B Magazine Fall 2016 by Zionsville Times Sentinel

MAGAZINE Enjoying life in Boone County

Are you ready? 7 Essentials To Prepare for Tailgating Season

Local Wellness Programs You Need to Discover

Modern & Pioneer living FALL 2016

B TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Passion for poultry

Story and Photos By Elizabeth Pearl

PHYLLIS HORNBACK MYERS used a stove similar to this 19th Century wood-burning one in her own home for years. When she gives tours at the Thorntown Heritage Museum she shows visitors how she would have baked bread, canned vegetables or warmed cups of tea.

Louise Bergmann shares her story

Bringing history to life

Also inside

Myers marries modern and pioneer living

B a Gourmet B Healthy Believe It or Not B There

Page 3 Page 6 Page 10 Page 13

Phyllis Hornback Myers feels as comfortable in a floral skirt and purple cardigan as she does in used Mennonite cotton dresses and bonnets. She can post videos to Facebook and husk corn by hand. Her apartment has electricity, but she knows how to work a wood-burning stove. These are not contradictions in character but an indication of Myersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ability to move between two worlds: the modern one we know and that of the 1800s. Continued on PAGE 7

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FALL 2016

B A GOURMET

Are you ready? Tailgating season is just around the corner

D Jake Thompson, the yourtailgateparty. ontheblacktop. com 2006 National Tailgater of the Year, is a lover of all things football and food, and makes his living away from the blacktop as a writer for The Lebanon Reporter.

o you smell that? Do you? It’s almost here. Breathe it in deeply; tailgate season is upon us. It’s that glorious time of year when at-home grill experts take their shows, and cooking chops, to the pavement, grass, or gravel of football stadium parking lots across the country. But before outdoor chefs can hit the road, it’s time to take inventory and prepare for the season. Truth be told, I started in mid-July pulling out all of my essential gear from the tailgate section of my garage, giving it a good clean and better organization. But it’s never too late. Yes, I have a dedicated section. Don’t judge. Preparation is most certainly the key to a successful tailgate, and I’m going to offer helpful advice to all of you aching to get back out there. I always start by thinking through the potential obstacles or hazards every time before deciding on a menu. Weather is always the biggest challenge. Will it rain? Will in be windy? How hot/cold will it be? Will there be snow or ice? Each of those questions needs to be answered before putting that first piece of equipment in the car or truck, as space is limited. Unless you have an RV, which I don’t – yet. The wife

says we “need” a pool. I disagree, but I digress. Weather dictates if I’ll need a pop up tent, with or without sidewalls. Also, whether or not I’ll bring by Coleman camp grill or if the heavy duty Camp Chef grill will be needed. Wind can play havoc with a grill, and correspondingly, grill temperatures. That will vary cooking times of any item, as will Continued on PAGE 9

Community Grants Available Who:

Boone County Community Foundation

Boy Scout Troop 350

What: Where: When: Why:

Witham Family YMCA

Schools, civic organizations, non-profit organizations, local units of government, businesses and clubs operating within Boone County

Grant funds up to $5,000 to be used in the 2017 calendar year

Grant applications are available online at www.boonecountysolidwaste.com under Community Outreach The deadline for grant application submission for the 2017 grant cycle is Friday, September 30 at Noon. Help conserve natural resources, decrease dependence on disposal, demonstrate sustainability & raise environmental awareness.

For questions or more details, please call the District at 765-483-0687

B A SMALL BUSINESS

Fowl play Passion for poultry leads to small business By Elizabeth Pearl Laura Karr and her husband Jim Gifford never intended to run a business from their Lebanon home. It started with a garden, and then progressed to bees, chickens and turkeys. By the time Karr started selling homemade feather goods, the couple, married 36 years, had already grown their small acreage into a farm that sold chicks, eggs and plant starters. When Karr and Gifford moved to Indiana from California, they knew they wanted a large property, Karr said. What they didn’t know they wanted was to run KG Acres Farm and Featherwerks, the business they established in 1999. “We didn’t envision being a business, but we knew we wanted to live off the land,” Karr said. Karr and Gifford met at Iowa State University, where she studied entomology and toxicology and Gifford studied agriculture. They moved

