Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Home Blog Page 319

Carpenter ants

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

I have been getting questions about ants hanging around trees recently. These large, dark brown to black ants can range from ¼ inch up to ¾ inch for a queen. Carpenter ants seek soft, mushy wood to excavate for nests but may move into sound wood as the need arises. They do not feed on wood as termites do but remove what is needed to build galleries in which to rear their young. The sawdust is ejected and forms piles that can help locate a nest. Carpenter ants feed on honeydew given off by aphids, other insects, animal remains and household food scraps. As stated before, they do not feed on wood.

 

Carpenter ant infestations in trees normally begins in an area where the wood has already started to decay. These insects are not directly harmful to the tree but are making use of wood that is already starting to decay.

 

Control is normally not warranted unless the tree is acting as a bridge for the ants entering a home or other structure. Carpenter ant nests in structures must be controlled. If control is deemed necessary, locate the nest by looking for sawdust piles and then the area of entry where the wood is rotted. Use a pyrethroid such as permethrin (Hi-Yield 38 Plus Turf, Termite & Ornamental Insect Spray; Bonide Eight Vegetable, Fruit & Flower Concentrate; Bonide Eight Yard & Garden RTS and Hi-Yield Garden and Farm Insect Control) or cyfluthrin (BioAdvanced Carpenter Ant & Termite Killer Plus) that is labeled for trees or other structures.

A State Of Confusion

By
Lee Pitts
-
0
lee pitts

“The weather is almost always something other than normal.” Andy Rooney

I guess I’m what the looney left calls a “climate denier” as I don’t believe in man-made climate change. As such I’m always looking for data that will help me prove my point so I was elated to receive from my buddy Darol a map of the “all time” statewide high temperature readings for every state. It was made by Chris Martz using data from NOAA, which is short for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Although the map said it was for “all-time” the earliest statewide high temperature reading I found was for Montana in 1893, when it reached 117 degrees 131 years ago.

If you divide the 131 years that we have data for by the number of states that tells us how often a state should have reached their highest temperature, which turns out to be every 2.62 years. That means in the first 24 years of the 21st century nine states should have set new records for their “all time” high temperature.

We’re told over and over again that we’re experiencing the hottest temperatures ever recorded so guess how many states experienced their highest temperature on record in the 21st century? It wasn’t nine, in fact it was far less. Only THREE states reached their highest temperature, Washington in 2021, Colorado in 2019 and South Carolina in 2012. That’s it. Does that sound like global warming to you? I didn’t think so.

A quick survey of the map indicates that many of the states had their highest temperature ever recorded during the “dirty thirties” when there were far fewer cars on the road than there are now. So fossil fuel burning cars must not be the culprit. Right? The year 1936 seems to be the most prevalent year in which states had their highest temperatures and in that year there were only 128,053,180 people in the U.S, far fewer than the roughly 340 million in the country today. If man is capable of changing the weather wouldn’t you think that temperatures would be much higher when the population is almost tripled? But that’s clearly not the case.

My home state, California, achieved its highest temperature ever in Death Valley in 1913, which is also the national record. The highest temperature ever recorded anyplace on earth was in Libya way back in 1922 when it reached 136 degrees. One would think that if cow farts caused the global temperature to change wouldn’t you expect a higher temperature in Texas which has many more cattle than Libya ever did. But the highest temperature ever recorded in Texas was 120 degrees back in 1936. So cows must not be the culprit.

Hmmm… somehow the theory of man-made global warming is falling apart.

The most dramatic temperature swing ever recorded in America happened one day in January in 1943, when South Dakota went from minus four degrees to 45 degrees in two minutes! That’s a 49 degree change in 120 seconds! South Dakota also has the distinction of being the state with the coldest day in February, 1936, at minus 58! Five months later in July they had their hottest day on record at 120 degrees.

Now, that’s climate change!

Yet no one back then was insisting we all drive electric cars and have solar panels on their roof. If the climate change fanatics did a little research they’d find that most of America’s weird weather happened in the distant past, yet no one back then was altering their entire lifestyle because of it.

But I’m not finished debunking the theory of man-made climate change. The world’s greatest rainfall total occurred in 1966 when nearly 72 inches of rain fell in one 24 hour period. The five deadliest tornadoes in American history all occurred between 1840 and 1936. People may claim that we’re having more cyclones, tornadoes, hail and earthquakes due to man-made climate change but the facts don’t support them. The fact is that our climate is caused more by the shift of continents, solar activity and something called Milankovich Cycles (whatever that is) than it does the fact that our Climate Czar, John Kerry, has a carbon footprint bigger than Sasquatch with his 6 houses, 12 cars, two yachts and private jet.

Digital Edition 09.04.24

By
tammiehoeme
-
0
digital edition

Digital Edition 09.04.24

Lettuce Eat Local: We are not newcomers to cucumbers

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local

I’ve checked back through my recent articles several times now, scrolling through both my file folder and the online archive. I’m looking for something I’m sure must be there but that I have no actual memory of, perhaps because it doesn’t exist — where are the cucumbers?? Have I seriously gone all summer without writing about cucumbers? 

Because while you will find them as conspicuously absent from my garden as from my recent column history, they have blessedly not been absent from our summer life. I do this thing where I may or may not plant cucumber hills, and am not too worried about them either, since I’m certain someone else will grow way too many and give them to me. It might be selfish to rely on others’ generosity, but I’ll be honest, it also tends to be extremely effective. 

