March 2022

With the Open Range Gravel Race coming to town at the end of April, I am preparing to do something I have never done before: ride the 200K course in a single day and on a fat tire bicycle. As I read about the race in last week’s Pratt Tribune, I noticed, somewhat amusedly, that “the fast riders (for the 200K course) will return to Pratt around 2 p.m.” For last year’s fatbike winner, Mark Marriot of Desoto, KS, his finish time was about 1 hour and 45 minutes later than the top overall finisher.

“It is a truth universally accepted that a farmer in want of good conversation must remark on the weather.” For anyone who is not a fan of Jane Austen, I should explain that the previous statement is a bit of a play on the opening of her famous novel “Pride & Prejudice.”

Pratt, Kansas has supported its libraries from early years, getting its start in 1909 when the Coterie Club, a local study group, offered its library to the city, offering its 1,700 books to the city in exchange for a commitment from the city to keep the library open daily, provide a free public reading room, and include free reading for the county as well as the city. The offer was accepted and in May of 1910, on September 14, the new Public Library in the ground floor of the Court House opened.

Right now, 45 million people across 43 countries are on the brink of famine. As Vladimir Putin wages his unjust and unprovoked war in Ukraine, the stability of agricultural markets is further threatened, and with it, the food security of millions of people.

In Washington D.C., Senate democrats and White House officials are hastily piecing together a revised version of the Build Back Better Act, after Senator Joe Manchin announced he couldn’t support the version passed by the House.