Retro? Nah...

These are pictures from 6 or 7 years ago.

I was getting a spot ready for planting garlic in September when I dug these little critters straight up out of the ground.

Great Plains Narrow Mouthed Frog (Gastrophryne olivacea)

This is a young narrow mouthed frog, and I say "young" because it was maybe 1/2 an inch in length. I've seen a few that were bigger, but these guys are usually on the small side. It amazed me that it came out of the dry, dusty soil looking like it had swam out of the water! They're not uncommon in Kansas, yet few people see them, mainly because of their nocturnal habits. Oddly, most of the sites on the internets call this animal a toad, but I'll stick by my trusty Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians.

Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus)

This little guy was a hatchling, being only 4-5 inches in length. This one is a result of implantation of a few adults into my back yard many years ago.

Lovely plumage!

Drill here, drill NOW!

Did you feel the earthquake last night?

I didn't, but Derek did. He hit me on messenger shortly after it happened asking if I'd felt it. I said no, and then proceeded to look online to see if there was any updated information.

Here's what I found. (PDF)

Though no definite conclusions were reached, the USGS clearly believes that fracking is responsible. With the addition of several, even more powerful earthquakes in the same area in recent days, it is clear to me that hydraulic fracking in the area is what caused them.

The quake last night was a 5.6, the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma.

Damned Kansas Liberals!

Louis Vieux Elm Vandalized (For the Last Time)

It was once the largest American Elm in the world, and now thanks to vandals the remains of this giant are no more.

Jeremy told me about this magnificent tree he'd discovered while attending KSU in the early 00's. It was more than 300 years old and stood 100 feet tall with a canopy that spread nearly that far. Some years ago it was damaged by lightning, then in 1998 a couple of morons blew it up with a pipe bomb which eventually caused its death. Thankfully they were caught, and sadly their "punishment" was a few hours of community service. Tuesday it was discovered that over the weekend (most likely) someone had torched the stump, leaving only a pile of ashes beneath the arbor which was recently built to protect it.



I've heard someone at KSU had saved some of the branches of the tree after it was bombed, which were then cloned, ensuring this gargantuan tree would live on in a much smaller version(s). What would be fantastic is if someone at the University would plant one or more of the clones in this vicinity.

Does anyone out there have a good picture of the actual tree? I found a few on the internets but they are tiny as well as blurry. If you do, and could send them to us at stevelafrench at gmail dot com it would be greatly appreciated!

Mammoth discovery in Scott County

Read about it here

I almost puked on myself when the bimbo on the local news said this mammoth was killed by the "Oldest human beings known to exist", which is exactly the kind of moronic drivel most of us can expect from idiotic newsreaders. This huge beast died around 10,000 - 12,000 years ago, probably killed by Clovis people.

Many mammoth remains have been discovered in Kansas, most of them in the form of petrified molars or tusks discovered in rivers. Potential kill sites such as this one are much more rare.

When growing up, the grandfather of the fundamentalist family next door found a molar while excavating gravel on the Walnut river outside of Ark City. They believed it was a remnant of the "monsters" wiped out by Noah's flood. I'm sure the newsreader would agree!

Ackerman Island

Ackerman Island, early 1900's

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away...

Well, actually it all started in the 1870's in Wichita Kansas.

Floodwaters from Colorado formed this island in the Arkansas river in downtown Wichita, which ran from 2nd street to Douglas Avenue. Over the next few years, due in part to increased use of water in Colorado which reduced the normally robust streamflow to a mere trickle, the island became a semi-permanent part of the river. In 1890 Joseph Ackerman purchased and named the island. He built a business which provided sand, and in 1905 he sold the entire island. Shortly after, an amusement park named Wonderland was built there, which was home to the famous figure 8 "Great Thriller" roller coaster, at the time the longest in the country. Shortly after a baseball stadium was built, followed by 3 theatres, a bandstand and a dancehall.

There are uncomfirmed rumors that a tunnel was built connecting the Broadview hotel with the island in order to provide an escape route for imbibers during prohibition.

