Peace Creek Not So Peaceful

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - August 10, 2022

It's not a good sign when you stop at a bridge and the first thing you see is a vulture perched in the creek bed. (It flew away before I got the shot - FYI.)

This summer in Kansas has not been fit for man or beast - unless you happen to be a vulture, I suppose. We've had more days than usual above the 100-degree F mark. And we are dry. When the weather forecasters were predicting 2 to 4 inches in our area a couple of weeks ago, we got 0.75". We were thankful for every drop. However, the most appreciable rain before that happened at the end of June during wheat harvest.

The Kansas Drought Monitor tells the tale, too. Half of Stafford County is in extreme drought and the other half in severe drought. (And that's better than a bunch of counties in western Kansas.)

At the bridge along the Zenith Road, Randy saw fish gasping for air in the dwindling water. I went back with him, but we couldn't see the fish at that time. However, we saw a bunch of bullfrogs who were still hunkering down in the few wet spots they could find.

 

Two years ago in August, I took this picturesque scene as I headed toward home after running an errand to the field.

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - 2020

The U.S. Drought Monitor website also had this chart of impacts of drought. As they indicated, the consequences vary from state to state.

Several of these are evident in Kansas and other areas of the Great Plains this year.  (Click on the chart to make it easier to read.) Some field corn is getting chopped for silage, rather than harvested for grain. There are new blue-green algae alerts in the news all the time. Fires are much more likely to get out of hand. Ranchers are contemplating how to feed their cow/calf herds with dwindling pasture reserves. 

This week was again supposed to bring rain. But as this week arrived, the weather maps on the local TV stations started changing to fewer raindrops. So far, we haven't received any moisture.

However, Wednesday was a wonderful respite from the hot temperatures. So that prompted a Gator ride to the Rattlesnake Pasture.

There's still a little water in the Rattlesnake.

It's definitely better than the scene in 2012, when it was dry as a bone.

August 2012 - no water in the Rattlesnake

The cows and calves appeared to be faring well, despite the lack of rain to make the grass grow more abundantly. However, to keep it that way, Tye and Todd have decided to wean the calves from the cows next week and sell them now, rather than wait until later this fall, as is the norm. (Though we've had our farm sale, we still retain ownership in our cow/calf herd, though Tye and Todd do the day-to-day management.)

That will reduce the number of head of cattle in the pasture, with the hope that the grass will last longer for the remaining cows.

 As we left the pasture, we stopped at our customary spot for photos on the bridge.

There's still a little water flow. It's never a rushing river, but here's a comparison from March 2021.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? The Farmers' Almanac predicts our area will have a snow-filled winter. My Grandpa Neelly may have planted potatoes by the light of the moon and the Farmers' Almanac, but I'll believe heavy snowfall when I see it. 

“Get ready to shake, shiver, and shovel!” says the website for that publication, which was founded in 1818 and is based in Lewiston, Maine. That almanac has weathered considerable distrust from meteorologists over its long-range forecasts, which it says are created using a secret formula that’s centuries old. 

Honestly, the Farmers' Almanac can't be much worse at predicting precipitation than the local TV stations.

***

As I wrote earlier this week, I'm sure I'll write about the farm sale. But it's going to take some time and some thought. More on that down the road.

Streusel-Topped Peach Blueberry Pie

Upper right: Toll House Cookie Pie & lower right: Coconut Pie

Things that really matter are the things that gold can't buy. 

So let's have another cup o' coffee and let's have another piece o' pie. 

Irving Berlin

I was in charge of organizing the pie portion of a fundraiser for my Stafford PEO group. I had ordered plastic containers for individual pieces of pie, but I felt like I needed to make a pie and experiment with how best to cut it to fit in the containers.

Randy was a big fan of the experimentation. The pies I made later in the week were carted out the kitchen door to our PEO Potatoes and Pie fundraiser at the First Friday event at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford. PEO was raising money for our local scholarship, given each year to a senior girl at Stafford High School. It was also a way for our PEO members to get involved in a fun community event. Community service is always a good thing!

The containers worked well, though we also used a piece of tape to make sure the lids stayed close. I used under-the-bed plastic storage containers to display the pies and make them easier to transport from the church kitchen (where we cut each pie into eight pieces) and the library, where we served. This was the only photo I took all evening (not very impressive, but I guess I was busy).  The photo just shows a portion of the pies. I stacked them two high in two long containers, and I labeled each pie piece so customers could easily identify them.

Though I made a Coconut Pie and a Toll House Cookie Pie for the actual event, this Streusel-Topped Peach Blueberry Pie was a hit at our house, and it will go in the recipe files for another time. For my experiment, I wanted a crumb-topped pie since my pie crust recipe makes three crusts, and I needed two for later in the week. And it used two fruits that are abundant this time of year. Bonus!

