by Mary Lou
Republic County WIFE

One summer, my cousin Gesa from Westport, Connecticut and her two daughters, Anna and Tina, were my guests on our Kansas farm. We had a delightful time and I want to share with you some of our adventures and the things they enjoyed. You can imagine you are visiting too.

County Fair: My guests came in time for our county fair and got to see my grandsons show their 4-H steers. They watched all the careful grooming that was done to get the steers ready to go into the show ring. The boys gave Anna, Tina, and Gesa a good tour of the 4-H exhibits and they shared in the other excitements of the fair and carnival.

Farm Sale: On the way to visit relatives, we passed a line up of pickup trucks and a sign that a farm sale was in progress. We stopped to experience the call of the auctioneer. People were holding up cards with their assigned number to "bid" when they wanted to make a purchase. All the items to be sold were spread out on the traditional hay wagons to be examined by prospective buyers. Everything seemed rather festive with the yard nicely groomed and some people enjoying coffee and sweet rolls.

At the end of the Taranko's visit, we spent some time in Topeka at a special display called "Wheat People" at the Kansas Museum of History. One exhibit told the story of the sadness that can accompany a farm sale if the farmer has been forced by debt to give up his business.

Post Rock Church: My guests went with me to worship at our country church, Ada Lutheran, that is near our home. We found the church was listed in their American Automobile Association guide to our area. The Ada Lutheran Church is unique because it was constructed, by volunteers, from native limestone called "post rock". Post rock limestone is limited to certain areas of Kansas, including our area. People labored with love to build their church at a time when most members of the congregation still lived in dugouts. The Tarankos were given special treatment and guided by a member of the congregation for a climb to the bell in the steeple. From there, they had a beautiful view of the summer countryside and the hot midday temperature was cooled by the breeze.

Fresh Food: It was fun to visit my neighbor Caroline Benne's farm. She raises geese, ducks, guinea hens, rabbits, and a variety of very interesting chickens. She even had recently hatched baby chicks being tenderly cared for by a mother hen. Tina, especially, liked to visit this lively place. When Caroline agreed to sell us a chicken out of her freezer already dressed, Tina walked up to her house to get it. Caroline ended up sending home a duck, a guinea and a chicken for my cousins to prepare. All three of my cousins are good cooks. Anna used a special recipe for Chinese marinated chicken and we had a gourmet meal which we shared with the Bennes and my son's family. It was fun for me to gather all of the requested herbs that were needed for the food preparation from my garden.

The fresh country eggs have dark yellow yolks and we all enjoyed them prepared to perfection by Tina.

Sweet Corn: Sweet corn is in season at our house for a long time in the summer since my son plants it a few rows at a time spaced throughout the summer. Anna and Tina both remembered eating it raw when they here visiting as very little girls, but we did cook it this time. It is so wonderful fresh from the corn patch.

We visited the nearby Depot Market for fresh produce that I didn't have in my garden, like melons, squash and fresh Colorado peaches. The Depot Market is a family-run business that started out as a place for the Kuhn family to market apples from their orchard. They grow a wider variety of produce now and have added all sorts of attractions, including cider jelly and a featured cider slush.

Though it was hot August weather, our mornings and evenings were cool. The three Taranko girls went out jogging or bicycling in the early mornings while I watered the garden and sweet corn. Gesa had gone around the square mile one morning and suggested to Anna that she try it too and turn right at each corner. Anna turned left at each corner and ended up at a dead-end a mile south of our farm where the road doesn't go through anymore. She jogged through an abandoned mile road grown to weeds and saw a whole flock of wild turkeys.

Eating Outdoors: Many mornings, we ate breakfast outside under the apple tree. One morning, we had fresh cinnamon rolls and another morning, Anna made blueberry muffins from a Kansas Wheat Commission recipe. She adapted it using whole-wheat flour and flax seed. The muffins were really tasty. She also made homemade yogurt, which was wonderful for breakfast with fresh Colorado peaches from the "Depot Market" and toasted almonds.

The girls remembered pictures of when their grandparents visited us on the farm and we had made homemade ice cream with a crank freezer, chopped ice and salt. They suggested making ice cream and found that was a good closing to the hot Kansas summer days. Anna soon memorized the recipe for making the custard in the microwave. We cooled the custard so that it would be ready to freeze in the evenings with an easy electric freezer. Reflecting on the day, we would enjoy our ice cream outside under the big Kansas sky with twinkling stars and a bright moon. The kittens would join us.

Riding Horses: Some of our neighbors, the Howards, were generous enough to saddle up horses for the girls and my grandson to ride one evening. It was a cool pleasant evening for riding. They did well on the horses with good coaching. Leni and Alex Howard, who are in grade school, were fine hosts. They were wearing their cowboy boots and hats and we learned that the pointed cowboy boots worked well in the stirrups.

4-H Projects: Alex showed us the obedience skills his dog had learned to be able to participate in the 4-H dog show at the fair and Leni modeled the cowgirl outfit that she had made to model in the 4-H style review.

When we got home, Tina wished she could try cowboy boots and a hat, and we found some that fit her perfectly. Tina commented that she realizes now that cowboy boots, blue jeans, and hats have a definite purpose and are not mere fashion statements by city people.

