By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“One big family.” That’s a phrase which has been used to describe the community of Corning. The people of this community seem to be able to come together to work on community improvements and get things done.

Corning is a community in Nemaha County in northeastern Kansas. Roger Haug and his sisters Diane and Janice grew up on a farm near Corning. Roger is a farmer, mail carrier, longtime softball coach, and was recently named a Civic Health Hero by the Kansas Health Foundation. However, he really wanted to share the positive things happening in his hometown of Corning.

Roger’s friend Joe Roanoke wrote about Corning, in part: “I remember when my wife and I were two of the young people in town. Since the 70’s, we’ve watched the circle of life continue as young couples with past ties return to live and raise their families in Corning. Now, my wife and I are some of the oldest in town. The transition has been incredible.”

He pointed to the remarkable improvements which have taken place in the community. “Over the years, the Corning family has come together to install a completely new city water system, build a new city community center complete with a city library and medical clinic, create a beautiful new city park where the high school once stood, construct a new and all-important fire station, install a helipad for emergency Lifestar transport, begin a three-phase ballpark renovation including new concessions, bleachers, field and lights, not to mention a Corning community corn patch with donated land, seed, and labor,” Joe wrote.

Some of these community improvements were built through Kansas Department of Commerce Kan-Step grants, where the state pays for design and supplies while the community provides volunteer labor.

Housing is another positive. “New housing is the norm in this clean and friendly oasis,” Joe wrote. St. Patrick’s Church is also raising funds to build a new gathering center.

Citizens in a rural community tend to pull together in times of crisis. When one local family lost a child who died suddenly, Corning got behind a local biannual blood drive in her honor. The Ava Louise Steinlage blood drives began in 2011 and have collected approximately 1,400 units of whole blood. Staff members at the Community Blood Center commented that they have been amazed at how well such a small community can support such a good cause.

They’ve noticed two other things about the blood drive: One, the community provides an amazing number of treats and food for the participants, and two, people who give blood tend to stick around and visit because the town is so friendly and close-knit.

Much small-town community life revolves around sports. For years, Corning hosted what was considered one of the best slow pitch softball tournaments in Kansas. On summer nights, the citizens still gather around the ballfields for ballgames and conversation.

There is an annual community celebration called Cornstock – which might be spelled Cornstalk, except that it is a take-off on the Woodstock celebration of the 1970s. Today, Cornstock celebrates the community with games and competitions.

“The event is drawing people back to Corning for a weekend where kids can run free in the park without constant supervision of worrying parents,” Joe Roanoke wrote. “The small town atmosphere where the one big Corning family watches out for everyone is so compelling, relaxing and friendly, it is drawing bigger numbers every year.”

It’s a remarkable record for a rural community the size of Corning, population 206 people. Now, that’s rural.

How does such a rural community succeed? “I believe the bottom line is family,” Joe wrote. “Corning is a hardworking farming community with a strong sense of pride and ethics, always bent on doing things the right way. It has a willingness to come together to form one big family to get the job done.”

One big family. We commend Roger Haug, Joe Roanoke, the Steinlage family and all those who are making a difference with family values in Corning. They demonstrate that Corning is a can-do community.

Part I

Compost is the single most important supplement you can give your garden in the form of mulch and/or soil amendment. It could be something you might seriously consider using in place of synthetically made fertilizers. By incorporating compost into soil, improvement can be had in soil structure, texture, aeration and even in water-holding capacity of sandy soils. On the contrast, compost can open up clayey soils, allowing for better water percolation. Its addition can even enhance soil fertility thereby prompting healthy root development in plants. The topper, however, is that compost made at home is inexpensive. You can make it without spending a cent, whether in a pile or in a pit.

The organic matter that compost comprises of provides food for microorganisms, which in turn keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition. These microorganisms break down organic waste, turning it into a nutrient rich medium for your garden. Many microorganisms found in compost are adapted to the high temperatures characteristically found in the decomposing process. They require an adequate mixture of oxygen and moisture to successfully do the job. Too much water will cause reduction in the needed oxygen, where not enough water can also drastically slow microorganisms from conducting their activity. Ideally, the compost pile should have approximately 40 to 60% moisture, or maybe better said, like a well wrung sponge.

