The ideas behind Thanksgiving make it one of our most universal and important holidays. Living the spirit of Thanksgiving is good medicine for our bodies, souls, families and communities. Fortunately, an appreciative attitude doesn’t cost anything; it takes very little time; it’s always available; and while there are lots of side effects, every one of them is wonderful.

Author and counselor Melody Beattie puts it this way: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Chances are you’re pretty good already at practicing an attitude of gratitude. The following are a few simple and quick exercises that can further build up your muscles of appreciation while warming the hearts of those around you. Each of these activities can be done in five minutes or less.

· Write a very short, spontaneous note of appreciation to a loved one, public figure, or a person who provides service for you, such as your child’s teacher or the manager of your apartments. You can express your gratitude on a slip of paper and put it on a co-worker’s desk, or you might mail a card to a friend, or convey your thanks electronically via e-mail.

· Phone a family member you don’t see very often or call an old neighbor–locally or long-distance–and take a few minutes to say thanks or to share your admiration for a personal trait he or she possesses. Keep the conversation brief and upbeat, knowing that you have probably made that person’s day.

· Whether around home or at work, promise yourself that you’ll give out at least three genuine compliments before your day ends. The nice thing about compliments is that they tend to be contagious. There’s no telling how far what you start might spread!

· Either first thing in the morning or last thing at night, engage in a couple minutes of silent, personal thanksgiving. Focus on your many blessings, be they large or small.

Thanksgiving is the practice of choosing to think about our blessings. It doesn’t mean we bury our heads in the sand and deny negativity and problems. But it does mean that we choose to face our difficulties with courage, optimism, creativity, and faith.

Our thoughts are like mental magnets. Whatever we dwell upon, we tend to draw to us. As we apply this principle, it follows that one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves, our families, and our world is develop the habit of positive thinking.

As our skill in practicing the “gratitude attitude” grows, we begin to see more clearly what is good and beautiful in other people, in ourselves, and the world around us. The world becomes a much brighter and friendlier place, and all kinds of new possibilities begin to unfold. It is then that our appreciative attitude has taken root, and we can carry the spirit of Thanksgiving with us on a daily basis.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

By U.S. Sen. JERRY MORAN
R-Kan.

Thanksgiving is a time to gather together and count our many blessings. We take a day away from the hustle and bustle – and our all-consuming busy-ness – to pause and reflect on the things for which we are grateful. I appreciate the opportunity to be reminded each year of what’s important, to express my gratitude, and to enjoy our traditional meal (the stuffing is my favorite part).

Food-filled celebrations are a time I reflect on the hard work of the people who raised our turkey, grew our vegetables and harvested the grain used to bake bread. As a kid growing up in rural Kansas, our entire community revolved around the work of getting our crops to the local grain elevator. Each year, families in our area battled market uncertainty and unpredictable weather for a chance at a successful harvest. Young people rolled up their sleeves and went to work alongside their parents, spending long days and late nights in a tractor or combine while still making certain all of the livestock were cared for. This tradition has not changed for hardworking farmers and ranchers across our state or for the next generation of Kansas kids growing up on our farms today. They learn the technical and business skills needed to run a farm or ranch, as well as the value of hard work, perseverance and working as a team to get things done.

As Kansans, this work is near and dear to our hearts, but for many Americans living in urban areas, this is not the case. Thanksgiving is a time when the contributions of rural America shine, and when individuals across the country are connected by the simple but valuable tradition of a meal. It is also a time when we ought to be reminded that our safe, affordable food supply and agricultural traditions are what make it all possible.

As chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, I have had the opportunity to lead a number of fights to preserve these traditions which over the last few years have been under siege. When I am in Washington, D.C., I spend a lot of time sharing with people who are not familiar with what the rural way of life really looks like – that in rural Kansas, local economies depend on the success or failure of our ag community.

From the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule to ban youth under the age of 16 from participating in many common farm-related tasks, to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Waters of the United States rule to regulate ponds and ditches, it feels as though for years now, the federal government has been working against our traditions. That’s why I consider it so crucial to advocate for Kansas values and the Kansas way of life on Capitol Hill. We must continue to raise our voices to share our priorities – we have seen how effective we can be when we work together like we did in 2012 to successfully force the DOL to withdraw their proposed restrictions on young people working on family farms.