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B MAGAZINE

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LAURA KARR feeds some of her chickens as they roam through the front yard. briefly to California after finishing graduate school, and then to Indiana after both were hired at Dow AgroSciences. Karr said they knew from the start they wanted to live somewhere with plenty of space. They searched all around Indianapolis, but none of the properties were good enough until they settled on their 12-acre plot in Lebanon, where they’ve lived since 1992. “We always gardened. I loved the country and studied agriculture. It was in my blood,” she said. The business began when her husband was given a beekeeping kit for Christmas. Soon, they had more honey than they could use, and a friend suggested they sell it at a farmers’ market. When their garden began to produce more than they could eat, Karr started selling vegetables, too. Then the chickens laid too many eggs, and so Karr sold those as well, and eventually the demand for chicks grew and so she started breeding them for sale. “It was like a snowball going down a hill,” she said. When Karr became ill in 2008 and left her job, she decided to spend all of her time running the farm and a business. She now has booths at farmers’ markets in Zionsville and Indianapolis. Eventually, KG Acres grew to include about 80 birds – including turkeys, guineas, ducks, geese and five breeds of chicken. The chickens are used for breeding, eggs and meat, Karr said, but some she got because she just likes to look at them. One breed, the Polish chicken, has a leonine mane of black and tan feathers so thick its eyes aren’t visible. The birds stay together as a pack as they wander through the yard at KG Acres, calling for members of the group that lag behind. Another, the dark Cornish breed, has gleaming teal and black feathers and bright red wattles. Chickens are intelligent animals, Karr said. They get nervous around strangers and are protective of each other. Her oldest rooster, Stanley, a golden mixed-breed chicken, is 9 years old. He was orphaned when his family was killed by a predator, and Karr and Gifford raised him from a chick. When he was a baby, he enjoyed taking sips of bourbon and beer. Karr breeds chickens and ducks, keeping up to 100 babies at a time in her garage, where they live in straw-bedded kiddie pools warmed with heating lamps. She’ll keep about half of them for herself, and sell the other half to people looking to raise fowl on their own. By appointment, she and her husband will teach new owners how to care for or butcher the animals. Owning chickens and collecting their eggs has become a trend in Indianapolis in recent years, but Karr warns that many people don’t consider what they’ll do with their chicken after two or three years, when it stops laying eggs. She and Gifford don’t enjoy butchering, but they do it for themselves and for people who need help. Continued on PAGE 10

FALL 2016

B PROFILE

Getting her start By Megan DeBruyn Zionsville Realtor Louise Bergmann, 53, works on the Mark Lopez team of F.C. Tucker Realty. But she got her start working as advertising sales manager for the Martha Stewart magazine, Living, in the early ’90s. How did you begin working with Martha Stewart? When I moved into consumer magazines, I worked for a little lifestyle magazine in Chicago called North Shore, and then worked for Southern Accents. I was already working for the parent company [of Living], which at that time was Time Ink Ventures. They wanted a staff for Martha Stewart, so it worked out where I could work for both magazines. I had a lot of success with the magazine and the funny thing was, nobody really knew who she was back then, and if they did, they didn’t like her. How would you describe working with Martha? We did have obstacles. She always had a presence about her from the beginning that was sort of polarizing. She was, in my opinion, as we described her, an arbiter of style, but her whole reason for being was basically to help people understand how to live better and kind of a different lifestyle than maybe people were accustomed to. She just had this definite way of seeing things and decorating and explaining all of that, because the magazine was very good at explaining how to achieve these ideas, not just showing you, not just throwing something out there and saying, there you go, but how [to do it] step-by-step. But she’s just a normal person — very opinionated, and so am I. I was never intimidated by her. I really had respect for her, but we were in a growing mode. It wasn’t all rolling out the red carpet. How did you end up working for Martha Stewart in the New York office? So then, from Chicago I ended up in the New York office because my ex-husband had a career opportunity to move out east, so we moved to Princeton, New Jersey, and I commuted to New York every day. By the time I got to New York, we had the syndicated research. The magazine launched before I started. I probably came in on the second issue. Can you speak to why Time Ink Ventures decided to take her on when a lot of other publications seemed to not show any interest? My opinion was that they saw that she had a loyal following and with a magazine, the philosophy back then as it was always described to me is that they want to hit a home run, just like when they launched Sports Illustrated or People. The way that you hit a home run in publishing is

through advertising revenue but circulation as well. Most magazines, they won’t survive if the circulation doesn’t grow. The bottom line is that it was that this was a different type of magazine — this was a lifestyle magazine, but Martha was a brand. They must have seen the opportunity based on that they maybe believed her story. Why did you ultimately leave working at Martha in 1993? I basically did everything I wanted to do there. I felt like I achieved every goal, every success that I could have ever wanted and my plan was to eventually stop working in order to have a child, which I did. The thing about it is, when you are working for a great company like that, it’s really hard to leave. In fact, some of my friends are still there. What led you to start working as a Realtor? It was about a six year-plan to retire altogether. I had my daughter in 1999, and then we moved to Argentina because of her dad’s job in 2003. I got divorced in 2007, and the reason I came [to Zionsville] from Chicago was because my mother is from the area. I had been out of the workforce for eight years and was used to being a stay-at-home mom. So I’m in a place where I know nobody — not a single soul — and my agent Mary Jane O’Brien kept talking to me about, “Oh you would be great in real estate. You should go into that.” So I took Mary Jane’s advice and she basically just thought it would be a great job for me. What was I going to do? I knew I wasn’t going to go back to what I had at Martha Stewart because that would mean I would have to stay in Chicago or I would have to go back to New York, and I would never see my kid. And my little saying was, I didn’t want to pay

Did you know?..

