The floodgates holding back the world of Kansas Hunting will swing wide open Sept. 1 with the opening of dove season, and after that the opportunities for hunting and fur harvesting here in our state will be nonstop until next spring.

In anticipation of that, Eagle Communications and the Hays chapter of Pheasants Forever are sponsoring the 20th Annual Youth Outdoor Festival on Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Hays City Sportsman’s Club, located ¼ mile north of I-70 exit 157.

The event will run from 9 AM to 3 PM and is a FREE day of target shooting and other outdoor activities for youth 17 and younger and their families. Experienced volunteer instructors will be teaching trap and skeet shooting, and target shooting with archery equipment, air rifles and BB guns, muzzle loaders, and small bore rifles.

There will also be a casting competition, paint ball target shooting and a fur harvesting demonstration. Hunter education certificates are not required, but all youth must be accompanied by an adult. A free lunch will be provided and all youth will have chances to win guns, fishing tackle and other outdoor equipment. Contact Kent Hensley at 785-726-3212 or Troy Mattheyer at 785-726-4212.

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And speaking of hunter education, it’s time to get registered for a Hunter Education class if you need one, and thanks to internet-assisted courses, getting a hunter education certificate here in Kansas has never been more convenient.

To summarize the requirements, students must be 11 years old or older to take a hunter ed. course, and although someone 15 or younger may hunt without being certified if directly supervised by a hunter 18 or over, anyone else born after July 1, 1957 must pass a certified Hunter Education course before hunting in the state of Kansas. Internet-assisted classes allow students to complete all class work at home then attend a field day to complete their certification. Field days consist of live-fire practice at a range, trail walks and safe gun handling exercises.

Students wishing to take their course this way must be registered for a field day before completing their internet class work. Traditional classroom courses are still available for students preferring that atmosphere, but will require two or three days to complete. To see a list of available courses and to get registered, go to www.ksoutdoors.com, click “Hunting” then “Hunter Education.” Classes fill up quickly so to be ready to hunt when the “floodgates” of hunting seasons open Sept. 1, get signed up now!

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the total solar eclipse to be seen over Kansas next week, and I’d bet you’ve heard rumblings about it even under your rock. Next Monday, August 21 there will be a total solar eclipse visible over much of the US, its path of “totality” being a strip 70 miles wide stretching in an arc from central Oregon through South Carolina.

Folks in northeast Kansas will have the best seats in our state, but the rest of us will still be treated to a good show. I searched the internet to no avail until my eyes were crossed, trying to find a website that would show everyone in the state, no matter their location just how much of the eclipse they would see.

Then I finally wised up and contacted Ross Janssen, Chief Meteorologist for KWCH TV. Ross gave me an absolutely amazing website, www.eyes.nasa.gov/eclipse; it works best for me on Google Chrome. When the website opens, click “desk top application” on the right, then click “try eclipse 2017 web app,” then click “launch interactive.”

After it loads, click “enter,” then a box will appear that reads “click globe or use menu to add locations;” click on the words “Got It.” On the right will appear a box with a small list of cities and some plus signs (+) below them. Click on one of the plus signs (+) and a box will open center screen that will let you type in the name of a city or town or a zip code, then click on the small box that says “add.” Your location will appear marked on the large globe in the center of the screen, and in the lower right corner, a moving image will appear that shows you how the eclipse will appear at your location, plus timeline information as to when the eclipse will begin and end there.

Over the next week, you’ll find dozens of columns and stories full of facts and information about this eclipse, so I won’t attempt to dazzle you with more. However, the next two total solar eclipses visible from Kansas are calculated to happen in the years 2045 and 2169. So get some eclipse glasses or dust off you welding helmet and watch this thing next Monday; yet ANOTHER way to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

The Ellis County Fair in July is an annual showcase of accomplishments by local youth and adults. The one of the largest– and certainly one of the most delicious– categories includes exhibits by members of the 4-H foods project.

The 4-H motto is “To make the best better.” 4-H bakers exhibited their best in the 4-H Foods division at the 2017 Ellis County Fair. Following is one of the award-winning recipes from the fair, a light and luscious lemon cookie which earned the rating of “Best 4-H Cookie.”

