20 minute read
Voices
Vandalia Trail – Amo to Coatesville...and Beyond
Exploring Hendricks County
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By Jackie Horn
Jackie Horn and her husband, John, transplanted from Warsaw to Plainfield to be near family. An Advanced Indiana Master Naturalist, Jackie is a retired substitute teacher who continues to teach (and learn) about all things outdoors. John is a retired CNC programmer and the photographer on the team. The Horns enjoy traveling, walking, hiking, kayaking, and bicycling.
Back at the end of June while my daughter’s family was visiting, we loaded up the bikes, cart, and kids and rode the Vandalia Trail from Amo to the Hendricks/Putnam county line. (The account appeared in the July 8th issue of The Republican.) The family enjoyed the ride which was slightly over eight miles round trip. It was just long enough to be challenging for the adults but not so difficult for the younger set. Sometimes, you want something a little more...adult, a little more adventurous, and without the children. This past week John and I rode the route again, alone.
Packing the bikes into the van, we again drove to the Vandalia Trailhead in Amo. The day was sunny and warm, bordering on hot. Remembering our first trip, we recalled a large section of the trail was shaded. We were counting on that to make the ride bearable. With sunscreen and full water bottles, we took off west toward Coatesville.
The route was just as enjoyable as it had been in June. This time we stopped on the bridge over Crittenden Creek to take a peek at the water and admire the view. Mounting up, we continued to Coatesville station where we stopped for a quick drink. Once again on the trail, we made it to the Hendricks/Putnam County Line...and blew right past it!
Without a real goal in mind, John and I continued to pedal westward. At the county line, the paved bicycle path maintained by Hendricks County Parks turns to crushed limestone in Putnam County. The riding surface isn’t awful but it does become noisy. Any conversation between us stopped as it was necessary to shout to be heard over the crunching gravel.
0ther bikers – Lavonna Mayo (left) and Candi Harris of Plainfieldtake a minute to chat while riding the Vandalia Trail from Amo.
The path continued to pass in and out of shade provided by a tunnel of trees. When the trees were absent, it was bordered by corn and soybean fields and lined with blooming wildflowers. At about the six-mile mark, the trail took a turn in a cluster of trees. I was hot and petering out. John wanted to continue to the town of Fillmore. I was content to sit in the shade and wait while he pressed on.
Fifteen minutes or so later, John returned to report that he had made it as far as CR 625 E at the edge of Fillmore before turning around. He assured me I hadn’t missed anything exciting as the trail continued to be a gravel track between fields. As we sat in the shady grove so John could cool down and recuperate, we were joined by another pair of cyclists also taking the Vandalia from Amo to Fillmore. For such a lovely day, the path was fairly deserted. We had encountered only three other pairs of riders. After a few minutes of exchanging tales of our experiences on the trail, we continued on our way.
This trail ride included a refreshment stop at Dawnn’s Diner at Coatesville
Arriving in Coatesville, we realized it was past lunchtime. John and I were hot, thirsty, and HUNGRY. During our first ride in June, we’d spied Dawnn’s Diner a block off the trail on the corner of Milton and Main Streets. It seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. We were not disappointed! The owners were friendly and the Reuben sandwich was amazing.
After a filling meal and a little socializing, we were back on the bikes and returning to the Amo trailhead. I had logged twelve miles. John, with his extra push to Fillmore, had fourteen.
The Vandalia Trail has become John and my favorite place to ride. It winds through scenic farmland and woods with few road crossings. Only one, SR 75 outside Coatesville, has much traffic and it has a flashing caution light/crossing signal. We’re looking forward to riding this route again in the autumn. With the trees changing color, the views promise to be gorgeous!
Hunting Tips & Reflections
By Mike E. Neilson
Mike Neilson, longtime Danville High School teacher and longtime hunting enthusiast is sharing his hunting experience with our readers. He’s also shared his knowledge in three books, Available on Amazon. com.
Travel Hunting - Part 1
I recently returned home from a very successful guided pronghorn antelope and mule deer hunt in south-central Wyoming. Prior to the hunt, I needed to make the decision whether to drive to my area or fly. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and I’ll try to highlight those in this essay. If you are a DIY (Do It Yourself) hunter, you are driving so disregard this tome and carry on.
Let’s start with flying to your hunting destination. The greatest advantage is the time savings, especially the further you must go to reach your hunting camp. My Wyoming trip would have taken 6 hours flying one way including one transfer in Denver, a plane change and an hour layover. Another advantage is that you don’t usually arrive already tired to your destination, a definite perk when hunting.
Flying isn’t without its own disadvantages. First you may not be able to fly exactly to your final destination. You might also have multiple layovers and may even have to change airlines or even worse, change airports! Another disadvantage is that once you get to the airport, you need to find your way to camp so either the outfitter/guide needs to fetch you or you need to rent a vehicle. Sometimes the cost of picking up a hunter is included in the price of a hunt, other times not. Read into that, you might incur additional expenses.