Continued on PAGE 12

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B HEALTHY

Wellness programs: Take advantage for good health

oes your workplace offer a wellness program, and if so, do you participate? As workplace wellness programs are becoming more widespread throughout the country, the buzz is catching on. What is wellness and why do we need programs like these? Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and learning to make healthy choices. Wellness means more than simply not being ill; it focuses on keeping your body in good condition so it runs more Janie Mikesell is a efficiently and you stay well longer. True wellness fitness nutrition is proactive, and recognizing that you have mental, coach living in physical and social needs to operate at the top of Boone County. your game. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 146 million Americans spend the majority of their waking hours at work each day. Many employers today are seeking ways to support employees who want to protect or improve their health. Sixty percent of companies expect to increase their wellness offerings in 2016-17. Participating organizations reach adults who might not otherwise engage with the public health system. Workplace wellness programs are intended to facilitate employee

health. Some include allowing time for exercise, providing on-site kitchens and eating areas, offering healthful food options in vending machines, holding “walk and talk” meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for participation. They may include opportunities to join in exercise programs, health education classes, smoking cessation programs and stress-management counseling. Effective workplace programs, which are health-focused and worker-centered, have the potential to significantly benefit employers, employees and their families, and communities. Employees benefit from being healthy and having the assistance they need to address and maintain personal wellness. Many employees show weight reduction and improved physical fitness and stamina through company wellness programs. Reports also show an increase in well-being, self-image and self-esteem, while at the same time resulting in a decrease in stress. Employees who take advantage of programs offered to help improve their health, can discuss the test results with their physician. It gives them a sense of empowerment and is also helpful in guiding the physician in their care. A well-designed wellness program can benefit the employer, as well as the employee, by increasing productivity, boosting morale and reducing stress. Wellness programs help employees make smart and healthy choices that can reduce health care costs, increase vitality and diminish absenteeism and sick days. For many companies, surface-level priorities take precedence, leaving executives with little or no time to think about their most valuable and expensive asset – employees. They don’t realize that obesity-related job absenteeism costs approximately $4.3 billion annually or that one-fifth of the most expensive health conditions for U.S. employers are related to heart disease and stroke. Good programs are often tailor made for the individual, giving the employee the control to set up and reach their goals. Depending on what type and extent of wellness program your company offers, you may be asked to complete a Health Risk Assessment questionnaire or do a Biometric screening. An HRA is a questionnaire designed to identify health risks and outline information to assist a person in making healthful changes that impact their health and prevent chronic disease. Biometric screening usually involves a small finger stick. These screenings can give you a quick and easy “snapshot” of your health and “health indicators” such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and weight and help identify potential health risks. More specifically, it can help you understand your health from the inside out and help you take charge of your health. So why should you, as an employee, take advantage of a workplace wellness program? Everyone has some sort of health risk, whether it’s unhealthy eating, lack of exercise or sleep, drinking, smoking or even something genetic. Studies show using a program can help make positive changes happen. You’ll have more energy, not just for your job but also to give to your family and friends when you get home. If you’re not sure if your workplace offers a wellness program, you should ask. Wishing everyone a healthy, safe and fun summer. 

Continued from PAGE 2

yers, the local history librarian at the Thorntown Public Library and coordinator at the Thorntown Heritage Museum, lived for years as her ancestors would have, using minimal electricity, old wooden tools and growing much of her own

food. “I wanted to walk in my ancestors’ footsteps, to not just ask about the big stuff like names and dates, but stuff that you can use and pass on,” she said. Myers was raised in Rock Island, Illinois. She started taking college classes at 14, and worked as a cleaner and library assistant to put herself through school. She graduated at 20, with plans to become a lawyer, and then took a retail job in Chicago. It was while living in the city she decided to try a new hobby: genealogy. Her first quest as a genealogist was to drive down to Greenview, Illinois, to the old Hornback family farmhouse. The house belonged to her great aunt, and was being rented out at that time. The previous tenants had decided to move out, so Myers’ great aunt suggested Myers become the seventh generation of Hornback to live in the home. “To this day, I can’t tell you why I did it,” Myers said. “It’s the craziest thing I ever did.” She quit her job in Chicago and headed for the farm in November, only to find several surprises. There was no heat. The previous tenants had taken with them both sources of heat, a wood-burning stove and propane tank. There was no running water. The pipes had rusted and the outdoor well and pump were the only ways to get water. There was no way to get rid of trash, other than lighting it afire in the burning barrel. Myers, a city girl, didn’t know what she had gotten herself into. “I thought every house had heat and water,” she said. “I was in my early 20s, and at that point I had never even lit a match.” But over the seven months Myers lived in her family farmhouse she learned. She met her husband at that time and he helped her with gardening and starting to live off the land. She suspected her husband only started dating her so he could hunt on her property. Only when he saw her drive to live rough and work hard, she said, did they start to get serious. In 1989, Myers and her husband, Len, married. They hoped to buy the Hornback farm, but Myers’ great aunt decided to sell to other relatives. They then bounced around before purchasing an 1850s farmhouse in Clinton County, where they would gradually transition to a homestead lifestyle. The key to life in the 1800s starts and ends with the wood-burning stove. The stove bakes bread and helps can fruit and vegetables in winter. It warms water for baths and heats the house in winter. Some Amish families even install second stoves on their porches to use during the canning season. Myers remembers cold days when she, her son and husband would come inside and prop their feet against the open stove door. Myers and her husband bought a used Amish-made Pioneer stove with an advanced ventilation system much better than what her ancestors would have used. “People think of the Amish as living this old-fashioned life,” she said. “But they are very high-tech, very ingenious.” Starting out, the couple visited estate and garage sales to get some of the old tools they needed to transition to an 1800s lifestyle. They got much of it cheap, Hornback said, because at that time – the early 1990s – antiques and homesteading hadn’t gained the popularity they have now. They bought a fold-out camper that functioned as a modern covered wagon, an old-fashioned ice box and a washtub and scrubber. Myers used that particular instrument for about two weeks before finding a wringer washer, an early form of washer that was operated with a crank. They grew vegetables on a quarter-acre plot, raised rabbits, goats and chickens and owned an orchard with apple, cherry, peach and plum trees. They chopped their own wood, milled grain and helped friends plow fields with carts and pack animals.