I hope you enjoy this prize-winning recipe and will join me in congratulating the exhibitor– Colton Metzler of the Ellis Sunflowers 4-H Club.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen
Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Note- if using a non-stick darker baking sheet, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

News item: J.D. Powers survey ranks Kansas Medicaid recipients’ satisfaction level as dead last among fifty states.

As Sam Brownback packs his bags, assessments of his tenure largely address his income tax cuts and their disastrous results. Fair enough. But Brownback leaves behind another legacy that may have a longer, more problematic impact. His administration has hollowed out government, to the point that in agency after agency Kansans experience underperformance at best and crises at worst.

This “hollowing out” has stood as administration policy from Brownback’s early days, with his appointment of Robert Seidlecki as Social and Rehabilitative Services Secretary. Seidlecki succeeded in driving out many well-qualified professionals, whose departures contributed directly to continuing crises within that crucial agency.

As veteran journalist Dave Ranney concludes, “For the past 6 1/2 years, social services in Kansas have been governed by a belief that the best way to ‘strengthen’ low-income families is to push parents into low-wage jobs by cutting their access to public assistance. At the same time, record numbers of children have been removed from their parents’ care.” All this with less funding and fewer professionals in the Department of Children and Families, the successor agency to SRS.

Then there is the Osawatomie State Hospital, a case study in state-based dysfunction. After allegations of rape and various patient-care issues, in December 2015 the hospital lost $1 million per month of federal funding. Without irony, Tim Keck, secretary of the Kansas Aging and Disability Services said, “I think getting decertified sort of opened our eyes wide to where we are.” Despite some improvements, a recent survey found ongoing problems, and Osawatomie continues without certification. Tick-tock, $1 million per month.

Most recently, the corrections department has found itself short-handed, with the El Dorado prison in constant crisis. This situation is scarcely news; Kansas Organization of State Employees director Robert Choromanski has raised alarms for months. Guards were severely overworked and underpaid, as the prison population grew to dangerous levels. Last week, the corrections secretary labeled El Dorado an “emergency,” but only because this designation can require guards to work 12-hour shifts.

As for health care, Governor Brownback rejected more than $30 million in federal funds to set up a state-based exchange, and he remained adamantly opposed to expanding Medicaid, even with majority support in both legislative chambers. The foregone benefits to Kansas have been enormous, approaching $1.5 billion. Moreover, as the J.D. Power survey illustrates, even our restricted, inadequate Medicaid program gets terrible reviews.

This is not just an argument between those who desire more government and those who prefer less – per health care or education or welfare. Such arguments are fundamental, and Kansas politicians have had them for more than 150 years.

Rather, Brownback and much of his administration simply do not believe that government can work. Thus, they ignore the practice of governing and administering in effective ways.

Poor governance thus becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Taxes should be cut because governmental spending will forever be wasteful. Bureaucrats are simply out for job security, not serving their clients. Indeed, the really talented people work in the private sector.

In the end, Kansas government employment has shrunk, as would be expected in a computer age. But smaller government does not have to mean less effective or less caring government. In Kansas, however, over the last six years, as measured by care for the most needy and most problematic of our citizens, that’s exactly what has happened. Just ask our Medicaid recipients.

Governing isn’t easy, but we can and must do better.

Burdett Loomis is an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“There oughta be an app for that.” This statement is frequently heard as there is increasing demand for applications on our portable electronic devices. Today we’ll learn about an innovative technical college which is helping students do the coding necessary to develop more software applications.

Ben Schears is president of Northwest Kansas Technical College – called Northwest Tech for short – in Goodland.

Ben grew up in rural Lyon County between the towns of Olpe, population 548, and Hartford, population 371 people. Now, that’s rural.

“I admit, I was not the best student in high school and probably didn’t show much promise,” Ben said. “I was more interested in sports and girls.” At the urging of his school counselor, he went to Flint Hills Technical College in Emporia during his last two years of high school where he learned heating and cooling technical skills.

“A couple of teachers really took an interest in me,” Ben said. With their encouragement, he went to Cowley College in Arkansas City and later Emporia State and got bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He’s now finishing a doctorate in education from Baker University.

Meanwhile, Ben went to work at Cowley College and worked his way up through the ranks. In July 2016, he took the position of president at Northwest Tech in Goodland.