The "Great Thriller" at Wonderland Park, early 1900's

In the 1930's, due partly as an effort to relieve flooding downtown, the island was removed. Yes, removed! The PWP hired men for a few dollars a day to move the island by hand with shovels and wheelbarrows. The soil and sand was moved to the west bank, incorporating it with the western part of the island, which is part of Wichita's West Bank today.

Can you imagine if the island were still there? Downtown Wichita would be a much more interesting place, and if I had my way, the "Old Town" area would now be located on Ackerman Island.

Lynx in Kansas?

Seems to be true!

When I was growing up I used to dream of seeing Wolves or Mountain Lions in Kansas, even though I knew they'd been exterminated many years ago. Even animals like deer and turkey were rare until I was well into my 20's. Some years ago I worked with a woman in Augusta who told me the last bear in Kansas was killed on her property east of Augusta in 1959, which also happens to have been the year I was born. Though there still aren't bears around, there are plenty of deer and turkey, and several reliable people have told me they've seen Mountain Lions here... now I've never actually seen one, though I've seen tracks and actually heard one screaming one night very near to me when I was fishing on the Walnut river. Talk about being petrified! I was so scared walking home as I knew I'd be a big cat's dinner before I made it to the house!

I'm still hoping Wolves are reintroduced to the state someday, though with all the ranchers around that's probably a pipe dream.

Holy Drought

So I thought we were going to catch sum biggun's this summer while camping along Kansas' many scenic rivers and lakes?!?! Nope. Well to be fair, I have gone out some but not half as much as last summer. This drought/ heat wave totally sucks. I've only caught about 20 fish this year (thankfully I went to a secret spot last week and caught 6 of those then)! Also, for once, I can honestly say I don't want to camp because it's too hot! I normally never "wimp out".

I thought I would look up just how bad the drought is around here. Right now Sedgwick County's western half is rated "Severe" and the eastern half is rated "Extreme". The only rating higher than that is "Exceptional". This is followed by DEATH haha!

Kansas Drought Monitor

US Drought Monitor

Hopefully it will cool down soon. The only thing that seems to be loving this heat is my sunflowers. The tallest one is about 13'6"!!!

Son, that's a big fish! (part 2)

My brother sent me this info a few days ago and I thought I'd share it with all you fishermen and women out there:

80 lb Flathead at El Dorado Lake

I would think the biologists would have had more sense than to pull a flattie that size out of the water and pose for multiple pictures with it, as it had to have been extremely stressful for such a huge fish.

It's a big flattie and I've seen my share of them, though maybe not quite that big! One morning at Chase county Jer and I saw a huge flathead lazily swimming in a few feet of water in the small creek that feeds into the lake. I had my pole in my hands, (my fishing pole, heh) and looked at the fish, looked at my rod and the 8 pound test on the crappy plastic WalMart Diawa reel and quickly decided it would be futile to even attempt to cast out to it.

An interesting tale about the world record flathead mentioned in the article. A relative who knows the guy who was fishing with the man who supposedly caught it at Elk City lake told him the true story was different than the one told to the public. He claims the flathead had grabbed a 10 or 12 pound carp that had became lodged in the fish's mouth which prevented it from breathing. In other words... the big fish was dying. The man saw the fish, dropped his rod, grabbed the fish and dragged it up into the rocks where he then stuck the crappie jig in its mouth and contacted a warden. This makes more sense to me than the tall tale told to the world, that he was crappie fishing with a Zebco 33 reel with 12 lb test, hooked this behemoth and fought it for 15 minutes before finally getting it on the bank. Pfffttt. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

So anyway, how did I get so off topic?

Bottom line, big flats are everywhere in the eastern half of the state, not just at El Dorado lake. They are eating machines and grow quickly into huge fish, gaining as much as 10 lbs in a season. If it'd ever cool off and rain we might even catch a few!

