By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“Shop. Eat. Repeat.” That is a nice, simple set of instructions, and so easy that even I could follow them. Those words have become the slogan of a new coalition of farmers markets which is marketing local goods in northeast Kansas.

Kathy Youngquist is a volunteer with the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market, part of a new coalition called Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley. Kathy is from Prairie Village originally. She went to the University of Kansas, did graduate work and met and married Eric Youngquist. They moved to Perry, where she took a position with First State Bank & Trust and became interested in farmers markets.

In 2006, her husband Eric and a group of volunteers created the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market. Eric volunteered as market manager. Local producers brought in products to share. The weekly market now operates at the corner of a main road to Lake Perry, which attracts visitors going to the lake in addition to local customers.

“We want to support local foods and local growers,” Kathy said. The oldest farmers market in Kansas is in Lawrence. “We haven’t been going as long as that market, so ours is smaller which makes it a little bit easier for a person who is just starting to try it,” Kathy said. “My husband compares our market to an incubator for small businesses.”

For example, one person started bringing baked goods to the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market. She expanded her business over time and now sells in local grocery stores. Another person started selling soaps at the market and now sells them to businesses as gifts for their customers during the holidays.

The market’s website is www.perrylecomptonfarmersmarket.com.

The Perry-Lecompton school district reaches into both Jefferson and Douglas counties, which expands their connections. Douglas County formed the first Food Policy Council in the state, chaired by Marlin Bates, who was then an extension agent for K-State Research and Extension – Douglas County. Bates is now director of that office. That council then received a USDA farmers market promotion grant which led to several recommendations, including a suggestion that the markets work together to increase their customer bases.

“The leaders of each of the farmers markets in the Douglas County region got together to see how we could support each other,” Kathy said. Between them, there is literally a farmers market open almost every night of the week.

In addition to the original downtown Lawrence market, there is one at the Clinton Parkway Nursery and a year-round market at Cottin’s Hardware store. That one moves indoors during the winter months. There are also farmers markets at more rural locations such as Eudora and Perry-Lecompton. Perry has a population of 929 and Lecompton has a population of 637 people. Now, that’s rural.

“We recognized that we could have greater advertising power by working together,” Kathy said. In March 2017, they joined in a collaboration called Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley. Working with the visitors bureau called Unmistakably Lawrence, a new website was created which promotes all six of the farmers markets along this part of the Kansas River valley. The website is www.fmkawvalley.org. It uses the marketing theme: Shop. Eat. Repeat.

“We’re all still independent markets, but as a group, we can be stronger,” Kathy said. “It’s nice to share ideas and not have to re-create the wheel.” The shared marketing effort has helped increase customers and vendors. “We’ve been able to nearly double market attendance.”

Extension played a pivotal role in creating the new coalition of farmers markets. “We’ve been really appreciative of the extension office and the Douglas County Food Policy Council Grant,” Kathy said.

The new website features informational videos plus specifics on the time, location, and focus of each market. For example, Perry-Lecompton might be more practical for start-up businesses, while the downtown Lawrence market includes local artists, musicians, and community groups.

We salute Kathy Youngquist and all those involved with Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley for making a difference by working together to promote local foods and growers, while benefitting consumers with fresh products and an improved local economy. I plan to follow their instructions: Shop. Eat. Repeat.

We live in an older part of Hays, next to a draw filled with trees. For many years, each morning, my wife, and then in the evenings my wife and I, have walked around that draw, always with a dog in tow. We have watched its ebbs and flows, particularly the flows when it occasionally it floods. We have walked many dogs there, and cannot keep from remembering them as we take that walk. The neighborhood children grew from tots to teenagers playing in that draw. My three sons, though now in their late 20s to early 30s, still return to its shade and comfortable protection when they come home.

Just a couple of years ago, we discovered a beehive in the fork of an elm tree in that draw. I do not know how long it had been there; we just noticed it one day. It was right by the road near a small bridge.
My wife chuckled at me many times because I always walked up to the tree as we walked by. I could smell the sweet smell. I would put my ear to the tree and hear the buzzing. The bees never panicked and just flew around me quietly. They never stung me and I never bothered them. I would just watch the bees coming and going. On hot days, many bees would gather on one side of the crack in the tree, fanning their wings, I suppose, to create a breeze in the hive.

