Tag Archives: 4-h

Gun debate isn’t a black and white issue

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Seven weeks ago, a 20-year-old man walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and killed 26 people.

Across the country we mourned their loss — lives cut tragically short by a guy on a whim with a loaded semi-automatic assault rifle; and before the first children were ever laid to rest, the debate on gun control was fired up once more.

There was, and still remains, a barrage of Facebook postings by certain friends of mine — those Second Amendment supporters declaring that guns aren’t the problem, people are.

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.

I think there’s a whole lot of gray area in that statement. Sure, it takes a person to pull the trigger, although I seem to recall a story once about a hunting dog pulling a trigger and injuring its owner — pure accident, no doubt; but it also takes a loaded weapon, made to kill, to do what was done inside that Connecticut school.

In the seven weeks since the school shooting, I’m more confused about the gun debate than ever.

You see, I’m a farm kid. I grew up with guns in the closet and three brothers and a dad who shot them. They — the guys and their guns — took care of the varmint population, shot sporting clays, walked miles and miles in their quest for pheasants and deer and honed a hobby they continue to enjoy today. Some members of my family own assault rifles and use them to target shoot and hunt; and if they want to spend hundreds of dollars on a black gun that brings them enjoyment, I’m OK with that.

At the same time, I really don’t think those black guns belong in the hands of an inner-city gang member in Chicago, or in the hands of a confused, bullied, mentally ill — whatever — young adult in small-town U.S.A.

How can you regulate guns so the hunters who use them appropriately can do so, yet keep them out of the hands of those who are more apt to abuse them?

I don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone has a real good answer to that question.

Last week, while visiting with a 4-H’er at a University of Minnesota Extension Citizens Advisory Committee meeting, we talked briefly about Citizenship Washington Focus. The week-long event at the National 4-H Center brings 4-H’ers together from across the country, and part of the experience is to debate an issue facing legislators in Washington, D.C. When I participated back in 1989, I was one of dozens of 4-H’ers given the assignment to debate gun control.

Now, it’s 24 years later, and what are we doing? Still debating gun control.

I don’t have any answers, but I’m hoping our leaders do. I’m tired of hearing about tragedy after tragedy.

It takes me back to a song I remember hearing when I was growing up — an Anne Murray tune, for those of you who are country music fans:

“There’s a local paper rolled up in a rubber band

One more sad story’s one more than I can stand

Just once how I’d like to see the headline say

‘Not much to print today, can’t find nothin’ bad to say’, because

 

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town

Nobody OD’ed, nobody burned a single buildin’ down

Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain

We sure could use a little good news today.”

I can’t wait to get on the road again

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I can’t tell you how many miles I’ve driven in the course of the last two weeks, but with trips to the Minnesota State Fair and Clay County Fair, coupled with jaunts to the farm and a “backroads” drive that took me through Wirock, of all places, on Monday afternoon, I must say I couldn’t have chosen a better time to travel southwest Minnesota’s and northwest Iowa’s countryside.

I absolutely love this time of year — not only because it’s my last chance to get to the greatest state and county fair around, but because after a sweltering summer, I can finally open my windows and turn the air conditioner off. Most of all, I love taking drives in the country and seeing the greens transform to shades of brown.

If one season could last all year long here in southwest Minnesota, I’d wish it to be autumn.

After our 4-H club’s meeting Sunday night, I took the kids I mentor on a little trek down some gravel roads in Bigelow Township to open up the bluebird houses for the winter.

Aside from kicking up dust as I hurried to get them to four different locations before the last bit of sunlight disappeared, we marveled over the beauty of the calm lakes, dodged grasshoppers while walking through tall grasses and stopped in the middle of a gravel road to admire a beautiful buck as he retreated to the hillside of a Wildlife Management Area. (A little farther down the road we stopped again to watch the doe and her fawn. We eyed each other for about 30 seconds before they decided to bolt for the trees.)

Between sightings of deer and pheasants, a drive through the countryside yields many views of some still vibrant prairie flowers, in addition to the changing shades of corn and soybean crops.

I saw about half a dozen combines working in the fields on my drive Monday afternoon —some working to harvest the corn crop and others crunching through soybean fields. We hope to shoot some video footage of the combining efforts soon, so keep an eye to our website, www.dglobe.com, for the latest Nobles County Farm Bureau-sponsored project to connect our local consumers with the farmers who produce their food.

Meanwhile, there are multiple opportunities coming up to enjoy all that agriculture has to offer, from scenic drives through the countryside to apple orchard openings and a visit to Worthington’s King Turkey Day festivities this weekend. I heard our famed turkey, Paycheck, has his running shoes ready to leave that other bird — Ruby Begonia — in the dust, making sure Worthington stays the Turkey Capital of the World.

Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep

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After watching last Saturday night’s performance of “The Music Man” at Worthington’s Memorial Auditorium, I can’t seem to get the “Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep” song out of my head!

Standing outside the bright orange fence surrounding the 4-H dog show’s agility course Monday morning … “Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep.”

Trying to come up with a lead for a story at my desk on Tuesday afternoon … “Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep.”

Standing in line at the 4-H Food Stand Thursday afternoon … “Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep.”

By now, you probably have the chant chugging along like a choo-choo train through your brain. I’m sorry.

Let me just say … “Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more.”

There, now I think it is out of my system!

In all seriousness, many kudos to the men and women, boys and girls who spent countless hours of their summer learning the lines and the lyrics to create such a wonderful show.

I had no idea Nobles County Library Director Julie Wellnitz, aka Marian the Librarian, had such a wonderful singing voice; nor did I know that Colin O’Donnell, whose family lives just a couple of miles away from the farm where I grew up, has an uncanny knack for playing the role of Harold Hill. And little Riley Widboom as Winthrop, well, he made my mom and me laugh with his incredibly well-practiced lisp.

The cast will perform three more shows this weekend, starting tonight and ending with a matinee on Sunday.

Also this weekend, of course, is the Nobles County Fair.

For the first time ever, I went to Wednesday night’s NTPA Nationals and the two words I must remember for next year are: “Ear Plugs.” Holy smokes, did it get loud! I feared having to say “huh?” and “what?” during my string of interviews Thursday afternoon while talking with 4-H poultry exhibitors, so I used my trusty recorder for playback.

The tractor and truck pulling event drew a huge crowd and, all in all, I’d have to say it was fair — an International won the first round, and a John Deere won the second. I guess that little John Deere-loving Godson of mine has taught me when it comes to tractor colors we all have to compromise sometimes! (That said, I need to find some Case-IH garb to wear next year if the pullers return!) It’s all in fun, right?

Fun is the name of the game when it comes to Fair Week in Nobles County. I’m not sure if our fair coverage can be considered work or play —it’s likely a little bit of both.

Thursday morning I gave my cousin’s boy a high-five for his big purple ribbon on a photo; and that was after getting just a little bit wet standing too close to the wash rack as I photographed about half a dozen dairy cows and calves getting a shower before the dairy show. We will be posting some photo and video galleries at www.dglobe.com in the coming days of our county fair experiences.

I also hope you will come out to the fair and experience it for yourself. There are lots of animals to see and projects to admire, great fair foods to sample and a few more grandstand shows, including races Saturday and Sunday night. Just remember your ear plugs … that way you can sing, “Pick a little, talk a little, cheep-cheep-cheep!”

Frogs, feathers and ticks, oh my!

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What do you get when you pack up the car with a power drill, a pooper scooper-type device and a quartet of kids?

An adventure of epic proportions, of course!

On Saturday, a couple of the 4-H’ers I mentor teamed up with my niece Katie and nephew Zach to close up bluebird houses located on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) in Bigelow Township, just a mile or two from the farm where I grew up. There are 22 bluebird houses and a few wood duck houses on the parcels, and this is the earliest we’ve been able to get out to them and close them up for the beautiful bluebirds to build their nests.

Feathers in a wood duck house.

On our very first stop we realized we needed to stand up-wind from the birdhouses. Some of houses didn’t get opened last fall, and Saturday’s gale-force winds caused feathers, dust and nesting material to quickly sail into the air.

The second stop gave the kids a chance to peer into a couple of wood duck houses. These were built and erected a couple of years ago by 4-H’ers, with help from Pheasants Forever, the Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District and a Minnesota 4-H Foundation Helping Hands grant. One box had obviously been used at some point, but the other was just as clean inside as it was on the day we put it out there.

On our way back to the car, I pointed out the rocks placed along the cement culvert and told the kids I lost a few fishhooks on those blasted things when I was a kid about their age. The water is low enough now that it would have been easy to see any lost lures, but I’m sure the hooks I lost there as a kid have long since rusted away.

A giant frog.

We’d climbed out of the ditch, only for the kids to oooh and aaah over a set of deer tracks and then delight in finding a giant frog resting nearby. Alyssa picked it up, and then let out a scream when it jumped to freedom.

Yes, my citifed neighbor kids were connecting with nature at the WMAs.