Around his arrival time, two initiatives were launched. One was a precision agriculture program which began with seven students in fall 2016 and has nearly tripled in enrollment since that time. “The program is more about the technology of ag than the agronomy of crops,” Ben said. The curriculum covers unmanned aerial systems, water conservation, and guidance systems for farm equipment.

A second initiative has to do with coding of computer software. Coding is the term for development of the computer code which guides various kinds of applications, software, and websites on electronic devices. Northwest Tech was previously recognized by the Apple computer company as an Apple Distinguished Program because of the school’s extensive, innovative use of Apple computers and integration of the iPad into the curriculum. The Goodland school district received a similar designation.

“Apple came to us to see if we wanted to pursue this new coding initiative with the local school district,” Ben said. “They told us, `We want you to be the first partnership like this in the country,’ and we jumped at the chance.” This new educational initiative uses Apple’s new Everyone Can Code curriculum and an app called Swift Playgrounds.

In fall 2017, the coding initiative will be launched with the Goodland schools and Northwest Tech. At the younger grades, students will be exposed to coding concepts. At the older grades, juniors and seniors at Goodland High School will have in-depth learning experiences at Northwest Tech. Then they will be able to graduate from high school with both college credit and a technical certificate in Mobile App Development from the technical college. One additional year at Northwest Tech would earn the students an associate’s degree in mobile app development and help enhance their career advancement.

Northwest Tech students teach the K-12 teachers about coding and mobile app development so the teachers can teach the younger kids in turn. This creates a powerful learning experience for everyone involved.

“In rural Kansas, we have to find ways to work with others,” Ben said. “Our school district and the college are working together for the benefit of the community and the region.”

Currently, much coding and app development is being outsourced overseas. “I would love to see this coding infrastructure take hold in rural Kansas,” Ben said. “Our hope would be to see mobile app developers helping solve many of the opportunities we see in rural America.”

For more information on Northwest Tech, go to www.nwktc.edu.

“There oughta be an app for that,” people say. Maybe there will be, as more students are trained in coding and mobile app development. We commend Ben Schears of Northwest Tech and the people at the Goodland schools for making a difference by encouraging this education in high-tech skills. After all, there oughta be a school for that.

By BOB YOUNG
Ellis USD 388 Superintendent

As summer slowly slips away and another school year approaches, Kansas schools will see several new initiatives begin to take shape. Ellis USD 388 joins the other school districts in the state as we look toward a new school funding formula that was recently passed by the Kansas legislature while waiting for the Kansas Supreme Court to rule on its constitutionality.

Schools will also begin work on a new accreditation system that was approved by the Kansas State Board of Education known as the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA). These two statewide initiatives combine with the many local school improvement efforts to make this a very new and exciting time for the state’s education system.

School finance has been a hot topic for the state for many years. There has long been a philosophical battle between political and school leaders over what is an appropriate amount of funding for schools and is that funding providing for appropriate student achievement.

For school leaders, it is a frustrating conversation because the political leaders try to spin a story of many school failures despite growing piles of money being thrown at the education system. Despite the political rhetoric, schools are achieving successes today that were never dreamed of years ago and those successes come on top of several new barriers that have cropped up over the years to try to block school improvement. Now more than ever in the history of American education, students enter the doors of their respective schools with more physical and emotional excess baggage than most people can understand. These children have far more concern over their personal well-being than whether they get good grades in school. These physical and emotional scars require more resources today than in previous years.

In the recently completed Kansas legislative session, a study was done to identify school districts that were achieving greater successes for their students on fewer resources. The study could be argued to have been implemented for all the wrong reasons as legislators looked for a way to prove that they were spending adequate funds on education. A positive result of that study showed that Ellis USD 388 was one of only 41 school districts out of the state’s 286 that were considered high achieving despite limited resources for their At-Risk student population. Despite the rationale for the study, I am proud of the staff of USD 388 as they assist all students achieve above expectations.

The KESA accreditation model is another exciting development to be addressed this school year. Although it appears to many educators as a daunting task, the new model looks beyond the academic success of students and focuses on total College and Career Readiness. For many years, education has been locked into a focus on state assessment scores, but there is so much more to student success. When schools can help those students noted above who have the extra pressures of a less than perfect home life to succeed, it is much more than making A’s and B’s that are important. Student success should be measured by what are they capable of once they leave public education, not by what they scored on a single high-stakes assessment on a given day of the year. The Kansas Education Systems Accreditation is a great first step toward accomplishing that goal.