MYERS, shown here in 19th century garb, feels as comfortable in the modern world as she does without electricity. “We tried to be as self-sufficient as possible,” Myers said. During the seven years the family spent in their farmhouse, they mostly did without electricity, but not entirely. They had a refrigerator and stove, and their son was able to use a computer for projects and classwork. Myers said she and her husband, who homeschooled their son, wanted him to be able to live in both the modern and homesteading worlds. In their time on the farm, Myers and her husband got to know and befriend many different kinds of people, including Amish and Mennonites. Myers became involved in the Plain communities, eventually attending nursing school and writing about medicinal and medical techniques for working with the Amish. To this day, half her closet is filled with modern clothes, the other half with traditional Amish and Mennonite garb. She makes some of the plain cloth dresses herself and buys others from Mennonite resale stores. Many of her evenings and weekends are spent at modern and Plain religious services and events. Going back and forth between the modern and ancestral worlds is no problem for Myers, who once upon a time thought she’d live in big cities and become a real “career woman.” “I don’t think of myself as belonging to anyone,” she said. “I like to go to all services and activities for the whole town and area. I’m a part of God’s Christian community. I’m as comfortable in modern clothes as Amish.” For the last few years, Myers has lived a more modern lifestyle. She rents an apartment in Thorntown and is an avid social media user, posting about her travels, garden and genealogy. The change from historical to modern came when Myers’ husband, Len, found out he had cancer. The couple sold their farmhouse, which has since been demolished, and moved back to Chicago to be close to her parents. After her husband passed away in 2013, Myers moved to Boone County and started working at the Thorntown Public Library. “What’s kept me on this side of the tracks is my love for this work,” she said. “I have to credit genealogy with changing my life. It expanded my family tree and snagged me a husband.” Though Myers didn’t grow up in the area, librarian Karen Niemeyer said that Myers has adopted the town as her own, and made an impression on some of the other employees. An intern from Wabash College told Niemeyer he never though he’d work again with someone who’d lived as English, then Amish, then English again. Myers, for her part, said that her experiences using some of the items on display in the museum adds something to her tours and discussions with town residents. She can talk with older people about wood cooking techniques and demonstrate how she would heat tea or use vents to push the smoke out a chimney. “I can tell stories about using things,” she said. “It ups the conversation to another level and makes it a little more exciting.”  FALL 2016

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B A VOLUNTEER

Thorntown Heritage Museum Organization’s address: 124 W. Main St., Thorntown Organization’s hours: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays from May through September. Tours outside the operating hours are by appointment only. Organization’s phone number: 765-436-7348 Date Organization was founded: The museum was founded in 1977, when Mildred Spencer donated the house in her husband’s memory. The structure was built sometime between 1863 and 1867. The museum opened in September 1977, just in time for the fifth annual Festival of the Turning Leaves. What is your organization’s mission statement? To develop and nurture a public awareness of the history of Thorntown and Sugar Creek Township and to preserve the area’s legacy. How can services be accessed? Tours of the facility can be scheduled by calling the library or by going to the museum during operating hours. There is no fee to tour the museum, though the library encourages people to contribute small donations that help keep the museum running. Volunteer opportunities: Volunteers are needed to help maintain and paint the interior and exterior of the building. Other tasks include cleaning, tending the flower beds, and helping repair exhibit

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FALL 2016

items. The museum also tries to have two volunteers present during operating hours. How do you raise funds/gather donations? The museum is owned by the Thorntown Public Library, which funds museum programs, acquirements and a third of maintenance expenses. The rest of the museum’s funds come from individual donations and fundraisers such as the annual ice cream social. Museum-goers can also purchase a yearlong membership for $10 to help support the facility. Short-term goals: The museum’s short-term goals include making documents accessible online, working on monthly programs and collecting donations and historical items for display. Increasing the organization’s social media presence and promoting collections are also goals. Long-term goals: To collect, preserve and interpret evidence of the past connected with the history of this region; to foster the care and exhibit of these materials to the greatest possible educational and cultural value and to originate a local museum toward this objective. Biggest need: The museum always needs visitors, monetary donations and for people to help with exhibits, either by donating historical items or suggesting interesting displays. The staff is always looking for fun old games for kids to play when they visit as well. 

