Salt Mining in Hutchinson

I had the opportunity to go to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum last week for the express purpose of sharing the visit with you here. This new museum in Hutchinson is quite astounding. I am hoping to have the story ready next week. Greg went with me and took a lot of photographs, so you'll be able to share our visit until you can make your own trip.

In the meantime, it made me go back and look at my photographs from a year ago when our leadership class went underground. There is a real mining operation for salt, and Underground Vaults and Storage, which is fascinating in its own right.

Of course, a live mine site is not exactly a place that can welcome the public, nor is a business designed to provide secure storage. But, the museum does an amazing job of giving you a true experience of what it's like.

Following are some photos I took a year ago, before the museum was open, on the private tour for the leadership group. When you see the others, you'll realize how true to life the museum is.



The sign says, "Welcome to The Carey Salt Mine
You are now 645 feet below the Earth's surface
surrounded on all sides by a vein of solid rock salt."

Until the 1960s they gave tours of the mining operation. The vehicle they're driving in is just one of the ones the mine crew uses to move around down there. They are old cars and trucks that were brought down in pieces and reassembled. The one I rode in is shown below.



The day we were there they were getting ready to blast, but they were not setting off explosives. But, this is the wall they were preparing. You'll see one just like it in the museum.



They have these massive machines there that do a variety of chores in the mining operation. Considering they all had to be brought down in a small elevator, it's rather amazing they're there.

These machines break up the salt once it's blasted out



and then it's run by conveyor.



This vein of salt is huge, extending over multiple states.





And, no, that's not a ghostly orb - it's salt dust caught in the flash light.

They let us all choose a piece of salt to take with us. You'll get to do the same thing on your museum tour.



Underground Vaults and Storage rents space from Carey Salt for a storage facility. I did a story on it many years ago and it's quite interesting. They are used a great deal by Hollywood, as well as many, many companies. The museum has a fabulous exhibit on it.



You'll see the names of lots of things you recognize...





On the day I was there I spotted episodes of Tom and Jerry, LA Law and Mama's Family. You might question why some of those things were being saved, but there they were nonetheless.

I'm eager to share the museum with you. It's something anyone can come visit and is a truly wonderful experience. Look for it on Monday the 19th.

Kiva.org

I know I have mentioned kiva.org here before. I can't encourage you strongly enough to check it out. You can make a loan - starting at $25 - entrepreneurs around the world. I just made three new loans - two in Nigeria and one in Ecuador.

This is a very reputable way to make a real difference in the world.

I made two loans about a year ago and both are almost completely repaid. When they are, I will just reinvest that money into another person.

It's a great way to do something significant and meaningful to improve someone's life.

A Greensburg Movie Don't

Friday night Greg and I went to the Fox to see a film by Eric Hyde and Oliver Hall called, "A Community of Hope Rebuilds - The Green Rebuilding of Greensburg." The film makers were there to answer questions afterwards.

It was bad in ways I can't even begin to describe with only words. And had absolutely nothing to do with building green, as the title might lead you to believe.

Greensburg Kansas was devastated by an F5 tornado in May of this year. I covered it extensively on the blog, concluding with photos from the freelance work I did there.

These filmmakers had some political agenda, but the film was so poorly done I couldn't even figure out what their agenda was. It seems rather ridiculous to make an hour long film and never make your point, whatever your point is.

I got out of it that they are unhappy with FEMA, although I can't tell you exactly why. I got that they thought Dave Strano of the Kansas Mutual Aid Society, a self-described "Lawrence based anarchist collective," needed to talk endlessly about his group being asked to leave Greensburg because officials considered the group would be a drain on security resources. I got that they don't know how to spell.

They cobbled together some bad, blurry, shot from a car, black and white video with talking head video of people like Strano and others who had very little to do with the actual event, and put some music behind it that - while pleasant enough - was incredibly tiring for nearly an hour. Interspersed here and there were screens of white lettering on black backgrounds that helped tell the story - provided you could overlook the misspellings, which I could not.

This film has absolutely no integrity. If you're going to tell a story like this, you need to try to tell the whole story, not just some part of it. If you are going to focus on only a part, try to find the interesting part.

