Music in a Pasture: Symphony in the Flint Hills

I'm used to playing a horn in the pasture. I pride myself on my rhythmic beep-beep-beeping of the pickup horn to attract our cattle to the corral during a round-up from summer pasture.

But my lonely solo pales in comparison to hearing 80 professional musicians play horns and strings and percussion in the middle of the Kansas prairie. Saturday, I went to my first Symphony in the Flint Hills. Brent, Jill, Eric and the girls got me tickets for a combination Mother's Day and birthday present.

I had always wanted to go, but I never bought them for myself because of the uncertainty of wheat harvest timing. But when others had put down their hard-earned money on my behalf, I was going to make it work, no matter what. Randy was baling hay, so Brent graciously agreed to accompany me.

Photo by Brent with Instagram filter

As I listened to the swell of symphonic music float on the hot breeze of a Kansas evening and drank in the vibrant green rolling landscape under a hazy, humid sky, I pretended I was sopping up sweat instead of tears. It was just so beautiful, but I didn't figure my date would appreciate my emotional response.

It was the 11th annual Symphony of the Flint Hills. This year, it was in the South Clements pasture owned by cattleman Edward Bass in Chase County, but the venue changes each year. After turning off of Highway 177 south of Strong City, a  narrow, curving dirt road was the only way in and out of the venue. I wondered what the city folk thought as the fine dust swirled around cars in a very different form of traffic jam.

Because of the hot forecast, we timed our arrival for later afternoon.

But it still gave me time to wander around the pasture, taking photos of wildflowers and the rolling hills so different from our flat pastures only 2 hours to the west.

The Flint Hills are part of the tallgrass prairie. In Kansas, they stretch from Marshall County in the north down through Riley, Geary, Pottawatomie, Wabaunsee, Morris, Lyon, Chase, Greenwood, Butler, Elk, Cowley and Chautauqua Counties and then into Oklahoma, where they are called the Osage Hills. These 5 million acres comprise the largest expanse of tallgrass prairie in the world.

The Flint Hills began as a vast inland sea 270 million years ago, which left scattered limestone and shallow soil behind. With the rocks less than a foot down, this part of the prairie was spared the plow and left in native grass. It’s the prairie mosaic that author William Least Heat-Moon called “360 degrees of sky.”

While it certainly isn't the mountains of Colorado, it's also very different from the stereotypical flat lands of Kansas.

The light and shadows played hide-and-seek in the gentle nooks and crannies of the rolling Plains covered in lush grass after plentiful spring rains.

Kansas City Symphony Conductor Aram Demirjian directed a program that led off with “Celebration Overture” by Peter Boyer. As the orchestra's notes rose and fell, it certainly seemed like a celebration of music and nature's beauty.

As the orchestra transitioned to "The Magnificent Seven," cowboys herded cattle as a backdrop.

 

I am used to seeing cattle on pasture, but watching the cowboys ride across the landscape while an orchestra played was a little different from our 4-wheeler round-ups.

Other symphony selections were by quintessential American composer Aaron Copland; the folk song, "Shenandoah"; and the theme music from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Dances with Wolves," among others.

Photo by Brent, which he edited on Instagram

"America the Beautiful" was certainly truth in advertising as the sun was setting in the hazy sky. As the concert came to an end, the 7,000 or so spectators, donors and volunteers stood and sang "Home on the Range," a tradition of Symphony in the Flint Hills.

As I packed up my collapsible chair and my cooler now less full of bottled water and walked out of the "Welcome" gate sign, I thought about the words to a less-familiar verse of Kansas' state song, "Home on the Range," words that we'd just sung in unison:

How often at night when the heavens are bright

With the light from the glittering stars

Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed

If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Yes ... indeed.

The Kansas City Star has a short video clip from Saturday's night's concert. I was a good girl and didn't record any video of the concert, so click on the link to get just a small taste of the symphony's music. And, if you get a chance, go to Symphony of the Flint Hills yourself. Next year, it's June 10, 2017, at the Deer Horn Ranch in Geary County. For more information, go to their website, www.symphonyintheflinthills.org.

