Innehållsförteckning för July 2019 från Country Extra

Hiking is one of the best ways to see the countryside. From an evening amble around the cow pasture to a three-day backpacking trip into the mountains, walking grounds me. Time spent in nature reminds me of simple joys and healthy living. The scenes our eyes absorb feed our souls. There is nothing like appreciating the glory of God’s creation. Exploring improves our lives, bonds us with our adventure partners, and helps us to focus on the bigger picture—the world around us. My husband, Cody, took this photo of me in the Bighorn Mountain range near Sheridan, Wyoming. It was July 2016, during our annual anniversary backpacking trip. We celebrate every year by venturing to new mountain ranges together.…

When I was a child, I looked forward to going to my cousin’s church picnic every summer. We were all excited about the day and always hoped for nice weather. We ate delicious foods like hot dogs and hamburgers, the usual salads (macaroni, potato and lettuce) and chips (which every child loves). And we played a lot of fun games, including a water balloon toss (this one I didn’t mind on a hot day), egg toss (my least favorite as it was too messy) and two-legged potato sack race (I wasn’t too good at that). My favorite part was when the adults tossed coins into hay scattered on the ground and we kids searched for the money. What young child wouldn’t like the chance to find some change to take…

In the northeast corner of the state, where it is still very much the country, New Jersey has many farms and lakes. My beloved granddaughter Kristen Wineinger took this inspiring photo of a patriotic barn in Vernon, New Jersey, just as the sun was starting to set. There are always lots of American flags flying in this neighborhood, and even more for the Fourth of July. This farm is just a few miles from my home in Highland Lakes. There are five lakes in town, and my home is on the largest one. My family likes to gather at the house for the Fourth and other occasions. We enjoy swimming, boating and fishing in summer, and winter activities in the colder weather. I’m the second generation to live here. The…

WASHINGTON ISLAND LAKE MICHIGAN The first island I visited not by boat, but by motorcycle. My husband, Mark, and I traveled to Washington Island in Door County for our first anniversary, crossing 5 miles of Death’s Door (the dangerous waters between the peninsula and the island, where Green Bay opens out into Lake Michigan), via ferry. It was September, and the mornings and evenings were crisp, the days full of warm sunshine. The largest of Door County’s 35 islands, Washington Island keeps a year-round community and has lots of charm. You can climb to the top of Mountain Tower for a panoramic view of Lake Michigan, hike the stony shoreline of Schoolhouse Beach, and wander through the exquisitely scented garden of 14,000 lavender plants at Fragrant Isle, one of the…

Years before I was born, my family operated a 150-acre tomato and vegetable farm in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. My grandfather, William, and father, Bill, grew tomatoes that were used by the Campbell Soup Co. They would hitch up a team of horses twice a week and pull a wagon of fresh produce 20 miles into Philadelphia, leaving at 3 a.m. and returning well after supper. The families along their route also were thankful for the opportunity to get farm-grown vegetables. Dad had four sisters but he carried the farming load, plowing 100 acres with horses. He wanted a tractor more than anything, and Grandfather finally relented. But the problem was, even though Dad got that shiny new tractor, my grandfather wouldn’t buy gas for it. After all, hay for the horses…

The first time my daughter, Julia, raised a pig to show at the fair, it was really difficult. She trained, fed and loved that pig for about five months. My husband and I also became attached to the animal, which was auctioned off to the highest bidder on the last day of the fair. When all was said and done, we thought, Nope, we aren’t doing this again. It was too hard on us and on Julia. After cleaning up the pen and putting away the supplies, we assumed that this experience was one for the books—over and done. But then about eight weeks later, Julia started talking about getting another piglet. We asked her if she was sure she really wanted to go through the whole process again. She…

EVERY SUMMER we take our four children on a road trip. One year our itinerary included Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville, New Jersey. On the drive to the park, I told the kids about that Christmas Eve during the American Revolutionary War when George Washington and his 2,400 troops crossed the ice-cold Delaware River in order to ambush the Hessians at Trenton. We parked the van and the six of us piled out into the afternoon heat and hiked down the path and onto the grass by the river. Two of our boys picked up sticks along the way and, of course, pretended to duel with swords. On his phone, my husband found a photo of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. I could see a…

1 AGAPE HOUSE BERRY FARM Mustang, Oklahoma agapehouseberryfarm.com Brandy Glover enjoyed a fun time at Agape House with her son, Theodore. “We got a bucket and explored the strawberry patch. You can also pick blackberries here. The vines are thornless and mounted up on a trellis for easy access,” Brandy says. “It’s an adventure for kids and adults, with the added treat of feasting on your berries at a picnic table in the open-air barn.” John and Pati Colston started Agape House in 2016 with 1 acre and quickly fell in love with farming. They hope to harvest blueberries next summer. 2 TENTH STREET ORCHARD Sterling, Kansas tenthstreetorchard.com Jonathan and Melissa Conard planted 2,000 strawberries in 2015 and started a U-pick farm two years…

Our farm sits on the highest elevation point of Wyoming County in western New York. From a distance, you can distinguish it by the silo and even taller pine tree. Up here, we enjoy the sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, a night sky full of stars, and once even the aurora borealis! On a clear day we can see to the farthest hill on the horizon about 30 miles away, with farm country, a few houses, and woods in between. Some mornings we can see a fog bank coming off the Genesee River in the Letchworth State Park gorge. While I was growing up, this was a true family farm. My dad milked about 35 Holstein cows, and we had heifers, calves, chickens, pigs (once!), horses (for a while), cats, bunnies, one…