We can appreciate this holiday’s special role in reminding all Americans how important agriculture is for all of us. We can celebrate our blessings by working to provide for those without a meal on their tables or family around them this week – by volunteering at local food banks, donating non-perishable items or inviting those we know who may be spending the holiday alone to be a part of our gatherings. My wife Robba and I are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving this year with soldiers and their families at Fort Riley. We are thankful for the hard work of farmers and ranchers across Kansas and for the opportunity to reflect on the many ways we are blessed.

Ho Ho Ho, its Christmas shopping time again, and having been christened by the North Pole as a certified outdoor gift advisory elf, I’m here to tip you off about what’s new and what’s hot this year for the outdoorsmen and women on your list.

Ozone is the naturally occurring gas found in earth’s atmosphere that cleanses the air we breathe and is used commercially to sanitize hospital rooms and to purify drinking water. The Ozonics Company located in Mason City Iowa makes small portable battery powered ozone generators to hang in hunting blinds.

About the size of the old clock radios they work by producing ozone that cleans the air around the hunter, helping to eliminate human scent. They also make a garment bag to hold your hunting clothes that eliminates human odor on them by placing the generator inside and sealing the bag. They are a bit pricey; the generators star at $369 and the garment bag is $129, but Brandon at Smoky Valley Shooting Sports near Lindsborg who uses one himself, says they are flying off the shelf and the company is struggling keep up with orders. Check them out at www.ozonics.com.

No diehard trophy deer hunter is complete without a fleet of game cameras, and the latest & greatest development in trail camera rigs actually transmit photos to a PC or mobile devise in real time as they are taken. As with anything else, the quality increases with the price. If you already happen to have a Moultrie brand camera made in 2015 or 2016 you can purchase just a transmitter for $200. The next step up is a Covert brand Blackhawk for $359, and then a Spartan brand for $329 – $429. Since Verizon is the predominant cellular company in these parts, most cameras available locally will operate on their plans which range from $5 to $30 extra monthly. Check them all out on their respective websites.

For the outdoorsman that likes to film his or her adventures, Go Pro cameras have become very popular. Brandon showed me a new outfit called Tactacam which he says is fast overtaking Go Pro’s popularity. Its claim to fame is that videos taken with its new “True Vision” technology appear as actual distances, whereas Go Pro’s videos always seem to distort distances, often making images look much farther than what they actually were. Tactacam also boasts “Infinite Focus” which automatically keeps images in focus. Each kit contains a camera and all necessary accessories to mount it to a gun or bow. Kits are $189. Check them out at www.tactacam.com.

If you’ve been considering buying a crossbow but can’t justify the often exorbitant price tags, have I got a deal for you! Crosman, famous for their pellet rifles and BB guns now offers their Center Point line of quality economical crossbows. The Center Point XR 175 recurve crossbow shoots at 245 feet per second (fps) with a draw weight of 175 pounds and costs $189. Their Center Point Sniper 370 has a 185 draw weight and shoots at 370 fps and can be taken home for $299. These are great crossbows for young or beginning hunters and Crosman is another old standby American company headquartered in New York. See more at www.crosman.com.
For you preppers and survivalists, Utah based Augason Farms, leaders in the prepackaged meal and food storage industry has a line of prepackaged dehydrated meals called Grizzly Ridge. Heartland Outdoor in Hutchinson carries the Grizzly Ridge Lunch and Dinner Pail. Housed in a sealed plastic 5 gallon bucket, the pail contains dehydrated apple slices, honey coated banana slices, orange delight drink mix, creamy potato soup mix, stroganoff and pasta alfredo; 6 varieties of food to make 86 meals. Inside the sealed pail, the meals will keep 20 years, once the pail is opened, they will keep for 5 years and an opened pouch will still be good for up to 1 year; at $89 that seems like a deal to meal. See all their products at www.augasonfarms.com.

New for 2016, Drake Waterfowl Systems offers a line of polyester fleece vests, their claim-to-fame being a newly designed pocket with a special magnetic closure made for carrying duck calls, rangefinder etc. Jenny at Heartland Outdoor says they sell more of them to carry a concealed weapon than for anything else. They come in 3 colors; camo priced at $119, black for $109 and heather (olive green) for $89. Check out www.drakewaterfowl.com.