Beautiful Things

Whenever I was on the prairie, 

I experienced a kind of presence 

I had not felt anywhere else. It mystified me. 

Was the prairie holy?

Prairie Images of Ground and Sky

By Terry Evans

The Kansas prairie is what I've always known. The quote above is on an historical display at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse in Concordia.  In 1884, six Catholic sisters arrived from the city of Rochester, N.Y., to the north central Kansas hamlet of Concordia. What did they think of the solitude of the country when they were used to the bustle of big city life?

Perhaps they - like me - did find a glimpse of God in the world He created. It does seem holy as night gives way to dawn.

A couple of mornings last week, I ventured out before the sun broke free from the horizon. As I put water in the coffee pot, I was drawn by the color of morning tinging the tops of the clouds outside my northeast kitchen window. It's like the clouds are being lit from within. Sometimes, I don't even change out of my pajamas. I just slip into tennis shoes and drive down the road, seeking the light (and hoping to avoid any early-morning neighbors).

I play with flash and then with the backlit silhouette, never quite capturing the beauty that is there, free for the taking, on a cool summer morning before the heat of the day ramps up. The songs of birds punctuate the Kansas breeze, amid the annoying buzz of mosquitoes who want to invite me to breakfast - with me as the main course.

My Guideposts devotional to start the week also reminded me to appreciate the beauty around me:

A Time to Act

Stand outside this evening. Look at the stars. 

Know that you are special and loved by the One who created them.

That's not a hard assignment. I have plenty to appreciate.

From big vistas in rain-soaked pastures ....

to the smallest of beautiful visitors on a backyard bloom.

From sunrises just before the sun breaks on the horizon ...

 to the dance of morning's first light as it skips across the wheat field with fairy-like gleam ...

... to turning and finding the "backside" of sunset at my sunrise tree.

Yes, the prairie does seem holy. Thank you, God, for eyes to see it. With the news of yet another mass shooting, I pray we look for the beauty in each other - in spite of our differences. I pray we celebrate the uniqueness of each person. May we have eyes to appreciate our diverse earth and its people - whether in a busy city or a quiet rural landscape.

A Time to Think

All the world is an utterance of the Almighty. Its countless beauties, its exquisite adaptations, all speak to you of Him. –Phillips Brooks, clergyman and author

A Time to Act

Open your heart to the beauty that surrounds you.

A Time to Pray

Dear Lord, please help me to see the beauty of every day.

Devotional (in blue) from Guideposts.

Cowboy Blondies

The race has been on to get the freezer stocked with cookies for wheat harvest. Kind of like Noah's Ark, I package them 2 X 2 in plastic bags and corral them in a 9 X 13 pan in the freezer, ready to pull out for suppers during harvest.

Cowboy Blondies made the "round up" this year. I remember Cowboy Cookies from an old church cookbook. They were drop cookies with coconut, oatmeal, and chocolate chips. I did my usual big drop cookie bake, tripling a tried-and-true recipe, dividing the dough and mixing in different add-ins to make a kaleidoscope of cookie flavors.

But I also made this new-to-me version of the old classic Cowboy Cookie drop cookie. Besides the traditional Cowboy Cookie ingredients, this version also has white chocolate chips. I like the convenience of bar cookies: Spread the dough in a pan and you're done. No filling, then washing, a bunch of cookie sheets.

While we haven't started harvest yet, I've had to pull a few bags from the freezer for suppers during alfalfa swathing and other pre-harvest chores. Lasso this recipe for harvest - or, if you're not headed to the field - just whip it together for a weekend or week-day treat.

Cowboy Blondies

Adapted from Bite Me More

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 10- by 15-inch with cooking spray. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla, mixing until well combined. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture, combining well. Add chocolate chips, oatmeal and coconut. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake for 25-26 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool and cut into bars.

***

Today, I'm linked to Weekend Potluck, hosted by these bloggers. Check out the tried-and-true recipes from them and other foodies!