To outline the best procedure for composting, there are a few important points to take into account. Frist, build your compost pile with those materials high in carbon and nitrogen, also known as “browns and greens”. The carbon-rich “brown” material consists of items like branches, stems, dried leaves, peels, bits of wood, bark dust or sawdust pellets, shredded brown paper bags, corn stalks, dryer lint, conifer needles, straw, peat moss, and/or wood ash. Browns give compost its light, fluffy body. Greens on the other hand consist of nitrogen or protein-rich material like herbivore manures, food scraps, coffee grounds, green lawn clippings, lawn and garden weeds (without seeds), and green leaves. These items provide raw materials for making enzymes.

A healthy compost pile should have more carbon than nitrogen. A simple rule of thumb is to use one-third green and two-thirds brown materials. The bulkiness of the brown materials allows oxygen to penetrate and nourish the organisms that reside there. Too much nitrogen makes for a dense, smelly, slowly decomposing anaerobic mass, not unlike what happens when a thick layer of fresh grass clippings goes undisturbed. Good composting hygiene means covering fresh nitrogen-rich material with carbon-rich material, which often exudes a fresh, wonderful smell. When in doubt, add more carbon!

Want to start your own compost pile? Start by following this link, https://bit.ly/2AwhCPy , to a video called Choosing a Bin provided by Kansas Healthy Yards. If you are wondering how long composting will take, follow this link, https://bit.ly/2O2VJtf , to another video provided by Kansas Healthy Yards. For more information about how composting works, follow this link, https://bit.ly/2mZFYYe , to the “Building Better Soils for Better Crops” chapter called Making Compost. Next week will cover the dos and don’ts of what goes into your compost pile and how to use your compost when it’s ready.

Rip Winkel is the Horticulture agent in the Cottonwood District (Barton and Ellis Counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact him by e-mail at [email protected] or calling either 785-682-9430, or 620-793-1910.

 

Friends,

This week I hosted six more community coffees. I started in Ashland on Monday, visited Cimarron and Garden City on Tuesday, jumped over to Scott City and Beeler on Wednesday, and ended the week in Buhler.

It was evident in our stops that tariffs and trade, immigration, and the Farm Bill are some of the top issues across the district.

In addition to our coffee stops, I had great discussions across the district on issues like rural broadband, agribusiness development, school safety, and teacher appreciation. I also rode around with Dr. Randall Spare, DVM of Ashland and spoke with residents in Beeler to hear progress updates on rebuilding fences, cattle herds, and homes after last year’s devastating wild fires.

I am enjoying my time traveling and hearing from so many different people.

Please if you haven’t yet, join us on our Community Coffee Tour! Click HERE for next week’s schedule. We’ll be in Goodland, Hoxie, Norton, Downs, St. Mary’s, Onaga, Clay Center, and Ellsworth.

One-size-fits-all regulations don’t work. 

Regulations are one of the leading killers of innovation and job growth. Companies like Kincaid Equipment are facing one-size-fits-all emission regulations that will mean thousands of additional costs for the Haven, Kan., manufacturer.

On day one, this administration started rolling back burdensome regulations on our small businesses. We must continue to do so to help our Kansas communities.

Meeting with the Agribusiness Council

Wichita is one of the largest economic hubs of our state, and so much of what we do in the First Congressional District runs through the businesses and organizations in that city. Because of the interconnectedness of the state, I believe it is vital that everyone in the state’s agriculture industry work together to support the state’s farmers and ranchers.

I was honored to speak with members of the Wichita Agribusiness Council to discuss the Farm Bill, trade, tariffs and other issues impacting ag. As I begin my work on the Farm Bill Conference Committee, it’s important to continue to have these discussions and fully understand how this legislation impacts all industries supporting agriculture so I can advocate for all producers.

Quality Care in Southwest Kansas

The last time I was in Ashland, this hospital was still under construction. It was miraculously saved from the Starbuck Fire that swept through Clark County in early 2017 and is now a beautiful medical center delivering quality care to the people of south-central Kansas.

My district is home to some of the best small hospitals in the country, and I continue to work hard in Washington D.C. to make healthcare more affordable and accessible to all.