Kansas has traditionally been ranked very high nationally in terms of their school systems. Although there have been bumps in the road in recent years due largely in part to political gamesmanship, Kansas continues to be in the top echelon of education systems in the nation. The beginning of a new school year is always an exciting time as all educators in Kansas attempt to write the next chapter in the success of all students.

I am writing this article on vacation. I am staying in a cabin in Colorado for two weeks. When scheduling my vacation, one question that came up was whether we wanted to hook up some type of television service. If for no other reason, the Kansas City Royals are hot at the moment and would be fun to watch. I chose to stay disconnected. Let me explain, and let me try to do so without sounding like an old curmudgeon.

Recently I was walking along the draw in my neighborhood. Across the draw, I saw a young woman pushing her child in a stroller. I could see her on and off again for about 15 or 20 minutes. It was a beautiful day. The entire time I could see this young woman, she was talking on her phone. I just thought what a great opportunity she is missing – the time with you and your child will fly by.

It seems to me that somehow we have lost the ability or desire to be with people. Instead we have to “be” with our cellphones, computer, iPad or whatever, while in social situations. We seem to be afraid to sit around with company without the television on (allowing it to create our topics for conversation, or even replace conversation). More importantly, and more fundamentally, we seem to be afraid of being alone with ourselves; afraid to think our own thoughts; to resolve our own problems; to explore our own feelings.

One of the nicest compliments that I receive from a client or a friend, is when they say “you really listen to me”.

When I was a child, my favorite part of visiting with relatives was sitting in the corner, listening to them talk and laugh with my parents. It was a beautiful sound. It is a sound I can still hear in my head. It was a mixture of oral history and family re-acquaintance.

I am sure many of you recall that age of conversation. You may even recall a time of just being with yourself, without the need for electronic devices.

I am blessed to have about two hours of voice recordings with my grandmother, her telling me her history, and me asking questions. What a treasure it is. How wonderful it was that I had an opportunity to just visit one on one with my grandmother for an extended period of time.
Hey, I know “everybody” has a smartphone, iPad and so forth, but wouldn’t it be nice if we would just set the devices down, and have conversations with each other?

I hope you will take the opportunity to have that conversation moment with your parents, spouse, children, grandchildren, or even with your important friends. Just “be present” with them in the moment.

Having said all of that, I am sitting on the deck of my cabin at 7:30 a.m. Already, I have talked on my cellphone with my wife who is traveling to the cabin, jumped on Google Maps to help her find her way, and am fighting the temptation to check my emails. Guilty.

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.

My wife complains that when she asks me a simple question, I give her a complicated answer. Hence the phrase: “five-cent-question, ten-dollar-answer.”

I remind her that it could be worse: professors are conditioned to lecture for a 50-minute period!

Admittedly, some aspects of life do not require a detailed answer. “Do I wear a coat today?” is a simple yes-no question that depends on a few-seconds check of the weather. If only all the questions we faced in life were so simple.

When immigrants came through the port at Ellis Island and stood for inspection, the decision was easy when a person presented symptoms of a deep cough and sunken chest. “Consumption” was the diagnosis and they had to turn around and return to Europe. Today, our knowledge of lung diseases is far more extensive than “consumption.” Tuberculosis, emphysema, viral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, black lung, and a wide variety of lung cancers have replaced “consumption,” a term no longer used because it is now meaningless.

These refined definitions drastically change how we treat others, for while tuberculosis was infectious and transferable, thus providing a reason for excluding immigrants at that early time, the cancers are not communicable and pose no danger to others.

Notice that one generalized word “consumption” was replaced by a large number of precisely-defined words. And the meaning of those new words also relied on a more modern understanding of viruses and bacteria and malignant tumors.

Our understanding of the world is therefore more complicated today—and that is a good thing too! But not only is the size of a modern dictionary much larger than it was in the 1800s, it will take longer to learn the meanings of these better-defined words important to our everyday life.