Elk City Lake

I've always heard about the awesome trails at Elk City Lake in SE Kansas. The Kansas Wildlife and Parks website lists 8 trails plus the Corps of Engineers manages land featuring camping and trails so we had to decide where to go. We settled on the Elk River Trail in the Corps area. In addition to being very scenic you can backpack on this trail. We wanted to camp along the shore of the lake in a secluded area. We set out around 3 pm and began hiking. Right away this trail becomes very strenuous. It was around 100 degrees so I was glad we brought a lot of water but feared we didn't bring enough. There are cave like rock formations, crevasses and steep bluffs overlooking the lake. After about 3 miles we stopped and found an awesome spot to camp under a willow tree next to the lake. It was very cool! Growing next to the willow was the largest Button Bush I've ever seen COVERED with various species of butterflies. I can't wait to go back there but would like it to cool down a little first. Taking the kayaks would also be a great way to reach these remote spots where privacy is at it's best!!

Here is a map showing some of the various trail heads.

Here are some photos I took along the way:


The sunrise was amazing


A Kansas jungle


The trail is rugged and interesting

No Morels (this year)

I spent countless hours traipsing through brush and woods looking for morels this April with no luck whatsoever. It's been incredibly dry here since last July so I'm sure that had something to do with it. We were working in Rose Hill the first week of May when I happened to look down at the ground and discovered a half-free morel growing out of a neatly trimmed lawn. At first I thought it was a ceramic doo-dad, that is until I reached down and picked it. It was small, it was half rotten, but it was a morel.

The very next day my brother called and said he'd discovered one growing in his lawn, and in a very similar condition to the one I'd discovered. A few days after that I found a picture on Google earth of morels growing near Cheney lake.

I'll be looking again next year, and hopefully we'll have a little rain so the picking will be better. Jer's uncle told us he'd picked bags full near his house in years past, so that gives me some hope. :)

Update

Well, I figured I should write and let our readers know what's been happening lately...

Water levels have been LOW! But... I don't feel like complaining right now, so onto the good news...

We have begun redesigning Konza Life to hopefully improve it quite drastically. I don't fancy myself a web designer, so these things take a lot of time for me to get up to my standards. As long as we've had this site running via Blogspot, there have been things I'd like to improve on, but limited to the tools Google provides.

I have decided to start building a custom theme using Wordpress, which will allow for a far greater range of design possibilities. My first attempts have lead to roadblocks(of course), but haven't discouraged me from continuing my quest to provide an A+ Kansas outdoors blog for interested readers.

Some of the things I am working on are...

-Dropdown menus for things such as Streamflow Conditions, Rivers, Lakes and other places

-Individual pages for places we visit (which will include things such as maps, photos and info)

-A separate blog area for us to rant and rave

-Better organization for finding the info you want to read (won't be as much sifting through posts)

-Ad free and non-profit (the way a Kansas outdoor blog should be)

If all goes as planned, I think everyone will appreciate the new design a lot. Part of our mission for creating a site such as this, is making a site we would like to visit ourselves for information.

I like the idea of being able to come to this site and have everything I want to see visible and not-intimidating. Wonder what that Fall river access looks like? Just click Rivers/Fall River and you will be sent to a page with directions, map, photos and info.

That's what I have in mind... Now I just need to finish another website I have been working on, so I can crank this one out!

Please be patient and check this site often, we do have a couple authors besides me(nudge), so sometimes things just seem to pop up!

I'd like to thank everyone that enjoys the Kansas outdoors and takes care of our wonderful state.

Stay tuned! Cheers

Einstein's Brain

Einstein's brain


I'd heard many times in the past that Albert Einstein's brain was discovered in a beer cooler in Wichita sometime in the 70's... was thinking about it earlier today and decided to google it.

The story is partially true, though not quite as I had pictured it, as I'd imagined a shocked bartender plucking a brain filled gallon sized jar out of the bottom of a beer cooler! In fact, the true story is even more bizzare.

From the website of Stephen Levy, the journalist who is responsible for the re-discovery of the whereabouts of the brain:

I came to the conclusion that the brain, in sectioned form, was still in the possession of the pathologist who removed it from the Einstein head, Dr. Thomas Harvey. I tracked him down in Wichita, Kansas. At first he didn’t want to tell me anything, but after a while he finally admitted that he had the brain. After a longer while, he sheepishly told me it was IN THE VERY OFFICE WE WERE SITTING IN. He walked to a box labeled “Costa Cider” and pulled out two big Mason jars. In those were the remains of the brain that changed the world.