POTLUCK ANTIPASTO PASTA SALAD Bernadette Nelson Arcadia, California TAKES: 30 min. MAKES: 18 servings 1 pkg. (16 oz.) penne pasta 1 can (15 oz.) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained 1 medium sweet red or green pepper, julienned 2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise and sliced 1 bunch green onions, sliced 4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, julienned 4 oz. part-skim mozzarella cheese, julienned 4 oz. brick or provolone cheese, julienned 4 oz. thinly sliced hard salami, julienned 3 oz. thinly sliced pepperoni 1 can (2¼ oz.) sliced ripe olives, drained 1 to 2 Tbsp. minced chives BASIL VINAIGRETTE 2/3 cup canola oil 1/3 cup red wine vinegar 3 Tbsp. minced fresh basil or 1 Tbsp. dried basil 1 garlic clove, minced ¼ tsp. salt 1. Cook pasta according to the…

My 92-year-old grandmother, Doris Wendte, uses her golf cart to travel around the farm. Each day she goes out to feed the fish at the pond, and you’ll usually see our farm dog, Chief, riding along with her. She also enjoys taking her great-grandsons, Aiden and Lane, for rides. In this photo Chief is telling them all he’s the boss, that’s his spot, and no one can have it! Four generations are currently living and working on our place, Wendte Farms Ltd., in Altamont, Illinois. We grow corn, wheat and soybeans in the south-central part of the state. Doris still does all of our accounting and payroll. She’s pretty incredible.…

MY HUSBAND, RICHARD, WAS A TRUE PATRIOT. We were married 49 years, and when he passed away six years ago, I finished a tiny house that he had begun to build. I call it the Americana House (above) to honor Richard’s love for this country. Our neighbor, Pete, helped me finish it. We didn’t have any plans to follow, but as ideas occurred to me, Pete made them happen. He added a picket fence, vaulted ceiling, porch and cupola. Painting the fence white inspired me to do the trim and decor in red, white and blue. This tiny house has brought me a lot of joy. I like to relax on the front porch when I’m working in my flower beds, and friends and neighbors often come over to visit.…

Like proverbs, they can be true or not at all, and if they roll off the tongue favorably, they might just stick around for a while. Add a rhyme element and the chance of a saying surviving the ages goes up. And despite the sleuthing efforts of many, the source can be a mystery. They’re adages. We rely on them as constants in our complex world. We crave their simplicity. Sometimes adages are comforting to say even if they’ve lost meaning over time. Take the often quoted “a penny saved is a penny earned,” from Poor Richard’s Almanack by Benjamin Franklin. Sure, it’s true, and likely still used as relevant parenting advice. But then why are we so anxious to toss our pennies into the little container next to the…

SPECTACULAR BEAUTY Mountain laurel blooms on McAfee Knob along the Appalachian Trail near Roanoke, Virginia. MOUNTAIN MEADOW Wild ponies graze at Wilburn Ridge in southwestern Virginia. Hikers can ascend nearby Mount Rogers, the state’s highest peak. MYSTERY PHOTO Recognize this place? A wooded canopy and dense fog shroud a hiking trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Take a guess and turn to page 64 to see if you’re correct. NATURE’S ARTISTRY A glorious sunset matches the vibrant rhododendrons at Craggy Gardens near Asheville, North Carolina.…

The Great Depression couldn’t dampen the love of my parents, John and Jenny Wirfel, who were married on Oct. 3, 1933. But their move to a farm in the Allegheny Mountains in Cambria Township, Pennsylvania, was a challenge, to say the least. The place had been vacated for years and was very run-down. Dad said he could count the stars while milking the cow. Mum chimed in that the house looked worse than the barn. Back in the 1920s and ’30s, when relatives got together to work (or play), they called the occasion a frolic. Mum and Dad worked to repair the barn, house and fences during a frolic with their brothers’ and sisters’ aid. The men did the labor while the women brought order to the house and provided…

The morning at our farm was a hectic one, as usual. When breakfast was over, I sped through my first chore—washing the dishes. Then I did a little bit of prep work for dinner. I got a casserole and a package of pork chops from the freezer before hurriedly doing a quick pickup of the living room. After tidying the bedroom, I concentrated on getting ready to attend a church meeting. I always try to look my best when going into town. Then the back door slammed, interrupting my “me” time. My farmer husband tramped into the house, hands greasy from working on the tractor. “Bets, while you’re in town, don’t forget to pick up the parts I need,” he reminded me. “Please,” he added as an afterthought. “Oh, of…

“I felt blessed to see that this former student was now a doctor.” The Haitian doctor said to us, “If it were not for your support, I would not be where I am today.” Tears streamed down my face as this man spoke. These were tears of a heart deeply moved to see the impact small acts of faith could have when compounded over three decades. Back in 2017, I flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with a group from West Point Christian Church to visit the Damou Christian Mission. On the drive from the airport, I noticed that things I had taken for granted back home (traffic lights, reliable electricity) were absent in Haiti. An earthquake in 2010 destroyed what little infrastructure the country had. West Point Christian Church has supported…