And so it is in the training of medical doctors. In the late 1700s, there was a famous doctor William Beaumont who you may remember from biology class. He was the first to dangle food into the stomach of a fur trapper. Beaumont’s discoveries have made him the “father of gastrology (stomach science)” and yet he never attended college. He trained as an apprentice under an older doctor. Medicine was simple.

Move to the Civil War and look at the credentials of Dr. Samuel Mudd, the doctor who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln: two years of college. I had fun telling my college sophomores in biology class that at the end of the year, they could be a medical doctor—in the 1850s!

Today, of course, physician training takes the full baccalaureate degree and then medical school and an internship or more, depending on specialty. And as our medical knowledge grows, even more training will be necessary to understand this increasing knowledge base.

Futurists proclaim that we can side-step this increased need for learning by simply putting our brain on our belts, or in our purses. It is true that for trivial and simple factual questions such as “Who was the first person to step on the moon?,” our smartphone can retrieve the answer: Neil Armstrong. But my students rapidly discover that without the advanced vocabulary, they can neither ask the detailed question they need to ask, nor understand the detailed answer they get.

My mother received a 2-year college education in the mid-1900s. But as I went off to school, she kept close tabs on my homework and what I was learning in class. She finally told me when I was in middle school that I was now studying about things she had not studied. It was not that I was smarter, but that the world was becoming more complicated. And many historians have reflect on how, if a Greek Aristotle or Italian Leonardo da Vinci could be brought forward in time to the schools of today, they would be amazed at the knowledge that is now available to our children. They would appreciate that what they understood as “consumption” was now so much better understood as so many unique ailments.

Unfortunately, teachers no longer hear their students convey parental awe and appreciation for advancement in knowledge. Indeed a large number of Americans feel higher education is a negative in today’s world. They are happy to settle for five cent answers to their five cent questions.

If you buy the pretty strong premise that the reason El Dorado Correctional Facility prisoners are acting up is that there aren’t enough corrections officers at the facility to maintain order, well, there are solutions.

Probably the best solution is relatively simple—pay the corrections officers enough that jobs at El Dorado become desirable. Might take a 20% pay raise which is about $20 million a year, or maybe just 10 % at half the cost, but money can probably fix this.

Not hard. A governor can just order up the pay raises, and include that extra money in the touch-up budget for this fiscal year, which the Legislature will consider in a first-day of session budget amendment that could be approved by early February.

But…the real question—again, if you buy into the premise that Kansas’ low pay is the reason that the Department of Corrections can’t hire enough guards—is who does it and when.

Be assured that there’s going to be some confusion, there’s going to be a lot of information needed, but it does present someone, either Gov. Sam Brownback or Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a chance to win political points for solving a problem before it grows up to be the theme of next year’s “Orange is the New Black” season.

The apparent problem is that correctional officers now start at an annual salary of less than $29,000, and at that price, they’re hard to hire. Turnover rates for those guards is about 33% a year statewide and 46% at El Dorado and 37% at Lansing.

That’s more turnover than at other correctional departments in the area—Colorado pays $40,488 and has turnover of 16.2%, Iowa pays $40,186 and has a 12% turnover. Oklahoma, which pays $26,573 a year, has a turnover rate of 38% statewide.

Now, if raises are the solution, and if things stay relatively quiet at El Dorado, the prison will likely attract enough new employees to reduce turnover and to sharply reduce the overtime being paid for those correctional officers who are working 12-hour days and seeing more time-and-a-half pay than any other prison in the state.

So, who gets to solve the problem? The governor can just order the pay raises, shuffle around money and after the six-week training period for correctional officers, maybe we’re back to where inmates aren’t going to be as eager to cause problems. Maybe.

Brownback—who remember last year wouldn’t make budget adjustments himself to solve a $200 million-plus budget shortfall—could make a short-term adjustment to pay for the raises, and leave it up to the election-year Legislature to work out the details.

He could hope that there aren’t any big uprisings that result in injuries or deaths, until he is likely to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as President Donald Trump’s Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom probably in September or October, allowing move-up Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer to solve the raise issue and win some leadership points should he decide he’d like to run for governor next year.

Or, the calls from legislators for a special session so everyone—especially House members with districts which include prison employees—can take part in the rescue might be OK’d by Brownback, which essentially cuts whoever is governor out of the rescue plan.

