PAUSE, THINK, ACT

“SIMPLE SOLUTIONS SELDOM ARE. IT TAKES AN

UNUSUAL MIND TO UNDERTAKE ANALYSIS

OF THE OBVIOUS.”

Alfred North Whitehead

 

More and more experts are now voicing what I have been trying to say for years. There has been the political exploiting of crisis’s in order for their views and opinions to become the rule of the land. Those in charge of our public lands have now been replaced with a new generation of politically trained people who have bought into or been a part of the pop science of how to manage the countries resources.

The politically correct belief in Global Warming that has dictated how almost everything is being run is wearing thin on those who look at things through a historical lens. How a politician has convinced the world that man is affecting the destiny of the earth makes as much sense as letting a dietician dictate Ag policy.

The whole controversy is like the old joke of the blind men examining an elephant and describing it by the little part that they could feel. The little did not describe the essence of the whole.

I graduated high school in 1973. At this time the magazines and talking heads were all upset about ‘global cooling’. As the years went by the mantra became ‘global warming’. As the science was being questioned the name was changed to ‘climate change’. (The earth’s climate is always in constant change)

In the meantime laws and regulations were formulated with the inclusion of pop science as to how the management of almost everything was to be done. The limitations of the government were thwarted by special interest groups and politicians who could not take time to investigate why the rage was to change things to the ‘new way of thinking’.

Starting into the fire service in 1974 I not only was educated by the known science of the time but was voracious in reading the publications of the fire service as I could get my hands on them. Then there was the college hours spent in the Fire Science program that I included with various state fire schools.

My department had a 60% plus number of calls as wildfire or as the term is now Urban Interface. The fires that take place in California were a regular occurrence and the experts identified the major factors in the spread of the wild fire in that state. Knowing why they burn and doing something about it are two different things.

The brushy hills have burned for centuries and this is a fact. Keeping the area around a building cleared and using fire resisting materials is the standard for keeping the fires from wiping out everything in its path. Yet the amount of buildings and homes built in historic fire areas has continued non stop ever since. And the fires get bigger every year.

California has had full time state owned fire service for years. The marshaling of resources has been a fascination of mine for years. The cooperation of the various fire departments and districts is fascinating. In some areas of California there may be as many as five departments making the first call on a fire.

The original mission statement of the US Forest Service has been multiple use. this means that the forests are made available for many uses and these uses are what keep the forest healthy. Logging, grazing, and recreation, have all been apart of the forests for 100 years. Until the mentality of the ‘preservation’ was adopted. Those who’s job it is to manage the forests have been forced out by those who would let everything go natural. In other words ‘loving it to death’.

Soon the other agencies were taken over by people with the same mentality and people were persuaded by organizations with other motives to support the take over of the countryside and let the management of the land die. In turn this has lead to the annual burning of the land. But without management the burns get bigger and do more damage. In order to try and bring back actual management the courts have stepped in on the bequest of the organizations to block every attempt at taking care of the land as it was intended.

The manager of one popular National Forest has been recorded making the statement that she would rather see the forest burn rather than see one log truck roll out of it. She is getting her wish, it is burning.

We want to protect the wilderness areas so much that we will not allow motorized equipment to be used. Rather the area should burn fiercely rather than control the fire quickly. Many times the fire burns out of the wilderness area after growing so large that homes, businesses, farms, and whole towns are destroyed when the fire should have been limited in size.

Isn’t it time that the people who do not know what they are doing are stopped from being allowed to destroy the west? Isn’t it time to change the regulations for the fire fighting technology to be used in all areas? Isn’t it time to stop the growth into the traditional burn areas? Isn’t it time for the government to stop limiting the size of air tankers and use the latest technology?

The wild card in all of this is the order from the Imam’s to set fire to the west as an act of terrorism. One man has been arrested for arson and is suspected of setting seven of these major fires in the west.

Isn’t it time for a little common sense? I saw a posting the other day that reads “remember when there were smoke jumpers, fire towers, and healthy forests?”