Communities recovering from 2017 Starbuck Fire

After the 2017 Starbuck Fire devastated thousands of acres of farm and ranch land in Southwest Kansas, I spoke with impacted farmers and ranchers to learn how we could help them rebuild. Their concerns included regulations on new fencing and accountability for their lost cattle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the past two days, I have had the opportunity to meet with folks in Clark and Lane counties to assess the recovery efforts and discuss what the future looks like for their farms and families. Residents in both counties said grass has returned and fences are back in place. There are still signs of the devastation, but life is moving forward.

Kansas farmers are incredibly resilient, and I was proud to be able to include changes to current programs in the 2018 House Farm Bill to help with the fire recovery efforts.

If the election were held today, which Kansas gubernatorial candidate would get your vote?

[polldaddy poll=10082810]

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Contested recounts, an independent spoiler candidate, and national publicity each time our Secretary of State starts a new round of antics. Never a dull moment in Kansas these days.

Enough already. To heck with those guys. I am not even going to bother naming them. It is time to talk about Laura Kelly and the return to sanity.

Kelly is an experienced state senator, with particular expertise in the state budget, which is desperately needed right now. She easily won the Democratic primary for governor against several other good candidates and can now focus on November. More importantly, Democrats, and their independent and moderate Republican sometime-allies, are now free to focus on Kelly. Otherwise, they just may hand the election to the Republican nominee.

The Democrats could not have chosen a better candidate, to contrast their party with all the foolishness and drama in Topeka over the past eight years. Kelly is low-key, the kind of Kansan who prefers a few words instead of many and who seems less than comfortable in the public spotlight. She brings experience instead of show. Kelly had a whole career delivering education and social services before seeking elective office. She is familiar with many of the state budget’s most expensive and most troubled programs, including Medicaid. She promises a step-by-step plan to repair the damage done to Medicaid recipients by Brownback’s privatization plan. Her experience on the state budget committee brings her the practical knowledge needed to reverse other aspects of that disastrous experiment. No wonder that former Governor Kathleen Sebelius encouraged her to run and has energetically campaigning for her.

After World War I, Warren G. Harding won the presidency by promising a “return to normalcy.” Like humorist Dave Barry, I am not sure if “normalcy” is a real word, but sanity certainly is, and Kansas sure could use some right now. The Brownback experiment busted the budget, while the Secretary of State wasted time chasing virtually nonexistent illegal voters down rabbit holes and losing lawsuits at our expense. On most issues, Kelly is closer than her Republican opponent is to every living Kansas ex-governor except Brownback. For example, like all of them, she opposed Brownback’s attempts to politicize the selection of judges. Like the former governors, she opposed Brownback’s attempts to oust Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and his colleagues in 2016.

In the end, voters retained the judges—the cooler heads, and the ex-governors, prevailed. This is what a return to sanity looks like. There is more at stake here than partisanship.

I would caution Kelly’s supporters to stay away from the phrase, “anybody but_____.” Such campaigns rarely work.

A case in point is 2014, when challenger Paul Davis said little about his own qualifications and plans. Instead, his focus was “anybody but Brownback.” Lacking a reason to vote for Davis as opposed to against Brownback, late-deciding voters in 2014 helped hand Brownback a narrow re-election. The ante increases for Kelly because she also has a wild-card independent in the race. If voters seek only an alternative to the Republican nominee, they may get confused between the two other candidates.

This fall’s message should be “nobody but Kelly will do,” not “anybody but _______.” Kelly’s extensive policy experience and unassuming Midwestern demeanor are just the ticket for a return to sanity.

Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science at Emporia State University.

I’ve seen a few articles about the new Medicare cards that will be mailed to eligible persons. In Kansas that should be happening between June 2018 and April 2019. The reason new cards are being issued is to help keep your information more secure and help protect your identity. You will get a new Medicare Number that is unique to you, and it will only be used for your Medicare coverage. The new MBI (Medicare Beneficiary Identifier) will be 11 characters in length. The new card will not change your coverage or benefits. You will get more information from Medicare when your new card is mailed.

Here are some steps you can follow to get ready:

• Make sure your mailing address is up to date. If your address needs to be corrected, contact Social Security at ssa.gov/myaccount or call: 1-800-772-1213. TTY users can call 1-800-325-0778.
• Beware of anyone who contacts you about your new Medicare card. You should never be asked to give personal or private information in order to get your new Medicare Number and card. New cards will be mailed to beneficiaries, and no one connected with Medicare will be calling or knocking on doors.
• Understand that mailing everyone a new card will take some time. Your card might arrive at a different time than your friend’s or neighbor’s.