Now for my personal favorites, gadgets and stocking stuffers; every hunter uses optics of some sort, whether a scope, binoculars or a range finder, and it seems the lenses are always dusty or they fog up on cold days, making them useless. Eyes It Inc. from Florida makes a kit called Fog Zero Clear Optics Treatment and Cleaning Kit to solve those problems. It’s about the size of a large felt marker with a clip to carry it in a pocket. It contains a brush to remove dust, an applicator to apply the anti-fog solution to the lens and a small buffing pad and polishing cloth to clean the lens. At a cost of $11 it seems like a great price to help put meat in the freezer.

As the owner of a few trail cameras I know the routine of removing SD cards from them, then going home to view photos on my PC. A Wisconsin Co. called Bone View makes a slick little SD card reader that plugs into the charging port of any android devise or I phone. Simply remove the SD card from the camera, plug it into the card reader and views photos there in the field standing right beside the trail cam. The app for viewing the pictures is free and the reader costs $20 for android devises and $30 for I phones. They also make a cool adaptor that allows you to mount a smart phone to binoculars or a spotting scope and take pictures or make videos of what you see through the optics. More than once I’ve wished I could take photos of what I witnessed through binoculars. The cost for this adaptor is $30. Find all their products at www.boneview.com.

Lastly, this Christmas season Heartland Outdoor is one of a handful of venders in Kansas carrying special Christmas .22 caliber ammunition. Yes, you read that right; Idaho based Cascade Cartridges, better known as CCI, the self-proclaimed leader in rimfire ammo is embracing the Christmas spirit by offering specially adorned “bricks” of .22 caliber long rifle ammunition. Each brick contains 10 boxes of 50 rounds each for a total of 500 .22 shells. The outer case and each individual box inside are adorned with wintry Christmas scenes. A brick is $45, a good deal, but maybe a little too heavy for a stocking!

Well there you have it, a few suggestions to make Christmas shopping for your outdoorsman a little less painful. If you have questions or need more suggestions, please contact me and I’ll be happy to help you find something a little nicer than their usual lump of coal. And remember to keep Christ in Christmas as you Explore Kansas Outdoors!

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

Those who live far from four lane highways and interstates must consider a new issue when we travel to distant appointments. In the past, you could figure a mile a minute on open highway in good weather. Tweak that for town speed limits and stoplights. Only during harvest season did you expect to deal with slow moving, oversized vehicles. Nowadays, travelers heading south down Highway 183 from Phillipsburg anticipate a slow jaunt not behind just one wind tower or blade in tow, but several. Fortunate drivers will cruise at a crawl until they pass those behemoths.

Recently, I’ve experienced instances heading to an appointment in Hays where I found myself thrilled that my family trained me to leave well ahead of time no matter what the reason. Here’s the dilemma. How early does one need to depart when caravans of wind turbine carriers take over a road designed for 65 mph traffic and roll along at 40 to 50 miles an hour?

The other day, my dentist worked me in for an emergency appointment at noon. I calculated mileage and slowdowns through the five communities along my path. Under perfect conditions, I’d arrive in 1 1/2 hours. In less than optimal circumstances, I’d need another 15 minutes, so I left 35 minutes early. You can imagine my chagrin when I spied slow-moving vehicle flashers at Glade.

Initially, I figured I’d pass the warning vehicle, turbine truck, and the pickup ahead of it with blinking yellow lights before Stockton’s city limit sign. No worries. I had yet to note two additional long, white, ultra-wide pillars and their escorts. My hopes sank when those became visible once I reached the region’s highest hill. Darn! I counted fourteen vehicles trapped ahead of me amongst these diesel tortoises’ creeping procession. I looked in the rear view mirror and noted at least four agitated drivers behind me. Nineteen of us were murmuring unkind thoughts about the economic benefits of wind generated electricity.

At Stockton, my bladder announced the arrival of that morning’s coffee. I’d passed one turbine team so there was no way I’d listen to nature’s irritating call. By Plainville, that organ screamed on high alert, but by then, I’d overtaken the other two units. Uncomfortable beyond belief, I writhed in my seat and set the accelerator for the speed limit plus tolerance once I exited town.

That 24 miles to Hays was miserable. Side roads called me to pull over until I glanced in my rearview mirror to see the bright orange end of that huge pillar trailing behind. In response, I squinched around until I found a tolerable position and maintained speed. No way was I letting either that convoy or a trooper slow me again.

By the time I reached Wendy’s, I had just enough lead for a pit stop that would permit me to stay ahead of my nemesis. I reached the dentist with two minutes to spare. That’s a close call for someone who’s been taught to arrive at least 10 minutes early to all life events.

