Even though I clerked, waitressed, mowed and lifeguarded to earn my way through college, I had only one career– an English teacher. My husband’s path was similar. He worked first as a fish culturist for Wildlife and Parks, but when a game warden position opened, he applied and served in that field until he retired. Imagine learning during the last few years I taught that students currently graduating can expect to have 25 different occupations throughout their professional lives. How do you prepare youngsters for that?

My colleagues and I offered students a foundation in basics along with practicing the ability to adapt. A task that seemed daunting until I discovered something important during genealogical research. Heavens, most of our ancestors’ jobs haven’t existed for generations or aren’t in demand today. Those dead relatives often recalibrated in mid-life when lost markets or industrial revolutions collapsed livelihoods.

Through family stories, I knew my genepool often worked as teachers, preachers, and storekeepers. Their other occupations surprised me. One fellow was a wool comber. I had to think about this until I realized he lived in rural England before factories existed, during a time when wool or flax was raw materials for clothing. Apparently, his task involved combing freshly sheared and washed sheep hair so that spinners could perform their magic. A weaver friend works with this fiber from the time it’s harvested until it’s turned into yarn and understands what this job entails. However, it’s her hobby, not her livelihood.

Another relative listed his occupation as tanner. This made sense since I know a professional who prepares elk and deer hides for those who make either furnishings or rendezvous apparel from scratch. However, he’s the only one I know specializing in this lost art on a grand scale. Besides, it’s a sideline to his western décor business.

A distant great-grandpa designated cooper as his profession. I looked that one up because I wasn’t sure what it involved. Before cellophane, plastic, and paper packaging were common, coopers either constructed or repaired barrels that families used for storage and shipping. While modern ones are molded from plastic of some kind, wood deteriorates. Finding functional containers at antique sales isn’t at all common while locating a cooper to repair one is nearly impossible.

One ancestor was a glover during Massachusetts’ early years. I wondered how he earned enough to support his large family before realizing colonial Americans wore gloves far more often than present day ones do. He’d have maintained a supply of sturdy hand gear sewn from hide as well as finer dress wear created from supple nubuck or suede. In addition, women bought cotton and wool gloves for fashion and warmth. Since he paid taxes and left a will, he must’ve had ample business.

A common factor in my predecessors’ jobs was that few required college degrees and most demanded specific skills a person could apprentice to learn. According to Mike Rowe’s Foundation at mikeroweworks.org, many youngsters sitting in desks today could fill thousands of available jobs if they trained for a semester or two at a vocational school rather than spending four years in college. Seems like old ideas still have merit.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

Ellis County citizens:

I thank you. I write today, feeling honored and humbled, as well as a deep sense of of responsibility and respect for the duties I will perform for the citizens, and for the Office of Treasurer. It is a great honor to be selected to serve Ellis County, and I look forward to the various challenges I will encounter such as accounting for and investing our precious and hard-earned tax dollars when I begin my term in October 2017.

During my time campaigning, I met many gracious citizens and have had unforgettable encounters in places as various as grocery stores and garage sales. One citizen said my goal of working in the spirit of togetherness to make the county strong was the reason she supported me. And over the months meeting citizens to whom I introduced myself it was always a pleasant surprise to hear many had already read my editorials and shared their enthusiasm for what they had learned about me. Meeting citizens has been energizing, and my encounters with all of you have been what have driven me onward and motivated me during the past 5 months.

Faith, openness, trust, and directed action led me here, but it was the people’s vote that rewarded my efforts. And it is the people’s vote that motivates me to do my best for the citizens of Ellis County. Whatever I do, I do it with excellence, and I hope that makes those who chose the other candidate comfortable in supporting me as their new Treasurer, trusting that same motivation for excellence will lead me on my new duties. I am grateful and energized to learn more and play my part to strengthen the county. I am excited to unify us all in one goal: to innovate a brighter future for Ellis County. Once again, thank you.

Lisa Schlegel

Sometimes as I conjure up “OK Google” or check Fox News or the 7 day weather forecast on my smart phone, all while sitting in the Walmart parking lot, I wonder how we ever survived with phones that were only made to talk on. Then it hits me; we survived quite well, thank you very much.

The other day I went to fill the deer feeder in the draw below our high-rise deer blind which we constructed three years ago. As I rounded the corner on the gravel road and the blind came into view, so did several hundred thousand dollars of excavating equipment rebuilding the terraces and forming new waterways in the fields that surround our blind.

Just in case it looks as though our deer hunting could be permanently interrupted there this year, I scouted out another property on which we have deer hunting permission. In front of that property is a wheat field that’s traveled frequently by deer heading for the pond and trees on the property. I found a spot in a sharp corner of the field where it appears deer are jumping the fence and entering the small woodlot. There is no blind built there and no good spot to set up a temporary blind to overlook that corner. The best option appears to be the overhanging limbs of a cedar tree seventy yards away.

As I broke into a cold sweat, wondering aloud how I would ever survive not having a blind to hunt from, it suddenly hit me; I have harvested more deer from a folding camp chair tucked beneath a cedar tree than from any other way, and again, I have survived quite well, thank you very much.

For those of you new to deer hunting that don’t have a blind from which to hunt, or for those of you wanting to try hunting deer for the first time but are not sure how to proceed without a blind, let me give you some tips from my experience.

Mr. Webster defines the word camouflage as “a disguise or deception; to disguise in order to conceal.” Camouflage does not have to make something or someone entirely disappear, it just has to make them blend in, and it does that by breaking up their outline. Examples of that would be sitting against a tree or sitting behind or under some broken overhanging limbs. Both choices camouflage you by breaking up the outline of your body. Joyce harvested her first deer ever as she sat on a camp chair behind a log in a big thick tree row. My point is that in the absence of a blind of some description, nature will provide you everything you need if you just learn to see it.

The most important element of hunting is to position yourself where there is game. So when deciding upon a deer hunting location, choose a spot near a well used deer trail, where deer enter and exit a woodlot etc. If you’re bow hunting, you want to be as close to the trail as possible, but if rifle hunting choose a spot away from the trail seventy-five to a hundred yards or so. Then pay attention to where the sun will be in relation to you. You do not want the sun shining directly on you or in your eyes when it rises or sets, making it hard to see ahead of you as it shines into your eyes or lighting you up like a Christmas tree as it shines on you.

Next, look around you for anything that will conceal your form, like a broken-over or uprooted tree, a tree with large broken limbs that hang to the ground or a big cedar tree with long outstretched branches. Once you have found a natural blind, figure out how best to use it. Prune and remove limbs and branches until you can tuck yourself into whatever concealment you’ve chosen. Prune away only enough to allow you entrance and to give yourself an open shooting lane. Use your imagination and move limbs and branches around if necessary to accomplish what you need. If you are firearm hunting, find a way to support your firearm.

If none exists naturally in your new natural blind, a couple 1×2’s bolted together near one end opens up into an “x” to make a cheap and dandy shooting stick to cradle your gun. Your seat can be whatever you want. If you’re young you can probably get away with sitting on a log, but my choice is a cheap folding camp chair that gives me a back to lean against. It’s not always possible, but choosing to tuck yourself in amongst the branches of a big cedar tree will often help protect you from the north and west wind also.

There are still plenty of ways to conceal yourself to harvest a Kansas deer without a hunting blind or tree stand. Be creative; tree limbs stacked against a fence, a piece of camouflage fabric stretched around some fence posts, even digging yourself down into an old round hay bale at the edge of a field will all fill the bill. The end result might even be more fulfilling knowing you used what God provided to fill your freezer.

Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].