Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2017 i Country

The Song of Summer WITHOUT A DOUBT, a screen door slamming is the anthem of summer. It reminds me of my childhood in Wisconsin, when relatives played cards on our white front porch, set between two stately elms. We kids raced in and out as the screen door, with its old-fashioned fretwork, slammed behind us. Bursts of laughter and the shuffling of cards were tempered only by my dad’s stern admonishment, “Don’t let the screen door slam!” If I close my eyes, I can still hear it. Like the front door, our back screen door had a lot of character. Unpretentious. Transparent. Inviting. Painted a Granny Smith apple green, its rickety, mesh-covered wooden frame hung slightly slanted. The rusty hinges creaked when the door opened. Back in those days, most…

“While visions of gardens and butterflies danced in my head, I happily glossed over the fact that I wasn’t exactly a country girl.” -LAURA STEWART HOLDER Growing up in 1980s suburban America, I loved listening to my grandparents’ stories about life in the country. Their tales of a dozen siblings living in a South Carolina farmhouse, reading by candlelight, gathering eggs and wearing feed sack dresses sounded fun! Fast-forward a couple of decades, and part of me still clung to those sweet nostalgic memories. My husband, Brad, who grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee, added fuel to my imaginative fire. To hear him tell it, you’d think he was Davy Crockett. While he might have slightly exaggerated those tales of fording streams and exploring the woods, there…

Known for its wild wonders, Hocking Hills in southeastern Ohio is the most-visited state park in the Buckeye State. The reasons for its huge popularity became immediately evident when we visited the area last spring. Named after the Hocking River, the park is a geological wonderland. Over the decades, weathering and erosion carved magnificent rock outcrops, deep gorges, soaring cliffs and huge, recessed caves into this area’s Black Hand Sandstone. Add to this the lush forest, splashing waterfalls and a plethora of flora and fauna, and it’s easy to understand why this park is such a gem. Ash Cave, Old Man’s Cave, Cedar Falls, Conkle’s Hollow, Rock House and Cantwell Cliffs are the six separate sections that make up this 2,356-acre park. Each offers its own experiences. Nine hiking trails,…

FRESH AIR Grab a camera and turn on the creativity. We invite Country readers like you to tell us how you embrace the changing seasons. Please send us your heartwarming words and beautiful images of nature, including animals and folks of all ages enjoying rural life. MAKE US LAUGH Country life produces more than its fair share of sidesplitting moments. Here at Country and Country Extra, we love nothing more than a laugh. Share silly stories and jokes, and send us your pictures of amusing antics and quirky sights from around America. CHURCHES The bells ring faithfully from country churches across this land. We know that churches are the heart and soul of our communities. Be a voice for your congregation by sharing its good deeds with us. Send photos,…

As someone who has loved gardening for many years, it came naturally to me to start teaching my nieces and nephews and their kids about the benefits of growing their own food. I have had a lot of fun introducing them to the variety of delicious treats available from God’s outdoor supermarket. It’s a long and hungry three-hour drive for them to visit our home here in southeastern Ohio. When they finally rumble up the dirt road, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The kids pile out of the vans and head for the raised bed gardens and berry patch, hollering, “Aunt Kay, what can I eat?” Well, that sort of depends. If it’s in season, they can pick from alpine strawberries, snap peas, radishes, lettuce, beans, kohlrabi, tomatoes, peppers,…

My mother went canning crazy every year. One especially fruitful season back when I was in high school, Mom told me, “The strawberries are ripe at the U-pick, and I expect every one of us to pick our share.” I had other plans, though. I’d vowed to find a way out—I had sent in my entry for a local tennis tournament that would conflict with Mom’s berry madness. While my mother, aunt and sister scurried about collecting containers, I explained I wouldn’t be joining them because of my tennis match. I did my best to act disappointed and promised to lend a hand next season. My match was grueling. The day was a scorcher, and play did not finish until late evening. Still, I’d won and was scheduled to play…

There’s an incredible spot hidden in the mountains of Colorado. It’s a place full of adventure where kids of all ages can literally play in Mother Nature’s sandbox. Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, in south-central Colorado, is home to some of the tallest sand dunes in North America. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop for the dunes, which are the centerpiece of a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, conifer and aspen forests. The tallest dune, the Star Dune, is a mere 750 feet high. What a sand pile! It’s about a 2.5-mile hike around the entire dune field, and there’s no specific trail to follow. Still, I saw people walk, dig, create shapes and slide. Sandboarding and sledding down the dunes are favorite pastimes in…