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.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

San Diego, California. A package of delicious cherry rolls is being delivered to a customer. Would you believe, these baked goods were prepared by a family living half a continent away in rural Kansas?

Greg and Ruby Wolf are the owners of the Family Food Store, source of the cherry rolls that went to California. Greg grew up on a farm near Quinter during the farm crisis of the 1980s.

“I grew up thinking I was going to farm, but the farm economy took me away from that,” Greg said. “It gave me a desire to help farm families.”

Greg grew up in the Old German Baptist Brethren church. “We’re a conservative church somewhat similar to the Amish and Mennonite,” Greg said. “We drive cars, but we choose a simple lifestyle with no television, radio, or Internet.” It’s a close-knit fellowship, with lots of connections between churches.

Greg went to junior college in California and then transferred to K-State for a degree in agricultural economics. He took a position with a business in Ohio near one of those churches. There he met and married Ruby.

One day when they were visiting family back home in Kansas, Greg happened to pick up a copy of the High Plains Journal. He noticed an ad for Kennedy and Coe, offering a team consulting approach to their agricultural clients. It was the opportunity he had been seeking to help farm families.

Greg applied for the job and was interviewed by Kennedy and Coe representatives in Wichita. Then, out of the blue, they offered to place him in the company’s Pratt office. It was near the town of Sawyer which has a church from Greg’s denomination. Greg took the job and moved to Sawyer.

For 15 years, Greg commuted to Pratt. “Most days I would drive past the café in Sawyer,” Greg said. “I saw it reopen under new owners and then close again several times over the years, eventually remaining closed.”

Meanwhile, Greg and Ruby were dreaming of a business which could involve their growing family. By now they had six children, five girls and a boy. They wanted it to be a food business because of their ties to agriculture, but they were seeking something beyond the typical small town café or grocery store.

Ultimately, Greg bought that building and started his new business called the Family Food Store. In October 2012, it opened for business in Sawyer.

“The store had five divisions when we opened: Specialty groceries such as private label jams, jellies, and salsas; a bakery; bulk foods which we package ourselves; a deli with sliced meats and cheeses plus sandwiches and dining capacity of 35 people; and homemade foods such as frozen pizzas and casseroles,” Greg said. “People can buy food and eat it here or take it home,” he said. The store is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

“Recently we have added two more product lines: Household, non-food items such as aprons, homemade soaps, pillows, gift and boutique items, and outdoor furniture made from recycled polyethylene plastic,” Greg said.

A common theme is family. The kids help operate the store and pitch in to bake products on off days. “We wanted our family to learn the dynamics of customer care, and this has exceeded our expectations,” Greg said.

The quality and goodness of the product frequently draws visitors from Wichita as well as passing travelers or those visiting family in the area. “Literally every week there are people from the east or west coast in our store,” Greg said. “We’ve become a destination shopping experience for people in Wichita.” Occasionally there is even a request for their baked goods like the one from California.

That’s an impressive record for a business in the rural community of Sawyer, population 122 people. Now, that’s rural.

It’s time to leave San Diego, where a customer is receiving cherry rolls from rural Kansas. We commend Greg and Ruby Wolf and family for making a difference with innovation and initiative. “We are living the fulfillment of a dream, getting people more closely connected to food and family,” Greg said.

TOPEKA — The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us and Kansas families will be coming together for a time of celebration and thankfulness. The hours spent in the kitchen preparing turkey, mashed potatoes, pies and all the other fixings, however, comes with an increased risk for household fires. The Kansas Fire Marshal would like to remind Kansans of the importance of taking safety precautions to ensure a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Cooking is, and has long been, the leading cause of home structure fires and home fire injuries, and according to the records collected from reporting fire departments in Kansas, home cooking fires increase significantly around the times of major holidays.

“With Thanksgiving being such a hectic holiday, with all the activity and guests in a home, it can be easy to get distracted and lose track of what is cooking in the oven and on the stovetop,” said Doug Jorgensen, Kansas Fire Marshal “We encourage all Kansans to take common sense precautions to prevent a fire tragedy on their holiday.”

The Office of the State Fire Marshal recommends the following safety tips for cooking on Thanksgiving:
* Keep an eye on what you fry. Always stay in the kitchen while frying, grilling or broiling food. If you have to leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.

* Keep things that can catch fire such as oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels and curtains away from the cooking area.