• Served Up With Love ~ Melissa
• The Country Cook~ Brandie
• The Better Baker ~ Marsha
• Sweet Little Bluebird~ Mary
• Mommy’s Kitchen~ Tina

Farm Fresh Fragrance

The sun has risen on the 2016 alfalfa season.

 Looking west at first light - the other side of sunrise

Hay season has been a long time coming this year. Spring rains kept the swather out of the field in May. But the generous rainfall has produced thick windrows as the guys have swathed hay this week.

The fragrance of the purple blooms mixes with the perfume of the freshly cut alfalfa. It could be bottled under the name, "Farm Fresh." (It sure beats the aroma of diesel wafting off Randy's clothes after a repair job.)

Yellow and white butterflies play "tag" among the flowers, dancing too quickly for a photo on a warm June afternoon.

 

Randy called with a photo request after swathing a field Wednesday morning. He thought it was ready for a prairie portrait.

I think he was right.

For more information about our alfalfa crop - from swathing to raking to baling - click on this Kim's County Line link. 

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.

Saturday in the Park ... er ... The Pasture

With apologies to one of my favorite music groups, Chicago:

"Saturday in the park.
Think it was the 4th of July."

Yes, it was a Saturday.
But it was a pasture instead of a park.
And it was Memorial Day weekend rather than 4th of July.

It was a lovely Saturday. But there wasn't the sound of people laughing or dancing or anyone playing guitar in a busy park. Instead, there was the music of cascading water and the call and answer of mama cows and their calves. There was the trill of birds and the rustle of a gentle breeze through prairie grasses that helped keep the insects at bay.

We were there to check cattle. A neighbor had some of his cattle get into the pasture we rent along the Ninnescah River. While he was sorting them out, he noticed that one of our bulls had a problem. We were there on a recognizance mission.

We didn't find the bull at first, but we saw his pasture mates, looking sleek and full from ample grass fed by generous spring rains.

Mamas and babies were curious about the 4-wheeler that came to invade their solitude on the prairie.

Just a little bit of family resemblance with this mama and offspring, don't you think?

Yes, we were there on a cattle checking mission. But we just happened to bring our fishing gear, too. This spot on the Ninnescah has long been a favorite fishing spot for Randy and our kids.

Randy went back to the pickup for the fishing gear and I searched for photos - not fish. I much prefer that anyway.

The water roared over the dam. From a perch above the bridge, it was difficult to separate the froth of the water with the delicate white wildflower blooms along the upper banks. 

The rushing water gave me vertigo as I peered over the bridge and the roar filled my ears and my senses.

Soon, Randy returned with the fishing gear. After all the rain, we could only reach this spot with a 4-wheeler.

Randy set us up a little downstream from the rushing water, where he hoped the fish would smell the fragrance of the liver he used to bait our hooks.

And they did! Randy caught three catfish and not even my lack of patience kept me from catching one catfish, too.

After I caught my fish, I left Randy along the river bank.

I wandered the pasture, pausing to shoot photos of wildflowers, some of them so tiny that it was like a treasure hunt to find them in the lush green grasses.

I wandered away from the rushing waters at the dam to the tranquil flow downstream.

After our 5-gallon bucket was full, it was time to search again for the bull.

The search took us to the far corners of the pasture, where we could look at the vista from the highest point in the field. (Granted, it's not high, but we live in the flat part of Kansas!)

Unfortunately, the view to the other direction confirmed the neighbor's suspicions. The bull is no longer able to do his "job." (I will leave it at that. This is a family blog, after all.) The guys had hoped to go back on Tuesday to bring him up to the corral. But after another 1.40" of rain, that job was postponed until today. Once he's caught, Randy will take him to the sale barn.

 It was a sad ending to a beautiful morning. Poor Mr. Bull!

But we took in the beauty as we rode back to the pickup. Things could be worse. After a dry winter, we've been blessed with abundant rain this spring, refreshing the pastures and giving the cattle abundant food.

Our bucket of fish gave us an abundant meal on Memorial Day, too. Best of all, Randy was the chef!