Flyover People Daily News

Cheryl small towns, vittles

The old 1892 Wichita City Hall is the home of the current Wichita-Sedgwick County Museum.

Cheryl buildings, cities, history

This old granary was recently renovated at Pioneer Bluffs just north of Matfield Green on K-177.

Cheryl history

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

 

 

SEND IN THE VERBS

Adjectives and nouns get a lot of use this time of year. The Kansas spring is described as everything from tranquil to tornadic.

Spring delivers dandy flowers, dangerous storms, and the sweetest days imaginable. But spring is much more than adjectives and nouns.

Rain, storm, and thunder – for us, these are not just quiet little nouns; they are action-packed words. The Kansas spring is a season of verbs.

Bugs splat on the windshield. Thunder telegraphs a storm. Birds sing us awake before dawn. The sun smiles, warms our un-sleeved arms. Rain washes cars, streets, and cats inadvertently left outdoors.

A light wind blends aromas. In the early spring, scented trails of lilacs drift past my porch; the neighbor’s spirea tickles my nose. When the honeysuckle blooms, it sweetens the night air and its fragrance slips through the bedroom window as I fall asleep.

The breeze bends young trees. Exhaling a chorus, wind sings one stanza after another; sometimes it’s the longest song in the world.

Wind casts no shadows, yet it breathes down our necks. Gusts pull dust from the fields and the grit scurries across the landscape. We wear that dust like a second skin. A tan? Nope, it’s just dirt.

As words of action, verbs make themselves at home in the Kansas sky. And we, below, must weather the weather, whether we like it or not.

Young and energetic, the spring sky stretches its boundaries, tests us to see how much it can get away with. And because there are no guardians of the sky, it gets away with everything. After a day of drama and destruction, the sky offers no remedy, no recourse, no reparations.

With our energy-filled atmosphere: the colliding fronts, the ever-ready wind, the moisture from the Gulf, our days and nights often rumble.

The entire sky gets into the act, sets the stage for a major performance, and we’re all seated in the stadium, watching, waiting, vulnerable.

During these rock-and-roll storms, we are like pioneers, exposed on the prairie, feeling small as the self-assured sky churns above us. Storms grow, taking up longitude and latitude, filling the sky with bruised clouds.

These clouds fly with impatience, turning late afternoon into darkness several hours before sunset. Lightning detonates thunder and divides a jagged sky. Each storm threatens us, a new violence as yet unmeasured.

Thunder growls. It sounds like a headache feels, a persistent ache rolling across the heavens.

Sometimes I think of these storms as pirates sailing the sky. Their cloud-ships are heavy, loaded with gunpowder and cannons. I visualize the skull and crossbones flying atop each mast.

In the springtime, these pirates pillage and plunder our state. For several nights in a row they troll our skies, casing Kansas, looking for an easy mark. They pick off a town here and there, collecting gold and treasures, taking a few souls along the way.

Sometimes, with cloud-to-cloud lightning, it appears that the pirates are attacking each other, but soon enough they aim their cannons at us. They fire away, a barrage of rain and hail.

While we’re dodging hailstones or running into basements, the pirates spin the skies and slide down to earth inside of a funnel. These scoundrels take what they want, leaving behind a mosaic of disaster.

After the storm moves on, a streak of brilliant light rides the western horizon. From there, the sun slings a rainbow onto the eastern sky, an apology for its absence.

The good guys gallop in, the cavalry has arrived. They bring with them the calm evening light, and return us to a land of peaceful adjectives and nouns.

Copyright 2012 ~ Cheryl Unruh

Cheryl columns, Flyover Weather, life on the ground, seasons, sky

“Beaver’s Gift,” by Bill McBride. Beaver sticks and wire.

For sale at the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs just north of Matfield Green on K-177.

Cheryl Art

… was quite the ride across Kansas. Although the sirens sounded in Emporia early this morning, no damage here. Dave was in Salina visiting his mother, and Salina in three tornado warnings, but they’re OK.

During the broadcasts and through bits of information coming from various news sources, you hear all kinds of stories, snippets of what’s going on, a line here and there, unconfirmed reports of disaster, of tornadoes diverting or dwindling at the last moment before a town. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen with Wichita.

It was amazing to watch KWCH meteorologists tell about the catastrophic tornado that was aiming directly for them and their city. They were cool and collected, and at the same time were dealing with a major tornado headed toward Salina, also in their coverage area, so they had to divide their time between the two storms.

These storms, after dark, couldn’t be seen, which added even more stress and unknowing to the situation. I listened to a variety of stations, channels, KWCH in Wichita, WIBW in Topeka, KVOE in Emporia, Kansas Public Radio in Lawrence –   and every single broadcaster I heard did an exceptional job of reporting the danger and keeping Kansans safe.

I’m not happy with Cable One’s decision earlier this year to cut off our access to the three Wichita stations, KSN, KAKE, and KWCH. Luckily, last night, we were allowed access to KWCH. These Wichita stations cover the storms that are moving INTO our area, so we really need access to these stations here in Emporia. Please give us back our Wichita stations, Cable One.

Many Kansas towns were hit last night, suffered a little or a lot of damage. It will take awhile before many of those stories are told.

Reports I’ve heard this morning indicate there were 97 tornadoes in Kansas last night.

Cheryl Flyover Weather

WE WAIT

A “particularly dangerous situation”
Is the atmosphere we’re wearing today,
Or so says the Storm Prediction Center
In Oklahoma. And they know
about these things in Norman.

We’ve heard this threat for days now.
Every weatherman has spoken the word.
It’s the conversation in every huddle in every town.

“Life-threatening storms” is scrawled across
The rectangle of Kansas.
“Large, long-tracking tornadoes” is our fate today.
Disaster kits are mentioned: flashlights, radios, batteries.
Consider yourself on your own for 72 hours, they say,
Until help arrives with food and water.