A situation like Greensburg has a thousand interesting stories - actually, 1500 people lived there so there were at least 1500 interesting stories. They didn't tell any of them. The few residents they spoke with were good - one of them was a gentleman I interviewed when we were there - but those were just brief moments of hope in an otherwise dismal experience. They spoke to few officials, other than filming one meeting where a number of them discussed federal funding. There was no video of then mayor, Lonnie McCollum, who is one of the most interesting public officials I've ever met. You simply cannot tell the Greensburg tornado story without including him.

Another tip would be to be truthful. At one point they are overheard telling someone in the film they're making a documentary for PBS. Now, I don't know that that's untrue, but I am dubious about it. They say that the Kansas City station has agreed to air the film, which astonishes me, but I'm very doubtful that was already worked out when they were shooting. But, I don't know that. I just suspect that.

Finally, the self-importance of the film makers was embarrassing. They told various stories about talking to elected officials and gave the impression they were forcing them to make changes because they were there filming. Please. Give me a break. I've been dealing with elected officials in journalism and other venues for all of my career and it's pretty rare they're afraid of anything you're doing. I happen to know some of the officials they were talking about, and I am certain they were not afraid of these two guys.

In the film they have a screen that indicates "this is what FEMA doesn't want you to see" when showing the trailers there. The reality is that FEMA asks people to sign in before entering the area. I, of all people, am pretty liberal and generally eschew any rules, but sometimes they serve a real purpose.

All of that said, I genuinely appreciate the effort necessary to get anything from conception to completion. Creating anything requires time, attention and devotion. I think their motives are decent, but they're misdirected and way too uninformed. I'm also not sure that filmmaking is their forte.

The redeeming part of the evening was that there were lots of people there I knew so I got to talk to them. And, a gentleman from Greensburg got up and mentioned the movement to build Greensburg back green. He was instrumental in pushing that agenda and suggested those interested check the website www.greensburggreentown.org. He would have been an interesting interview. But, true to form, the filmmakers, who stated they were interested in rebuilding green and included that in the title of the film, didn't know anything about this organization.

I feel bad whenever I give something a negative review, because I know a lot of effort has gone into it. But, this is just so bad on so many levels it's embarrassing. It is unfair to the residents of Greensburg - past, present and future - to have this representing them in any way.

Edgewalkers by Judi Neal

Thursday morning I went to see Judi Neal speak at a Prarie View Food for Thought event. Neal is author of the book, "Edgewalkers." This is the term she uses to define people who help bridge different worlds by being on the edges of them.

On her website, www.edgewalker.org, she says, "they are often people who have pursued unusual educational and career paths... these unconventional people often clash with more traditional, rule-bound colleagues, and they are often frustrated by organizational systems that emphasize quantitative results over creative impulses. And yet in today's fast-changing, globalized business environment, organizations must recruit and support these people in order to stay competitive." One of the other books she referenced this morning was Megatrends 2010, which I read earlier this year.

She started and ended her speech this morning by singing. She has a lovely voice, and plays guitar quite well. She seems to be a woman of many talents.

She said she first came up with the phrase "Edgewalker" when she was reading an article and Malcolm Gladwell was quoted in it as saying that most people who cause positive social change live on the edge of town. They don't want the judgment of people who are interested in maintaining the status quo. He was talking about it in the context of quantum physics and the idea that the edge is where creativity happens. Neal thought that was interesting and she came up with the word, "Edgewalker," to describe people who are the ones who live on the edge where this new thinking can occur.

She listed three things that are hallmarks of Edgewalkers.

1. Self-awareness
Awareness of your thoughts, values and behavior and if you're living that way now, and a commitment to spend time in self-reflection.

2. Passion
Edgewalkers have an intense focus on purpose and the use of gifts in a way that adds value to their life and work.
*Nothing is half-hearted about Edgewalkers
*Intense
*Commitment to something bigger than themselves
*No tolerance for small talk
*Life histories often include traumas or life threatening events; near-death experiences; alcoholic, abusive or mentally ill parents; being inspired by a saint-like person

3. Playful
Joyful sense of fun and creativity. An ability to keep everything in perspective.

Obviously, as you know if you're a regular reader here, those things describe me. The question, as always, is what to do with that information. It is much like reading "The Creative Class" by Richard Florida. It's interesting. I can identify myself. But what do you do with that information? The difficulty is getting "the establishment" to appreciate those of us who are "different."

