Getting ‘The Boot…’

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Frye'd... with studs...  that's how ah like'em!

Frye’d…
with studs…
that’s how ah’ lik’em!

Sometimes for a Cowgirl

there must be risks

…that one takes

…with one’s actions

that were never a conscious thought

but, it might just be

that it was worth the risk

despite the costs

to get  ‘The Boot!

God has a plan

….put on your boots

and cinch up the straps…

ladies… we’re going for another ride...!

-Paula Elizabeth Graves, July 9, 2013.

a website? Chapter One: Branding.

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SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

Why the website?

A woman from a Topeka design firm, that once filmed ‘the boss’ for an ad, described it in saying, “one need’s a presence.” She was familiar with rural systems, and she knew where I was coming from.

On a dark day I might say it this way,

“I just might die out here and no one will ever even know I existed!” 

**note: many women with photo albums who take the pictures feel this way. I’m confident I’d never be in mine if it were not for my mother, and now my sister and daughter taking photos, though Jack’s now good for a few.

A city slicka’ lak mahself bein’ or-rig-on-alee from kan-sa sidday mahgt jes add,

“I just might die of boredom out here if I don’t find my next project.”

Oh? The Rancher’s wife thing? Yes, there was and always will be impromptu cooking and Branding and weaning and the need to be always there. That’s not a full-time job after the critters were ‘done grown up and gone.’  And, in a family business with three brothers….well, it’s important to remember where a wife’s business ends and where another person’s business begins. At least at the XIT.

So we began with full support. My personal first “real” website designer Shawn took all my pages of what is called “cartooning”. This was the site menus and my numerous page layouts. I was attempting the urban cowgirl architect edginess, my (at-that-time) completely wrong words. He visually twanged it up a bit. He said,

“I get it, Paula. Edgy, urban, slick cowboy design-architect thing, but no one wants to go ‘back at the ranch’ for that. Everything that you have brought in and laid out is like a scrapbook, a journal.  See it as that.”  He did not even know me, my web way albums, my French sketchbook, architecture school. Poor Guy, he didn’t know what he was in for, nor did Tracy when he quoted that bargain price of $1200.00 over the phone.

And, at the end of a day I am a classicist, old school, whether it is in Paris or on the Plains. And, aren’t Levis actually ‘de Nimes’?  It’s only as simple or complex as we want it to be at the moment….So, I came full circle and I know now he is brilliant. 

So, the quest for

  • the next client (Steve Revare…any churches you need to adaptively re-use…?),
  • the next historic building along a Kansas highway (Citysearch…Susan Ford…KDOT…, you there?)
  • the next “egg money”  [as my mother from Hays termed the income that rural women around Hays, Kansas earned that was their own and not their husbands]. This is what I did, but it was teaching and design. 
    • My contributions to family were more in the way of driving, cooking, sweat equity with house maintenance, and in choosing an unorthodox lifestyle, not something that floated the boat.
    • Beef was why we were there, not health or lifestyle.

Branding was only once a year.  I thought. 

 

A cock and bull story.

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He'll be as useless as tits on a bull.

I can’t really remember what exactly was the issue here,

you’ll have to ask the Boss.

But, I do remember

that there was a female involved.

Reservoirs and Foreshortening Skills. Finals Week. Carry on. your first student, mom.

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Drawing of Bob Burnquist. by Jack Adams, age 11.

I really shouldn’t talk about my family too much. But, I had the privilege of living with a man that would leave drawings like this on his bedroom floor. He was eleven. Look at the right hand…

Here are some things to know about Bob Burnquist.

  • He was the Brazilian professional skateboarder who was the first to land a fake to fake 900, the 5th person in history to have ever landed the 900. I have no idea what this means.
  • He has a signature trick called “one-footed smith grind”.
  • He started the Bob Burnquist Foundation to bring knowledge about organic farming and gardening to schools.

But back to this man with whom I had the privilege of living.

We only had about 120′ of concrete on the ranch, a curving 3′ wide sidewalk from the freestanding garage to the house.  You can see on this site plan underneath these words. Note that the larger curving drives between the buildings are NOT concrete but packed dirt.  In fact, this sidewalk was about the only concrete within a 6-10 mile radius of our home depending on the direction. [concrete inside of stock tanks does not count, not big enough for skateboarding even in a small circle.] But the point is, it was enough for this man I lived with to master many moves on the board he bought for himself.

Determination knows no dirt boundaries.