I love a streusel-topped pie with ice cream anyway! Unfortunately, 100-degree temperatures meant that we didn't top our pies with ice cream at the First Friday event. But it sure didn't stop us at home.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

Streusel-Topped Peach Blueberry Pie

Recipe adapted from Pillsbury.com

 

1 unbaked pie shell **

 

Filling

3 cups peeled, sliced fresh peaches

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

 

Streusel Topping

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/3 cup cold butter

 

** I always use my sister, Lisa's, Never Fail Pie Crust. Click HERE for that recipe. It makes 3 crusts total. (You can use for 3 single crusts or use for 1 double-crusted pie and a single pie.)

Place pie crust in a 9-inch pie pan. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, mix all filling ingredients. Spoon into crust-lined pie plate.

In medium bowl, mix topping ingredients with fork or pastry blender until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling.

Place pie shields over the crust. (I use silicone pie shields.) Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Cool on cooling rack for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving.

 

Note: You may use frozen fruit. However, make sure the fruit is thawed and well-drained.

Serves 8. 

***

NOTE: I am sure I will write about the farm sale at some point, but we are still in the midst of the business of finishing up things. We have another day of running around for business today. We'll see how the rest of the week goes and how I feel. (Right now, I'm tired!) It was a good day. We had a great sale with a big crowd, our family was here and the kids hosted a reception after the sale. For the record, I didn't make a single cookie ... or anything else. We are blessed!

 

Matchbook Cars vs. Big Boy Toys

We cleaned out the attic this week, and one of the treasures we found was a stash of Randy's old Matchbox cars. 

We hadn't unearthed the Matchbox cars in years, but there were lots of miles on those miniature cars and trucks, some of which dated back to Randy's childhood and still others that were added back in the 1980s and '90s by Brent. They were a fixture in Grandma Marie's toy box and didn't come home with us until we were cleaning out Melvin's and Marie's house. At that time, Brent was past the age for toy cars, so the cars were "garaged" in our attic.   

Even though we were carting a bunch of stuff from the attic to the trash dump, I couldn't let the Matchbox cars go - especially without showing them to the kids first. They'll be here this weekend for our farm retirement sale, scheduled for Saturday, August 13. (Click HERE for my blog on the sale. Here is a SALE BILL.) 

(Randy digging in the dirt - even as a kid. These are Tonka-sized toys in the photo, but I'm sure the Matchbox cars were run in the dirt, too. They are definitely not in mint condition.)

As I looked through the box of cars, I couldn't help but think about the little boys whose hands rolled those vehicles over highway play mats and Matchbox race tracks. 

I lined up a bunch of the toys for a photo, and I saw the similarities between my miniature line-up and the neat rows at the farmstead that Randy has worked hard to organize in the last month or so for the farm sale. 

Now, Randy has another "toy." As the joke goes: It's bigger than a bread box ... or a Matchbox. It's a new-to-us John Deere Gator.

The Gator does look a little small when compared to the feed truck, which was designed on the chassis of an old Army truck.

I just may have called the feed truck "a big boy toy" when it was added to the farm equipment back in 2012. (Ironically, I was the one that ended up driving it the majority of time during our final few years of farming. And Randy has relished telling potential buyers that his wife drove it for feeding.)

Still, I had to chuckle to myself that Army trucks made the cut all the way from Randy's childhood through his farming years - at least, in a manner of speaking. (His dad drove an Army truck in the Korean War, so there was that family connection, too.)

I didn't see the equivalent of a Gator in the Matchbox stash. But, a couple of weeks ago, we purchased the used Gator. We had been looking for about a year, but the pandemic disrupted the supply chain and availability on these kinds of vehicles, too, along with the scarcity of new and used passenger vehicles.

But, just like many things, connections are what makes the world go around. Jill and Eric told us that a Topeka friend was selling a Gator.

And, since our 4-wheelers are going on the auction block this Saturday, the time was right.

We decided that throwing our legs over the 4-wheelers might get more difficult in the coming years, so it was time to make a more accessible change.

We agreed on terms, and the Gator came home with us. We'll use it for fishing trips around here (if it ever rains)  and other "running around excursions" that stay relatively close to home. Randy's already checked a pasture with it and has made several trips up and down the roads to the farmstead.

Boys love their toys - whether Matchbox size or Gator size or an XL farm feed truck.

(Why did we clean out the attic on farm sale week? That's a good question. We used the only cooler day this week for the project. It happened to be Jill's and Eric's 13th wedding anniversary that day, so I texted the kids and said, "Happy 13th anniversary to Jill & Eric. And just happy day to Brent & Susan. Here's some stuff you won't have to haul out of the attic some day because we did it." By the way, I was dirty and sweaty, too, but I chose not to take a photo of that! We found that the attic was a little more drafty than we'd realized. The two major windstorms this winter and spring left quite a bit of dirt behind. Maybe this will give me a kick start to complete the decluttering process I began in earnest during the earlier days of Covid.)

The Judge's Perspective: One Person's Opinion on One Day

It's one person's opinion on one day.

It's something I've repeatedly said to my kids ... and anyone else who would listen. When you are being judged - whether that's during a 4-H fair or a music contest - your rating is at least somewhat dependent on one person's opinion on that particular day.

I served as the judge for the Photography Contest during the Kansas 4-H Wheat Expo on August 4. I believe in the 4-H program, of course, which won't come as a surprise to anyone who is a regular reader. 