She had a little test for us to take to see if we were Edgewalkers. There were 20 questions. I said yes to 19 of them. Her cut off was if you answered yes to 12 or more you were an Edgewalker. There were a couple of them that really, really resonated with me.
I frequently feel different from most people.
and
People often see me as a risk-taker, but the things I do don't seem risky to me. Somehow I just know they will work out.

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know both of those are things I've talked about here multiple times. The archives of this blog would illustrate all of these 20 questions, actually.

The one question I didn't choose was, "People often see me as a leader, even though I am different from most of the people who have been leaders in that organization." I guess that would also be true if I consider my current job. I am very, very different than the people before me. They were trained clinicians and I'm not is an obvious difference. So, maybe I had 20 out of 20.

I have often described my life as living in two different worlds. That was even one of the questions I posed for the Sunday morning dialogue sessions in August - what double lives do you lead. It's something that I have pinpointed as a difficulty for me when relating to other people. I will always be a farm girl at heart and am so thankful for that background, but I spend more time these days doing things like serving on boards and going to chamber breakfasts - neither of which I ever did in the farm world. I like having both perspectives, but I don't really, fully, fit into either one. And it's difficult for people to relate to me as well.

Of course, the chamber breakfast involves something I despise - chit chat. Peggy was sitting with me this morning and looked over at me and laughed when that one came up because she has heard me say dozens of times that I hate chit chat. I just see no point in it. It's a waste of time. I'm not going to find out anything about you and you're not going to find out anything about me while we're engaged in mindless prattle about the weather. So, why bother? Idle chatter is boring and I'd much rather be by myself and quiet than listening to it. I can meditate, read, think or create in that time that would otherwise be wasted with small talk.

My favorite questions to ask people are, "What are you afraid of?" and "What have you always wanted more of?" because those two questions give you a sense of who a person is at their core level right away. And if we aren't people who are going to bond, then why waste our time? We'll both be better served by finding different people who are on the same wavelength.

I had to learn that you just couldn't ask people things like that the first conversation you have with them. It took me a long time to learn it. I'm still known as "the question person" among my friends. I have always thought it's a leftover from my days as a journalist. One of my best talents as a journalist was interviewing people. I was always good at that. You have carte blanche to ask almost any question you wish.

You may remember I mentioned recently that in Salt Lake I met someone I knew I was supposed to meet. One of the reasons I knew that - other than I just knew it the second we exchanged hellos - was that I knew I could ask him those questions in our first conversation and that he would have an answer. I did. And he did. Just as I expected. So, instead of having chit chat, we had real conversation - such a pleasant change of pace from the normal experience of someone you meet by happenstance.

I really enjoyed Judi Neal and her lecture about "Edgewalkers." It would be wonderful if the corporate world would listen to her, but it's hard for me to imagine such a thing. The mere structure of the business world is designed to crush creative souls - rigid hours, bare cubicles and white walls with mission statements posted on every available surface should keep everyone from having an innovative thought. Should one occur, however, there's always a middle manager nearby to contain it before it infects anyone else. OK, I'm being overly dramatic for effect, but only by a little bit, and bear in mind I've spent most of my career in "creative" fields.
As I used to joke with coworkers, "Dilbert isn't funny when you're living it." And there's a  reason so many people can relate to Dilbert.

I don't know this to be true, but I'm guessing that expanding new media companies don't demand that people punch a time clock, keep their work areas pristine white, and spend endless hours in meetings where they watch powerpoints of the company handbook.

I'm really fortunate in my current job that I get to do things on my own schedule, in my own way, but that's because I don't have any coworkers, so I don't have to conform to anyone's standards. And, my board is very supportive - as long as the work is getting done they don't care how it happens. I'm blessed. And I'm thankful for it everyday.

My dream remains to make my living being me.