Dr. Thomas Harvey


Dr. Harvey assumed the brain would be studied, so after removing it from Einstein's body he preserved it and took it home with him. He sliced it into 240 sections and gave a few pieces to fellow scientists, but kept most of it for himself. It then remained in a cardboard box in his office for 22 years.

Even after the discovery in 1978, Dr Harvey maintained possession of the organ, keeping it in a tupperware container and stashing it on the car seat beside him when he moved or went on long trips. In 1998 he finally decided to give the brain to the man who held his former job as pathologist at Princeton Hospital.

You can read more details of this fascinating story here beginning on page 545:

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Retro Kansas: The Andover Tornado 20th Anniversary

It was Friday, April 26th and I'd just gotten home from work and flipped on the tv when I saw the weather radar and was horrified. Just to the west of me a monstrous storm was wreaking havoc on the small town of Andover Kansas. I grabbed my camera and my dog and jumped in the car in order to take a few pictures, though I had no idea where the tornado might actually be. I headed north and snapped a couple of shots as I was heading out of town.

I continued north and got much closer to the storm, and noticed most of the cattle in the fields were milling around and bawling. My normally calm dog began behaving strangely, becoming agitated and whining incessantly so I finally came to my senses, turned around and went back towards Kellogg. A few miles from Andover the police had the road blocked due to huge powerlines that had fallen across the highway, so I reluctantly decided to return home and watch the storm coverage on television. Over the next few hours I remained glued to the tube, watching footage of the incredible damage and horrible images of injured people and bodies lined up on the curb near Andover road.

I was scheduled to work the next day, so I had to travel nearly 30 miles in a round about fashion to get there. Most of the people I worked with weren't there, and I heard several disturbing rumors about some friends who lived in Andover. Several of us talked to our boss and managed to convince him to let us all go home.


I called my brother and sister and met up with them to survey the storm damage. Andover was still blocked from ordinary traffic, so we went northeast near Towanda and very soon discovered amazing damage produced by the devastating F5 tornado. These are some of the vehicles that people were driving when the tornado crossed I35. Incredibly, all the people were able to abandon their vehicles and were not injured.

This was once a semi cab.





This small truck was completely destroyed, yet amazingly there were several objects which remained in the bed, including a tire iron, several empty oil bottles, jumper cables, as well as the blanket seen in the photo.



Other devastated vehicles.









This was the most amazing thing I saw that day. This car had been hurled from I35 and struck this small tree, almost completely wrapping the car around it, leaving less than a 1 foot gap between the front and rear bumpers. Even more incredible, the tree was broken off at ground level and had been moved nearly a foot from where it had grown, and somehow it still managed to remain upright!






Thankfully, I learned in the next few days that my friends in Andover were safe, although they lost everything they had. They had managed to seek shelter seconds before the tornado hit, surviving unscathed with only the clothes on their backs.

Trout on the Ark

MORELS!

Morchella Esculenta

Well, this is the year I finally get around to looking for morels. I've planned on doing it forever and simply never got around to it, or started way too late. It's still a week or so until they start coming up, and after reading multitudes of mushroom sites and viewing a plethora of youtube videos, I think I'm finally ready!

My mother grew up near Coffeyville, and has often talked about finding them near a creek on her Aunt's land. I remember going there and looking for them with my family as a child, and then being distracted by an old bottle dump and chasing after skinks scampering through the leaves. I don't recall ever seeing one there, though I've seen them a few times since. Unfortunately, I had no idea exactly what they were so I didn't bother to pick them!

Unlike many other edible mushrooms, no one has yet figured out a way to raise them, so all the morels available are wild picked. I've always heard it's difficult to find them for sale, as well as knowing that even if you do find them, they can be ridiculously expensive. Out of curiosity, I looked on Craigslist a few days ago and there were three people taking orders for them, at a mere $30-$40 per pound! (I'll find my own, thank you!)

For all the information on hunting or cooking morels you might possibly need, check out this excellent site:

Morel Mushroom info

I'll post pictures of our finds when they're available. To anyone else out there looking for morels, good luck!