Stop three was just as exciting, as Scott Des Lauriers and his gang were pulling in nets from Lake Bella. They’d harvested nearly 7,000 pounds of buffalo fish on Friday, and were gearing up for yet another haul. The crew had a successful harvest from the same lake last fall.

The kids watched the guys work the nets for a while, and then Scott told them he had a couple of buffalo fish in a bin if they wanted to see them. As expected, they bolted toward the box on the shoreline to see the massive fish. I’m pretty sure there were more ooohs and aaahs.

Deer tracks in the gravel road.

Eventually, we climbed back in the car and drove to our final destination — a WMA with 12 bluebird houses that requires crossing a creek — twice. By the time we reached the second birdhouse, leader Zach had stepped into a rather large critter hole and came up hobbling on a sore ankle. We thanked him for pointing the hole out to us, and then continued on our journey. At the third house, the girls and I were ready for a break, so we sent the boys off with the DeWalt drill and a “Good Luck!”

The boys cleared 12 nests from 12 bluebird houses — three or four of which showed promise as having actually been used by bluebirds — and had managed to cross the creek twice without getting wet or muddy.

As we pulled the car out of the last WMA and headed back to the farm, I was thinking about all the fun we had on our outdoor adventure. And then, breaking into my thoughts, came a scream from the back seat. Niece Katie found a wood tick crawling on her.

I guess I should be glad it was only a wood tick catastrophe when I think of all the things that could have happened. At least we didn’t scare up a skunk, the boys didn’t fall in the creek and I didn’t see any snakes!

Care for some tater salad?

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I’ve never had a reason to make potato salad before, and that has been just fine with me.

Mom is the potato salad maker in our family. She’s made it for summertime gatherings, grandchild graduations and perhaps even a funeral or two at church.

It isn’t that I dislike potato salad. Mom makes a pretty good rendition of it, actually. I’ve just never felt the need to whip up a batch.

I envision a single-serve salad might call for one small potato, a hard-boiled egg, a dollop of mayo, a small squirt of mustard and a dash of salt.

Making potato salad for one seems almost not worth the effort. Potato salad for the crowds who flock to the 4-H Food stand at the Nobles County Fair, well now, that’s a different story.

Early Friday morning, our Ocheda Beavers 4-H Club was on food stand duty. As a 4-H mentor to four of my neighbor kids, I was responsible for getting them to the fair with their hats atop their heads and their brand new 4-H T-shirts on their back.

The four, slightly giddy 4-H’ers were at my back door by 7:15 a.m. (who could possibly be giddy at such an early morning hour?) and we drove out to the fairgrounds to begin our shift. Two were waitresses, one was in charge of beverages, and the lone male in the group was to keep an eye on the pies and pastries.

As for me, I was put in charge of making a double batch of potato salad.

Do you know how much food goes into a double batch of 4-H Food stand potato salad?

Well, let’s start with the 20 pounds of cooked potatoes that had to be peeled and diced. My cousin’s wife graciously volunteered to peel the spuds while I sliced and diced, and sliced and diced some more. It took forever!

Next, I added in four dozen eggs, running each one through a handy-dandy little egg slicer twice to create just the right size egg bits for the salad.

I should have looked at how many ounces were in the industrial size plastic container of Miracle Whip, but because I didn’t I’ll just say I’ve never seen a jug of salad dressing that large before.

The rest of the ingredients were measured with a cup of this and a cup of that, tablespoons and teaspoons — amounts most household cooks typically work with.

By the time I finally combined all of the ingredients, the really hard work began — getting it all “stirred up good.”

My hand, wrist and arm gave out before they should have, but the master cook nodded in approval and my big batch of tater salad went into the cooler. The next 4-H Club on duty had the task of scooping it into single-serve containers.

Depending upon Friday’s popularity of potato salad, diners at the 4-H foodstand today will likely get a chance to sample some of my so-called cooking efforts (I didn’t boil the eggs or cook the potatoes.)

Feel free to give accolades to the chef (just kidding!) or, better yet, leave a little extra cash or coin in the 4-H tip jar at the end of the counter. I’m sure the money will go toward a good cause in 4-H.

The Nobles County Fair continues through Sunday, so you still have plenty of time to come out and see all of the projects on display in the 4-H and open class buildings, as well as all of the livestock and poultry in the barns.

The 4-H Beef show is this morning, with the Ribbon Auction slated for 3:30 this afternoon. During the auction, the Rolf and Joan Mahlberg family of rural Worthington will be recognized as Nobles County’s Farm Family of the Year. Congrats to the Mahlbergs — and thanks to Rolf for being one of my favorite ag teachers!