We’ll see who takes the leadership role here…and hope it comes before there is a major uprising with injuries…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

Today’s livestock producers work in a noble profession. Unfortunately, not everyone believes this so people who care for animals must understand how consumers think and feel. Get inside their heads, if you will.

Consumers hold farmers responsible for the humane treatment of farm animals. In recent consumer surveys, people rated animal wellbeing higher than the care and wellbeing of workers in the food system but not as high as food safety.

It is not science, technical capacity or ability that drives trust. Instead, it is whether consumers believe agriculture shares their ethics and values.

Kansas livestock producers spend long hours caring for their cattle, hogs, goats and sheep. Many check on their herds every day. They constantly monitor for health issues. They make sure their livestock are well fed, watered and sheltered during inclimate weather.

During calving season, for instance, most cattlemen put their momma cows and new-born calves’ wellbeing front and center. You can bet, their care and safety is their number one concern.

Telling this story includes showing people what is taking place on our nation’s farms and ranches.

The most important job ahead is to communicate in a way that helps people trust what farmers and ranchers say and do. Too often livestock producers take for granted that rural neighbors know and understand who they are and what they do.

Just like their urban cousins, they remain committed to their vocation. They live and breathe animal husbandry – the care and nurturing of their livestock. This charge is always on their minds.

Agriculture can no longer take for granted that those outside our industry know about what we do. Our industry continues to evolve and most of the people in the United States today are not involved in farming and ranching.

Many Americans know little about where their food comes from. They want to believe that what livestock producers are doing is consistent with their values and ethics.

Livestock production or animal agriculture in the most affluent country in the world faces special challenges and opportunities. Among those challenges is that Americans spend such a small percentage of their income on food that they can demand food where they want it, when they want it, in the proportion they want it and produced in a humane way.

Many food stores and food retailers have announced implementation of third-party verification measures to ensure food animals are treated humanely. In some instances, customers will demand third-party verification and if it doesn’t exist, the store providing the food may not be credible.

Agriculture can and will win the hearts and minds of consumers.

Tell your story. Inform people at every opportunity how hard you work every day to ensure animals are treated fairly and humanely.

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

By JOHN P. TRETBAR

An attorney for Nebraska landowners who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline grilled one of the project’s lead executives on Monday in a testy legal hearing before a state commission that is reviewing the proposal.

The hearing before the Nebraska Public Service Commission is the last major regulatory hurdle pipeline developer TransCanada faces in its nine-year quest to complete the $8 billion pipeline. The commission will decide whether to grant Calgary-based TransCanada’s application for route approval for the pipeline through Nebraska, allowing the company to gain access to holdout landowners’ property through eminent domain laws.

Baker Hughes reported a drop of four rigs from its weekly total. There were 954 active drilling rigs across the country last week, that’s one less oil rig and three less exploring for natural gas. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a 16.7% drop in its weekly rig counts for Kansas. There were eight active oil and gas rigs operating east of Wichita, down five, and 22 in western Kansas, down one. They’re drilling at one site in Ellis County, and report drilling ahead at one site in Barton County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 52 new well completions across the state. There were 17 new completions in eastern Kansas and 35 west of Wichita, including one in Barton County and two in Ellis County. Operators have completed 793 wells so far this year, compared to 688 a year ago, and more than 2,700 two years ago at this time.

Operators last week filed 20 permits to drill at new locations across the state, seven in eastern Kansas and 13 west of Wichita, for a year-to-date total of 819 drilling permits. That’s better than the 565 last year at this time, but well below the 1,459 new permits filed by this point in 2015. Out of 52 total completions last week, nine were dry holes, three of them in eastern Kansas and six west of Wichita.

Preliminary numbers from the Kansas Corporation Commission showed producers filed 113 intent-to-drill notices during the month of July, but the finalized tally was 103 for the month. 884 so far this year. There were three new intents filed in Barton County, two in Ellis County, and one in Russell County during the month of July.

The Web site Ozarks first reports on an oil rig in eastern Kansas that is powered entirely by solar cells. The play produces about seven barrels of oil per day for Jeff Base Ridge Enterprises, using electricity generated by solar cells. The pilot project cost about $25,000.