Continued from PAGE 3 cold temps. Give extra thought to what you’re preparing and how to deal with Mother Nature’s challenges. I then consider the menu, because that dictates what utensils and space are needed for both service and cooking. Will I need the fold out sixfoot table and the mini fold out, or just one or the other? I generally take one table for serving and another for prep work and cooking. That may also depend on the number of expected, and often unexpected, guests. Then come times to plan out the menu. My favorite part. Our group, made up of eight or so dedicated tailgating enthusiasts, rallies around the idea of a menu based on the opponents’ location. Sometimes this is easy, other times, not so much. Chicago means deep-dish pizza and Chicago dogs; Tennessee requires a pork butt smoked for at least 14 hours; Houston brings out the smoker again for a Texas-style brisket, Miami equals Cuban sandwiches; Cincinnati equates with Skyline chili; and well, you get the point. Splurging for one tailgate a season is a must, for whatever team that may be. As they say, “Go big, or go home.” For example, our epic New England tailgates create a buzz, and usually bring in extra tailgaters. For the past two seasons, lobster rolls, crab rolls, asiago crab cheese dip in bread bowls, clam chowder with madeto-order croutons and cheese curds, along with cooked and raw oysters adorned the menu. With early afternoon games, and locales like Jacksonville that don’t exactly have a signature food, breakfast lends itself to those occasions. Stuffed French toast is an easily prepped item that may be accomplished before ever stepping onto the lot, making for a relaxing morning before heading into the stadium. It’s also a big hit. Tailgating can be expensive, so it’s OK to accept a cash contribution from guests if you are responsible for their experience. Your tailgate scene is ultimately what you and your crew make it. We’ve evolved over the years, become more sophisticated, refined our techniques, and provide a good experience for everyone attending. Chairs, propane heaters, blankets, footballs, corn hole, Frisbees, beer pong, ladder ball, fire pit (if allowed), sun block, portable speaker and generators all come in handy. I’ve had many years to assemble, and pay, for all of my gear and usually make one investment a year to upgrade or get a new item. So get out there in the elements, try your hand at being an outdoor chef, and most importantly, enjoy the time with loved ones and friends rooting on your favorite team.

TAILGATING HACKS Detail, detail, detail will determine the success of your tailgate. We’ve all experienced not having what we’ve needed, and necessity is the mother of invention. Because of that, I’ll share some of the most common tailgating tricks of the trade. 1. Use a cooler not only for ice, but for keeping foods warm in transport. This will allow you to pre-cook some items, leaving more time for tailgating fun. 2. Use a bungee cord to hang paper towels from the tent, creating a mobile holder.

GRAND MARNIER STUFFED FRENCH TOAST (Serves 10-12) • 3 or 4 loaves Challah bread • 1 bottle Grand Marnier • 4 – 8-ounce packages of Philadelphia Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Cream Cheese • 1 cup of raisins • 1 8 ounce package of Heath English Toffee bits • 2 package raspberries • 2 package blackberries • 2 package blueberries • 1 package strawberries (quartered) • 4 bananas With preparation the night before your event, this edible goody is perfect for those 1 p.m. football games. Determine the amount of people attending and prep one piece of French toast per person as they are usually filling enough, especially with an accompanying breakfast meat. Cut the Challah, a traditionally sweet bread, into roughly 2.5 inch slices, discarding the ends. Cut a small pocket on the bottom side of the slice and lay them to the side. For eight people, I usually get three loaves for an average of three pieces per loaf and have an extra piece for someone. In a mixing bowl, combine 32 ounces of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Brown Sugar and Cinnamon with half of an 8-ounce package of Heath English Toffee bits and a cup ounces of raisins. Add more or less to suit your taste. Place mixture into piping bag, or gallon plastic bag with a small cut in the corner, and pipe into the pockets of the Challah. Place all nine into storage bags and refrigerate overnight. Mix 18 eggs in bowl with one cup Grand Marnier, and a tablespoon of cinnamon. Store in a plastic pitcher for easy transport and dunking. Finally, rinse berries and dry on paper towels. Combine all berries, waiting until morning to add the bananas so they don’t bruise too much. Combine those in a plastic storage container with 1 ½ cup of Grand Marnier and store overnight. All of these steps may be done the night before, allowing for ease of transportation and cooking. Start by warming your grill on high, and turn to medium high after 15 minutes or so. I like to use a griddle for this and bring one that fits the grill or use the one provided on some portable grills. Before dropping the French toast on the griddle, spray it with a non-stick cooking spray. Flip until both sides are a nice golden brown. Place on plate with berries spooned over the top and syrup of choice drizzled around plate. Add breakfast meat — chorizo, sausage, and bacon — and adult beverages, of choice. 3. Pack charcoal in an empty cardboard-type egg container for easy starting. 4. Freeze water bottles to use as ice, and be able to consume once they’ve melted. 5. Use a cupcake holder upside down with a straw through it to keep unwanted bugs from sampling your creation. 6. Car door latches on the inside of the door built provide an easy way to open bottles. 7. Arrive early so there is plenty of time to cook, clean, breakdown and enjoy a beverage before entering the game. No one likes to be rushed. 8. Six-pack bottle holders make great storage for condiments (ketchup, mustard, hot sauce.) 9. Toolboxes for utensils, plastic stackable storage containers, and reusable recyclable bags make for great storage and reliability of every-tailgate items. 10. Bring a tub or container to place dirty dishes in when packing up for ease of cleaning when returning home.  FALL 2016