The hive was built in a widening crack coming down the elm tree. Each time it stormed, I was afraid to go by the tree, for fear of it having split in half, destroying the bees’ home and perhaps killing many of them.
Winter would come. I was sure they would leave; instead, they would hunker down only to pop out of the tree at the first sign of warm weather.

Every few months, the crack seemed to grow wider. I could see deeper and deeper into the bees’ private nest, as the tree succumbed to wind and gravity.

We made it through this summer, and September greeted us. At my home, only a couple blocks away, the bees were busy gathering nectar from our garden, returning to the elm in preparation for winter. I was hoping they could make it through another winter.

On a recent morning, my wife went to work and called me from her car. The tree was being cut down. She was upset that I did not know what to do or say.

My middle son walked down to the tree that evening, now spread along the ground. When he returned, I could tell he felt I should have done something.

Later in the evening, I took my dog and our neighbor’s dog for a walk. The area around the tree was roped off. I felt like I needed to be near the tree so I entered the roped off area. I could tell from the logs on the ground that the tree had really been in poor health. It needed to come down before it fell unexpectedly on someone.

Yet, it was part of the draw and home to the bees. A few of the bees buzzed around the barren space, where some honeycomb must have fallen. I suspect that the hive had been professionally moved before the tree was cut down, and I hoped that the hive was in a better, new place. However, it was a sad scene for me.

I really felt like we had lost something close to us. Yes, it was just an old elm tree and some bees, but they were part of us, and I like to think that we were part of them.

Sometimes the simplest things can be important to us, but just because something is simple does not mean it is not important.

The night of the falling of the tree, I could not sleep so instead I got up and wrote this article.

It is funny how we can attach ourselves to something, and mourn its passing. Perhaps it is a metaphor for losing friends or family. It just happens and we can do little to control the inevitable. I do not know what it means, but the bee tree will forever be etched in my memory.

Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.

Elementary education teachers edged out special education teachers in the tally of unfilled teaching positions handed out at the September State Board of Education. That list of vacancies is at best conservative, but if you consider the number of waivers granted to teachers to cover special education, that is easily the greatest shortage field and has been for over a decade. Why?

Before the 2003 “Redesign” of teacher education, special education was a field that a college student could pursue without taking any other teaching major. But across the U.S., some states were moving to special education being an add-on to a teacher license. In other words, you trained to be a math or English or elementary or other teacher, and then tacked on the special education endorsement afterwards. That seemed to be the wave of the future, so Kansas also changed to special education being an add-on. Kansas colleges and universities moved their special ed coursework to master’s level.

That was a bad decision. That nationwide trend did not continue, and for good reason. Many students who graduated from high school had seen first-hand the dedication of special ed teachers helping their classmates, and they went to college with the inspiration to go into special education to help others. But that had to be put on hold while they studied a content teaching field. By the time they finished that endorsement, years had passed and that inspiration was long gone. As veteran special ed teachers retired, the shortage grew dramatically.

Several years ago, the Kansas State Board of Education corrected this error and made special education again an initial endorsement. We would expect that the university education schools across Kansas would now be into their second year of training a new generation of special education teachers to soon reduce that shortage. We would be wrong.

The last decade and a half have seen a conversion from professionally-trained teachers in all fields to assembly line “teaching-the-standards” not only in K—12 but also in higher education. Rather than reinstating their prior effective undergraduate special ed teaching programs, the universities of Kansas are dragging their heels, whimpering over “what standards are we going to have to meet?” as if they can’t train teachers without a checklist from Topeka. We would not think much of a medical school that had to wait around to be told what to teach doctors, and rightly so. The elementary level special ed standards are now out, but the secondary standards are still being developed.

That means that there will not begin to be production of special ed teachers at the elementary level for 3-4 more years, and even later for secondary! Meanwhile, the Kansas State Board is faced with how to handle the Kansas special ed shortage NOW!