The head of the Interior Department gets it. Those who make their lives in the West gets it. Yet groups like the Sierra Club use the law to stop any management and make money in the process. It is time for this to stop!

 

BRING IT BACK

“YOUR POSITIVE ACTION COMBINED WITH

POSITIVE THINKING RESULTS IN SUCCESS.”

Shiv Khera

 

Through the years of studying, brainstorming, and working on rural development I have found some opportunities. Mostly from our past. A lot of this comes from the research for KANSAS ODDITIES. There are a lot of companies and great ideas that had their start in Kansas and then were sold off or moved away. Once in a while there is the chance to bring them back.

In the study of rural development the most successful areas have individuals that see opportunities or just work for opportunities. Every ECO-Devo leader has their sights set on attracting companies from somewhere else. Yet this is just what every other area is also looking for. Sometimes the movers and shakers are locals who invest their own capital in the town or area that they grew up in. Others do it because they have been attracted to the town for various reasons.

A lot of successful people in our rural areas were laughed at as they went after their dreams. For all the success stories there are a dozen failures. But the one thing you will find in common with these people is desire, passion, willingness to work hard, and the spirit that is not crushed by defeat but invigorated by it.

When I started to write this piece I thought I had found the ultimate opportunity. Like most things that are too good to be true, so was this. A very popular line of jeans and western wear that started in Kansas was reported to be spun off from the investment company that owned them. Well when I researched it the company was just dividing its long list of name brands into a separate company and was not up for sale after all.

Well so much for that idea. But wait, there is still a story here. From airplanes to lawn mowers there are still things out there that should be brought back to Kansas and new companies created along with jobs.

A few years ago I was wanting to start a manufacturing company in my area and found that there are dozens of agencies that represent companies that are for sale and many are very easy to move to a new location and create employment. These companies would be great assets to the community. However for a variety of reasons the local business community was not interested in helping this venture to get started. In fact there were some outrageous assumptions made as to who was working with me to start all of this. The answer was no one.

However the assumptions of many are not dissuaded by the facts. So as result I dropped that project. But there are so many opportunities that rural towns and areas could be taking advantage of. What it takes is the willingness to go out on a limb and just do it. Of course a little financial help is always an asset but do not count on the local financial institutions to do this. I find that it not only takes the opportunity to create or find the business it takes creative financing.

There is also one other thing that is hard to overcome and that is the coffee shop experts. More ideas and opportunities have been killed by the coffee shop experts and their creative cost analysis. Rule of thumb, everything will cost a “million dollars”. This is the standard cost analysis no matter what the idea is. There is also the “we never have done it this a way”. Then there is “they tried that over there and it was a big flop”. Most generally it is that they do not want to see the town grow and make things louder and especially “there may be a tax increase if we tried this”.

This comes back to ‘ATTITUDE’. If you are sure something will not work it is a self fulfilling prophecy, it won’t.

I am hoping to see many of you at the Kansas State Fair this year. I will be in the SOUTHCENTRAL KANSAS TOURISM ASSOCIATION booth selling and signing KANSAS ODDITIES on the first day of the fair. Yes I am planning on a Pronto Pup.

CRIME

“THERE IS A SIMPLE WAY TO SOLVE THE CRIME PROBLEM:

OBEY THE LAW; PUNISH THOSE WHO DO NOT.”

Rush Limbaugh

 

How we go about our lives oblivious to what can happen is shattered when the crime is on your doorstep. There are many that say they would do this or that if confronted by a criminal bent on a heinous act. But no one really knows until the victim is you or one close to you.

High sounding attitudes and platitudes seem to mean nothing at the time that the worst can happen. We only have a society when there is respect for others and those who would take away our property, freedoms, and very life are corralled and made to pay for their crimes.

Our area was frightened out of it’s wits when the Rucker Family was attacked, beaten, robbed, and told that they were going to be killed in a horrific manor. Thanks to the courageousness of their son, who was also threatened and beaten, the tables were turned on the attacker.

Details of the incident are frightening enough but the fact that fighting back was the only choice that they had of survival was acted on. So many will site high sounding ideals abut what should have been done but the fact that life is a gift and should not be taken lightly is important.