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BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Finding fuel By Rod Rose Nearly a dozen natural gas wells scattered throughout Marion and Union Townships made Boone County a part – albeit a small one – of the nation’s petrochemical industry in the mid-20th century. There is now only one producing natural gas well in Boone County. It is in a field south of Waugh, west of U.S. 421, the Indiana Geological Survey’s Petroleum Database Management System shows. That well is 1,063 feet deep. Five of the Boone County wells roughly parallel County Road 300 North; the county’s petroleum product-producing area is generally north of County Road 250 North and east of County Road 800 North to the Hamilton County line. Most of the county’s wells were drilled in the early 1950s, state records show. The deepest, completed on Dec. 4, 1958, was 2,240 feet down. Those wells are part of the western-most regions of what geologists call the Trenton Field, first tapped in 1876 in Delaware County. The discovery of natural gas under 22 Indiana counties led to such excitement that drill rigs popped virtually everywhere. “The entire state went crazy,” wrote the now-late Boone County historian Ralph J. Stark in a December 1979 issue of the now-defunct Boone Magazine. Speculators even tapped three sites in the Lebanon city limits, including a 1,700-feet-deep hole on West Railroad Street and another well near what became Oak Hill Cemetery. All of the wells were dry. For a time in the 1890s, a natural gas well near Sheridan fueled Lebanon’s street lights; the last such lights, surrounding the square, were removed in 1937, Stark wrote. Through May 2016, the last month for which data was available, Indiana wells had produced 2.678 million cubic feet of natural gas, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ division of oil and gas reported. In 2015 the state generated 7.250 million cubic feet of natural gas. 

“It’s a fairly simple process,” she said. “Not pleasant, but simple. You have to plan ahead. That’s part of owning a chicken.” At KG Acres, no part of the chicken goes to waste. For years, Karr hoarded bags and bags of chicken feathers. As she walks through the yard feeding the birds, she stoops now and then to pick up a few Polish tail feathers or the black-and-white polka-dotted ones of the guineas. “When I started saving feathers I would just pick them up off the ground because they were so pretty,” Karr said. “I had big bags of them, and finally someone said I should do something with them.” So she did. Karr now creates and sells wreaths, Christmas ornaments, jewelry, cat toys and hair accessories made with chicken feathers. “I learned by doing,” she said. “It feels good to use something that would otherwise go to waste. The featherwerks keep our poultry afloat.” Karr freezes all of the feathers she collects to kill any parasites before putting them in large plastic tubs. When it’s time to KARR with Stanley, her 9-year-old rooster. make a wreath, she first creates the design then picks out the feathers. Putting the wreath together, she said, is the easiest part of the three-hour process. In addition to the chickens and decorative feather products, Karr sells plant starters from her farmers’ market booths. She raises the organic plants from seeds and keeps them in cold frames outside so that they get used to being outdoors. Though they never intended to start a business, Karr said she wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. “I love being around the animals and the birds, and I like that there’s a big educational aspect to selling the things I do. I get to teach people how to grow things or how to identify plants or to raise chickens. I like trying to share what I’ve learned with others.” Visit KG Acres booth at the Indianapolis Original Farmers’ Market and the Zionsville Farmers’ Market. Contact KG Acres at kgacresfarm@gmail. com or go online to www.kgacresfarm.com. 

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Continued from PAGE 5 somebody else to have all the benefits of raising my daughter. So lifestyle determined that I was going back to work, and that I was going somewhere besides Chicago, and so I came here, and for the first year and a half I was on my own selling here, and I did fine. You began in real estate during the economic downturn of 2008. How was that transition? It was the worst time in real estate. I knew that it would be tough, but I figured if I can make it through the bad, then by the time the market shifts, I’ll have enough experience to where I should be fine, and that’s what I did. It wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t like I got into it and it fell apart. It was falling apart when I moved into it, and I knew it. One thing I learned in advertising is nobody’s recession-proof, but you can be recession-resistant. I’d always had an interest in real estate, kind of followed it like the stock market. I’m a really good businessperson, so the funny thing about real estate is anybody that takes the test and takes the class, they can get a license. It doesn’t matter what your business experience is. And having the Martha Stewart experience really helps me because I learned a lot. How did your experience with Martha prepare you for working in realty? I think that magazine always was paying attention to, what else does the consumer need? What does that reader need know about? And I still think that’s why it’s a relevant magazine that still does well, in spite of everything. For me, shifting over to real estate, now I’m in the house. Now I’m in the part where [Martha] might have been talking about paint or gardening or whatever, and so, I just think that I have a really unique perspective of how to get your home ready to put on the market, for example. I still get a lot of inspiration for what I’m going to do with a house from the pages of a magazine, Martha Stewart included. What skills have you acquired since you began in realty? I have an eye for stream-lining. I call it editing; some people call it staging. And that is different. Everybody’s all hung up on staging and, to me, staging almost seems fake, like we’re creating a fantasy world. I like