On the first morning of my journey, I take state Route 12 east from the Utah town of Escalante. The road soon enters the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, at 1.9 million acres the largest national monument in the United States. About the size of the state of Delaware, it’s neighbored by Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks as well as state parks and other recreation areas. The Grand Staircase gets its name from a series of plateaus that descend from Bryce Canyon. At first, the dry terrain around me is flat and dotted with hardscrabble juniper trees. That changes abruptly when I crest the rim of the Escalante River Canyon. Red-and-white sandstone cliffs and bluffs fall away from the roadside in great swooping curves. Millions of years ago, ancient…

Just like any self-respecting farm girl, I have made many pies. Some have been overly sweet; some have been tart. A couple only looked good when smothered in ice cream. Local woman Patsy Orns’ pies looked as good as they tasted. So when I heard that she was giving classes, I said, “Sign me up!” Patsy got the baking bug early in her marriage to Frank Orns. She knew she could make a better pie than those served at restaurants. “We went over to Traverse City and tried a red raspberry pie, and it turned out to be mostly gel with hardly any fruit,” she says. I chose apple pie for my class. After we peeled and sliced, we had a bowl full of apples that I just knew would…

PHOTO TIP Get a warm glow like the one in Rachel’s photo by taking your pictures just after sunrise or minutes before sunset.…

JUNE 3 NATIONAL TRAILS DAY Find an adventure in nature by hitting the trails or volunteering to repair one. More info at nationaltrailsday.americanhiking.org. “Yippee! Summer is coming… and I can’t wait much longer. My dream is to sleep with the windows open and listen to the birds.” Bonnie Hawkins Elkhorn, Wisconsin June 14 th  Stand and salute Old Glory on National Flag Day. 21 JUNE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER JULY 22 Beginning of National Moth Week! Leave the porch light on to attract these beautiful creatures. nationalmothweek.org 4 th of JULY “My husband is a retired marine, so July 4 is pretty important to us. We tend to go all out with fireworks and sparklers.” Kelly Thompson Shoemaker Stafford, Virginia JULY 17 Look to the sky for the…

As another visitor and I gazed on vast fields of purple and blue camas lilies in bloom, I smiled: Well, that should make for some good photographs. While south-central Idaho’s Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh Wildlife Management Area has a long name, it’s also long on beauty. In a year with much precipitation, these grassy swamps transform into acres of color. The intensity of the lily bloom depends on the level of moisture from snowmelt off of the nearby mountains. Camas Creek fills with the runoff, then overflows its banks and floods the landscape with standing water between April and June. Typically the flowers peak around mid-June. From a distance, the rippling fields of flowers have been mistaken for lakes. Explorer Meriwether Lewis made this error, later writing that what he…

Located just a hop, skip and a jump from our home in the forests of north-central Massachusetts, the Birch Hill Wildlife Management Area, including Lake Dennison and Otter River State Forest, is a perfect destination when we get the urge to view a spectacular sunrise outdoors but don’t want to drive for hours before dawn. This recreation area consists of state and federal land and encompasses more than 8,000 acres of public land and water. It was created in the 1940s, primarily for water storage behind the Birch Hill Dam on the Millers River, after destructive floods devastated many downstream towns. More than 4,000 acres of reservoir land can hold up to 16.3 billion gallons of flood water. This practical solution to prevent future flooding opened up a delightful park-like…

The road into town stretched along the hillside, with the land to the right sweeping downward. The blue-green Virginia mountains rose in the distance. Wytheville sat in the bottom of this giant bowl like a miniature village fashioned into a snow scene under a Christmas tree, neatly arranged with houses in symmetrical design. An occasional church spire towered above. That was my first memory of going to the home of Nora Price Wainwright, my grandmother. I divided my world into two parts, being at Grandmother’s or being somewhere else. Her house stood with others of the same kind along the south side of East Main. The houses crowded together like tall sentinels. Grandmother walked to nearby shops when necessary, but mostly life came to her. Local tradespeople knocked on her…

1. Share photos and stories with us using the online form at country-magazine.com/submit. 2. Note which department you are submitting for, and whether the material has been published before. However, your item may be selected to run in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. 3. We do not return submitted materials. Although we are unable to acknowledge receipt of a submission, we will let you know if it is published. 4. We accept high-resolution digital images. Digital images should be about 4x6 inches at a minimum resolution of 300 dots per inch, or about 1200x1800 pixels. Photos must be in focus and of good quality. Please only send submissions through our online form. 5. If we print your submission in the magazine, we will send you a complimentary copy…