Kansas State Fair

We went to the Kansas State Fair for the first time in a number of years. There were many great displays, animals, and items for sale there. Here is a picture of a sunflower which is the state flower. They grow these for the seeds and the oil and they grow to amazing sizes.




No fair would be complete without a HUGE pumpkin!









This is a display carved out of real butter! Looks like the horse is winning this time!







We thought that this turkey would fit in quite well in Anthony! A very beautiful bird. 

Planting time on our farm

The wheat is being planted as we begin another crop year. The wheat is planted at this time so that it will grow enough to be a source of food for cattle during the winter months. The cattle will be taken off of the wheat pasture around March 15th of next year and the wheat will then mature and be harvested in mid June.

It is interesting to watch the equipment that is used today. They can cover a lot of acres in an hour with rigs like this!

Turkeys in Anthony, Kansas

Several wild turkeys have made Anthony their home! There was some talk of having them removed but the citizens of Anthony would have none of that and the turkeys wander through town at their leisure. Here one is admiring himself in the window of a store.





The turkeys have no fear of traffic and all drivers keep alert to avoid them!








Nice to see the outpouring of love for these birds. They do not have to worry about their next meal as many stand ready to feed them! 

Grandchildren's Birthdays

August and September brought two birthdays for us to celebrate. First was Kimberly who turned 19 years old. Kim is a sophmore in college and our "Favorite Grandaughter"! In fact she is our only grandaughter. Here she is shown with her mother opening gifts.

Her brother Nicholas, father Greg, and Great Grandmother Doris Garlow taking in the festivities during the birthday dinner for Kim.







The second birthday was for Shane who turned 12 years old! Shane had a traditional party and made out like a bandit! Shane is in the sixth grade in Clearwater, Kansas.






Here is a picture of Kim showing her personality!

All of our Grandchildren are special to us!

Dalton Gang Hideout, Meade, Kansas

On our way back from Colorado and New Mexico, we stopped in Meade, Kansas to see the Dalton Gang Hideout. It was very interesting to us.

The entrance is in the barn to the south and a little downhill from this house. It seems that this house was built by one of the sisters of the Dalton brothers and her husband and there is a tunnel that goes from the barn to the house and comes out in the pantry in the kitchen of the house and the tack room of the barn. Both entrances very well concealed. All the time the sister lived in the home the law tried to catch the brothers there and never were successful.

There was a lot of local stress regarding the relationship to the brothers, so one day the sister and her husband just up and left! After a time the house was sold at a sheriff's sale for back taxes.

Some number of years later, the new owners (totally unaware of the tunnel) were sitting in the kitchen eating when a cowboy came out of the pantry and asked for the Dalton's sister. Learning that she was not there, he went back into the pantry and disapeared. The owners then followed the tunnel from the kitchen to the barn and were amazed.
There is no real evidence that the Daltons ever used it, but then!

The house is interesting as it is so small which is indicative of an original home of that era.

When you enter the barn you are then allowed to go through the tunnel to the house. Now it has lights and is bricked up. Originally it was just a dirt tunnel.

Secrets of the Table, Clayton, NM

These pictures are a continuation of the previous post of the table at the museum in Clayton, NM.
This shows the reverse side of the chess board which makes a nice felt card table top!





When the felt card table top is removed it reveals a roulette wheel! All of this is done with the highest of quality. The wheel is smooth as it spins!

We were just amazed to watch as this was revealed. There is no way to determine this from the very start it is so well made and concealed. 

Black Jack Ketchum and Clayton, NM

We stopped in Clayton, NM to learn about the Black Jack Ketchum saga. It seems that Mr. Ketchum and his gang was fond of robbing trains in the late 1800's and he was captured by a posse and jailed in Clayton, NM. A trial was held and he was found guilty of the offenses and sentenced to hang.

Now, nobody in Clayton had ever hung someone and were not sure how to accomplish this in accordance with the proper custom so they contacted the people in the Capitol of NM to obtain the rules, methods, etc. They were given all the particulars including how high to build the scaffold, the type of rope to use, how to test the rope to ensure it would do the job, etc. Well they built the scaffold, bought the rope from the local hardware store, went to the scaffold the day prior to the hanging and tied a bag of sand to the rope and dropped it. The rope held! They then learned that the measurements for the scaffold were wrong and they needed to dig a pit under it to gain the proper drop distance. That accomplished they retired for the night leaving the sand hanging from the rope. (The sand hanging from the rope strecthed the rope out entirely so that there was no give to it at all which proved to be a problem later!)