When your new card does arrive consider these tips:

• Destroy the old card immediately upon receiving the new one. Use the new ID number for all Medicare transactions from that point on.
• If you have Medicare questions, call the Senior Health Insurance Counselors of Kansas (SHICK). The number is 800-860-5260. You can also see a short video on the new cards at www.cms.gov/medicare/new-medicare-card/nmc-home.html 
• If you have a Medicare Supplement or a Part D prescription drug plan, keep those identification cards. They are separate from the regular Medicare coverage.

Donna Krug is the District Director and Family & Consumer Science Agent for K-State Research & Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: (620)793-1910 or [email protected]

How did you spend your summer? I love asking faculty that question as they return to campus for a new academic year. Commencement may seem like a time for faculty to sit back, reflect, and relax – but for our faculty, nothing could be further from the truth! You may be surprised what they have been up to and how full their lives are during “break.”

Of course, several faculty continue to teach throughout the summer – which is essential as this summer we experienced another record enrollment with 5,347 students taking summer classes!

One summer program we always look forward to is our on-campus, four-day introduction course for our highly successful Transition to Teaching (T2T) pathway for professionals who have a college degree but not a license to teach. Through T2T these individuals can start teaching immediately while completing the courses for licensure. Over the years, this enrollment has grown from six students to more than 150!

Geoscience faculty were very busy during May and June leading field trips. Their activities included: Storm chasing across 10 states from Oklahoma to Montana and Minnesota; Geology Field Camp in Utah and Colorado; study abroad to Italy and Switzerland; and a cave and water-resource trip to the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas.
Dr. Terry Crull led a group of students on a choral tour of Austria. I understand it was remarkable, but a favorite story is from right here in the U.S.A. During a layover in Philadelphia, Dr. Crull went into a Philly cheesesteak joint for lunch. The waitress saw his FHSU shirt and said, “I go there!” She told him she is an online student in hospitality and tourism. Later he took the whole FHSU choir into her restaurant and they sang the University Hymn for her.

Kelly Cole, nursing, spent time as a student herself a working on her doctorate while teaching summer classes. Carolyn Anderson is also completing her doctorate and spent the summer coding and analyzing data for her dissertation “Stakeholders Perspectives of Value Creation and Risk.”

Jesse Jacobs, economics, finance and accounting, traveled to Washington, D.C., to complete classes and receive his designation as a Certified Business Economist.

Another geosciences professor, Dr. Richard Lisichenko, spent the summer preparing for – and passing – the FAA Remote Pilot certification exam. He said that preparing for the exam took more time and effort than he expected, but every now and then faculty need to be reminded what it feels like to be a student! Well said, Dr. Lisichenko.

Dr. Bill Stark, biology, also spent time developing elements of a drone program over the summer. He is developing both flight training and aerial imagery data collection modules for a course he will teach this fall. Over the last three years, support for the equipment and training has been provided in large part by a $700,000 USDA grant received by the departments of Biological Sciences and Agriculture.

Ten faculty members from the Department of Leadership Studies attended the annual Association of Leadership Educators conference, including four who teach in our Chinese partnership programs. Out of those 10, FHSU had six peer-reviewed presentations, including one research poster, one innovative practice paper presentation, one research paper presentation, one educator workshop, and two roundtable presentations.

Dr. Connie Eigenmann, communication studies, spent her summer writing several books with professional co-authors in California, Tennessee, Illinois and Kansas, including Electronic Communication in Developing Countries: A World of Difference, Vol. 3; The Vanishing American Family; and Cousin Derrick.

Librarian Claire Nickerson was part of the American Library Association’s 2018 Emerging Leaders cohort. She worked with a team of four other librarians across the country to develop a website designed to teach librarians how to work with data.

Students also engaged in scholarship this summer. Biology student Zoey Wallis, Littleton, Colo., senior, spent her summer on a research experience for undergraduates at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. This is an extremely competitive position that covers living expenses and a stipend for 10 weeks in the summer to do biomedical research at a large university. She was selected from a nationwide pool of applicants.

Meanwhile back in Hays, staff in the Office of Global Partnerships hosted summer camps for more than 50 international students and 35 foreign faculty from four Chinese partner universities to introduce them to American culture, improve their English, and give them experience in classroom teaching.

