Sunday, February 1, 2026
Home Blog Page 294

Lovina Spends Time Bonding with Her Grandchildren

By
tammiehoeme
-
0

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen
Lovina Eitcher,
Old Order Amish
Cook, Wife &
Mother of Eight

First of all, Happy 30th Birthday to son-in-law Dustin! His birthday is today, October 8. Wishing him many more happy, healthy years!

Dustin and Loretta live across the road from us, and he has been a great help to us when we needed something done around here. It is also nice to have their two little boys close by. They are growing so fast! Byron, 1, tries to mimic everything his older brother Denzel, 2, does. 

Yesterday afternoon, both little boys came out with me to bring the laundry in. To keep them entertained, I threw the clothes pins on the ground, and they put them in the clothes pin bag for me. They were proud that they could “help” Grandma.

Ervin and Susan brought over their three youngest boys (Ryan, 5, Curtis, 5, and Ervin Jr., 11 months) yesterday while they took Kaitlyn, 8, to the dentist. Ervin Jr. is growing so fast and is a joy to have here. He is walking with help of holding onto furniture but not on his own yet. 

Susan will bring them over again this morning. She has several kidney stones and has had a lot of pain already. She has an appointment this morning at the doctor. I really do hope they can do something for her so she gets relief from the pain. 

I told her to bring her laundry along and I’d wash it for her. She has her hands full with six children aged 8 and younger. She does well, though, and enjoys being a mother to all of them. 

Daughters Elizabeth, Loretta, and Lovina also plan to come today. We always enjoy spending a day together. I told sister Verena she can come join us too!

It is a cold morning with the temperature at 41 degrees at 6 a.m. I imagine we will be getting a frost soon. It will be good to be done with gardening and mowing for the year. 

Last Thursday, we attended the wedding of nephew Andrew and Diane. They had a nice wedding and a very nice day for it. 

It was good to see the rest of my family and spend the day with them. We were served two very good meals, and all of us siblings and spouses sat together to eat each time.

We sure do miss those that aren’t here with us anymore. May they rest in peace. They are gone but never forgotten.

Today, sister Liz and Levi have a public auction to sell the property they have lived on for 32 years since the start of their marriage. This will be a change for them, but I am sure they will enjoy their new home. They bought land in a community 45 minutes from here, so we will be closer than the two hours we live from them now. Levi’s daughters and families are also moving to the same community, and they will be closer to their son Levi Jr. as well. 

I wish them God’s blessings in this new adventure in life.

Sunday communion services were held in the church that used to be the other half of our church district. This was the first time having services since the division. Daughter Elizabeth, Tim, and family, daughter Susan, Ervin, and family, daughter Lovina and Daniel all attended church, so this is their district now. 

They ordained a new minister in their church Sunday after communion services. Joe and I attended the ordination. 

We took Stormy (our 24-year-old pony) and the pony buggy. Granddaughters Abigail, 8, and Allison, 4, and grandson Ryan, 5, spent the day here with us and went with us to the ordination so they could go home with their parents. Ryan had a toothache and Abigail had a headache, so they decided to come here while their parents and siblings attended communion.

It was nice having them here. Everyone else was sleeping in, so I played a game called Quick Cups with them. The object of the game is to match your colors of cups with the colors on the card. It was time well spent for me. Grandchildren are so precious. They have such an innocence about them at this age, and I love spending time with them. 

Ryan found a toy that Joe used to take to church for him after his Daddy Mose died almost four years ago. He said, “Grandma, this is the toy I used to play with in church when I sat with Grandpa after my Daddy Mose died.” So touching!

God bless you all, and my prayers are with all the victims of the hurricanes. May God be with you!

Cinnamon Apple Crisp

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups sliced apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease an 8 x 8-inch baking dish. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, butter, and flour until the mixture becomes crumbly. Arrange the sliced apples evenly in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the apples and pour the water evenly over the top. Spread the crumb mixture evenly over the apples, covering them completely. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the apples are tender. 

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her three cookbooks, The Cherished Table, The Essential Amish Cookbook, and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold. Readers can write to Eicher at Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email [email protected] and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

Burrton product named Coolest Innovation

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

The Kansas Manufacturing Council (KMC) on Tuesday announced the Stacker 8500 is the winner of the 2024 Coolest Thing Made In Kansas – Coolest Innovation .

“The KMC is excited to celebrate the Stacker 8500 manufactured by Stinger Inc. as the 2024 Coolest Innovation,” said KMC Executive Director Brandie McPherson. “Our panel of judges had a very difficult job in narrowing it down from the 28 products nominated to just one.”

Presented by Forvis Mazars, the KMC added this category in 2022 to highlight the many ways Kansas manufacturers research and develop new products and work to improve products to address crucial challenges.

This year’s contest began with 28 nominated products. Twelve moved on to the first round of judging by completing a questionnaire detailing their innovations. A panel of judges reviewed the questionnaires and then ranked the products for their innovative solutions, narrowing the competition for the final round of judging.

During the final round, the judges heard from the companies who advanced to the finals:

  1. Cosmic Soil Moisture Monitor by Radiation Detection Technologies, Manhattan
  2. Stacker 8500 by Stinger, INC, Burrton
  3. The Beast Rogue Fire Fighting Tools by Prohoe Manufacturing LLC, Munden
  4. Command Center Tower on the OutStander Stand-On Mower By Grasshopper Mower, Moundridge

The judges choose the winning product based on a criteria that includes its impact on the challenge it solves as well as the impact it has on the business, its employees, and customers.

Manufactured in Burrton by Stinger, Inc., the Stacker 8500 is the first commercial bale stacker designed specifically for the expanding market of Ultra dense square bales.

