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Chronicles of The Farm Woman: School Photographer

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The high school lad came to school decked out in his Sunday best.  In a town high school this would be no uncommon sight.  But in a small rural high school where clean overalls and print dresses are accepted wear.  It was unusual to see a boy all dressed up.  Upon seeing him someone recalled that this was the day the itinerant photographer was expected.  Johnny was dressed up to have his picture taken.  It was an event in his young life.  He was going to send the picture to his big brother in the far Pacific, that big brother who had teased and tormented him but who had always been his pattern.

Few of the students had remembered the day.

Immediately the girls began to primp and add more lipstick and the boys to comb their hair.

The picture man did not come on the appointed day or the next.  He did call and say he would be there late in the week.  The lad continued to wear his white shirt and tie and suit.  He wanted to be ready when the man came. Then  came the great day.  The photo-grapher arrived with all his paraphernalia and his line of chatter.  Was there ever an itinerant photographer who did not have an incessant flow of patter? It is part of the stock in trade no doubt.  He lined up all the eager customers along the schoolhouse wall and snapped them in quick succession.  Girls did not have nearly enough time to primp.

Soon the man was on his way again with the promise that the pictures would be delivered in a few days.  When the pictures came Johnny’s was the best of the lot.  Today that picture is winging its way via air mail to an outpost somewhere in the Pacific.  Big brother will be amazed o see how the stripling has grown and changed in the two years since he last saw him.  This picture that little brother waited so many days to have taken probably will go up alongside the favorite pinup girl or in his billfold with pictures of his best girl and his mother.

Now little brother is wondering how long it will take to get an answer, that the picture really arrived.

Plants that take patience pay off

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University of Nebraska
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Aruncus, also known as goatsbeard, is a long-lived perennial that is worth the wait

“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” Liberty Hyde Bailey

 

Gardeners tend to be impatient with their landscapes. They want growth as quickly as possible – with all the additional perks of color, focus, privacy – and preferably this year, this season, this month, this week, now. But if you’ve gardened long enough, you’ve probably learned that the plants that take the most patience tend to be, in the long run, the most long-lived.

 

There are advantages to slow, or at least unseen, growth. Often it means that plants are putting their energy underground in the form of root growth. Once their roots are established, they will get about the business of growing upwards, but first they concentrate on a solid base.

 

Most perennials – plants that live for two or more years – are slow starters. A few perennials, like chrysanthemums, do their best when they’re transplanted every couple of years, but many are happy to remain in place for 10 years or more. Long-lived perennials include peony, bleeding heart, sedum, Siberian iris, gas plant, Lenten rose, Epimedium, goat’s beard, Corydalis and ornamental grasses.

 

For the initial planting, it’s important to know the plant’s mature size and space it accordingly. Placing small, fragile plants a foot or more apart can look silly the first few years but eventually they’ll need the space, and deep-rooted plants don’t adapt to moving and transplanting as well as their shallow-rooted companions. Planting annuals among them the first few years can help ease the transition and keep out weeds while they get established.

 

Prairie plants are by nature deep-rooted to withstand drought and competition, and many of them take a few years to reach mature size. Keeping weeds out the first few years is important since most weeds are extremely fast-growing annuals designed to complete their life cycle in the first season. Annual weeds can often grow to 4 feet or more in one year, shading prairie seedlings and competing for water and nutrients.

 

We’re all influenced by appearance and that’s certainly true in the nursery, where many prairie plants are overlooked because of how fragile they appear. They simply aren’t happy in small nursery pots where their roots can’t spread down and out. The stems of plants like milkweed look like wispy hairs early on – they seem far too fragile-looking to place with grasses or other perennials. But give them some time, care and watering and they’ll outlive many of their neighbors. Even woody-stemmed plants like Baptisia and leadplant look like they couldn’t survive in tough soils. But that’s precisely what they are accustomed to, and what their roots are waiting for.

 

So when you’re planning your next garden bed, give some thought to future years and do a little research on how long the plants you’re wanting to grow are likely to live. If you’re thinking about the long run, you may have to be a little patient in the beginning… but it’ll pay off

Golf in the Badlands

By
Sandy Pugh
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A few weeks ago we went on a trip to South Dakota into the Black Hills and the surrounding area. We stayed in Keystone, S. D. as our home base and branched out from there to see the sites. Keystone is a cute little tourist town that is in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore and near Crazy Horse Mountain.

Our first night out from Hutchinson we stayed in Wall S. D. and it was a long drive to get there. There were not any really good looking motels but we were so tired we just picked one and got a room.