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editing better because editing for me and for my clients does not always necessarily mean them spending more money. I’m there to try to help them maximize their investment. So I go in with the attitude of, let’s edit what you’ve already got going here, let’s move your life out, and let’s get ready for someone else to move their life in. If you’re going to truly be able to help a buyer, you better understand what it is they’re looking at to purchase, and the same way, if you’re looking to sell a house as a listing, you better understand what a buyer is going to want and what they are going to demand. We all expect cup holders and four wheels on a car, so you can’t sell a house with three wheels. It’s really got to have everything that the buyer is going to require and anticipate and basically demand. And I do view a listing as launching a product, and I think that’s this advertising thing coming back up again, because I appreciated that Time Ink Ventures wanted to hit a home run with that magazine. I learned a lot there. How does your experience with the magazine correspond to the work you do today? We would sell Martha any way you needed her. I called it our wheel of fortune, where it’s Martha and the consumer, and there’s that crossover — they call them special interest publications. Because she goes into so many different areas, so many different categories, it didn’t have to be locked into just, do you want to be in the magazine? We could take her out of the magazine and create a product, if that’s what an advertiser wanted to do. Because she was a brand, and I do think in real estate, agents almost become a brand. Every agent has a personality and there’s always a perception of this agent or that agent, or even the company. I think it real estate, just like my other business experience, you better just know who you are, what you’re all about, and be consistent. What is the difference between working on a team versus individually? For me, I buy into the [philosophy that] two heads are better than one. For a client, they basically are getting two professionals. There’s lots of judgment calls, there’s lots of technicalities and being on a team, there’s always somebody else to run the idea by. If you have a sole agent, you’re only going to get their perspective and experience. I think that’s probably the biggest difference, is just having the wealth of knowledge of more than one person. And I’m an only child so I’m very independent and I don’t mind doing things by myself, but I think I’m a team player. I like being a part of a team, I like strategizing with somebody else, I really like listening to other people’s ideas so that we can come up with the best game plan for our client, and that’s really the way that we operate. And you learn something new every day in real estate. Is there anything that you know about Martha from your experience working with her that the general public wouldn’t know? It was just interesting when we were launching the wedding magazine, for example. It was just a little bit ironic, we’ll put it that way, that she wasn’t married. She can still be an authority on something and not be living it. I went to her house once. I went for a photo shoot for one of her books, but it was cold, and she wasn’t ready — it was in the winter at her house in Connecticut — and so we just marched around the grounds in the freezing cold, waiting to go in. It was wet and mushy and cold, and she wasn’t ready, so we had to wait. I didn’t idolize her at all. I just looked at her like a businessperson. She was on the borderline of celebrity at that point … I mean, maybe in her own mind she already was, but in the real world she was still on her way to becoming one. I have lots of stories but most of them are not very flattering so I don’t want to say anything. I gained so much from there that I would never want to say anything that didn’t portray her in the light that she would prefer to be portrayed in. What would you say you have taken away from this experience? Mark (Lopez) and I, with regard to our business, we feel that we’re really blessed and at the end of the day, all the credit really is, it’s just the Lord blessing us. We really feel that way. But I think He blesses you with opportunities throughout your life and then you just continue to use them wherever you are in whatever capacity you’re in. 

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THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN BOONE COUNTY

September Sept. 9-11: Lions Club Annual Fall Festival, featuring Miss Outstanding Teen contest as part of three days of rides, food and booths. Parade down Main Street on Sept. 12 starting at 10:45 a.m. Parking in Lions Park for a $5 donation. This year’s theme is “Back to the 80s.” Sept. 9: 13th Annual Boone County Polo Event, Hickory Hall Polo Club, 7545 E. County Road 100 North, Whitestown. Gates open at noon, match begins at 1 p.m. Stomp divets, compete for the prettiest woman and bid on valuable items while watching a captivating polo match and raising money for Boone County Senior Services Inc. Tailgaiting is encouraged. Sept. 11: American Cancer Society’s Bark for Life to be held in conjunction with the Zionsville Fall Festival in Lions Park. Registration and a silent auction will open at 9 a.m., followed by a welcome and opening ceremony at 9:45 a.m. and the walk at 10 a.m. Costume contest — including the best Colts costume — and the conclusion of the silent auction will follow the walk, with the costume contest at 10:45 a.m. and the auction closing at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16 and 17: Back to the Fifties as Lebanon’s courthouse square goes back in time with a Main Street food court, arts and crafts booth, lots of family fun as Lebanon relives the coolest era ever in this popular annual event. Free admission. Visit www.fiftiesfestival.com. Sept. 17: 5K Rock-n-Roll Run & Walk at Witham Family YMCA and continues on a course through the city with registration at 6:30 a.m. The event benefits Symphony at Sunset. Sept. 17: Whitestown Brew Fest at the Whitestown Municipal Complex, 6210 S. County Road 700 East. This event

LINCOLN’S LEBANON and Civil War Enactment returns to Lebanon’s Memorial Park Sept. 24 and 25. will feature approximately 45 Indiana breweries and is expected to showcase hundreds of craft beer releases— making it one of the largest and most unique craft beer festivals in the central part of the state. Gates will open for exclusive VIP entry from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., with general admission beginning at 2 p.m. The festival will conclude at 5 p.m. with ‘last pour’ taking place at

4:45 p.m. Sept. 18: Zionsville Sprint Triathlon, 200-yard indoor swim, 11 mile bike ride, 5K trail run, 8 a.m. at Zionsville Community High School, 1000 Mulberry St. More information at www. ZionsvilleTriathlon.com.

kicks off with a big parade on Saturday, with great food, live music, antiques, crafts and art booths, lots of activities for kids and the whole family throughout downtown Main Street Thorntown. Free admission. Visit www.thorntownfestival. org.