* Be alert when cooking. If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don’t use the stove or stovetop.

* Consider installing an automatic suppression unit attached magnetically to stovetop hoods. Shaped like small tuna cans, these units automatically put out fires when flames reach the hood.

If you have a small (grease) cooking fire and decide to fight the fire:
* On the stovetop, smother the flames by sliding a lid over the pan and turning off the burner. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.
* For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed.
* If you have any doubt about fighting a small fire: Just get out! When you leave, close the door behind you to help contain the fire. Call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number from outside the home.

The Kansas Fire Marshal also discourages the use of turkey fryers which can lead to devastating burns and the destruction of property due to the large amount and high temperature of oil used. Those who prefer fried turkey should look for grocery stores, specialty food retailers and restaurants that sell deep-fried turkeys.

For more fire safety tips, visit the Website for the Office of the State Fire Marshal at http://firemarshal.ks.gov.

For the farmers, ranchers and firefighters who live in Barber and Comanche counties, the possibility of another “living, breathing fire monster” is never far from their minds.

When they crawl into their pickups and head to town, many look back in the rear-view mirrors for signs of smoke. Nearly eight months after the fire, it’s dry, windy and residents of these two south-central Kansas counties believe it could happen again.

In case you’ve forgotten, back in late March and early April, nearly 500,000 acres of pasture and farmland burned in these two south-central Kansas counties. Fires roared out of control for nearly three weeks whipped by 40-50 mph winds.

Crowns from the grass were burnt to the roots and ranchers believe it may take years before the grass returns to the potential to feed cattle 100 percent.

While the fire caused tremendous damage and killed livestock, the life-giving rains that fell shortly after rejuvenated the grass and destroyed cedar trees.

“The grass greened up good,” says Dennis Rickie, Comanche County, who runs cattle and fought the fires. “In July and August we received some rains we normally don’t get but in August the water shut off.”

Moisture conditions have continued to deteriorate and it’s dry as a bone in mid-November.

“As far as subsoil moisture – there isn’t any,” Rickie says. “I have to pour water in holes to drill fence posts. Four feet down, you can take an old hand post-hole digger and you can’t bring the dust out of the ground it’s so dry.”

Rickie figures he still needs to finish a couple miles of fence. Some of his neighbors aren’t as lucky and must fix several miles of burnt fence.

Since the fire moved through Barber and Comanche counties, most farmer stockmen are working double time – regular chores plus building fence and feeding stock. And while cattle continue to gain and do well, ranchers like Rickie supplement their early morning feeding with protein cubes.

In some of his pastures spared by the fire, the Barber County cattleman feeds momma cows 20 percent cubes every other day.

This time of year, the grass dries up, Rickie explains. On his short pastures, he’s feeding stock big round bales too.

“I’ve got to finish rebuilding fence so I can move ‘em on to grass that hasn’t been grazed yet since the fire,” he says. “I’m worried we’re not out of this drought yet.”

Driving the back roads of the counties with Rickie, I saw some dry ponds. Evidence of what Rickie is talking about.

While his family cattle operation cut back on cattle numbers because of drought the last several years, he believes a “guy still has to be leery about restocking his herd.”

As the veteran cattleman ponders what tomorrow’s weather will bring, his thoughts return to the monster fire and all the help he and his neighbors received.

“It’s sort of mind blowing,” Rickie says. “While we fought the fire – loads of hay arrived from folks who knew our cattle needed food.”

Rickie says it wasn’t unusual to see a dozen semis, stacked high with hay, sitting waiting to be unloaded at daybreak. Friends, family, neighbors and others from miles around helped fix fence.

Help came from Nebraska and throughout the Midwest, he says.

“The support we received is overwhelming,” Rickie says clearing his throat. “We couldn’t have done it without them. Thanks to all.”

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

If you are basking in that post-election serenity of not having your mailbox filled with direct mail suggestions on how to vote, and you no longer have campaign flyers falling out from behind the screen door when you are trying to get the groceries into the house, well, congratulations.

Because the real voting is going to start quickly for the folks who got elected to the Kansas House and Kansas Senate and who also maybe are wondering — now that U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, the three-term Republican congressman from the mostly Republican and mostly Wichita Fourth Congressional District, has been tapped by Donald Trump as Central Intelligence Agency chief — whether they’d like to take that congressional job.