Turn the cheek has its limits and there is nothing that says you have to go beyond and not fight for your life. Anyone that would criticize should ask themselves ‘if you saw your parents attacked and injured, and yourself endangered, that you would not do something to stop it?’

The stories tell a horrendous series of acts that had been perpetrated on the people. It goes beyond just what happened here. The man has a long rap sheet and there are other happenings that have gone on that are eerily similar to what was attempted here for this to be a  one time act. It is suspicioned that many more crimes will be identified by this man.

How many more have been saved by the courage of the son and the fact that evil cannot be tolerated? The list of charges that are now against the man should keep him from doing this again to other innocent people.

The news continues as a college student is missing in Iowa and along string of disappearances have happened in that state. Bad things happen to good people. We cannot take for granted that we are immune from it just because we are not living in big cities where gunfire is an every night occurrence.

We thank God that the family survived and the animal is behind bars. But we lock our doors now during the day and that is a shame. The Sheriff’s log each week now is full of calls to check suspicious vehicles in the area. It is not an over reaction it is the vigilance that we should all be aware that evil can happen anywhere and at anytime.

Evil only prospers when good people do nothing.

BEST KEPT SECRET

“IF HISTORY WERE TAUGHT IN THE FORM OF STORIES,

IT WOULD NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.”

Rudyard Kipling

 

I have always been a fan of Kansas. Even in my younger days when Wyoming had an attraction for me. As I have grown and learn more of the people and the many things that make Kansas so unique, I keep finding more things that I even I never heard of.

Now I have heard for years of the Country Threshing Show at Goessel, Kansas but have never had the chance to visit the event. It seems that there is always something going on or it is 105 degrees. But because of my stories that I publish every week and my most loyal paper that carries all of my stories, the Rural Messenger, I had the invitation to attend, finally.

What a great day I had. There were so many who made a point of coming this year because I had been invited to sell my book KANSAS ODDITIES and sign them. It was just intended that I finally make this show. I am an old tractor nut as well as history in general. So many stopped by to visit with me that I was almost blushing. These people were true fans and I was tickled with the responses that they had.

For a fat boy who has a hard time walking it was a really wonderful experience. The people of the show, the readers, and just folks who saw my book for the first time, purchased one and told me their stories. When I was able to venture away from the table for a few minutes I found things I had done research on and will be in a future book. I was able to get great photographs and visit with their owners. I even found something new that I had never heard about before.

One of the people that was visiting with me mentioned that an out of state visitor had mentioned that the Goessel Threshing Days was the best kept secret in Kansas. I agree! The thing that I missed was all the great food, (and most would say I do not miss very much food). I got to the grounds before noon on Saturday and by the time I was set up at my table a good friend of my folks that we have not seen for years stopped by and visited with mom. It was non stop visit the whole time. She had mentioned that the Bierocks and Brauts were gone by noon. The big school house outside the grounds had a big sign LOW GERMAN DINNER and the people flocking towards, it indicated that it was soon going to be out of food also.

I managed to go through the afternoon with only a small cup of ice cream and a couple New Years Day cookies. With all the activity and all the people visiting I missed going through all the food stalls and only had a drive through of the tractor display, threshing, baling, and plowing demonstrations.

If you have never had the chance to go to a Threshing show you should never miss the chance. I was also so proud that I did not get to all the booths. Since I collect toy tractors and always look for photos and other information, I did not buy anything.

I would have loved to spent the rest of the day in Goessel but I only last so long and my walking is not good. You should go to the show next year. Bring your camera, appetite, and curiosity. Also bring your young’uns and learn them something other than I phones and electronic junk.

OBVIOUSLY

“IMITATION IS OBVIOUSLY A GREAT FORM OF FLATTERY.”

Peyton Manning

 

So Captain Obvious, “milk is from an animal”. So now says the government. Well duh!

I was not a fan of milking I would rather be on the tractor or doing about anything else on the farm rather than being stuck in the milk house. But I enjoy the product, the REAL product.