Friendly People in Small Towns: At the fair and at church, the Tarankos got acquainted with many of our friends who live or work in Courtland, the small town near us. They had been to Courtland to the grocery store to look for special ingredients for cooking and got acquainted with more of our friendly small town folks. Some folks weren't shy about finding out who these new faces were and who they were visiting.

Tina was intrigued by our small town restaurant; a place where farmers enjoy coming at noon for a hardy meal, quick service, and a good time. A neighbor gentleman, Ed, treated us to a meal of chicken fried steak and a lot of local color at Pinky's. He even introduced us to Pinky, his high school classmate and lifetime proprietor of "Pinky's". Ed then took us for a ride to see some of the early farms in the township. He had interesting stories to tell of the old time farmers he remembered. It gave us a lot of good laughs.

Farm Machinery: My farmer son, Dean, and his family showed my cousins the farm machinery. The grandsons are well informed about how it all works and enjoyed sharing. Our guests listened so attentively and that made Mike and Brian feel good. The combine was parked in the shed waiting for another harvest, but we could show them with a video what it looked like in a wheat field harvesting the grain. They did each get a ride with Dean in his biggest, newest tractor, which was parked in the shed at my house. We took a picture of the whole family arranged on the tractor. The tractor was a sensation because my visitors had never seen anything of this size. Gesa compared it to a ship and the farmer driving it to a captain on the bridge.

Kansas Sunset: A trip to our biggest pasture with Dean was a treat for Anna and Tina. It is a beautiful place with a creek running through it and rolling hills. Dean had moved the bulls out of that pasture the day before and needed to go back and pick up the corral. The girls wanted to go back to this pasture and take their mom. We went back one evening. It was a pleasure to see them jogging together up and over a hill to see the pond on the other side. It was like deer running. It got late and the sun went down. This was one of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed together.

Kittens: The mother cat at my house is a fairly new arrival from "I don't know where". She had baby kittens that were just old enough to play when my cousins were visiting. At first, these little fur balls were on the wild side. They just came out when they thought no one was looking but, with lots of attention from Anna, Tina and Gesa, they became pretty tame. After while and with lots of patience, the kittens would come without too much hesitation - trusting that these people were their friends. One kitten was black, one was gray with long hair, and two were tabby cats. One tabby had spots on her tummy so she was named Jenny Any-dots after a tabby in the musical, "CATS".

Old Buildings: Our neighborhood has barns and homes that are no longer in use. In an earlier day, the barns housed teams of horses and some milk cows. Hay was stored in the lofts. Today, farming is done with tractors rather than horses and milk is usually purchased at the supermarket. The hay is baled in huge bales that wouldn't fit into the haylofts. Gesa wanted the girls to see one of our family's now vacant homes that is a Sears and Roebuck cement block house dating from l915. The girls enjoyed looking inside and even found some dishes that they carefully packed in a backpack to take home. The house and the barn were an adventure and a place to imagine farming in the old days.

Kansas Wildflowers: The wild flowers in Kansas's summer pastures are pretty. Snow on the Mountain, a white flower, reminded Gesa of the famous Edelweiss flower found in the Alps in Europe. Gesa and the girls went out one Sunday morning and picked a bouquet of wild flowers and arranged them to take to church. They also picked sunflowers on the roadside, which Gesa arranged in an old crockery butter churn to decorate our dining room. Though Kansas has many fields of sunflowers grown as a crop, it was named the Sunflower State because of the tall wild sunflowers that grow along the roadsides in August.

Fishing: I had thought my guests would enjoy fishing, which is really special in early summer. We have a big pond that we can usually count on for good fishing. This adventure was less than perfect but had its special moments too. A friend took us and we rode in the back of his pickup through the pasture to get to the pond. The sun was getting low and from the back of the pickup, we had a pretty view of the countryside from a high point and enjoyed the colors of the sky. It was a disappointment when we got there to see how short of water the pond was this exceptionally dry season. It is usually so beautiful. We got instructions on how to bait a line with little shrimp and carefully stretch it across to the other side of the pond. We came back later to see what we had caught. We took guesses on how many fish there would be. We all supposed there would at least be a turtle. When we returned, the sun had gone down and the stars were out for a beautiful evening. When a light was shown on the pond, we saw a fawn, an egret and a coyote. When we checked the lines, there were no shrimp and no fish. In the dark, Anna managed to get a foot in the mud, but that was part of the adventure. We weren't extremely disappointed in not catching fish since it had gotten late. We tried to squeeze too much into the last day of their visit. Our plan was to leave early the next morning and probably none of us would have had much energy left to dress fish.

Konza Prairie: Taking the self-guided hike on the Konza Prairie in the Flint Hills near Manhattan was in our plans. We didn't get a very early start after our fishing adventure the night before, so it was 11:00 a.m. before we started the trail. The Prairie was beautiful but the sun was hot. After about one hour, we returned to the trailhead wet with perspiration, but with the hope to come back for a longer hike when the weather is cooler. With temperatures over 100 degrees, the more perfect place was the ice cream shop at Kansas State University.

Reflections: After returning home, Gesa wrote: "Anna, Tina, and I are very happy that we could share your life for the past week. You know, we can always go to museums and look at sights, but to be a part of the actual life on your farm with the people, little towns and the big open countryside is really a sensation that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. I am very happy and satisfied that I can share this feeling with my daughters and with you. All the pictures of our adventures keep going through my mind and will stay there."