This second round of elections are the ones that Statehouse insiders are watching now that the voting public has done its job. This second round of elections is going to determine whether lobbyists will be able to get what their clients want, or at least keep their clients from being damaged in the upcoming legislative sessions.

The Senate and House will elect a president—most likely re-elect Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita—and the House will elect a successor to retiring Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell.

Those leadership posts will largely define the future of the state. It’s those leaders who select chairs of committees, who can generally decide whether bills are seriously considered or even make it out of the committee for debate in the full chamber. That committee-level power to move or stall bills is mightily important for supporters or opponents of bills.

The campaigning is already under way by candidates for leadership slots, who are sifting through the existing members to secure their votes and trying to make friends with the nearly 50 new legislators to win their votes.

How do you campaign to those new members for their vote when the leadership elections are held by Republican and Democratic caucuses on Dec. 5?

Well, you can hear what those new members want and tell them you can be very helpful in giving them a win to take back to their districts at the next election, or you can hand out committee leadership or at least membership slots on committees they have interest in, or you can even give them a Statehouse office with a window or a parking slot in the underground garage closer to the door.

There are lots of tricks and treats that leadership can dole out for votes. And, it has already started.

But those leaders also will be key to the relationship of the Legislature to the governor. They can sing along with the governor’s budget and policy proposals…or not. Yes, those leadership elections are going to be a key to what good or bad happens to Kansans.

And…the Pompeo deal? Well, if he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the top CIA job—and not a minute before—he will resign his newly won congressional seat, and it is up for grabs in a special election this spring.

That race to succeed Pompeo has just started; nearly every politician in the 4th District is considering the possibilities. Each party will nominate a candidate at specially called conventions of their 4th District Committee members. That’s whoever can get a majority of those 166 Republicans in their district committee and for Democrats a majority of the roughly 50 members of their committee.

For a job as congressman/woman, those are pretty small groups to campaign to for a slot on the special election ballot next spring.

Think you’ve seen the end of politicking for the next couple years? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t…

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

If you’ve ever planned a Thanksgiving feast, you know that the cost of everything can add up faster than you can say, “Gobble, gobble!”

Here are some practical ideas for saving money on your holiday feasts, from now through the new year:
* Ham or turkey, not both. Choose one meat or main dish and plan the rest of your meal around it. This not only saves the cost of the additional meat, but also the cost of special side dishes that go with it. The cost of electricity for cooking both meats is reduced, too.

* Choose the right bird. Extension experts recommend purchasing about ½ to 1 pound of turkey for each person at the table. The higher estimate will allow for leftovers. If you don’t want to pay for or deal with leftovers, choose a bird within the lower weight range.

* Balance “expensive” and “cheap” dishes. Mashed potatoes are less expensive to make than a creamy vegetable casserole; a pumpkin pie is generally cheaper to make than a cheesecake. Limit the number of dishes requiring expensive ingredients. Choose your family’s favorites and serve less expensive dishes to complement them. Foods with fewer rich ingredients are easier on the waistline as well.

* Trim down extras. Do you really need three different vegetable casseroles and five desserts? Who will miss the extras? Try to cut out at least one extra that no one will miss from each food category. This will save not only extra expense, but also the temptation to overeat excess calories.

* Look for substitutions. Many holiday recipes call for expensive ingredients you may not normally keep on hand. Before you invest in special ingredients you’ll use for only one recipe, check the substitution guide in your favorite cookbook or at www.foodsubs.com to see if there’s anything you can substitute.

* Serve inexpensive beverages. Alcohol, sodas, punch and fruit juices can be expensive additions to your holiday shopping list. Water, coffee, iced tea and lemonade are inexpensive alternatives. No- or low-calorie beverages quench thirst better and help to hold the line on calorie intake.

* Take advantage of loss-leaders. In the weeks before Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, grocery stores run fantastic specials on traditional holiday foods. They hope that while you’re visiting their stores to get the specials, you’ll also buy lots of other things. Be a savvy shopper. Take advantage of each week’s specials without falling into the extra-spending trap.

* Stock up on seasonal bargains for future meals. Special holiday foods are seldom offered at a better price any other time of year. If your food budget allows, buy extras now which can be served for family meals in the future.

Canned pumpkin is full of Vitamin A and can enhance breads and desserts all year long. Fresh cranberries are seldom available any other time of year. They can go directly into the freezer for use in future salads and sauces.