Mom’s side of the family milked Holstein and Dad’s Guernsey. I grew up on raw milk and homemade butter. (and the raw milk did not kill me or anyone else)

I have been subjected to the learned opinion of medicine and nutrition and the fact that the food pyramid has been proven wrong and the fact that real butter is so much better for you than margarine. The truths we actually knew growing up and upended by ‘experts’ have been turned on it’s head by all of these institutions and people who now have been proven wrong. At least until the next devised study comes out. (remember when coffee was bad, good, bad, good, bad, good for you?)

For one reason or another I have been subjected to two products that have flown under a false flag for years. Soy milk and Almond milk. As I have so often asked over the years how do they milk those two things. Answer is THEY DON’T! The processing of the nuts and seeds involves a lot of things and then adding water to the mash to make these so called milk products.

I don’t care what the advertising says these two things taste awful. I am always suspect of a product that requires adulteration and processing to make a product that looks like something that comes from a cow or a goat.

I also have a problem with things like ‘Lactose free’ milk. Or 1% and 2%. When you take the best part out of a product and have to add a bunch of stuff to it to make it “healthy” something is wrong.

Finally the government has had a come to it’s senses moment (boy is that fleeting) and declared that milk comes from an animal. WELL DUH!

Now Soy and Almond will have to come up with some name that actually describes the stuff that is bottled up and said to be good for you. I would offer some suggestions but it would not be polite to do so. (children may read this) There is enough fakeness in the world. Thank God it is now not milk. At least the whole milk part.

 

300 YEARS OF TRADITION

“WITH BETTER GEAR, FIREFIGHTERS NO LONGER

SURROUND AND DROWN A FIRE – THEY GO IN.

Bill Dedman

 

300 years of tradition unimpeded by progress. This is a tongue in cheek saying about the fire service. There has been some progress over the centuries but the underlying truth is that change comes long and hard in the fire service. Of course it is the point of view as to what you understand progress to mean.

My career was spent with a department that was a non traditional organization. So much so that it was at one time the second largest full time department of its type right behind Los Angeles County. I am sure that the type of department has been adopted in many more places since. but this is quite a heady position for a fire district from Kansas.

From the inception of  the department it did things different than most other departments in the country. We were running rescue squads long before other departments were. Even when the ambulance services came from mortuaries. Change was for a long time ahead of what the public expected. It was also difficult since politicians were the governing board and still are. The department has undergone many assaults on its organization with those who know nothing about what the department exists for is mistaken for a municipal department. And they keep thinking that by combining the two will save money. It won’t.

As a whole there is problems and circumstances that demand an organization fitted to what presents itself for hazard and functionality. Most departments are volunteer and this is for the most part the fact that small tax bases have a hard time justifying full time firefighters. Some would rather have their neighbors place burn rather than fund adequate service for their jurisdiction. One commissioner cut the budget of a local department so badly that there was no money to put fuel in the trucks. I am sure that when the fire is his house he expects the very best to show up.

I have written about this before but our firefighters are getting older and in poorer health. It is not unusual for a small department that have active members that are restricted from anything but driving because of heart issues. Youngsters graduate from high school wave and only come back for visits. Replacement firefighters are rare.

Locally I try not to express my views and opinions with the local department because anyone from the outside is not well received by telling someone how they should or should not be doing something. When ever I can visit and just tell my stories and if they take them and apply I am very happy, but I am not pushy. We have great firefighters that do a great job under very hard circumstances.

At one time I did consultant work. It is not a very lucrative job where new ideas are hard to ask for and even harder to implement. Also a ‘consultant’ needs to have an address from places like New York, Chicago, and other places a long ways away. Like these people really know how to solve a problem in Kansas.

I do however, express my opinion for those who are in the position to cause undo expense and hardship for the local departments. Change is hard in both directions. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)  and Insurance Services organization do cause expense and almost intolerable requirements for the local jurisdictions. I do not know how to address these people and get an actual hearing.

The perfect storm of sub standard fire protection consists of NFPA, ISO, Governments (state, local, and federal). And taxpayers who just do not want to pay a fair tax. That is until the fire is on their doorstep. Throw in one more factor, Fire equipment manufacturers.

