Preston and Golden Valley 4-H members met at the Hoeme Farm last week to build dummies as a group service project. These dummies will be used for the PTO Safety Demonstration during Kids Day on the Farm, which is coming soon on April 7, 2022.
Kansans that are new to vegetable gardening often don’t know how much of each crop to plant. K-State Research and Extension has a publication that can help. The “Vegetable Garden Planting Guide” gives information on the size of planting needed per person and the average crop expected per 10 feet. Also included is a garden calendar highlighting suggested planting dates and expected harvest dates. Crop specific information is detailed including days to germinate, plants or seeds needed per 10 feet of row, depth of planting, spacing within the row and spacing between rows. Another, more in-depth publication titled the “Kansas Garden Guide” is also available. This 77-page booklet has sections on planning a garden, composting, improving soil, seeding and planting, garden care, watering, planting gardens for fall production, insect and disease control, container gardening, season extension and harvesting and storing. This is followed by an extensive section on how to grow specific vegetables and herbs.
A term often used around Christmas and Thanksgiving is “Seasonal Smells,” meaning scents like pumpkin pie, roasting turkey and the scent of pine; pleasant fragrances that we associate with that time of the year. We have entered a time of the year that also has a specific essence associated with it that is not quite so pleasant.
Spring flowers have sprung in several places around Pratt. Some planted, some just making a special show despite difficult weather changes and conditions.
EMPORIA – Though it’s been 15 years since Largemouth Bass Virus (LMBV) was first identified in a Kansas lake, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) Fisheries Division staff remain committed to fully understanding the effects of this disease on one of Kansas’ most popular sportfish.
In these dark times we live in, days of wars and rumors of wars, good news helps to dispel the darkness, lifting clouds of gloom and uncertainty. Such news came to members of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Day Saints and others throughout Kansas with the announcement this past Sunday that a temple will be built in Wichita.
The Pratt Pride magazine of 1962 devoted a large article to the role of 4-H Clubs in Pratt County, consisting at that time of 356 young members among 12 organized clubs throughout the county, with 96 adults involved in leadership posts.
Wow! What a week it was in Pratt last week. Just wow. We went from 80 degrees to snowstorm in one day, from grass fires to soaking rain, from local students singing in New York’s Carnegie Hall to dressing out for prom in Pratt, from the shocking and saddening death of a much-loved school principal to a celebration of life that brought laughter and smiles to hundreds (maybe thousands) of faces in the form of shared memories and music – all in less than five days. I don’t know about others in the community, but I feel like I am just reeling from the emotional roller coaster that was last week.
If you had six years to do what you’d like with your life, what would it be? Perhaps build a cabin in the mountains of Colorado and live there every summer? Or maybe ride a bike across six continents, including through some places on the US State Department’s “not recommended to visit” list? Perhaps the latter is not how most folks would choose to spend their time, but a young British doctor, Stephen Fabes, did just that. Fabes documented six years of wandering—the challenges, the highs, the lows, the weather extremes, the varied landscapes and characters he met—in a book, Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor.
De-escalation training is essential, a requirement for law enforcement personnel, and is being adopted by corporations in the United States for greater productivity in the workplace. The reason is due to society’s consistent level of anxiety and crisis orientation; thus, people in crisis are often unstable and need specialized care. De-escalation teaches there will be more control in a crisis situation by using less authority and confrontation. People in crisis often feel as if they are out of control, and de-escalation is designed to give them a sense of power at the moment (Saunders). Crisis situations generally lead to conflict if not managed effectively.