Some problems have no good immediate solutions. Past short-term fixes have often diluted down requirements or “lowered the bar.” But this is no time to approve programs that farm out special ed to questionable adjuncts in impersonal online programs. Inspired freshman special ed teacher candidates deserve fulltime qualified faculty teaching face-to-face, just as these special ed graduates will be teaching K—12 students face-to-face.

It is past time for Kansas higher education to step up to the needs of our special ed children. Kansas special-needs students should not be shortchanged with half-trained teachers.

John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.

I write as a parent of two children of USD 489, one of whom has gone all the way through and graduated and another still in elementary school. I also teach in the district and want to explain the reasons that going from 3-section to 4-section elementary schools is highly beneficial to our children and our community.

First, we reduce operational costs by reducing the number and age of buildings. We realize savings through systems that work more efficiently and need less maintenance as well as the need for fewer custodial staff to maintain fewer facilities. These savings can then go into continuing regular maintenance costs and other projects needed by the district.

Another consideration is the increase in instructional time due to each school having their own specials and support staff (counselors, psychologists, speech) so scheduling will provide students with more consistency to optimize learning time. These support staff will provide more actual student contact time since they will not be using time to travel between buildings. Time will also not be lost in attempting to schedule p.e. classes due to gyms being used to seat children for lunch.

The board has set a goal of reducing our number of students to meet research that shows the lower student-teacher ratios increase learning for children. Students will benefit from lower class sizes with more sections of each grade level overall across the district. We currently do not have the space for this type of expansion in our district which hampers our ability to reduce class sizes. Since the increase is
only 1 section per school, the overall size of the school remains small and has the family feel with the spaces engineered for overcrowding of hallways and common spaces reduced.

Amy D. Wasinger, Hays

By John Schlageck, Kansas Farm Bureau

For the first time last week a touch of fall filled the early morning air. With the coming of autumn and approach of winter, it’s fun to recall some of the time-tested weather sayings.

Many of the following weather signs were collected while talking to farmers and ranchers across the state. It seems there is very little people would rather talk about than the weather.

So let’s talk weather.

Clear moon, frost soon.

Dense fog at dawn is a sign of clearing skies by mid-morning.

The absence of birds around water denotes an approaching storm.

White, fluffy, small clouds are a sign of fair weather ahead.

During the winter season, strong northerly winds indicate snow and sometimes a blizzard within 24 hours. Southerly winds are a sign of dry, warmer weather.

When cattle stand in a line with their backs toward the northwest, you can figure on a heavy, driving snow.

Odors become easier to detect just before rain. High pressure usually traps odors like a lid due to air density, while lowering pressure releases odors.

When you see lightning in the north, rain is likely within 24 hours.

When distant sounds appear louder, rain is usually on the way.

Rising smoke is a fair-weather sign. When you see smoke going downward or showing very little rise, rain is likely.

Birds perch more before a storm because the low barometric pressure makes it more difficult for them to fly. When you see hawks circling high in the sky, this is a fair-weather sign.

When frogs begin to croak, look out for rain.

Hens and other barnyard foul pick at themselves – oiling their feathers – just before a rain.

Lots of dead skunks on the road mean plenty of moisture is on the way. Another good sign of approaching wet weather is the aggravation of corns, bunions or arthritis pains.

These signs are surprisingly accurate because they are based on generations of farmers, ranchers and other people who have observed cyclical changes in the weather.

Today, meteorologists watch weather patterns via satellites. Much of what these satellites detect while orbiting the earth hundreds of miles overhead, we can see by listening to the radio, watching television or checking our smart phones.

There is plenty to be said for the folk wisdom of our ancestors. They watched and charted weather patterns for generations rather than just a few hours or days. It’s fun to hear their conclusions handed down from one generation to the next, and anyway, what would we have to talk about if not for the weather?

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

Because of back surgery in early May, I didn’t hunt during spring turkey season this year, so getting a turkey during fall season is on my radar. Fall turkey season is fraught with competition, making it possibly the most underutilized hunting season in Kansas. The first leg of fall turkey season opens October 1 and runs through November 28 statewide except in unit 4 in southwestern KS, and right on its heels are upland bird hunting, early goose and duck season, deer archery season and trapping season, not to mention the high school volleyball and football games. Do you see the problem? The second leg of fall turkey season starts December 11 and runs through January 31, still competing with several of the above events.