Requirements of the biggest, shiniest, and most expensive equipment drive the quality of equipment to proportions that simply cannot be attained by cash starved jurisdictions. The dirty secret is that you ultimately pay a set amount either by tax or insurance premium.

How can you do anything? Support your local fire department or district. Understand what the tax money is used for. Hold your elected officials to a standard that provides the best service that is possible for your area.

As far as myself I will continue to write about the subject. I can talk for hours about many facets of the fire service and the problems that they face. I even have a few solutions, but I will try not to bore you to death about it. But you still have to do your part.

QUIET DESPERATION

“HOPE IS A NECESSITY FOR NORMAL LIFE AND

THE MAJOR WEAPON AGAINST THE SUICIDE IMPULSE.”

Karl A. Menninger

 

As the world gets crazier and crazier there is a depressing trend that has its roots in the lack of faith or the ability to access faith to work through terrible problems. It is very distressing and yet understandable as more and more God and Faith are pushed out of the everyday conversation. The vacuum that this leaves is for evil and depression to fill the void. Without the spirit being tended to in ones life the opposite has the tendency to introduce helplessness into a life.

Everyday the number of our veterans that take their own lives grows. It is a national tragedy. And at the same time the number of farmers and ranchers who take their own lives is about five times the national average.

It is so easy to use euphemisms like “suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” but all the sayings in the world cannot persuade someone who is profoundly depressed to seek help or change the direction that they are falling.

Does it do any good to say that the hurt that is left behind surpasses any that was felt by the one who took their own life. I can say yes because a major factor in my whole life was a suicide from someone very close. The long term as well as short term devastation is a life changing event. Maybe this also has something to do with the profound sorrow that I feel when I lose a close friend.

The things that our fighting troops see and deal with are things that no human was ever intended to see. The firefighter and law enforcement officers deal with things that cannot be erased from the mind. Even when there are ways to deal with it.

Our society has become so far removed from the farm that it is difficult for someone to see, even in the family, why a farmer or rancher should take their own lives. Many times the act comes with no warning and yet the warning signs are there.

Farmers and Ranchers live a life that is independent but there is no control over the forces that determine if they stay on the land. Imagine the pressure of being the fifth generation on a place and you are the generation that loses it all. The pressure that the option for your sons and daughters to choose to stay on the land is not there. The feelings of guilt even when you have been the best manager possible and yet it is all gone or soon leaving. Even with faith it is very hard to put trust in the future and follow the path not chosen.

A noted psychologist has said that only 2% of his patients come from denominations that have strong confessional sacrament’s. What he is saying that a lot of pressure is taken off when faith is put in the hands of God.

My good friend Barry Ward has a ministry where he is traveling all the time with his gospel, praise, and western songs. He does a lot of Cowboy churches and other Christian gatherings. I never fail to see one where his message has not done a world of good for several people. I have many times seen someone that comes up to him after a performance and unloads their burdens on him and he always has a good word and advice for them.

The most heart wrenching suicides is the young people who have been bombarded with bullying, and hateful treatment. The belittling of someone who has a problem or even has faith makes today’s youth especially vulnerable. The evil of the electronic world has invaded the home and their world. The best thing that a parent can do is take away the phone and devices and only allow what they know is going on on them.

Are you available to anyone that needs that little support? Do you know the words to say to bring some goodness back into their life? Are you there to really be a friend?

The greatest loss in this world is a life that has not fulfilled it’s mission. The loss of one is a loss to us all.

PLAYING CHICKEN

“IT IS THE MARK OF A TRULY INTELLIGENT PERSON

TO BE MOVED BY STATISTICS.”

George Bernard Shaw

 

There is a line in an episode of NCIS where Gibbs father is staring down the barrel of his rifle with a drug cartel head, who had threaten to “kill Gibbs family”, that I will not forget. “I used to play chicken with my daddy’s truck every Saturday night, I never lost!” It was a true ‘Mexican standoff’. The cartel lady backed down and ordered the place shot up and him killed. He was not there when they went in.