And so it began this morning:
A tornado watch box. One.
And now the story grows.

Strong gusts blow here now.
Restless clouds open and close
the sky a dozen times in an hour.

We wait…
For the miss, for the hit, for the worst.

Northern Kansas
Takes the first tornado warning.
But those warnings will be handed down,
Moved along the map, all day, all night.

“Historic storms,” they suggest. I cringe.

A hundred tornadoes perhaps.
Hail as big as a fist.

We wait.

~ Cheryl Unruh, April 14, 2012.

Cheryl Flyover Weather, writing

Richard Porter and Jerilynn and Duane Henrickson talk with Erika Nelson of Lucas after her presentation on folk art this evening at the Friends of the Great Plains dinner at Emporia’s Granada Theatre.

Erika Nelson is, among other things, the creator of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things  – Traveling Roadside Attractions and Museum.

Erika did fantastic job of explaining the various types of folk art in Kansas and the Midwest as well as highlighting various artists who have created grassroots, visionary, folk art, such as M.T. Liggett who creates metal totems in Mullinville, and Elizabeth “Grandma” Layton of Wellsville who did contour drawing to conquer her depression.

 

The dinner was sponsored by the Center for Great Plains Studies at ESU.

 

Cheryl Art, events, Kansans

At Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, there’s an art installation at the side of the building – an LED light display by Leo Villareal. You can see it from the street (Quivira Road, I think), and the light just dances.

Check out Leo Villareal’s website.

Here’s a close-up shot. The lights swim across the canopy. I could watch it for hours.

Cheryl Art, cities

On the floor as you walk in the east door of the ESU Memorial Union. The Union is still undergoing it’s renovation, but a lot of the work has been completed now, and it’s nice. Very classy and it’s a building that ESU can be very proud of.

Cheryl ESU

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

 

 

THE GALLERY AT PIONEER BLUFFS

Sitting in the shade on the spacious front porch at Pioneer Bluffs, it felt as if time had slowed to the small-town pace that I remembered from childhood.

On the porch I visited with Matfield Green residents, Bill and Julia McBride, and with other friends who dropped by that Saturday for an artists’ reception at the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs.

Paula Haas, who lives in Matfield and volunteered at the event, had taken a break to join us on the porch. Across the road from the porch is a tree-covered ridge. We watched a train as it emerged from behind the ridge and snaked away from view. “I love that,” Paula said, “It’s like having your own toy train.”

Pioneer Bluffs is an 1859 ranch along K-177, just north of Matfield Green. The Pioneer Bluffs Foundation celebrates the Tallgrass region, the history of ranching, and it explores sustainability.

Through June 24, the work of two artists will hang here in the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs.

My husband, Dave Leiker, is one of the two artists. He has a collection of more than 20 photographs on display. His exhibit, called “The Working Landscape,” depicts life on the Arndt Ranch in Lyon County. Dave has photographed Ryan Arndt and other cowboys as they rounded up and worked cattle on a foggy spring morning. He has photos of Arndt performing winter chores on his ranch.

Also on display are the rich and beautiful abstract paintings of New Mexico painter Anna Patricia Keller. Her colorful show is called “Prairie’s Edge.”

Paula Haas and Bill and Julia McBride are just a few of the people who have moved into Matfield Green in recent years. Other newcomers include Ton Haak and Antonia “Ans” Zoutenbier who run the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs.

Matfield Green has that kind of draw. There’s a peaceful feeling in this community, reminiscent of my childhood days in a small town in the ‘60s. But there’s also a rebuilding effort afoot here, one that leans toward stewardship, sustainability and creativity.

Later on the porch, I spoke with Ton Haak. Ton and his wife, Ans, are from Holland. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, they made numerous trips to the United States, traveling the West and Midwest. Because Ton had read William Least Heat-Moon’s book “PrairyErth,” Ton and Ans made their first Chase County visit in 1995.

Looking for a place to spend the night they were led to Matfield Green and rancher Jane Koger. They stayed at her ranch for three months.

“Jane’s a good teacher,” Ton said. “I’m a city boy and I’d never seen grass grow.” But he said he learned how to build and fix fences on the ranch during their visit.

Ton and Ans traveled on. And when they moved to the U.S. permanently, they settled in New Mexico and opened an art gallery. After 12 years in New Mexico, they returned to the Flint Hills, to Matfield Green.

“It was like a homecoming,” Ton said.

“At the same time, these guys had started Pioneer Bluffs,” he said. The Pioneer Bluffs Foundation was looking for some sort of commercial operation to go into the house, possibly antiques. But with Ton and Ans available, the foundation decided to open a gallery in the 1908 Rogler farmhouse.

When artists-in-residence come to Pioneer Bluffs, they’re able to stay in rental homes in Matfield Green. Several houses are available in town for that purpose. “We’ve fixed up old homes,” Ton said. “It’s the preservation of the village.”

This community, if you include the folks on nearby ranches, has a population of around 80.

“We have a vision for the community,” he said. And part of that vision is to bring younger people to town. “So far, so good,” he added.

Ton Haak, Dave Leiker, Anna Patricia Keller, Ans Zoutenbier, Elaine Shea Jones, Dick Keller.

After the opening, the artists and spouses and Ton and Ans joined Elaine Shea Jones at her house for dinner. We sat on Elaine’s deck near the edge of town and had a great meal outdoors.

Freight trains slipped through her backyard, but we couldn’t hear them until they were right there. As dusk settled in, we talked and laughed and enjoyed the tranquil setting in the tiny village of Matfield Green.

*For more information, visit www.pioneerbluffs.org.

Copyright 2012 ~ Cheryl Unruh

Cheryl Art, columns, Kansans, small towns