change their image. Before I went to my first National Master Farm Homemaker Guild conference back in 2015,  I thought to myself, "Maybe they should change the name to Master Farm Family or Master Farm Partner. Maybe it shouldn't be Master Farmer and Master Farm Homemaker any longer."

Being a "homemaker" may not be society's ideal job for women any longer. But whether a mom goes to work at an 8-to-5 job at a city high rise office building or is trying to figure out yet another meal to take the harvest field, aren't we all trying to do the best for our families?

Just like other women, farm women come in all shapes and sizes. They are young and old and in between. Some work in the field alongside their husbands. Some keep the books. Some have dinner on the table at 12 noon without fail. Some load up the meal in the car and deliver it places that no Pizza Hut delivery guy could ever hope to find, even with GPS. Some, like my ag-vocate friend, Jen, have a Take Your Child To Work Day on a regular old Friday.

Photo by Jenny Burgess, Follow burgesshillfarms on Instagram. Used with permission.

We were one of six Kansas farm couples named to the Class of 2013 Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemaker, and we were officially welcomed into the group in March 2014. Earlier this month at the annual convention in Manhattan, I ended my term as treasurer of the Kansas organization and started my duties as secretary. Randy is doing a similar stair-step procedure through the Master Farmer offices. We'll be presidents of our respective arms of the organization at the same time.

Since 1927, Kansas farm couples have been chosen as Master Farmers and Master Farm Homemakers for their commitment to agriculture, family and the community.

My thoughts about changing the name or the organization itself flew away as swiftly as chaff separates from wheat in a Kansas wind once I saw the National Master Farm Homemakers Guild Goals.

The No. 1 goal is:

Place a greater focus on the family and create a greater awareness of problems that are affecting family life today. Demonstrate the highest possible standards of living in our farm homes. Emphasize the positive aspects of farm life.

Who can argue with that? I can't and don't want to.

Other goals that resonated with me were:

2. Encourage our members to be aware and come to the aid of farm families in the U.S., whose livelihoods are threatened by unexpected crisis.
3. Encourage and motivate younger people to become involved with agribusiness.
9. Encourage and assist women to actively participate in community and agricultural organizations.
11. Encourage women to use and promote all farm products.
      A. Be aware of and talk about their nutritional and economic value.
      B. Be more aware of adverse/false statements made about farm products and make every attempt to correct them. 

When I see my Facebook feed stuffed with anti-GMO rhetoric or applause for the "moral decisions" that restaurants say they are making, I want to be one of those farm homemakers who is speaking out and telling the truth. (I refuse to give any "ink" to name those restaurants, and I won't use my hard-earned money at them either!)

Despite using modern technology here on the County Line, we are not a "factory farm." We, like 99 percent of the farms in the U.S., are a family farm. 

It's one reason I blog. I realize I'm not impacting that many people with my little slice of the Internet, but I keep plugging away, trying to make a difference. And the terminology isn't what's important. Call me a Farm Homemaker. Call me a Farm Partner. Call me a Farm Family. It's living out the goals that define me and my peers, not a name.

Photo I took of a farm couple at the 2010 3i show.

During the memorial service at the national convention, Sandra Roberts from Princeton, Kentucky, read the F. Scott Fitzgerald poem, "She was beautiful." (See the photo illustration at the top of this blog post.) Simply put, I loved it.

She also read Sierra Shea's "So God Made A Farmer's Wife." Shea, a South Dakota farm wife, was inspired to write the prose after seeing the Ram truck commercial during the Super Bowl, which featured "So God Made a Farmer," written by Paul Harvey. Click on the link for the whole thing, but here are just a few of the phrases:

And on the 9th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "Oh, dear, the farmer is going to need help." So God made a farmer's wife. 

God said, "I need somebody who will get up before dawn, make breakfast, work all day in the kitchen, bank, school or alongside her farmer and then come home to fix supper and wash up the dishes." So God make a farmer's wife. 

Somebody who'd sew a family together with the soft strong stitches of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when her daughter says she wants to spend her life "doing what mom does."

So God made a farmer's wife.

So, on this Ag Day 2018, call me what you'd like. It's not the terminology that's important. It's the job itself.

My friend and classmate, Diana Hemphill, got these at an auction and then gave them to me. Thanks, Diana! They are beautifully framed, but since I wanted you to be able to read them, I just focused on the cross-stitched words.

For a previous post on Ag Day, click on this link.

 

This post was revised from an earlier one on Kim's County Line.

Ah Kansas!

Ah Kansas! Even if your vacation budget doesn't allow a trip out of state this year, there are plenty of hidden treasures to explore in the Sunflower State.

Our Discover Kansas event for Master Farmer-Master Farm Homemaker took us to north central Kansas in May. We explored Cloud County the first day and then went to neighboring Republic County the next.

Our first stop in Republic County was the Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings. He may not have "engineer" in his title, but Paul Boyer's ability to put carve figures or combine wire and gears and make them move is amazing.

We didn't get to meet Paul Boyer, but his two daughters, Annie and Candy, manage and operate the museum in Belleville. Paul doesn't make blueprints for his designs. He says if he can see it in his head, he can build it, though he has only an 8th grade education. He made his first carving at age 12. But it wasn't until 1965 that Paul began carving and creating in earnest. At that time, he was in an accident and lost his leg. Then, he contracted Hepatitis C through a blood transfusion.

He made the majority of the 65 carvings featured at the museum since that time. His animated, hand-carved figurines include people, animals, farm machinery and other vehicles. He hand paints each figurine. His largest animated sculpture is a lady on a bicycle outside the museum. During the summer, the Boyer Museum is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 1 to 5 PM and other times by appointment.

Our next stop was the Belleville Highbanks Museum. The highbanks is called the world's fastest half-mile dirt track and is the oldest continuously used dirt track in the U.S. The track was built in 1910 for racing everything from horses to motorcycles.

Photo from the Belleville Highbanks website - Photo credit - Kenneth Naysmith

In the 1930s, a limestone grandstand with banked oval was built at the Republic County Fairgrounds as a Works Progress Administration project.

With the exception of the war years, 1942-45, the track has operated continuously. Every summer, racers from across the nation come to compete at the Belleville Midget Nationals car race. The Belleville Highbanks has launched many racing careers.

Photo by G.T. Miller from the website

Racing names such as Andretti, Unser and Foyt raced there 50 years ago. More recently, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer have raced on the Kansas track. This year, the 39th Midget Nationals will be on August 5 and 6.

The museum has some of the cars which have made their mark on the highbanks clay track, which has a 23-degree bank is is 80 feet wide.

Our final stop in Republic County was the Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site.

The Pawnee were the dominant power on the Central Plains. The Kitkehahki or Republican band of Pawnee settled along the Republican River about 1820.

Trees line the banks of the Republican River today (about at the mid-point in the photo).

The walled Indian community, which had more than 40 large earth lodges, had a winter population of 1,000 Native Americans. By 1830,the village was abandoned and the band of Pawnee moved north, closer to other Pawnee bands.

In 1901 about half of the area of the village was given to the State of Kansas for preservation and portions of the site were excavated by archeologists in the 1940s and 1960. In 1967, a museum building was built around the excavated floor of one of the largest earth lodges.

If you have a day for a short trip, Republic County offers several options for sightseeing. If you combine it with the attractions in Cloud County, it could easily provide a weekend getaway on a tank of gas.