Sweet potatoes– canned and fresh– are often at their best price around Thanksgiving. So, stock up now to serve for future family meals. Sweet potatoes don’t have to be a diet disaster– go easy on the high-calorie additions like butter, brown sugar and marshmallows, and instead enjoy the naturally delicious flavor. I like to cut a fresh sweet potato into chunks and toss with a bit of olive oil and herbs for oven roasting.

Turkey is a delicious, low-calorie meat which can provide inexpensive family meals to come. If the whole turkey is too big, ask the butcher to saw the frozen turkey in half or in quarters. His meat saw can easily cut through a frozen bird to give smaller portions which can be re-wrapped for the home freezer. Or thaw the turkey and cut it up yourself to re-wrap for smaller meals. Remove the legs, thighs and wings, cut off each breast half and simmer the remaining carcass for meat and broth for soups and casseroles.

Food prices seem to continue to rise, so seasonal food sales are a great time to stock up on delicious, nutritious foods at special prices for your holiday feasts and for family meals for months to come.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

To the editor:

I’d like to personally thank Mike Cooper and Community Connection for mentioning the WaKeeney Travel Blog during his recent interview with Kirk Johnston of Shiloh Vineyards. I am the writer and manager of the blog and to have it mentioned through another medium was very affirming that I am doing my job, garnering interest in WaKeeney and Trego County.

Please extend my thanks to Mr. Cooper and all involved in the filming.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Dena Weigel Bell

National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day is observed annually on November 15. Get together a bucket filled with warm soapy water, disinfectant, a sponge and a garbage bag, and you are ready!

National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day was created by the home economists at Whirlpool Home Appliances in the 1990’s. It is said that they created the day to encourage people to clean out their refrigerator in advance of the upcoming holidays.

The timing for this day is perfect as Thanksgiving is coming soon. We will need room for all of the special holiday food and upcoming leftovers. Don’t expose your expensive holiday specialties to lurking bacteria and mold, or suffer the embarrassment when guests can’t find a place to store their items for the holiday buffet.
Due to our hectic and busy lifestyles, the cleaning of the refrigerator often gets neglected. This job may be dreaded by many, but it is an important task. There may be a surprise or two found at the back of the shelves. Things are often pushed back as new food is put in the front and gets forgotten. Regardless, it is a good idea to take stock and determine just how long some of those items have been in your refrigerator.

Start by taking everything out of the fridge and placing it on your countertop. If you will be at this for a while (more than an hour), have a cooler handy for perishables. Here are a few helpful steps to assist in making that cleaning job happen more quickly:

• Dismantle: Take out shelves and drawers so you can give the inside of the refrigerator a good, deep cleaning with hot, soapy water. Wipe down the interior, wash the shelves and drawers. Clean up all the drips and spills. Dry everything before reassembling.
• Dispose: Look for spoiled, shriveled (or unidentifiable) items and check expiration dates. Get rid of anything that is past it’s prime or that you do not use– such as that condiment or sauce or spread that no one really liked. It is time to toss and purge!
• Consolidate: If you have two half empty jars of pickles, combine them to save space – just make sure one of them has not out lived its shelf life. Store similar items together to make finding them quick and easy.
• Don’t forget the door: Make sure you clean all the pockets on the door and wipe down the seal around the edge of the door. Clean the handle and front of the appliance, too.
•Vacuum condenser coils and under the refrigerator.

Now that you have cleaned and organized your refrigerator, it would be a great time to set some new ground rules. Start by labeling and dating what is in your leftover containers. This way you know what you are saving for another meal. Time flies when we are having fun – something you tucked away in the refrigerator for another time has suddenly been saved for a couple of weeks, instead of a couple of days, and is no longer a safe leftover. By labeling and dating, you will know what is in the container and when to eat, freeze or toss it.

Tips like these help reduce waste, save money and keep your family from experiencing a possible foodborne illness.

Don’t wait until the next National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Make it a monthly event to treat your refrigerator well and it will take care of the foods you love.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

By PATRICIA BROWN-DIXON
U.S. Small Business Administration

Have you started shopping for the holidays, yet? Whether you are just starting or finishing up, remember that when our small businesses do well, our communities do well, too.

As the voice for our nation’s entrepreneurs, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and I, as part of our annual tradition, encourage you to “shop small” after Thanksgiving on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016.

Shopping small is a concrete way to support small retailers – and to remember that our nation’s small businesses generate two of every three net new jobs!