When spring turkey season arrives, everyone but the ice fishermen have been cooped up for awhile and are badly in need of an “outdoor fix;” plus the only competing outdoor activity is spring fishing for walleye and crappie and maybe mushroom hunting. Spring season also appeals to the turkey hunting “purists” who insist the only sporting way to kill a turkey is to call-in and harvest a love sick gobbler. All this makes spring turkey hunting very popular, and fall turkey hunting not-so-much.

But fall turkey hunting has its perks; besides fresh wild turkey, the temperatures are cooler, which means fewer, if any bugs & ticks and NO mosquitoes. There are more opportunities to harvest a bird since the turkeys are grouped together in their winter flocks which can easily number 50 or more in my part of the state. But perhaps the best perk of all lies in the fact that fall turkey regulations allow for the harvesting of hens too. That means that any wild turkey that strolls past your stand can go onto the dinner table!

Fall turkey hunting strategies are much different also. No longer can we use the gobblers need for love against them as we can in the spring. During the fall and winter the “boys” are sort of just one of the girls and dominant hens actually rule the roost (pun intended of course.) Just as in the spring, turkeys travel routes and times are somewhat predictable from day to day, so one strategy for hunting them in the fall involves setting up a ground blind somewhere along their daily route and simply ambushing them.

Another popular approach to hunting fall turkeys relies on their social need to flock together. It has been proven that when a big group of turkeys is suddenly startled, causing them to split and fly toward the four winds, not only will they eventually group back together again, but they will often re-congregate at or very near the precise spot where they split. Let me explain. If hunters spot a large group of fall turkeys somewhere near good cover, they can either run toward the flock, causing them to fly helter-skelter, or send a dog running into the flock (which is legal) to achieve the same outcome. Then the hunter can conceal themselves in the nearby cover, fairly confident that the flock will re-congregate where it split, giving them good shots.

I have an excellent turkey calling CD by Lovett Williams, PHD and one of the country’s leading wild turkey biologists. He devotes some of the CD to fall hunting tactics and explains how dominant hens call a flock back together after having it scattered, and plays actual recordings of the calls and sounds they use to do so. So if you are a purist and insist on calling turkeys in the fall as well, you can learn these sounds and theoretically call a scattered flock of turkeys back together and right into your lap if you are well camouflaged.

To me, fall turkey hunting is less frustrating than spring hunting because the finical nature of the gobblers is not an issue. This makes it an ideal time to introduce a youth, your wife (or husband) or your girl friend (or boyfriend) to Kansas wild turkey hunting.

Remember, no ticks, no mosquitoes and many turkeys! So to put a wild turkey on the Thanksgiving table this year, or just to try something new and different for a change, try Kansas fall turkey hunting this year. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

One column was not enough to write about prairie residents who see possibility in everything around them. Recently, I shared a story about a woman in my grandmother’s home town who turned devil’s claw thorns into art forms. I’m sure my childhood interest in her abilities led to my adult appreciation for those who look at an old piece of wood and see a cleverly painted checker board or a cottonwood branch as a candle holder. Plenty of homes in the area reflect such talents, making it fun to find those inventive personalities among family and friends.

Decades ago, we a met a couple who share this resourceful philosophy. Come winter, they’d flip an old car or truck hood upside down and turn it into a sled big enough to hold the whole family. Attaching ropes or chains, they’d latch it behind a tractor, truck, or horse and toboggan across snowy fields and through big drifts, laughing all the way. Even today, participants’ eyes sparkle as they recollect those frosty adventures.

During warmer days, they’d inflate big innertubes, scrounge for unused boards to serve as paddles, and raft down the Saline after rains. Their family photo albums are filled with photos of Huck Finn wannabes dressed in worn cowboy hats and faded denim. The camera captured beaming smiles as they conquered local rapids. Their joy is so evident you can almost hear the belly laughs as you scan the pictures.

A walk across the pasture or through a nearby cottonwood grove resulted in sticks, rocks, limbs, and maybe a deer shed. Once back at the ranch house, these might sit for a spell before these two artisans turned them into candle sticks, signs painted with clever sayings, or checkers to go with those game boards they’d created earlier. Using old wire, ribbon, or paint, they turn mundane into charming.