As the English Department’s international coordinator, Jason Harper is always looking for opportunities to improve our curriculum in China. So in May, he traveled to two partner campuses – Sias International University and Shenyang Normal University – to conduct English Composition Outcome Assessments.

These are just a few examples. Our faculty, staff and students, and the energy they bring to living and leading full lives, make me proud. They model the phrase “life-long learners.” Most them will probably need a summer vacation from their vacation!

Best advice, if you’re a Republican voter, well … wait at least another week to pull off that bumper sticker that shows you supported the losing candidate in your party’s gubernatorial primary election.

Might be this weekend, maybe next, but you might just leave the sticker alone…unless you are trying to sell your car to a Democrat who will probably try to bargain you down a few bucks figuring you don’t make good choices.

Yes, this election cycle has become more intriguing for political junkies as Gov. Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach scrap in the technical, complicated after-Election Day determination of just who is the Republican nominee for the office of governor.

First, the Election Day results were statistically close–191 votes out of the 310,429 cast for all seven Republican gubernatorial candidates separated Colyer and Kobach. Kobach and Colyer won a total of 82 percent of all those votes. By Saturday, that margin had narrowed to 110 votes, Kobach still ahead…

But figuring who won the most of those votes…well, that’s what this week is about. Used to be simple, someone was an obvious winner. This year, it’s not simple. Colyer and Kobach are now scrapping for every possible vote, whether already counted or some of those mailed-in ballots and the provisional ballots.

Provisional? It just means that a voter’s name and address didn’t match the official voter list that the election workers had in front of them on election day. Maybe a voter moved, changed his/ her name (some recent brides, for example, if they take their spouse’s last name, probably had to file provisional ballots even if they wore a wedding ring to vote). Provisional ballots are also some of those unaffiliated voters who declared themselves Republicans at the voting place, so they could participate in the GOP primary.

Those provisional Republican ballots are the key to this race. All week and even next week, county officials will be meeting to decide whether those provisional ballots will be counted, and to weigh whether mailed-in ballots were in fact mailed on Election Day, not the day after.

Oh, there have been tense county canvass meetings over elections for county commissioners or members of the Legislature, but not the top of the state ballot.

The fuss and time spent on the GOP gubernatorial race essentially makes Democratic gubernatorial nominee Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, the only major party gubernatorial candidate who will sure-enough be on the November ballot.

And the more sticks and stones that Colyer and Kobach throw at each other—oh, and Kelly is keeping track of ‘em—the more the biggest party in the state divides itself, and moderate Republicans start looking for a candidate who hasn’t been mud wrestling.

And let’s not forget the independent candidate—if he has enough valid signatures on his petition to get a place on the general election ballot. That’s Greg Orman, who has run statewide before, losing to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., four years ago. Already there are questions about his petition signature-gathering, and whether some of those signatures will be loudly, publicly rejected—a little stain on the record of a guy who maintains that he represents a choice for voters who don’t like either major political party.

Could it get any better than this? For Kansas, probably, but for reporters it’s a gold mine. A story, an allegation, a slight by one candidate against another, scraps over whether this ballot or that ballot should be counted. For the news media it’s like a house fire to cover every day.

Oh, and reporters don’t have to worry about those bumper stickers. They shouldn’t be on reporters’ cars, anyway…

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

More often than we’d like to admit we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot when talking about the challenges we face in farming and ranching. These conversations with our friends, neighbors and family members take place at the local café, filling station, after church or Friday evening ball games.

During these visits, farmers and ranchers sometimes conclude that consumers and non-aggies don’t like them. Or, their urban acquaintances don’t listen to them or care one iota about raising crops or caring for livestock.

Most people don’t need to know much about farming today. They probably think about agriculture less than 30 seconds a year and 20 seconds of that time is based on misinformation.

Why should they?

Do farmers and ranchers wonder what a Detroit automaker does? Who he or she is? And what about their family?

While non-farm and ranch people harbor misconceptions about agriculture, believe me, they like farmers and ranchers. They admire this profession, especially if they understand farmers and ranchers provide the food their families eat.

Still, no one wants to be educated or preached to. Humans like to engage in conversations. They like give and take. Usually, if a person is knowledgeable about a profession like raising cattle, another person who doesn’t know about the livestock industry may be curious and willing to listen.