Check with your insurance agent when renting a vehicle to see what type of coverage you already have. Car rentals are notorious for gouging renters so be prepared and educated. Finally, you might have to overnight before arriving at camp so you could also incur the cost of a room plus possibly the cost of a ride to the hotel.
Third, you are somewhat limited in what gear you can take. Each airline has its own rules and pricing structure concerning baggage and sporting equipment. Be sure your gun or bow case meets the airlines requirements and TSA’s as well. Your daypack will qualify as your carry-on so your binoculars, cameras, medication and other important items and paperwork travel in here. (No knives, blades, handguns or ammunition please!) The more bags you pack, the higher your costs and the logistics of getting to and from home.
Fourth, flight delays or cancellations can be trip killers. Nothing sours a good hunt worse than missing a connecting flight or bags that come up missing. I’ve had my fair share of flight problems but those don’t frustrate me nearly as flying home with perishable meat and then getting a delay. Missing bags aren’t usually the end of the world unless the missing bag happens to be your weapon of choice. I’ve had duffle bags come up missing but (knock on wood) I’ve never had a bow or gun case go MIA. And don’t forget about transportation to and from the airport. Is somebody going to drop you off, or will you leave a vehicle at the airport?
Lastly, let’s look at costs. On my recent Wyoming trip, the flight to Denver and a connecting city wasn’t bad and the time was reasonable. Baggage costs were about $100 for the bow and a duffle bag. Coming home, I was hoping that I’d be bringing back some trophies and some meat and was willing to pay for that privilege. However, the cost of renting a vehicle was just too high. I was looking at over $1,000 just to rent the least expensive vehicle for the week, that was more than double the cost of my flights. Add the expense of all my gear and gas plus possibly additional insurance and the costs were just too steep to justify a flight.
Next Week: Hunting on the Road - Traveling by Car
A Squirrel About Town
By Archy
Archy seemed in unusually high spirits.
“Yes, you might say bubbly,” he laughed. “We squirrels were entertained by the humans at Fair on the Square over the weekend.
Both days the southwest corner of the court house yard was a sea of bubbles as children tried out the different wands being sold by one of the vendors.
“The looks on their faces,” the squirrel gave a toothy grin. “You rarely see that joy of discovery on people’s faces these days.”
I tried to remember those times when I had that look on my face. When it snowed for the first time of the season, when I watched a just-born calf get up on its wobbly legs, when I was driving at night and pretending to chase the moon.
“The bubbles came up into the trees where we were watching,” Archy recalled “Sometimes they would rest on a branch just before they burst....” “Like they felt glad to be home...” I finished his thought. Archy’s face turned solemn. “Why do so many of your kind dismiss the wonders of nature and spend so much time complaining about science. It’s all the same thing - you can use science to find beauty, the same as using poetry or painting. It’s just another means of communication.”
A minute passed, then Archy said, “What you need is a new Enlightenment. Why don’t you start one? An age of reason would come in handy right about now.”
Once again, the squirrel was right.
How To Harvest, Cure & Store Your Onions
By Colletta Kosiba Hendricks County Master Gardener
“Cure your onions”
You want your onions dry, dry, dry to store over winter. Follow these steps:
1: Wait for ¾ of plants to fall over before you start harvesting. (You can help by bending them above the bulb;) it is the signal for the onion to enter dormancy.
2: Stop watering your onions before you harvest. It will take 7-14 days for them to finish maturing. (Withholding water keeps onions from rotting).
3: Pull or dig out: On a dry day, carefully pull each onion out by the bulb, or dig around to lift the bulb from the soil. (if you grab the weakened stem, it may pull off entirely—that’s not good to store. Lay onions out on ground or a sunny area for two days to dry out roots.
4: After a day of sun, move the onions into a sheltered, shady spot (under a tree, on a covered porch, or in a garage, Spread them out one by one. (don’t clean off the onions yet.!!!) Let them dry, dirt and all, until the stems turn brown and brittle. The rest period allows the onions to go deeper into dormancy.
Rainy weather? cure your onions in a garage or basement, but turn them over a couple times a week to ensure even drying. Use a fan. Onions like it warm (75°F to 80°F) but breezy. Remember give them shade and have plenty of air circulation around the bulbs. It’s best to lay them out with no crowding. - No heaping all your onions into a basket yet.
5: Trim the onions. trim the roots and cut off the stems once onion tops and roots have fully dried.
#6: Best to Store onions in a dry, dark, and airy space. you may use nylon mesh bags, wire or wicker baskets, milk crates, or burlap sacks. Ideally, keep them just above freezing but below room temp.