It’s playing vegetable roulette even more dangerously than any normal Kansas gardening always is. Some years I pay the price of my cucumber leniency and it’s a sad, crunch-less and burpless season for us; and then some years it’s like this one, when cucumbers have been our constant companion. 

We’ve snagged them from the box of “take me” that was brought to the foyer at church, we’ve picked them from traveling friends’ gardens (with permission), we’ve always answered affirmatively when asked if we want some, and we’ve even had them magically appear on the table while we were out. Someone mentioned to me recently that this is the season of needing to lock your car and house doors so people don’t deposit extra garden produce in them, and I responded with, “Oh no, this is the season to fling the doors wide open!” At some point, you can probably reach the level of Too Many Cucumbers, but that’s a hard-won place to get to. 

And while some of my in-laws can’t even stand the smell of cucumbers — they shall remain unnamed, bless their hearts — Brian will eat them in things and even sometimes by themselves. I always enjoy a good cucumber salad, whether it’s creamy or vinegary or herby or gingery or anything, but a lot of the cukes this year have been so wonderful I don’t even want to salad them. The kids and I just walk around chomping on them like little weirdos. 

Is Kiah fussy? Give her a cucumber, the perfect cold and crunchy teether that is its own handle. Headed out for “town chores”? Toss a few cucumbers in the backpack for later. Are we going for a walk? Grab a cucumber for each of us and go find the stroller. Ready for storytime? Here kids, have a cucumber to munch while I read. I’ve packed them along to all our Sunflower Summer adventures, used them in catering and classes, brought them as snack to our book study, and this week even took them on the airplane for Kiah and me on our way to Alabama. 

Safe to say, they’ve been around with us. I keep thinking the season has got to be over by now, and soon, it really will be — maybe it is even now, and I’ve already chomped on my last one. But we’ve sure had a good run of it this summer, thanks to the generosity of neighbors, and who knows, maybe I’ll even plant a few of my own next year.

Cucumbers with “Cucumber Stuff”

Great title, huh? That’s what I have to call it though because that’s what this is, at least according to Benson. I don’t know why I had the idea to sprinkle nutritional yeast on sliced cukes one time, but it was so good, it’s become a thing for us. It’s clearly stretching it to call this a recipe, but we think it’s a lovely method for enjoying cucumbers that are so good you barely want to do anything to them. Benson likes to help arrange the slices and sprinkle the spices, so it’s fun to get him involved (mostly fun, until I get a super-salty piece; we’re still working on even distribution). 

Prep tips: you do want to use coarse salt for this, as fine table salt is easier to get too salty and lacks that little crunch that we want. Even if you’ve never heard of it, most groceries carry nutritional yeast.

sliced, chilled cucumbers

coarse/kosher salt 

nutritional yeast

white pepper

optional red pepper flakes

Arrange the cucumbers in a single layer on a plate or tray. Sprinkle with salt, followed by a good dose of nutritional yeast, a light dusting of white pepper, and red pepper to taste (if using at all). Taste and adjust as necessary. 

2 ½ – 3 ½ Gravy

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
-
0

It’s been a very busy week on the home front and not enough time to get everything achieved. But…. I have a solution, entertain, yep that will do it every time. Our family enjoys having friends over for a meal or dessert, perhaps just coffee. The great thing about doing this is it makes you get the house in order! If you need a little gumption this is definitely one way to get it going.

This weekend we are hosting a neighborhood gathering for friends that are re-locating to South Carolina. After living in the Ozarks this will be quite a change. The forests they have in common, but everything else will be a pretty big

flip. Seafood galore, lots of grits and strong southern cuisine. I’m a little jealous of the great foods they will get to experience except for the boiled peanuts, they can keep those. Our gathering will be a pancake and sausage breakfast. With that said, let me give you a good tip. Saturday, we renewed our membership at Sam’s

Club. While we were shopping, I spied a box of pumpkin baking mix by Krusteaz. It was for bread making, pancakes, etc. If you get the chance pick up this delicious mix, it was outstanding. I’ll probably flip a few pumpkin pancakes next weekend along with the standard buttermilk. That reminds me I also need to get out the fall décor before Saturday.

I named this column 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 because it’s the measurements I use for good biscuit gravy. It’s 2 1/2 cups of milk to 3 1/2 tablespoons of flour. That’s all you have to remember for perfect gravy for 2-3 persons. Once you have it memorized, it’s like the world is your oyster. Every gravy maker is different. I remember when I first came to the Ozark Mountains, I was at work making gravy, when my part-time assistant, came unglued because I didn’t have enough oil in the skillet. I was so happy because the sausage meat wasn’t greasy, and she was wanting to put a half stick of butter in the skillet! I usually settle for just the oil that remains in the skillet for my sausage gravy. I work the 3 1/2 tablespoons of flour into the remaining drippings, add the milk and make a smooth dish. Of course, you are going to add salt and pepper and any other seasonings you desire. Sometimes I’ll put in a little dry mustard to take it up a notch. And, I prefer to use a hot sausage.

There’s something soul-warming about a good batch of biscuits and gravy. It almost puts things in perspective, if that makes any sense? Tonight, as I write I’m surrounded by memories focused around my childhood and beyond. The many stories and special times associated with a pan of biscuits and gravy. Watching a nostalgic expression appear on a loved one’s face while tucking away light fluffy biscuits and creamy gravy. And you wondered if it was appreciated? Indeed, every moment in our kitchen, is a treasure. Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

1...318319320...4,790Page 319 of 4,790

Kansas News, Auctions & Classifieds

Trending

Categories

© Rural Messenger