And while no one understands agriculture like farmers and ranchers, encourage and foster dialogues with those who know little about this profession. This includes people outside your comfort zone – someone you don’t usually talk to like city cousins, foodies, medics, lawyers, etc.

Conduct such conversations on a flight to another state or country. Develop dialogue with people at a professional meeting, just about anywhere and with anyone who isn’t savvy about agriculture.

Times continue to change. Forty years ago, people expressed little interest in agriculture.

As a fledgling photo journalist in the mid-1970s, I can’t remember someone asking me about agriculture at a social event. This just didn’t happen even though some knew I worked in ag journalism.

Agriculture wasn’t hip, cool or fly back then. Today the tables have turned, and some people are quite interested in where their food comes from. They don’t hesitate to walk up to you, cocktail in hand and ask, “Tell me about antibiotics and beef production.”

Talk to them. Tell your story. Exude passion about your chosen profession.

But remember – ask them about their profession, who they are and what makes them tick. Listen.

Develop those relationships and build on those dialogues. Before you can expect someone to listen to you for one-half hour about how important international trade is to your bottom line, you must listen to them tell you about their home and garden, their chosen path in life or whatever else they choose to talk about at the time.

There is a voice that doesn’t use words – listen.

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

My farmer friend whose underground irrigation tubing has become chew toys for the local gophers called me this week with yet another development. His home had inexplicably been without natural gas for a couple days, and the gas company crew found the problem to be holes also chewed in the underground PVC gas line near the corner of a soybean field. This all reminded me of a past story concerning squirrels and a plastic deer feeder.

A few years back we embarked on an adventure to build a simple and inexpensive deer feeder. A friend had an old unused fuel tank stand made from angle iron – the kind that once held a three hundred gallon drum on its side. I bought it for a song, and then came the challenge of what to use for a hopper to hold the corn. I’m not sure my wife has ever thought INSIDE the box, and she came up with the idea of using a poly cart like the ones that hold our weekly trash. I called the local solid waste utility company, found an old one with a broken axle and bought it for another song. We wanted to use a “flinger” style mechanism to dispense the corn, and since the bottom of poly carts are flat, that required somehow making the inside of the poly cart funnel shaped to funnel the corn down to the mechanism. That problem was solved by cutting two pieces of scrap plywood to fit inside the hopper, making the inside wedge-shaped.

We purchased the dispensing mechanism which consists of a small wheel mounted above a motor that’s driven by a square six volt battery. It’s all controlled by a timer which turns the dispenser on and off at programed times, spinning the wheel and flinging corn around onto the ground. A thick plastic funnel comes with the dispenser and bolts around a hole cut into the bottom of the hopper. That funnel is specially designed so that when it’s positioned the right height above the flinger, it allows corn to run out of the hopper onto the flinger wheel, but causes it to “bridge-up” and stop until the wheel spins. In other words, if the funnel was wider or placed too far above the wheel, the corn would just pour constantly onto the ground until it had all run out.

That following spring we were using the feeder to feed corn to turkeys prior to spring turkey season. I remember going there one evening to check the amount of corn in the hopper and was surprised to find it empty with lots of corn on the ground. I backed up to the feeder and climbed up onto it with a bucket of corn like I had done numerous times before, but when I dumped the bucket into the hopper the corn all ran straight through onto the ground. Upon inspection, I found that the plastic funnel had been chewed off by some critter making it much shorter and allowing the corn to just pour through the hole. The feeder was now useless until a new funnel of some sort was put onto the bottom of the hopper.

A couple weeks later we headed out to pick up our then-useless deer feeder for repairs. It dawned on me that the hopper was made to be easily removed and that’s all we needed anyway, so we began removing the bolts that held it to the frame. As we worked, it seemed like I could hear an occasional rustling sound inside the hopper. Each time I stopped to listen, the rustling noise stopped too, so I dismissed it to my imagination. When the hopper was finally loose we toppled it over into the bed of the pickup, and Joyce began hearing my “imaginary” rustling noise also.