More Leaves

I couldn't resist snapping this photo on 11th street of two beautiful trees. The leaves are starting to fall off so I want to appreciate them while I can.

This morning I went to see Judi Neal, the author of "Edgewalkers," and it was an enlightening morning. I will be sharing more about it soon, but it's after 2 a.m. now so some sleep is in order.

Some have asked how my brother is doing and things are moving along. He came home on Saturday - a full month in the hospital. But, he's recuperating at home and seems to be doing well.

A Brittle Kind of Day

Tonight was Creative Sisterhood. It was the first night in ages that all six of us have been here. I didn't really have a topic tonight. There were a lot of things on my mind, but I just didn't feel much like sharing. My life is going in so many different directions these days that it's a struggle for me to focus enough to verbalize even a fraction of what's going on in my head and heart.

I made peanut brittle tonight. It's odd how that came to be...

I went to Roy's today for lunch and while I was there a gentleman came in and gave Anne some cashew brittle. She generously shared some with me. I had thought last night about making peanut brittle for tonight so that seemed to be a sign for me.

Anne was talking about what a pain it is to make, and I told her it didn't seem bad to me. Bear in mind that last Christmas was the first time I'd ever made any, so it's not like I'm too experienced. After a quick lunch I went to buy some raw peanuts - the one thing I didn't have in the house - so I'd be prepared to cook at 5.

As if this isn't enough peanut brittle talk for one day, I have the food network on right now and Alton Brown is talking about - guess what? - making brittle. He makes it sound somewhat complex. Maybe I've just been having beginner's luck. And, I have a candy thermometer and I'm not afraid to use it. I know it's kind of cheating, but I'm not my Mama, and when I make candy without a thermometer it can just be an ugly experience. No one needs that.

Alton says there are times you're supposed to stir and not supposed to stir, but I can't tell you that. I guess I've been lucky because I haven't had any problems, even without this knowledge.

Here's the recipe I used. I don't recall where I got it but probably from allrecipes.com as that's one of my favorite spots online for recipes.

Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw peanuts
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. baking soda

Heat and stir sugar, syrup and water in a heavy 3-quart saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Add salt. Cook over medium heat to soft ball stage (234 degrees). Add peanuts at 250 degrees. Cook to hard crack stage (290 degrees), stirring often. Remove from heat.

Quickly, stir in butter and soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds. Pour at once onto 2 well-buttered cookie sheets, spreading with spatula. Break up when cold.

When you add the butter and soda it gets all frothy for a few seconds. For reasons I don't fully understand, I particularly like this part. Maybe it's the cooking as chemistry part of it all.

Then you just pour it out to cool.

When it's cool just twist the pan and it cracks. Alton Brown held another pan over it and shook them to break. He also used a cookie sheet the same size and "stacked" them when he first poured it out. He smashed on the top pan  to make sure there was only one layer of peanuts. That's a good trick to remember.

It's weird that three times brittle would come up in one day - but today was the day.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Pajamas

It's chilly here tonight, and it makes me want to buy pajamas, just like every year. I don't wear pajamas, but when the weather gets cool, I suddenly want some. I don't want the last ones I bought, of course, but some new ones - fleecy, cozy, comfy, soft, cuddly pajamas. Maybe with snowflakes or some other motif that's much more appealing in the abstract than it is in reality.

I have this recurring fantasy about padding around my house in these perfect pajamas, complete with the matching slippers, looking as cute as the models, drinking tea in the early morning hours while I lounge in the sun porch, thoughtfully watching the world go by - toasty warm, snuggled under a down comforter that's making me just a tad too warm with those jammies. It's a fantasy. Bringing this fantasy into reality requires more than just whipping out my debit card to get some cute new pajamas.

1. I'd have to put them on when I got up in the morning and why would I do that instead of just putting on whatever I'm going to wear? Much like Martha Stewart, I'm into the idea of just getting ready to meet the day once you're out of bed. I put my robe on when I get out of the shower - it's like a big terry cloth towel - and once I'm dry I get dressed. I'm just not a run around in my robe/pajamas all day kind of gal.