A Nigerian court has ordered the permanent forfeiture of $37.5 million mansion belonging to a former oil minister facing corruption charges. No one showed up in court to claim ownership of the property. This is the second major victory for Nigeria’s anti-corruption body against the former oil minister. In February, a Nigerian court ordered the seizure of more than $110 million from his bank accounts.

An industry group in Canada says light oil producers will drill more wells than previously expected this year, because investors have been quick to transfer capital out of oil sands projects in Canada. The Petroleum Services Association of Canada updated its annual drilling forecast to 7,200 wells this year, up 8% from the previous forecast.

Royal Dutch Shell said Tuesday it expects the largest refinery in Europe to remain closed until at least mid-August. The Anglo-Dutch oil major shut down its Rotterdam refinery over the weekend after a fire knocked out power at the facility. The move, which threatens to cut the supply of fuel in the region, sent prices of gasoline and diesel up globally. The Pernis refinery has the capacity to produce 404,000 barrels of fuel each day.

Devon Energy of Oklahoma City says it’s about a third of the way through a previously-announced plan to sell $1 billion in assets because of low prices. This week they agreed to sell $340 million in energy-producing resources located in the Eagle Ford shale in Lavaca County, Texas. So far the company has dispensed with properties that produced the equivalent of about 4,000 barrels of oil per day, totaling about $30 million in annual cash flow.

South Dakota has been paid for its help policing protests in North Dakota against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers racked up 8,800 hours during the protests. A spokesman says the agency has been reimbursed $518,000 for hours and mileage. North Dakota’s policing tally stood at $38 million after the months long encampments were evacuated over the winter. They’ve asked for help from the feds, and Energy Transfer Partners, the company that built the pipeline, has offered to pay the cost.

A spokesman for by North Dakota Gov. Doug Borgum said that accepting the money to avoid taxpayer expense is still a possibility.

Over a decade ago, I attended a National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar titled The Great Plains: Texas to Saskatchewan. For five weeks, Tom Isern guided 20 teachers as they read and analyzed literary and historical texts, discussed conclusions, and visited iconic sites to better understand what it means to live on the plains.

One identifying characteristic of this land is its vast horizon with few vertical interruptions such as trees or skyscrapers. That distinction found its way into pioneer diaries and journals as early travelers moved from coves and hollows where tree groves cupped around them, making them feel secure as a babe in its mother’s arms. That sense of sanctuary vanished for those entering the Great Plains as my mom who worked at the Meade County Courthouse in the 60s discovered in early immigrant records. Many were institutionalized when they couldn’t cope with open space and frequent wind.

Fellow seminarians from other regions shared that the plains’ vistas disquieted them as well. Their responses reminded me of a Japanese exchange student I took to Oklahoma City. On our journey, she exclaimed repeatedly, “Why don’t you build cities in this land? Why don’t people live here? You should use this space.”

For those accustomed to much sky and little upright interference, outsiders’ viewpoints challenge us to consider where we live and what it means to be a plains person. Recently, I’ve traveled western Kansas’s isolated highways, stopping to explore almost-ghost towns like Densmore, Ogallah, Clayton, and Levant that once boasted thriving communities.

Those isolated miles of asphalt stretching infinitely over hills and valleys bring a smile as I think how these trails confuse those who believe all Kansas is flat. Frequent high spots permit travelers to see across entire counties. Imagine Indians and early explorers standing on these ascents to view scores of buffalo, deer, elk, turkey, and antelope. In all directions, they saw a rich land that could feed everyone who crossed it.

Crumbling remains of once well-built churches, multi-story brick or stone schools, plaster and lathe homes that housed growing families, as well as peaceful hilltop cemeteries remind us that hopeful hearts believed in this abundance. These little hamlets every 15 to 20 miles across the prairie remind us of Jeffersonian Democracy in action. Here families worked soil, tended businesses, worshipped God, and educated children to create better lives.

When folks gravitated from these self-sufficient villages to cities, they lost something. These hamlets tied people to the land that fed them, schools required students to participate in declamations, plays, music, and sports; churches cared for not only spirits but also for physical needs of residents. These communities developed well-rounded citizens who united to survive.

In forested regions, close-growing trees hold one another upright when the wind blows. In mountainous landscapes, one rock supports another. Nature doesn’t offer such protection in the open plains, so humans must sustain one another. Neighbors become one another’s rock, cove, hollow, and grove.