Supposing a no-good packrat was inside, I pulled the hopper to the back of the pickup and started to open the lid. My plan was to stand to the side and let the open lid dangle over the back of the bed in hopes that our freeloader would jump out the back and be gone without incident. While rolling the hopper around, the rustling inside turned to scratching and clawing and with the hole in the hopper facing away from us, I prepared to open the lid and confront the intruder. I unsnapped the tarp strap that held the lid closed, but before I could fling it open, a squirrel bailed out the hole in front, clearing the side of the pickup in one bound like Rocky the flying squirrel. Joyce and I starred at each other in disbelief; I think her only words were” I didn’t see that comin’!” The critter had actually chewed a hole through the half-inch plywood inside and had quite the cozy little nest built within; we pulled grass and leaves out of there for five minutes.

The most amazing thing about the whole squirrel-nest-inside-the-deer-feeder-hopper thing is that the only way into it was up through the hole in the bottom. I know squirrels can squeeze their bodies into some impossible places, but I’d loved to have watched it leap from the frame of the feeder onto the motor, then stuff itself up through the gnawed-out plastic funnel and into the polycart. This gives a whole new meaning to the term “squirrel corn.” So, as you continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors, if something seems squirrely, it probably is!

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

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

The roller coaster drops and turns as the riders yell happily. But this roller coaster is not 40 feet up in the air or outside in a hot carnival. This roller coaster operates in virtual reality. It’s an example of the creative work of an innovative, high tech marketing company.

Jeff Hake is the founder of JNT Company and JNT VR, an interactive web and marketing agency that is also doing innovative work in virtual reality.

Jeff grew up at Beloit. He was an athlete in high school, even breaking a 30-year-old league record in the discus throw. Jeff studied information systems at Cloud County Community College.

While visiting Manhattan one day, he met a pretty blonde girl named Tara. Upon meeting her parents at their first date, he learned that her father was the man who set the 30-year-old discus record which he had broken: Awkward…

The relationship improved from there. Jeff ultimately married Tara. She earned her optometry degree in Memphis. One day while in Memphis, Jeff got word that he had been accepted for the K-State computing and telecommunications position for which he had applied. “That’s great, but what am I going to do?” Tara said. “One hour later, she got a call from Ron Janasek, asking if she would be interested in buying his optometry practice in Manhattan,” Jeff said. The timing worked perfectly for them, and Tara bought the business. Today, she is a doctor at Manhattan Eyecare.

Jeff worked in computing and telecommunications for K-State and founded a website company as a side project in February 2008. He called it JNT Company. Why? “Jeff’s Never Telling,” he said with a smile, but apparently Jeff `N’ Tara was the original source of the acronym. By September 2009, JNT Company became his sole focus.

JNT Company began as a website design business but it grew and expanded quickly. “We developed a content management system called Merlin,” Jeff said. The company now offers brand identity and social media, copywriting, print design, e-commerce, video production and advertising, search engine optimization, and web application development.
“Everything we do is backed by a promise to understand how marketing impacts business growth,” Jeff said. “Our work has touched industries including banking, telecommunications, professional services, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, real estate, agriculture and higher education — including being recently named one of Kansas State University’s official on-call agency partners,” he said.

In 2015, Jeff was researching virtual reality as a marketing strategy. “Marketing research tells us that a person has to read something 17 to 30 times for it to soak in,” Jeff said. “But virtual reality can generate the adrenaline and emotion that makes you remember.”

JNT Company developed the concept and built a virtual reality trailer in 2016. The trailer contains four moving seats linked to a virtual reality viewing system. “No one had synched multiple headsets with a single experience like this before,” Jeff said.

One of their first clients was Whoville, which sponsors the Christmas-tree lighting in downtown Manhattan. During the holidays, the trailer provided a virtual Santa sleigh ride experience. In the summer, it can be a virtual roller coaster ride.

In the trailer, people sit in the chairs, buckle up, and wear the headsets while the chairs move in coordination with the remarkably realistic image which appears on the screen. The trailer travels around Kansas, where it provides a lifelike experience at county fairs and elsewhere.

“There’s a thrill in seeing the eyes light up on the faces of these people,” Jeff said.

Jeff and Tara have two children of their own. They reflect the values of their small town roots. Jeff is from Beloit and Tara is from the rural community of Scandia, population 372 people. Now, that’s rural.

For more information on Jeff’s business, see www.jntcompany.com or www.virtualrealitythrills.com.

The virtual roller coaster rolls to a stop and the giddy riders remove their seat belts – as well as their virtual reality goggles. We salute Jeff Hake and all those involved with JNT Company and JNT VR for making a difference with marketing innovation and technology. That combination makes for a good ride.