The morning of the hanging arrived and people from far and wide came by to witness the deed. Poor old Black Jack was taken from his cell and marched to the top of the scaffold. The rope was placed upon him and they dropped the door under him whereapon he dropped, the rope reached its end and cleanly snapped his head off at the shoulders making a mess of the entire hanging. Since that time all hangings in New Mexico were held at Sante Fe!

We found Clayton, NM to be a delightful town. Very wide streets, lots of historical buildings still in use including the hotel downtown with a wonderful bar that still is in use. Most of this area was settled around the early 1900's when there were a few rainy years. Later normal moisture returned and it caused many to leave.


In the museum in Clayton, found many wonderful exhibits including this inlaid game table made in Italy. It has hidden talents that were displayed by the curator of the museum.






By turning the top over you have backgammon board!





















Removing the backgammon board reveals the chess or checker board!

In the next post I will show more of this table.

Chaco Canyon

Upon leaving Pagosa Springs, we headed south into New Mexico to visit more ancient Indian sites. Our campsite was at the KOA in Bloomfield, NM.

Just to the west of Bloomfield on Highway 64 we found Salmon Ruins historical site. It was an outlier site for the Chaco Culture just like those at Chimney Rock.
The interesting part of the Salmon ruins is that it was protected by the Salmon family who homesteaded the land and no one was allowed to touch the site until the mid 1970's. This allowed for a serious excavation of the site which proved to be very full of artifacts. They have a wonderful display at the site.

We decided to head south to explore Chaco Canyon. The canyon is located about 21 miles west of the highway and the last 16 miles is gravel road. The road was completely washboard the entire drive. As we were in our new Tahoe that only had 2,000 miles on it we took it very slow along that stretch and it shook the car tremendously causing us some concern. We talked about that with the people at the Ranger Station and they said that you need to go fast so the car hits only the tops of the bumps. So when we left we went 50 mph instead of 6 mph on the way in and it worked!

Chaco Canyon was the administrative, trading, and ceremonial center for the native indians until the 1200's with most of the building taking place from around 800 AD until 1100 AD.

Chaco Canyon is a wealth of ancient ruins and pictographs. There are many sites thoughout the canyon and it is overwhelming to attempt to really do it in one day!

We took our lunch with us and were glad to have it as there is no place to obtain a meal in the canyon.

All of the photos here were taken in the canyon and it is just a small sample of the sites we saw during our visit. I have pondered what to write about the ruins and decided that it would be more prudent if you as reader would Google the Chaco Canyon and read about it from more professional writers. I can only give our reactions to the experience here and I must tell you that we will go back in the near future and spend even more time! They have a campground there but it is dry camping only without hookups.

We walked the sites and read the information provided and found them to be quite helpful. The Park service has done a good job here at the canyon.

The most interesting nugget of information that we gleaned out of our reading and listening to the tour guides at the ruins, was that the many rooms surrounding the Kivas were never lived in! The entire sites were used for assemblies and ceremonies.

It seems that the clans would travel to Chaco Canyon in order to associate with others of their clan and to participate in their ceremonies. They traveled great distances as we have noted at Chimney Rock in Colorado. They did not use beasts of burden or the wheel, so they only brought with them what they could carry on their journey.

There was a group of permanent residents in the canyon who were responsible for the maintenance of the buildings and to raise food for themselves and their visitors as the travelers could not carry enough food to last for the trip in, the stay, and also the trip back.

From what we learned we have made some suppositions. The main one is that since the Kivas were there for each clan, (Later to become our modern Navajo, Zuni, and other Puebloan peoples), they had to have someplace to store the clans wealth such as the clans pottery, ceremonial items, etc. and the rooms were dedicated to this. ( None of the reading or the guides offered this, we just have concluded it from what we observed and read.)

Thre is a lot of unknowns about these ruins as there was no written lanquage left to help us. We have to rely on oral histoy from modern indians and what we glean from the ruins. It is very interesting and informative.