KFRM Blog

Down a Dirt Road
Thursday 31st of March 2011 08:20 AM
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By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

Dirt roads give character. People that live at the end of dirt roads learn early on that life is a bumpy ride. That it can jar you right down to your teeth sometimes, but it’s worth it, if at the end is home … a loving spouse, happy kids and a dog.

(This photo was taken from Coronado Heights just outside Lindsborg last Friday. There was a haze from the cloudy day as well as from controlled burns on pasture land. I loved that it looked like the road goes on forever.)

Who Wants A Rodeo?
Wednesday 30th of March 2011 07:36 AM
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By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter 

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

Necessity is the mother of invention.

A mother may cause you to invent an alternate plan.

That's the new version of the famous saying after the guys had to get creative to work a new baby calf. They danced around the protective mama and eventually got it deposited in the back of the pickup.

The mama retreated. I imagined her bellowing was designed to bring the cavalry to the baby's rescue. She couldn't round up any of her friends, so she came barreling back.

She was glad to get the baby back. Mission accomplished.

Window on the Past
Tuesday 29th of March 2011 08:13 AM
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By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

The old joke is that today's newspaper becomes the lining on the bottom of the birdcage. These days, many people don't even get newsprint on their fingers reading the news.

So it was quite a treat to find that a Lindsborg artist studio/museum had a framed copy of one of my Hutchinson News features on the wall.

It was at the Red Barn Studio, which is run by the Raymer Society for the Arts. The museum preserves and promotes the work and memory of Lester Raymer (1907 - 1991), a Lindsborg artist who did paintings, prints, ceramics, metalwork, woodcarving, stitchery and more.

I interviewed Raymer and his wife, Ramona, at the Birger Sandzen Museum in 1982, so I hadn't been to his studio before. I would have been on the job a little more than 16 months when I interviewed Raymer. In typical fashion, I looked at the feature posted on the wall and told Randy I should have done better. That fresh-faced 25-year-old reporter could have learned a thing or two from 53-year-old me.

And I was struck by something else. The museum has preserved this little tableau. It's an artist's palette still stained from years of creativity and work and an unfinished painting of a rooster. It's the scene Raymer left behind on the day he died.

And isn't that what we all hope for? We hope and pray that we'll continue to do the work that we've been called to do until our dying breath. Farmers want to keep planting and harvesting  seeds. Teachers find a way to keep teaching, even if they no longer stand in front of a classroom. Mothers still mother though their children have babies of their own. Writers still write, even though their work may no longer be found on yellowed newsprint but is typed and released into cyberspace.

And we all hope the work we do and the lives we touch will still make a difference long after we're gone. 

Where Did 30 Years Go?
Monday 28th of March 2011 08:51 AM
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Thirty years ago today, I married my best friend.

Where did 30 years go? Gosh, where did those two fresh-faced youngsters go?

Photo by Stan Reimer, March 28, 1981

Photo by Stan Reimer, December, 24, 2010

Happy Vaffeldagan
Friday 25th of March 2011 07:57 AM
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By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

Vaffeldagen is my kind of holiday.

What?! You've never heard of it?

Actually, I hadn't either, but today - March 25 - is International Waffle Day. The holiday originated in Sweden and was known as Varfrudagen (Our Lady's Day). The holiday coincides with the Feast of the Annunciations and the start of spring in Europe.

What does that have to do with waffles? It's all a misunderstanding. In some dialects, Varfrudagen was mispronounced Vaffeldagan. And Vaffeldagan means "the waffle day."

At the County Line, waffle day comes every Sunday. That's our go-to meal after getting home from church.

Jill and Brent got tired of having waffles every Sunday. Jill says that by the time she went to college, she never wanted to see another waffle.

But then again, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Nowadays, if they are home on a Sunday, waffles are on the menu ... by their choice. And by the time Jill was registering for wedding gifts, she wanted a waffle iron of her own.

In Kansas' Little Sweden today, the downtown Lindsborg eateries will celebrate Vaffeldagen with blueberry, strawberry and lingonberry waffles at breakfast, lunch and dinner. As Randy and I begin our 30th anniversary celebration, we plan to partake in the festivities.

If you want to try your own celebration, I have a syrup for you to try. This Cinnamon Cream Syrup is our attempt at recreating the syrup at the Pancake Pantry in Nashville, TN. When Jill was completing her dietetics internship at Vanderbilt, we usually had one meal at the Pancake Pantry during our visits.

I'm not a big maple syrup fan, so the Cinnamon Cream Syrup is a yummy alternative. Enjoy!