Rock City

Man, Rock City rocks! Haha. Anneke and I were returning home from a weekend trip in Nebraska when we stopped by Rock City for a break. It is located just southwest of Minneapolis, KS. The park features rolling prairie and about 200 massive Dakota sandstone boulders! It is a National Natural Landmark where you can see more of these boulders than anywhere else in the world! I have always wanted to go there but had never made it until now. We were the only ones there which made it very peaceful. It was really cold out so we only hiked around for about 20 minutes. Then I snapped a couple of photos and we took off...

The Faris Caves

In the mid 1880's, a Coloradan miner by the name of Charles Griffee purchased land adjacent to the Smoky Hill river and just west of the old Fort Harker in Ellsworth county. With trees being scarce along the open prairie during this time, pioneers had to be resourceful. A practice not uncommon was to use dugouts along rivers and bluffs for shelter and housing. Griffee, using his pickaxe and mining skills hollowed out 3 rooms(roughly 12' square with 10' arched ceilings) in his Dakota Sandstone bluffs as a living quarter. Offering cool air and fresh spring water, I'd guess this was pretty good living to a person settling on the prairie.

For reasons yet unknown, Charles Griffee sold his land to the Faris Brothers(Winfield and William) in 1893. Their brothers Henry and Irwin were already established along the Smoky Hill Trail with a hunting ranch on the Clear Creek crossing.

The caves have served as a home, smithy, refrigerator and schoolhouse...

Members of the Faris family in front of the caves

Need directions? Click Here


Hidden in dense vegetation and covered with inscriptions

Visiting the Faris Caves really opened my mind to a very fascinating history of Ellsworth county. Stories of gunslingers, murderers, gambling, prostitution, lawlessness and indian attacks are all things that made Ellsworth "The Wickedest Cattletown in Kansas"! If it strikes you fancy, check it out!

My Yak

At Curt's request...

Here's some photos of my first and only time out on my new kayak. These were taken on the Ark out front of my house in late Autumn. Now the river is completely frozen over so I can't go till Spring! I think I'm going to cry wa wa!

My yak is a Liquid Logic model Saluda. It's 12' long which I think will be a great length for Kansas' lakes and rivers. There is plenty of storage space and I've already fixed up a plastic fishing kit that will fit under the front deck rigging real nice...

My first post

Curt and Derek were nice enough to invite me to be an author on Konza Life. It's pretty fitting now that I'm back from California and we pretty much go on all the same outdoor adventures together. I take a lot of photos and will be posting some on here. I love fishing (esp. catfishing), camping, kayaking, backpacking, hiking and just being outside in general. Everyone who knows me knows that. People say, "Jer, how many fish have you caught in your life?" and I reply, "I dunno, maybe 25,000? Haha.

Jer's Yak

Jer got himself a hell of a buy on a very nice yak a few weeks ago... I'll try to talk him into posting about it soonest!!!

My Yak

Last March Derek called and told me Gander Mountain had a kayak on sale that I'd drooled over the summer before. We went to look at it and I saw the price was about $300 cheaper than it had been. I went home to think about it and see if I could somehow scrape up the $600 I'd need after a long winter of not working. We went back the next day to pick it up, only to find when we got to the register it was marked down to a dirt-cheap $450!



It's an Ocean Kayak Prowler 13 Angler edition. They call it an "Angler" because they added the two pole holders behind the seat on each side. Whoo hoo. If you're familiar with the Prowlers, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles like the newer ones. However, it's light years beyond the little 9 footer I've been using. It's great for lakes and it's a little slow turning in creeks and rivers which can be a pain in the ass... but there's so much storage space and even plenty of room for Trout. It takes on a little water through the scupper holes so I plugged them to keep my feet from standing in water and to keep my butt from getting wet. The seat is thin so I need to buy a pad to make longer trips more comfortable, and I plan to add extra pole holders in front of the cockpit as well as a few other accessories. I bought a cooler from Coleman called "The Stacker" that fits perfectly in the back and holds a case of refreshing beverages (beer) as well as perishable food items.

We've had it out as many times as we could this last year and it's been a pleasure to paddle. It'll float in 4 or 5 inches of water fully loaded which makes it ideal for shallow rivers like the Arkansas. BTW, Have I told you about our recent yak trip down the Ark? I need to post about that sooner than later!