What does this have to do with anything? Well this. President Trump is playing a major game of chicken with the people who are our trading partners in the world. Some are friends and others enemies. The winner is who does not blink.

In this country who have fought wars for other countries when they were threatened, have been taken advantage of by those who believe that we should act very modestly and put up with the fact that things are dumped on our markets at below cost in order to hurt out own businesses. This forces our manufacturers to leave the country where labor is at slave wages in order for us to buy things cheap.

Things have to be cheap because so many were not working there was no money to buy things that are expensive. It is kind of a game where we have to be polite as others are stabbing us in the back. We also give money we don’t have to many of these nations in aid so they can hate us anyway.

The newspapers right now are very upset because of the new tariffs that have gone on imported newsprint. It may run some of the papers out of business. These are not the national papers that continuously print all kinds of distorted news for their own gains. The papers who are hurt the worst are the ones that you are reading this in now.

The paper that publishes me the most is looking at a $50,000 increase in their cost of production. I have not heard how much others that pick me up are looking at. They are rightfully worried. The margin is not there. 40% of the newsprint is produced in the US that papers use. The rest is mostly from Canada. So Canada is dropping newsprint in the US at lower rates, and to counter act that the tariff goes on to try and level the playing field.

Things don’t always go as they should. But if no one has noticed yet President Trump is playing chicken in order to get things on a level playing field. The challenge is who is going to blink. Will there be local papers left by the time the challenge is met and things are normalized? The goal is a free and fair trade. If we can survive until leaders settle down and make things right.

Steel plants that have been shut down for years are hiring and coming back on line. Harley Davidson who announced that they were opening plants overseas before the tariffs were announced, are trying to use tariffs as cover for what they were already going to do. All you really hear about are all the bad things that people can make up. But there is going to be hardship before we are done. Are we going to blink?

The paper companies in the US are AbitibiBowater (the largest), Boise Inc., White Birch Paper Co., Catalyst, Blue Heron, NORPAC, and Inland Empire Paper Co. If these companies would take their prices down and capture the business that is going to Canadian companies they would insure their prosperity for years to come. If they do not and the number of customers drops and they lose business, no one wins.

The problem with companies today is that there are too many MBA’s that never actually worked in the business making the decisions. And they ride their golden parachutes down when they run a company into the ground. Good managers would work with their customers to build a loyalty to US produced products and shrink the foreign goods demand.

Lets see who blinks first. I put my money on US.

SURPRISE SURPRISE!

“WHEN I WAS BORN I WAS SO SURPRISED I DIDN’T

TALK FOR A YEAR AND A HALF!”

Gracie Allen

 

Bet a lot of you do not know who Gracie Allen is? If you do this story is for you. You are old enough to be hit by a wave of scams that are trying to get into your bank account and take you for all the money they can get. There have been some sharp bank tellers that have helped thwart some of these cases but there are still too many that just do their job and hand you your money on a card that you are being scammed out of. So if you are one of these people that are providing ‘friendly service’ you may want to pay attention also.

I am not easily surprised anymore. It seems that things that were totally unheard of when I was growing up are now common place. So you can imagine my surprise that on my phone line (that is not used that much) I answered and the kid on the other end says “HI GRANDPA!’

Ok well I get wrong numbers once in a while and with the miniaturization of all the buttons I even dial a few.

So I said excuse me? In a louder tone of voice the kid says “HI GRANDPA!” again. So I ask if he knows who he is calling? I am still surprised and had not caught on yet. He said “I am calling my grandpa!” Now he is getting a little belligerent. So in my best “you seem to be stupid voice” are you sure you know who you are calling? We go through the same thing a couple more times.

Finally he goes “*& $#@% &(*%$#@! and hangs up. By this time I know that the little scammer (the nicest word I will use here, not what I really thought) is trying the I’M IN TROUBLE AND NEED BAILED OUT OF JAIL. DON’T CALL MY PARENTS THEY WILL KILL ME. JUST SEND ME X AMOUNT OF DOLLARS TO ME scam.