Last year’s surveys show 77 percent of shoppers said the day inspires them to “shop small” all year and 66 percent said the main reason they support small businesses is because they contribute to our local communities and economies.  Can you even imagine what our communities would look like without them!

So, on Small Business Saturday, I ask you to make a commitment to:

Make at least one purchase from a locally-owned small business retailer. 
Travel outside your comfort zone — away from your computer screen and mobile phone — to discover an out-of-the ordinary shopping district. 

Take part in Small Business Saturday on social media, using the hashtag #SmallBizSat, to Tweet about any great small business retailers.

If you are a small business owner yourself, make sure you’re prepared by checking out our tips at http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinesssaturday.

In the Wichita metro area, Small Business Saturday provides an opportunity for the public to support over 10,000 locally owned businesses. “Supporting the innovative, talented, and unique businesses in our community on Small Business Saturday® makes sense given the multiplier effect of spending dollars locally” said SBA’s Wichita District Director, Wayne Bell. “According to various studies, when money is spent at a locally owned retailer, it returns more than 3 times as much income to the local economy than a chain competitor.”

In Kansas, small businesses represent 96.6 percent of all employers, they have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years, and employ over half of the private-sector workforce.

Small Business Saturday can be your personal act of economic patriotism. I’ll be shopping small on Nov. 26, knowing I am helping the community stay strong.  I encourage you to do the same!

Patricia Brown-Dixon serves as SBA’s Regional Administrator for Region VII, overseeing all agency programs and services in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

In education, external events sometimes create a “teachable moment” by illustrating a basic principle. On November 8th Kansas voters considered six years of teachable moments as they rendered the results of the state’s general election.

We have evidence of teachable moments in the state House and Senate election results — probably 85 Republicans and 40 Democrats in the House and 31 Republicans and 9 Democrats in the Senate. However, according to the progressive “Women for Kansas” scorecard which examined candidate positions on healthcare, school finance, renewable energy and revenue reconstruction there are now at least 62 state House members and 20 state Senate members who rate a B or better grade.

The “at least” is important, because with numbers this large, moderate Republicans and Democrats may generate cooperation and policy agreement. This could reduce the reticence of members of both bodies for supporting efforts to reestablish the solid, fiscally responsible and moral — if not overly generous — programs and methods Kansas formerly provided to run government and meet the needs of at risk citizens. Surely, this reflects teachable moments.

A favorite American curmudgeon, H.L. Mencken wrote, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” In November, 2010, they chose to elect Sam Brownback their governor, endorsing his promise of conservatism for Kansas – greatly reduced taxes, a skinnier school financing system, assessable school curricula, and an increase in work and a reduction in public dependency for poor adult Kansans. This was to be adrenalin to the economic heart of Kansas.

It took Governor Brownback a little time to get going. His first legislature in 2011 saw a significant reduction in K-12 Base Student Aid numbers, tightening in Workers’ Compensation qualifiers and elimination of state support for the arts. The 2012 Session was most notable for the elimination of taxation on the earnings of 330,000 closely held Kansas businesses, adjustments to state income taxes that increased them for the lowest bracket, and increases in sales, cigarette and alcohol taxes. With the 2012 election, the governor and allies took the opportunity to purge the legislature of the inconstant, insincere and unreliable Republican moderates and as many Democrats as possible. Since then there have been major ongoing efforts, with the aid of legislative conservatives, to move government and government policy in Kansas hard right.

By 2013 groups began to counter the policy propaganda coming from the governor’s own spinners and the Kansas Policy Institute, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, and Americans for Prosperity. The Kansas Center for Economic Growth, the Kansas Health Institute News Service, Women for Kansas, Duane Goossen’s blog Kansas Budget and in 2016 the Save Kansas Coalition consisting of four past governors and others, some of whom were those purged legislative moderates, began a steady, verifiable accounting of the effects of the administration’s policies. With assistance from editorialists, journalists and electronic media the Kansas public began to absorb the meaning of the governor’s policies. As time passed discontents grew, the economy languished and the governor’s approval ratings sank.

Some supporters of the governor have joined him to blame Obama and reversals in the oil patch and agriculture for the lack of a robust outcome to the “Kansas Experiment.” But, the August primaries and November 8th general election had the greater number of voting Kansans deciding that they had grown tired of getting what they wanted “good and hard.” They say that experience is a good teacher. Perhaps we are about to see the truth of that maxim, and the results of teachable moments.

Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka, KS.