The main reason we stayed there was so we could see Wall drug. It is quite a place to visit. The guy that started Wall drug store put himself on the map as the soda fountain that gave you free ice water.

As businesses would sell to him he added them to Wall drug and it is about 2 blocks square and it felt like it when we were in there. The old drug store is still in operation and is about in the middle of it all and the other stores all open up onto two main halls with one that connects the two main ones.

I was afraid I was going to get lost in there so I found the restaurant which is near the middle and waited there for everyone. We tried one of their famous home made donuts and of course the free ice water.

After seeing everything we could in Wall, S. D. we loaded up in the van and headed for Keystone. We found a new motel at the edge of town and decided to stop there and it was a wonderful place to stay. It became our home base while we were in the area around Keystone.

Out side the north door that we used all the time was a large hill and along the bottom of the hill was a rock wall. Every time we went out the door there were chipmunks on the wall scampering around.

So every morning when we had breakfast I would take a couple of the little mini muffins and wrap them in a napkin and go out and see the chipmunks. They were not tame enough to come to you and take the food but you knew you were being watched when you went out there.

I would break the little muffins into small pieces and spread them out amongst the rock ledges and then step back by the door to watch. I would barely be back at the door when the first one would scamper over to the rocks.

In a few seconds all 5 of them were there for their breakfast. One would always grab a piece and head for his burrow a few feet away from the rock wall and would disappear under ground with it. Then he would come back and eat some sitting on the rocks. It was a nice way to start the day to feed the cute little guys.

The area around Mt. Rushmore has changed because you can see it for miles now, in fact when you leave Keystone and round a bend you can see it above the trees for just a few seconds.

Also the area at the base where you view the mountain has changed.  It is really regal around there now and makes viewing it a lot easier than it did back in the 60’s.

Then we went to Crazy Horse Mountain and spent the afternoon. I saw it in the early 60’s and they didn’t have much done but now the head and face of Crazy Horse and the flat part on top of the pointing arm is finished.

They have now decided to work on the horses head before finishing the arm and Crazy Horse. They have the outline of the horses head painted on the mountain so the tourists can see what they are going to do.  It is really going to be awesome some day.

The drive through the Badlands took almost three hours or more and it was something that will make you believe in a higher being that made this earth and created the Badlands. I have never seen anything quite like them.

The Badlands are mostly rock formations that are hard to explain to some one that has not seen them. They are so immense and beautiful. We stopped at every over look and got out to see the sights from that new vantage point.

At one of the sites where the view opened up into a huge canyon one of our husbands said that it would be a great spot to hit a golf ball from and would be a really tough hole to play. So one of them grabbed a club out of the back of the car and a tee and a golf ball and teed it up by the sidewalk.

I grabbed the camera and told him to swing the club. While I was taking pictures of him getting ready to swing a woman walked up to me and said; “can I take a picture of that?” I told her to go ahead because no one would believe her when she told them about a guy playing golf in the Badlands without a photo.

He didn’t actually hit the ball because you would never find it and we would have probably been arrested if he had. But we joked all the way home about them playing golf in the Badlands and that the pictures would be great Christmas cards.

The Badlands was definitely one of the highlights on the trip for all of us and we hated to drive out of them and back to normal scenery. That is a must for anyone’s Bucket List; see the Badlands.

On the way home we stopped in North Platte, NE. and saw the Bailey Train Yard and went up in the Golden Spike Tower. This is another must on a trip to Nebraska. I could have stayed in the Tower all day watching them work with the train cars.

The Rail yard is 8 miles long and 145 tracks wide (at least). They put together the trains for Union Pacific that go both east and west from there. They bring the cars that will be added to trains into the yard and back those up to humps where they are sorted one at a time as they slowly go over the hump and are directed by computer onto one of 65 tracks for the east bound trains. For those going west there is another hump they go over and are sorted onto at least 45 tracks to be pulled and added to another train.

They also do repair work on locomotives and rail cars in the rail yard also. One can not imagine how big the place is unless you get up 8 stories to see it all below you. There is a volunteer retired railroad man in the tower all the times that will tell you all about what you see going on. We really enjoyed the time we spent there.