I anticipated every visit to their home. It was like Christmas because I never knew what surprises lurked on the porch or in the house. My friend might have some cool auction find that she’d turned into a bird house or lawn art. Her husband was every bit as clever. He could spend a few hours harvesting old vehicle parts and tools, work his magic, and suddenly you might have working equipment or something so ingenious visitors’ jaws dropped when they first spied it.

To this couple, nothing is useless. Last December, I visited my friend to find her repurposing tattered quilts someone discarded. Well trained by the expert, her daughter recognized their potential and knew her mom would give them new life. She rescued the pile, and delivered them to the repurposing wizard. In no time, this visionary possessed a stack of giant stockings to fill for family and friends.

I’ve tried to learn from this couple. While I’ll never be the up-cycler they are, I’m better about considering possibilities of what I’ve formerly considered trash. To remind me not to toss at the first impulse, I keep a checkboard and the antler checkers they gave me on my porch. The Christmas stocking she gave me is waiting for Santa to show up. This couple taught my family that old and worn are synonyms for new beginnings—not a bad philosophy to follow during retirement.

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.

National Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) welcome the decision by the Trump Administration to make sure China is living up to its commitments on wheat trade. In response to action by the Administration, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body has established a panel to rule on a complaint filed in December 2016 by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding China’s administration of its tariff rate quotas for wheat and other agricultural products. USW and NAWG are very pleased with the Trump Administration’s aggressive use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on behalf of wheat farmers.

This is the second panel established at the WTO under the Trump Administration to defend the interests of wheat farmers. The first will examine whether China’s market price support programs for wheat, corn, and rice violate its trade commitments. According to a 2016 Iowa State University study sponsored by USW, China’s market price support programs cost U.S. wheat farmers between $650 and $700 million annually in lost revenue by pre-empting export opportunities and suppressing global prices.

China also has a WTO commitment for an annual tariff rate quota of 9.64 million metric tons (MMT) of imported wheat. The panel established Sept. 22, 2017, in the tariff rate quota case will review evidence that China has not administered this tariff rate quota in a transparent, predictable and fair manner as required by its WTO obligations. The result is that China’s tariff rate quota administration unfairly impedes wheat export opportunities for U.S. wheat farmers, as well as farmers from Canada, Australia and other wheat exporting countries, to the detriment of Chinese consumers.

“It is very encouraging to see the Trump Administration defend farmers against governments that say to the world they will live up to their commitments, but then scheme to disregard the rules we all need to ensure global trade is conducted freely and fairly,” said NAWG President David Schemm, a wheat grower from Sharon Springs, Kan. “Wheat growers will always stand up and applaud when the Administration expands, improves and enforces trade agreements on behalf of farmers.”

“Trade enforcement is crucial for building confidence in existing and new trade agreements,” said USW Chairman Mike Miller, a wheat farmer from Ritzville, Wash. “The Trump Administration’s actions should send a signal that strong and enforceable trade rules are vital to the United States and to U.S. farmers, specifically.”

“We are grateful that this administration is taking a tough stance in regard to these trade violations,” said Justin Gilpin, CEO of Kansas Wheat. “In Kansas and around the world, local wheat prices have long been impacted by these market distorting practices and WTO violations by China. We look forward to a solution that is beneficial to both American wheat farmers and the people of China.”

USW’s mission is to “develop, maintain, and expand international markets to enhance the profitability of U.S. wheat producers and their customers.” USW activities in more than 100 countries are made possible through producer checkoff dollars managed by 18 state wheat commissions and cost-share funding provided by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. For more information, visit our website at www.uswheat.org.

NAWG is the primary policy representative in Washington D.C. for wheat growers, working to ensure a better future for America’s growers, the industry and the general public. NAWG works with a team of 20 state wheat grower organizations to benefit the wheat industry at the national levels. From their offices in the Wheat Growers Building on Capitol Hill, NAWG’s staff members are in constant contact with state association representatives, NAWG grower leaders, Members of Congress, Congressional staff members, Administration officials and the public.