2. I don't "lounge." Maybe once a year when we get a big snow I sit in the sun porch with a cup of tea and watch the snow fall. But, you can do that for - what? - 10 minutes, maybe? I just don't lounge. It's boring. What do you do while you're lounging? I get the idea of letting your mind wander, but my mind does that while I'm engaged in something productive. I can't just sit there for very long before the urge to get up and do something strikes.

3. No doubt, as soon as I got the pajamas on and the tea made and was ready to lounge I'd realize I needed to go outside for something. Can you go outside in your pajamas? I don't know the answer to this. I grew up in the country - we could have run around in our birthday suits and no one would have seen us. But this is the city - a street goes by my house. A street other people drive on. Regularly. I don't know the rules on this. But, it seems kind of weird to be trotting around in your pajamas and robe outside. Plus, it's no doubt going to be frigid outside when this snow-filled fantasy takes place, and I'm not dressed for the weather in pajamas. So, now on top of everything else, I'm essentially a prisoner in my own home. Of course, I'm quite happy to stay in my home for days, but once I *have* to, it's a whole different thing.

4. I won't even bother to go into the whole deal about looking as cute as the models. Why distress myself?

But, still, those pajamas... they feel so nice... I can just imagine how wonderful it's going to be to be enveloped in that cuddly stuff. Just looking at them makes me feel cozy - imagine what the real thing would do.

Of course, what I should buy are some men's long underwear if I really want to stay warm. Why are men's long underwear meant to keep you warm and women's are meant to look cute? Can't we have cute and warm? Of course, if I spent this much time worrying about how cute my outerwear was I'd be much better dressed than I am on the average day.

Maybe the cute and warm thing goes to the heart of the pajama question. It's all part of the same package.

No doubt when the weather gets really cold I'll be sleeping in the same patched 15 year old sweatshirt I sleep in every year. That's how you keep pajamas cute for that special day when I want to lounge with a cup of tea.

Still Time

There's still time for you to participate in this survey. It will only be up a couple of more days and your opinion would be helpful if you're willing to share.

www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=h2Af0smJ8zdmYq8TaNVPLg_3d_3d

This is the survey I mentioned a few days ago about attitudes toward mental health. Anyone can participate in it and it's pretty quick - about 10 minutes. No personal information is gathered - they're not even asking for your name. What we learn will help shape our messages and determine our focus as we encourage people to be mentally well.

You can still participate. Feel free to forward the link to family, friends, coworkers, or others. Thanks.

St. John Kansas Tea

Sunday afternoon Julie, Susan, Jan and I went to tea in St. John, Kansas. It's about an hour from Hutchinson. Julie and I have been two previous years. It's a nice event.

This year it was held for the first time in their museum, for which the previous 10 teas they've done have been raising funds.

This year the theme was a pioneer one, with the tea pourers wearing prairie bonnets and such. I have to confess that when I first read about it, I couldn't quite imagine what that would be like, but it was lovely.

Each of the tables was covered with a quilt. I could not imagine anyone letting their quilts be used this way. I would never be willing to do that. Fortunately, at our table, there were no mishaps.

We had three young sisters sitting at our table who were just delightful. They were all dressed in costumes and while I was taking pictures of the entertainment I happened to capture this photo by accident. I love it. The young lady looks so happy.



They were beautifully mannered young ladies and a delight to be with today.

Of course, I was tickled to get to see Susan. I miss her living in Hutchinson, but she has settled into life in Valley Falls quite nicely it seems.



There were displays in the museum of everything from clothes and hats to toys, and some extra displays around town to see.

My one complaint about St. John's tea is that it's a buffet and I don't like that when I'm going to tea. It's far easier, of course, but it just doesn't feel right to get up from the table and take my plate to the serving tables and serve myself. Others do it that way, too, for the ease. And they're very successful - they sell out three different seatings every year on this one day - and I always want to go, so it's not enough to keep me away.

I was more than a little sugar logged - as I often seem to be when leaving tea. When I started doing teas as a fundraiser for the MHA I realized why tea is always heavy on the sweets and short on the savories - the savories are much more work.