#7: Cure tiny onions -plant them next year
Mild onions are large and juicy with thick rings. They’re sweet enough to eat raw! make great onion rings too. Cured mild onions won’t last more than two to three months. You better eat those first.
Pungent onions, ones that make you cry when you cut them, can keep as long as six months or even up to a year!
Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep.
Got Questions? Call The Home-Landscaping-Garden Help Line and Master Gardeners will answer your questions every Tuesday. May 18 to Sept 28. Hours 9:00-Noon and 1-4:00pm call 317-745-9260 (Hendricks County Extension)
A Bark From the Past: Henry
[Editor’s Note: The Republican’s first four-footed correspondent was Henry. A mixed breed rescue dog, Henry would make observations about being a dog in a small town. The articles, which ran in 2006 - 2010, have been languishing in the computer’s memory and we thought a new audience might enjoy some canine commentary.]
I really look up to the humans who make us pets feel better. It can’t be easy figuring out what’s wrong when you can’t understand what your patients are saying. Those special humans must really love animals to want to be vets. I know that Dr. Howard loves me and all my brothers and sisters from the way he talks to us and touches us when we see him. His is very kind. His hands and arms are covered with little scars from scratches and bites. I guess he really must love animals to keep doctoring them, even when they don’t appreciate it.
When I lived in Nebraska at Hearts United for Animals, I had a broken hip. The humans at the vet school in Kansas fixed it. And they did a really good job! I can run and play like all my brothers and sisters. My left back leg always stands on tippy-toe, but it works. I owe a lot of licks to the animal doctors who have kept me healthy.
I heard about a black Lab called Max who lives in Looeyville. One day, Max got out of the yard and was a long way from home when he was hit by a car. He was hurt, but he ran away. Somebody who knew Max saw it happen, and he called Max’s human. They looked for him for a long time, but they couldn’t find him. Max’s human called his vet to let him know that they would bring Max is as soon as they found him. But Max was already there! That’s where he went when he ran away—to his vet!
I don’t know if I’d be able to get to Dr. Howard’s by myself if I got hurt. It’s a long way from our house and there are lots of busy streets with lots of cars. I might get hurt worse than I was to start with!
The thing humans have to remember is that when we animals feel sick, we do our best to hide it. Especially us dogs, who come from animals that live in packs. If a wolf seems weak, he will be driven out of the pack. So, we don’t show it if we feel bad. Always watch your pet really close. Even little changes in how he acts can mean that something is wrong.
While he was doing my last check-up, Dr. Howard told my human that sometimes people wait until it’s too late to bring in their pets. That’s so sad! We love our humans. We protect them. We work for them. We want to stay close to them. We don’t ask much in return. Love us, feed us, and take care of us. That’s not too much to ask. Is it? Thought for the Day: The question is not, can they talk?, nor can they reason?, but can they suffer?—Jeremy Bentham (1738-1842)
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Note From Bee
So many of my stories are quite old. That is because I am quite old. I will be 82 in November 2021.
I had been making meatballs for probably 20 years. I got the recipe from my sister. We call them Aunt Marcia’s meatballs. Everybody loves them and asks for the recipe. My husband, Jim and I were going to our first Senior Ciitizens lunch at the Christian Church in Brownsburg. They have a pitch - in. I decided I’d take the meatballs. I put the crockpot on the floor in the back seat of our van. I put a towel down under the crockpot in case of spills. I should have put the crockpot in a box. I would pay for this mistake later. We made it about a mile when Jim turned into a parking lot. Over went the crockpot. It seemed like there were meatballs everywhere. I remembered the package said 76 to be exact.
Forget the lunch. We turned out and went home to clean up the mess. We were able to clean up the floor mats with no obvious barbecue stain. Oh No! Then we noticed sauce oozing from underneath the front console. Jim was sure that all the wiring was ruined. We called Dugan Chevrolet and they said bring the car right over. Fortunately the wiring was not ruined. We held our breath when we went to pay the cashier. It was only $42. For about a month the car had a slight barbecue smell. We also changed the name of the meatballs to $42 meatballs.
$42 Meatballs Package of 76 count frozen meatballs 2-18 oz bottles of barbecue sauce 3/4 lb brown sugar (yes, 3/4 lb) 1/2 cup white sugar 1 cup honey 24 oz. ketchup
Boil sauce for 1 minute, simmer 5 minutes. add meatballs. Simmer another 45 minutes.
Best to let stand in sauce overnight.
Bee Jones
Productive Struggle: What It Is and Why Every Child Needs to Experience It
Think back to a time when completing a challenging task that required you to read and follow every step to perfection in order to achieve success, like assembling IKEA furniture or doing your taxes. Chances are your brain automatically utilized some pretty specific reading behaviors. Maybe you read all the directions before you started to get an overall scope of the process. As you began, you probably reread certain steps multiple times. When your brain sensed frustration, you might have taken a break (or someone suggested it once the curse words became audible enough for the kids to hear!).