When I recollect that seminar and a place I call home, I acknowledge lifestyles change. Not everyone can live in self-sufficient villages, but every Kansan can celebrate open space that reminds us this rich land sustains many and offers space enough to teach us to look out for one another.

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.

The black, oozy, mire that called itself the bottom of the pond allowed me to take the step I desired, but it held onto the boot and my foot took the step alone!

The boots were full chest waders strapped across my shoulders so I was never going to step completely free of them, but now my foot had pulled out of the “foot” part of the boot and I was left standing in two feet of mucky pond water trying to push my foot back down into the boot which by now had twisted around under me.

My balance is horrible anyway, so there I stood in the pitch darkness, guided only by the two flashlight beams of me and my frog hunting partner Jared Austin, trying to “right my ship” before I toppled headfirst into the deep. Mission accomplished, I briefly sat down on the bank to get things adjusted, then off we went again.

“Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow begins “Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” My frog hunting stories should always begin “Listen my readers whilst I blog ‘bout the midnight perils of hunting frogs.” For me, the number one inconvenience in nighttime frog hunting is the mucky bottom of most ponds, combined with submerged sticks and tree limbs that can’t be seen. I can spray for the skeeters’, there is no limit to the size of flashlight I can buy to light-up the night around me, but there is no “app” on my phone to turn a mucky pond bottom to sand and rid it of hidden tree limbs.

Our first stop was a pond on city property just outside Inman; that’s where the wardrobe malfunction with my boot occurred. We slogged slowly around the odd-shaped pond, sometimes in the water, sometimes on the bank to skirt tree limbs and brush, and were rewarded with 5 dandy bullfrogs for our efforts. And aside from the boot mishap and a couple other stumbles that got me a little wet, all went well.

There are numerous legal means for catching frogs; I chose to carry a “gig,” a three-tined spear resembling a mini-pitchfork mounted on a long cane pole and Jared chose to catch his by hand when possible. A bright flashlight beam shone in their eyes temporarily stuns them allowing a hunter to snag them by whatever means. All captured frogs went into a big mesh bag I carried over my shoulder. When we reached the truck again they went into a cooler of ice.

When we left there it was already 11 PM, so although I had permission to hunt in a number of ponds, we stopped next at the property that was quickest and easiest to access. We drove off the blacktop and through a grass waterway to a fence that surrounded the pasture containing two ponds and a small slough that partially connected them. The first pond lay just across the fence, and the stale steamy night air was filled with the deep rhythmic bellows of bull frogs.

We were still several feet up on the bank when Jared whispered “Steve, stop and look in front of you!” I stopped and my eyes followed his flashlight beam to the ground and there in the grass just ahead of me sat a mesmerized bull frog the size of a large grapefruit. I guess I blurted out “Oh my,” because that became the joke of the night. From then on, every time we spotted a monster frog one of us would utter “Oh my!” The place must be a literal incubator for bullfrogs, because for every harvest-sized frog we took, there were dozens of smaller replacements. As we shone our flashlights across each pond, the waters sparkled with the eyes of young frogs. After making a pass around each pond, the mesh bag over my shoulder was heavy with our harvest; the clock said after 1 AM and we had a “nice mess” of frogs to clean so we headed for our shop where I had sharp knives and clean water waiting.

Thinking the ice in the cooler would have these cold blooded amphibians calm and drowsy, I popped open the top to take a picture or two, and immediately frogs went everywhere. After corralling them all we set to work, and after an hour 21 frogs had been cleaned and dressed, their sweet meaty legs now ready for the skillet. I marinated them overnight in buttermilk, battered them in a 50/50 mixture of seasoned flour and corn meal and fried them until they were just golden brown. Like any other wild game, cooking them too long will make them tough. We had friends over who had never tasted frog legs before, and they were a hit, although I also had burgers prepared from a 50/50 combination of venison and antelope burger just in case.

I’m so thankful and always in awe of God’s Creation and for the fact He allows us to manage it and harvest from it for our use. One of Joyce’s questions for God is “Why on earth were their mosquitoes on the ark?” Maybe they were there to feed the frogs on board; I just wish the frogs had eaten them all! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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