It's far easier to make more sweets, so that's why you get tons of them wherever you go to tea - from the Empress in Canada (the place to have tea), to the average tea room anywhere, to the fundraiser teas. I am proud to say that when I do tea I make an effort to have enough savories and sandwiches compared to the sweets. The tea I do is the only one where I think there's the right proportion of sweets to savories.

But, I expect that wherever I go to tea. And this was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The entertainment today was Barry Ward, who was fabulous. He and Tony McGee performed some original songs and they were really wonderful. I was sorry we didn't have more time to hear more from them.



That's Barry on the right.



I am always impressed with people who write their own music. It's not as easy as it seems. Long, long ago - in what seems like it was another life - I wrote songs and sang them with friends in front of people none of us knew. Trust me, it's a terrifying proposition.

I spoke with Barry briefly afterwards and discovered he has recorded some music with Jim of the Prairie Wranglers and had just met Martha a few days ago. You may remember Jim and Martha's wedding this summer. He had also met Andrea at Winfield. It really is a small world.
After the tea, we went to see the antique toy display at the bank about a half block away.  I absolutely loved these little cookie cutters. I have a couple of these little pans, but I've never seen the cookie cookers. I covet them. I know that's not flattering, but it's true.


Another favorite were these paper horses cut out by a mother to amuse her children. The tag says "Animals made by Anna Minnis' mother for her children to play with. Note pattern and carbon paper."



There were some really interesting antique toys, and this lady demonstrating one of them. There was a ball on a string on the bottom - you bounced it and the chickens appeared to be pecking at their food.



I think some of these toys belonged to her. What really struck me was that kids today wouldn't get this toy on many levels - not the least of which is that most people wouldn't know how chickens peck at their food. It's sad, but true.

I was amazed at this toy cast iron stove and all the little parts that were still on top of it all these years later.



They had many cool things...





There was another collection displayed at the library - old fashioned irons. They were incredibly heavy. Some had numbers on them that indicated the weight of them - one was 18 pounds and belonged to the owner's mother. I don't like to iron with today's irons, so I know I wouldn't have wanted to use one of those things. Our foremothers had great upper body strength is all I can say.

Of course, you know I couldn't go to any tea without sharing photos of the table settings with you. I loved, loved, loved the quilts.

And, a bonus in the day - blog reader Deb Thomas, who I first met in Hillsboro, came over and chatted with me today and even brought me a Christmas ornament. I'm working on the tree so I'll soon be able to press that into service. It was fun to chat with her again. I also ran into some ladies from Pratt who've been to the MHA tea and also a couple that I've seen at many teas in the area. It was a fun day.

Caramel Corn

I made some caramel corn tonight. I'm just guessing it's not something that anyone with any medical training has ever suggested someone consume. But, given the time of year, caramel corn just seemed like the perfect thing to munch on tonight.

Of course, caramel corn isn't something I keep lying around the house. So, I whipped up my own.

I don't recall ever having made caramel corn before - don't ever remember thinking it would be something I wanted to eat before. But, it was easy enough to do.

I eat a lot of popcorn - not the microwave kind, but the normal kind. So, I popped a bowl of corn and meanwhile made some caramel sauce. I just poured mine over and stirred the corn a bit. I didn't coat it too thoroughly, but of course you can make as much as you'd like on yours.

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white syrup

Mix and cook on top of stove. Let boil for one minute. It will look just like melted caramels. You just pour it over the popped corn and mix it up. If you're doing very much corn, it would be beneficial to do it in layers, instead of only pouring the sauce on top of a large pile of corn and expecting to be able to mix it well. I didn't worry too much about mixing mine completely.

All in all, it was a fine experiment. I have a bit of a sugar headache - how could that be with a concoction that is two-thirds syrup and sugar with the remaining third being butter?

Obviously, you can make this in any quantity you want - just use equal parts of the three ingredients. I used 1/2 cup since that's a stick of butter. Plus, I wanted to save some and see how it works later. I'm guessing just warming it up again will make it pourable the second time. We'll see.

Needless to say, I didn't consume the entire recipe. I like sugar, but that's over the top. 

Caramel corn seemed the perfect thing to have on a fall day. I guess people don't make popcorn balls for Halloween treats anymore. Pity.