Without realizing it, you use many of the same strategies your children are taught at school: reread, stay focused, take breaks, monitor for meaning. The point is, because you wanted to complete the task successfully, you used your reading strategies, but also your perseverance to power through until you were satisfied, even if you experienced frustration along the way. You were motivated to put your new nightstand together or to get your taxes done.
Reading strategies don’t work if a child isn’t motivated to work hard. Many students lack experience with perseverance. They haven’t been asked to complete challenging tasks from start to finish, making perseverance an unknown feeling. And we all know that when feelings are new, they are often overwhelming. It doesn’t mean kids are lazy… it means they haven’t practiced this life skill yet.
Engage your child in opportunities for what educators call productive struggle. Essentially, this is when a task is challenging, and requires grit to continue. If the child perseveres during a hard task (either mentally or physically), they will be rewarded when success is reached. We adults know that, but only because we’ve experienced it over and over. Children often haven’t.
Carol Dweck, author of the best selling book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success writes “If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can teach their children to do is to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.” Dweck also learned that children perform better when they are praised for how hard they are working, NOT how smart they are or the end result.
We know our world needs thoughtful problem solvers to fix tough, complex issues, whether it’s auto repair or world peace or a struggling marriage. People equipped with patience, perseverance, and a desire to see a process through, with a dash of creativity, are those most likely to lead us into the future (and become very strong readers). Raising the next generation requires us to model more than how to slap on band-aids to stop bleeding or push issues under the rug. They are not a part of the world I wish to see.
So, if you’re tempted to spend money on a summer skills workbook or create extra homework for your child, set aside some time to create moments for productive struggle instead. And while your child may or may not thank you now, his/her teacher will, along with the rest of us who need citizens who are motivated and well practiced at perseverance when the going gets tough.
-- William Allen White
Letters To The Editor
To the Editor: Save Brownsburg from Itself
On September 9, 2021, neighbors were denied free speech at the Brownsburg Town Council Meeting. We were well prepared with materials and presentations regarding the very specific 5 criteria related to zoning petition #07-21-1927 also known as ordinance #2021-21 also known as Council item 11.11. Our various speakers were intentionally and systematically prevented from using their voices to present our concerns.
This same zoning case was heard by the Advisory Planning Commission on August 30, 2021, where after hours of evidence and testimony, the APC forwarded a “no recommendation” to the Council, based on a 3-2 vote. This action by the APC placed the responsibility of HEARING and then voting on the same zoning case squarely with the Town Council, yet they have refused to HEAR our concerns.
The zoning case involves rezone request to heavy industrial for a 45 foot high, 550,000 square foot, 24/7 operational industrial warehouse to be built on a parcel that sits DIRECTLY across from residences on 2-lane CR 400. The Brownsburg Unified Development Ordinance clearly states that industrial and residential are NOT COMPATI- BLE uses. This zoning request MUST BE DENIED based on Brownsburg’s guiding documents and the basic premise of responsible zoning.
I believe the Brownsburg Town Council knew of our preparations and intentionally prohibited us from bringing our issues and concerns to the public. We were simply denied our right to free speech, so the Council could vote YES to this zoning request without hearing the many reasons to vote NO.
Our list of concerns includes the following: -100 dock doors on the site plan would mean a tremendous amount of semi-trucks 24/7 on CR 400 and at the intersection with Ronald Reagan – neither can support that amount of heavy traffic. - CR 400 is a primary school bus corridor and sees over 50 buses traveling on a single school day. School busses and semi-truck traffic create dangerous situations for our community. - School children stand at bus stops at this very same location – again extremely dangerous. - The homes directly across the street from the proposed building will obviously experience a tremendous loss of property values. - This property has recently been designated, again by the Town Council, as an “economic revitalization area” so that tax abatement could be awarded to the developer, yet the property owner is asking $150,000 per acre. Does that sound like a property that is “undesirable for or impossible of normal development?” (Resolution #2021-25C) - Many industrial warehouses have “for lease” or “help wanted” signs, so do we really need another one? Brownsburg will have allowed rezoning for 3,000,000 square feet of new industrial buildings this year – do we really need more? - Brownsburg is known for MotorSports with the Lucas Oil Raceway less than a mile from this property, yet the Brownsburg Town Council can’t see the benefit of enhancing or emphasizing that niche industry here.
This zoning case is extremely important and could have long-lasting impacts on the community of Brownsburg. Our desire is for the Town to follow the Unified Development Ordinance which clearly states that Industrial and Residential zonings are NOT COMPATIBLE. This type of development could be coming to your neighborhood soon. Stand with us to Save Brownsburg!
Respectfully, Pam Sheads A VERY concerned resident