Sept 23-25: Festival of Turning Leaves, Thorntown – A classic town festival that

Sept. 24-25: Lincoln’s Lebanon and Civil War Enactment in Lebanon’s

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Memorial Park. The public is invited to enjoy pioneer demonstrations, square dancing, food, and meet Mr. Abraham Lincoln in person on Saturday. Event includes a reenactment of civil war life through camping, activities and live war skirmishes. Sept. 24: Ninth Annual Boone County Senior Health and Wellness Expo, senior fair returns from 9 a.m. to noon at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds, Lebanon. The focus is to provide knowledge of health care and quality of life for current and future senior citizens, as well as their adult children, family members and other supporters or caregivers. The event is free and open to the public.

October Oct. 1: Jamestown Apple Cider Festival, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Pleasant Acres Nature Park, U.S. 136 east of town. The major attraction is the cider press operation, which turns the apples into apple cider. Along with the cider making there will be live music, apple crafts, pumpkin painting, mini golf and food. They will also have a cornhole tournament. Oct. 1: Hit the Bricks 5K run/3K walk starts at 8 a.m. at Zionsville Community High School.

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Oct. 1: Zionsville Fire Department Pancake Breakfast. Oct. 6: Sugar Creek Art Center the ART-of-Fashion Style Show, doors open 10:30 a.m., at the art center, 127 S. Pearl St., Thorntown. Oct. 7 and 8: Ghost Walk, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. SullivanMunce Cultural Center, 225 W. Hawthorne St., Zionsville. See some of Zionsvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scariest stories come to life during this re-enactment tour through Zionsvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic Village. Oct. 13: Bicentennial Torch Relay, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. The route will enter the county on SR 32 traveling east, and advance to Lebanon before heading out Indianapolis Avenue. It will travel south to Whitestown and connect with CR 300, before turning south on Barnes St. and then traveling down Oak Street into Zionsville. Oct. 15: Central Indiana Poultry Show at 4-H Fairgrounds, 1300 E. County Road 100 South, with participants and exhibitors from across the Midwest. Oct. 23: Hayrides and Pumpkins Day in Lions Park, Zionsville. Oct. 27: Boone Village Halloween Party, Zionsville.

ZIONSVILLE RESIDENT Katie Knudsen and her 3-year-old daughter, Leah, also paint a pumpkin during the 2015 Pumpkins and Hayrides event.

Oct. 29: Halloween 5k at the Whitestown Municipal Complex. Free 5K run 1K walk with safe haven trickor-treat inside after. Oct. 29: Mischief on Meridian, downtown Lebanon. Event features Halloween activities and candy from a variety of vendors.

November Nov. 5: Do It Again Recycled Art Market, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., SullivanMunce Cultural Center, 225 W. Hawthorne St., Zionsville. This is the fifth year of the Market, a one day indoor juried art and fine craft show promoting recycling, reusing and reclaiming of pre-consumer and postconsumer goods. Nov. 11: Annual Artisans’ Fare, an event for food lovers featuring Indiana’s premiere food and drink artisans food-related artwork to benefit the SullivanMunce Cultural Center, preview Friday, main event Saturday. Nov. 14: Boone County Chamber of Commerce annual dinner and civic banquet, details TBA. Nov. 19: Boone County Extension Homemakers Holiday Bazaar, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free admission, door prizes and catered lunch. Featuring a variety of crafts, gifts and decorative items at the Witham Health Services Pavilion and Farm Bureau Inc. Community Building sat the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds. Nov. 24: Thanksgiving Nov. 26 through December: Christmas in the Village, Zionsville, starts Nov. 26, with a Christmas parade and tree lighting and continues throughout the month. Visit http:// www.zionsvillechamber.org for event information.

FILE PHOTO

SANTA CLAUS celebrates the official lighting of the Zionsville’s Village Christmas tree last year with emcee Kristi Lee, left, from Q95 FM’s “Bob and Tom Show” and a Zionsville resident.

December Dec. 3: SullivanMunce for the Holidays, SullivanMunce Cultural Center, 205-225 W. Hawthorne St., Zionsville. Dec. 3: Christmas in the Cabin at Herr Cabin in Memorial Park, Lebanon. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Horse drawn carriage rides are available through the park

and refreshments are available in the cabin. Followed by a Christmas Parade downtown at 6 p.m. with other fun festivities. Dec. 3: Whisker Fest, craft show at the Whitestown Municipal Complex. Dec. 3-17: First Come, First Hung, entry is Nov. 12 with the exhibition opening Dec.

3 during Christmas in the Village. Dec. 17: Santa Parade with Whitestown Fire Department and Whitestown Police Department do a parade around Whitestown. Then Santa comes back to the complex for hot cocoa, snacks, pictures and a movie “Polar Express.” Dec. 25: Christmas

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