This is real. And if you think you cannot get a call from a scammer that can say the right things and yet say nothing you are kidding yourself. You do not expect what is coming in and you have no time to think. This is what they count on.

Mom had a call similar to this a few months ago. Only he was pretending to be a nephew who goes to school in Nebraska. It went the same way. He was in trouble and needed $2500. to bail himself out of jail and he did not want to call his folks. Knowing the boy pretty well we put a quick call into his mom. There was nothing wrong and she knew right where he was at. It happens so fast that even when you are aware of what the call could be you stop and wonder.

As for me since I have never been married, have no kids, and no grand kids are a possibility I enjoyed bursting the little twerps bubble. It looked like an Oklahoma area code but the ID numbers can be changed by the little jerks with very little know how. In fact they could probably make more money working a real job than trying to steal money from well intentioned folks.

Police and Sheriff Departments try to warn of the latest scams. But it is very difficult to actually do anything about the scammers after they have taken your money. I encourage everyone who works at institutions that people will come to get money out of their accounts to be a bit nosey if anything seems strange. It will be better if you seem a bit nosey rather than not really caring. It is so easy for people to get excited and talked into something they will regret when they think they are helping out. And all they are helping are a bunch of low life worthless jerks (don’t ask me to be Christian on this).

I enjoyed jerking his chain. But this is serious. You cannot just be a nice person anymore. You have to be on the watch on all sides for the jerks of the world.

DELIGHTED!

“I AM DELIGHTED THAT A PROJECT THAT I HAVE WORKED

ON AS A PASSION HAS GOTTEN TO THIS POINT. NOW FOR

THE NEXT STEPS.”

Roger Ringer – Author

 

Going back to when I decided that I was going to work on a book about little known stories of Kansas, I discovered that I announced the project in 2013. Wow! And I signed the contract for KANSAS ODDITIES just a year ago. Through a lot of blood sweat and tears the first boxes of books were just delivered to me today. What a journey. I just finished reading the first copy of the book yesterday. Through all of the writing, rewriting, editing, I still cringe when I find a mistake. But the few mistakes were in the first few stories and it is just minor mistakes. This drives me crazy but I hope you will overlook them.

By the time I finished the book I really enjoyed the stories. I await to see how you accept them. By the time this is published I will have gone through my first book signing and I will give you the results before this is finished. I am writing this because the next few weeks are really going to be hectic for me. Writing this column takes a little thought and I am jumping ahead and having this ready for publication so I only have to send it out.

One thing that makes me a bit sad is the stories that did not make it into this volume. Time will only tell if there will be more versions of KANSAS ODDITIES to come out in the future. This all depends on you.

Some of the stories that did not make it like Maude Frakes and her rock garden in Elk City, The mad bomber of Iola, the Topeka Hay Press Company, the Marriage Combine and it’s inventor who pursued building a helicopter, the Commander Tractor built in Harper, the true story of the Blue Albino Woman, and many many more.

Each day I find more stories of amazing people and things invented in Kansas. I find more reasons to admire the tenacity of Kansans and how the state has been first in so many things. I still an looking for lost things in barns, tree rows, fence lines, iron piles, and private collections.

After the grueling process of publishing this first book I am anxious to get started on the next. But you will be the ones who decide. If the publisher is happy and willing to keep on, I am too.

I am trying to also use the profile of this book to get people to look into places and at things differently. Ever hear of a Walterschied automobile? Is there a pull type Massey Harris combine setting in the weeds out there. Is there parts and pieces of tractors or old cars setting out there? There are so many things that I am looking to find surviving out there that has been forgotten. I am still looking for a Hockett tractor. I am still looking for a Colby Plowboy tractor. Is there a surviving Ferguson Automobile Thresher out there?

Have you seen or do you know of something that was invented or built in Kansas that I have not heard of? Do you know where there is a Commander four wheel drive tractor that was built in Harper? Is there some notorious or just plain interesting person that has achieved some great things from Kansas that you can give me information on? Do you have any information on IMCO implement manufacturing from Neodesha? How about the helicopter manufactured in Liberal?

Anything that is interesting about Kansas I am looking for?