It was a fun trip and one that had more exciting things to see and do than we expected when we took off. It is a trip that I highly recommend to anyone that wants to see some awesome sights to inspire and remember for a lifetime, but don’t try to play golf in the Badlands. To contact Sandy: [email protected]

Barton men takes third, women sixth at Ollie Isom Invitational

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Editor
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Returning to NJCAA level competition on Friday, the Barton Community College men’s team took home a second place finish with the women taking sixth at the Ollie Isom Invitational held at the Wartick Farm in El Dorado, Kansas.  In less than ideal conditions for a race and competing without its No. 2 and 3 runners, the men finished the 5k race behind host Butler Community College while the women ran without their No. 1 runner in their 4k length course.

Sampson Laari led the Barton men capturing first place in 15:33.55 to beat out thirty-five other competitors.  Freshmen Darrius Salmond, Tyler Thornton, and Elder Colindres boosted the Cougars with strong performances, finishing in the ten through twelve positions with times of 17:41.62, 17:42.02, and 17:43.84 respectively.  Sophomore Brady Holler finished 18th in a time of 18:07 with Marcus Pastran finishing 24th in 19:21.52 while Kole Steiner came in 25th in 20:00.62.

Due to a timing error the women’s results were unfortunately incomplete.  Kaitlynn Tuey led the women finishing 13th in a time of 16:33.96 while Holly Pierce finished second on the team in approximately 17:30.  Trenna Cox was the third Lady Cougar to cross coming in at 18:40 followed by Yazmin Rendon at 18:50.  Rounding out the Barton entries were Lauren Samson‘s 19:20 and Julee McAtee‘s 20:12.

Barton will next compete at the Region VI Championships on October 25th in Colby, Kansas.

Complete men’s results

Complete women’s results

Cougar volleyball takes four set win at Garden City

By
Editor
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Snapping a four match losing streak, the Barton Community College Volleyball team got back in the win column Saturday afternoon earning a four set victory at Garden City Community College 25-16, 12-25, 25-15, and 26-24.  The Cougars improve to 4-6 in conference play and 6-20 on the season while Garden City falls to 3-8 in the Jayhawk and 8-17 overall.

Unlike in its previous match this past Wednesday at Seward County Community College, Barton got off to a good start in the first set.  The Cougars buried the Broncbusters from the first serve building a 5-0 lead increasing out to an eleven point advantage at 15-4.  A 7-0 run by Garden City made things interesting but the Cougars responded closing out the set scoring nine of the next fourteen to win 25-16.

The tide turned in the second set as Garden City was the aggressor in jumping out to an early 11-4 lead. Following two straight by the Cougars, the Broncbusters all but put the set away scoring seven straight for a commanding 18-6 lead.   The Cougars were only able to string together a pair of points the rest of the way as Garden City evened the match with the resounding 25-12 win.

Trading points in the third, Barton gained separation with three straight to open a 12-9 lead.  Exchanging points once again, a Kim Hockley cross court kill spurred a 4-0 Barton run to increase the lead to 18-13.  Getting strong net play throughout the third, Jessie Sewell capped a long rally with a block keeping the Barton momentum and lead at eight as three points later Emily Deterding pounded down the coffin point as Barton took the 2-1 lead with the 25-15 victory.

Much like the second set, the Broncbusters came out the aggressors racing out to a 9-3 lead.  A Barton timeout seemed to awaken the Cougars as Barton scored six of the next eight to draw within two and prompt a Garden City timeout.  Trading points coming out of the break, a Mykela Riedl service ace tied the set up at 12 apiece.   The Broncbusters took the next point but consecutive kills by Kylie Jones and Jordan Edelman keyed a 3-0 run as the Cougars took the lead at 15-13.   Again the teams traded points until consecutive points gave the Bronbusters a one point advantage at 19-18.   Following a Barton timeout Garden City built the lead to two but the Cougars responded with two straight of their own to tie it back up at 20.   Consecutive Garden City points built a 23-21 advantage but an Edelman kill gave new life to the Cougars in responding to tie it at 23.  The Cougars couldn’t take advantage of the momentum giving Garden City set point on a service error, but the Broncbusters were in a giving mood returning the favor with their own service error as the teams were back to deadlock at 24 each.  On the first offensive attack, Tahje Ochs put the Cougars in match point advantage getting a touch kill over the Broncbuster block.  Barton clinched the match on the following rally with an unceremonial hitting error by the Broncbuster attack giving the Cougars the 26-24 win.

Barton will begin a four-match homestand at the Barton Gym to conclude the home portion of the regular season before winding up the schedule with two road matches.  Two of the remaining home matches come up the next week at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday against Pratt Community College followed by a 1:00 p.m. first serve on Saturday versus Cloud County Community College.barton cc

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