But my saying "yes," probably was just as much about not turning down our county agent, Amy. This was the last event of her tenure in Stafford County/21 Central Extension. (We will miss her after she's been a part of us since 2005!)

I told her that I haven't received any of the specialized training for 4-H judges. My training has been more "boots on the ground" - or more accurately, "tennies in the dirt" as I've photographed our Kansas farm through the years. I also volunteered as a 4-H photography project leader back when Brent was involved in 4-H. And, as I've said before, I probably learned more than any of the 4-Hers I escorted to local photo shoots, garden shows, 4-H workshops and other field trips. 

I've decided I'd rather be on the receiving end of that old adage than on the "judging" end of it. 

Jennifer, one of my fellow competitors in the open class photography division at the Stafford County Fair, was also at the Wheat Expo, serving as a tour guide. We've often stood in the hot exhibit building at the Stafford County Fair and contemplated why this photo placed over that. She has heard my "one person's opinion on one day" almost as much as my kids, I suppose.

And, before she left to lead her tour groups to Stafford County farms, I told her I wasn't sure how I felt about being that one opinion.

As my family knows, I'm not the fastest decision maker. (I like to make the RIGHT decision. And when there's not necessarily a RIGHT decision, it can be a struggle.) 

But I got the job done. There was at least one person happy with my class placements that day. And I figure a lot of the others were happy with their purple or blue ribbons, too. Maybe those to whom I gave a red ribbon weren't as happy.

But on everyone's entries, I tried to write comments about how I would improve the photo. 

The photo I chose as the winner used what I called "Hobby Lobby" wheat in my comments. As a Kansas wheat producer, I would have preferred the wheat come out of a Kansas harvest field, especially for a Kansas Wheat Expo competition. However, there was no stipulation in the rules, and it was - in my opinion on that one day - the best composition. And, some farmer somewhere grew that wheat and marketed it to craft stores. (Good for them!)

Anyway, Jennifer let me know later that she'd visited with the young photographer, who was amazed that the judge knew that she'd used wheat from Hobby Lobby. That made me laugh. Yes, that long-bearded wheat looks a lot different from what I've seen for 60-plus years in Kansas fields. 

The photo contest wasn't the only contest. Another judge got to sample a table full of baked goods - celebrating Kansas wheat's journey into flour. Randy thought that would have been the thing to judge, since he might have gotten to taste, too. (Randy couldn't complain too much. They served cinnamon rolls as the 4-Hers and families were gathering.)

Another judge evaluated wheat samples in quart jars. Still another judged posters and displays, a couple of which involved a lot of time and legwork in raising and evaluating crop conditions themselves.

While I was back at the Stafford County annex agonizing over my decisions, the 4-Hers and their families toured three different operations. They went to Stafford County Flour Mill, the home of Hudson Cream Flour (the best flour around).

Tour photos by Danielle Kasper, used with permission

They also toured Spare Produce, which markets their produce primarily at farmers' markets, and with a farm owned by Jill Stimatze, who grows 30 acres of pumpkins, 10 acres of watermelon and 10 acres of cantaloupe, most of which are marketed to grocery chains.

Photo by Danielle Kasper, used with permission

 

We didn't stick around to hear the verdicts from those who may have disagreed with "one person's opinion on one day." No matter what, I know events like the expo help "make the best better" as 4-Hers learn more and make new friends.

If I Had a Hammer ... or a Shovel

 

There's some heft to an old scoop shovel Randy uncovered as he was going through sheds before the farm sale.

Today's scoop shovels are much lighter. Even though the design hasn't changed much since the first human decided to hammer a piece of metal into a big "spoon," today's scoop shovels are usually made of composite metal. It certainly doesn't alleviate the elbow grease that the tool still requires. But, the new iterations are still a little easier to repeatedly scoop and lift.

So the old, heavy scoop shovel doesn't have a lot of value in 2022. However, there's a lot of sentimental value scratched in the rough-hewn wooden handle. The initials "SF" were etched into the wooden handle by Randy's great-grandfather, Simon Fritzemeier.

I enhanced the photo with HDR to try and reveal the initials, but the mark is pretty faded. Though Randy vaguely remembered the shovel being marked in some way, it still took him awhile to find it on the splintery old wood.

Instead of adding the scoop to the trailer of miscellaneous "treasures" for the farm sale, it came home with Randy.

Randy doesn't remember his great-grandparents well. Simon's big white mustache was his most memorable characteristic. These photos were taken in 1956, when Randy was just a baby.

But, Simon didn't always have a mustache. In looking through the family photo books that Randy's mom, Marie, compiled, it shows a clean-shaven Simon with his bride, Augusta, on their wedding day. (That photo is undated, too.)

There were a couple more snapshots in Marie's notebook. Randy remembers visiting them at their house in town, since they lived only a few houses down from his grandparents, Clarence and Ava Fritzemeier.

The materials used to make the shovel aren't the only things with "heft." The memories left behind in five generations of farming on the Kansas plains are pretty weighty, too. We've been privileged to be part of that.