It combines the most popular and proven features of Stingers of the past with the added performance and design to handle more bales at less cost than any other bale wagon in the world. Increased capacity, increased flotation, increased traction, speed, and horsepower. Click here to watch a video of the Stacker 8500 in action.

The winner of the 2024 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas – Coolest Innovation was announced during the KMC’s Kansas Manufacturing Summit held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita.

Who Will Do Our Dirty Work?

By
Lee Pitts
-
0
lee pitts

There’s much talk about how terrible it would be for agriculture if we ever did stop the illegal mass migration from south of the border. Some claim that if we finish Trump’s wall we will have no one to do our dirty work. But I’ve found the problem isn’t finding someone to hire to do our dirty work, the problem these days is finding someone who knows how to do anything. And if you ever do they turn out to have the work ethic of a 35 year old spoiled child who’s still living at home and has to rely on someone else to wear their jeans out for them.

Look at the faces in the pictures of the illegals and you’ll see that a big chunk of illegal aliens are drug smugglers, gang members, women with children with a few international terrorists mixed in. Granted, there may be some who are willing to give you a day’s work… but they’ll take a week to do it.

These aren’t the hard working immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island who had a sponsor, the work ethic of a pack mule and their required promise they wouldn’t ask for public assistance. Nor are they the talented, hard working Mexicans we’re accustomed to. Let’s just say the new illegals are not people you’d trust with your half-million dollar combine.

Many of the new illegals are folks from Central America who want to get lost in our interior, far away from the border patrol. Many may never find employment and they just want to take advantage of our health and welfare system. Even those seeking work are looking for easier work than agriculture offers and so they end up making beds in hotels, bussing tables or performing some other role in today’s “service industry”.

A farmer in Yuma told me that even with the largest number of illegal border crossings in our history he’s faced daily with a worker shortage. “In the vegetable business it’s Farmageddon out here. Prices are way down and costs are way up. To top it off, good help is becoming increasingly harder to find. I hired a fellow just last week who spends half his time pulling up his pants and the other half talking on his phone. He might make a hand making scam calls but that’s it. I never thought I’d get so excited about mediocrity, finding a worker who gives you a four day work week (even though he’s employed for five). Some might work well under constant supervision but then a rumor circulates that the Border Patrol is in the vicinity and they all disappear faster than a box of donuts at a cop convention. And they don’t come back!”

Another friend owns a moving company in Indio. “It used to be that if we needed extra help moving furniture for a day we’d go to the bus stop where a gathering of hard working guys was always looking for work. Now days there might be one guy looking for work but even he’s halfway hoping he doesn’t find any. So you hire him and he manages to break things. Expensive things!”

The owner of a trucking company told me he can’t find any drivers, legal or illegal. He says, “To stay in business I have to put an illegal behind the wheel of a $150,000 rig and he walks off the job and disappears, leaving my tractor-trailer at a truck stop with 50,000 pounds of live cattle.”

Maybe farmers and truckers are spoiled. They’re looking for workers 25-35 years in age with 40 years experience. But I think a different type of person is invading us from the south. I’ve crawled all over the borderlands and on most every ranch there’d always be a majordomo, a Mexican man, legal or illegal, that practically ran the place. They could do anything and you’d trust them with your life. They were upstanding people who valued family and gave you an honest day’s work. They became part of your family. Sadly, these folks are becoming as rare as an elephant that can type.

I don’t know who said it but it’s true, “The problem these days is the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”

Kansas Water Photo Contest & Student Poster Research Submissions Being Accepted

By
Anita Stuckey
-
0

Photos and Student Posters Featured at Water Conference

Kansas is home to an abundance of beautiful natural resources, and Kansans are encouraged to capture the most vital of these; water. The Kansas Water Office (KWO) is accepting water photos to be featured in conjunction with the 2024 Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas in November. The photos need to pertain to water or water use in Kansas. Examples include all bodies of water, irrigation, agriculture, recreation and fun, or other water infrastructure.

The top winning photo from each category will win a cash award and be featured at the 2024 Governor’s Water Conference. The winners will also be featured in several of the KWO publications throughout the year. November 1 is the deadline to submit photos to [email protected].

Student Research will also continue to be a feature during the conference. Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit abstracts on their water-related research to be presented as posters. Any research that involves water quantity, quality or water education is eligible, and cash awards are available. The submission deadline is November 4. More information can be found at kwo.ks.gov.

For more information about both contests as well as a draft conference agenda and speaker bios, visit the Governor’s Water Conference page at kwo.ks.gov under the News & Events section.

Pruning Trees and Shrubs

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

Woody plants are actively building up their storage of sugars as they approach leaf drop. Pruning in the fall limits this process and reduces the amount of energy the plants have available through dormancy. Also, pruning now may encourage woody stems to
send out new growth that will be more susceptible to freeze damage during winter.

With the exception of removing dead or diseased branches, it is best to save pruning until after winter. For shrubs that bloom in spring, pruning in the fall can reduce flowering. Spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythia, lilac, flowering quince, almond, beautybush, deutzia, pyracantha, mock orange, cotoneaster, weigela, viburnum and witch hazel should be pruned after they bloom.

Summer-blooming shrubs, such as hydrangea, rose of Sharon, butterfly bush and crepe
myrtle, can be pruned in early spring because the blooms establish on new growth. With
a few exceptions, most deciduous trees respond best to late winter/early spring pruning.
Proper timing of pruning allows trees to go into dormancy healthy, without increased
stress from pruning.

1...293294295...4,788Page 294 of 4,788

Kansas News, Auctions & Classifieds

Trending

Categories

© Rural Messenger