This man is likely both dee-jaying and studying engineering stuff like formations and reservoirs this weekend.  And I hope, dancing in-between all of the work and play…to keep it fluid…to keep it loose.  He taught me all of my best moves.

Thanks for showing me how to rein it in and check both sides of the gray in life. Dance hard, dance on.

 

 

Jack Adams Santa Claus drawing with Ginny Graves. age 4 1/2.

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Red Christmas Tree, Santa, Green Christmas Tree.

Jack Adams drawing of Santa Claus. age 4 1/2.

Drawn on a trip to GrandaGG’s at 5328 W. 67th St. in Prairie Village. July, 1995.

My mother Ginny Graves was the Art Lady from the Nelson Gallery. She was also the creator and director of all of the Art Programs in the Johnson County Library System.

I got to help her with these things, making stuff, being with other kids, on tv, setting up and cleaning up for classes, even teaching an art Class at Cedar Roe Library when I was 12 one summer.

But, most of all I am most thankful because I got to MAKE STUFF. And it was all organized ahead because she got all the supplies and paints and yarn and whatever for whatever general area of project that was proposed. In my mom’s case unlike grade school art, this was very loosely defined so that the creator could let their mind wander on just a few ideas thrown out.

Plus, my mother gets the best art out of EVERYONE.

Anyway, these are two things my mom will say. It don’t know if she is just magical, or if it is just someone who knows the value in taking the time and the interest to say it to a child or an adult, to ask this question.

“Draw me a picture.”  -Ginny Graves.

“In creating, the only hard thing is to begin.”  -James Russell Lowell.

How flattering that someone feels enough about your ideas to help you start. That is what my mother was called upon to do at this time and throughout her life.

Then later, she will always say this.

“Tell me about your picture.” -Ginny Graves. 

This makes it an even more special picture because both people can then learn about the thoughts and processes of using our eyes and what is inside of our heads to form an idea, a plan, that progressively gets down onto the paper.

“Creation is only the projection into form of that which already exists.” -Shrimad Bhagavatam

When someone cares enough to be interested and feels that they can learn something by hearing what you were thinking when you did it, how you formulated an idea and made it come forth, it is a confidence builder. Feeling your creative is empowerment.

Creative expression in whatever means, sales, business, relationships, doodles, cooking, style, and even working our sometimes wacked out minds-emotions for both positive or not-always-so-positive means involves time and energy. I feel that figuring out how and when and why we are always creating in life, whether conscious or not, and how to harness it is one of life’s challenges. Then, to focus it, to rein it in and put it into positive directions that are better for ourselves and others. That is ultimately, maybe, what we all are striving to do?

I don’t want to get into too many quotes from my yogi book that told me about all the chakras but creativity is your second one (they go from bottom up).

Read below,

good to know“, and

wouldn’t you know?” in a nutshell.

(And then I do want to talk about Jack’s great drawing.) 

SECOND CHAKRA

  • area of body:  sexual organs
  • human talent:  creativity
  • color: orange
  • shadow emotions:  passionate manipulation, guilt
  • element: water

Jack’s Santa. A mother’s thoughts.

I don’t know if he said this to mom and she told me or if I am just looking at this drawing to try to figure it out.  Probably the first as you know how it is with small kids, sometimes we don’t take the time and this is for what we have Grandmother’s. I like to draw, and did some art stuff with the kids, but I can be a real micro-manager which is counter-productive. I was a better manager-mother in general when I got busy having my own life.

Legs

I would think that the long legs are because Santa has to go down that long chimney.  We are a rather small family in stature, so that’s a pretty long jump from the top of our roof down into the living room at the XIT Headquarters. So, these long legs at least get Santa down through that circuitous shaft that runs from the top of the later second-story roof of the house, through the attic, and to about the ceiling of the living room. He can jump that last flight, that’s nothing with those legs.

Head

I don’t know about all the editing on Santa’s head with just the eyes, the long, thick bare neck, or that shriner’s thing on top of Santa’s head and won’t conjecture.  He has Santa’s black belt.  But you can see, the legs to get down were the most important consideration.

Trees

I think the trees are wonderful.  Instead of thinking about the trunk, it seems like it is just getting the essence of the shape of the tree, very stylized. The tufts of green are both representing, to me, the tufts of needles on the trees but arranged almost like ornaments or lights so it is all in green. And the one tree is red.

Jack and Color. And conformity.

Jack, in another project, never seemed to be bothered that his wine bottle tissue paper reindeer body was red, not brown. When my mom asked him how he chose his color for the reindeer, Jack responded something to the effect of liking red, “of course, GG.” Rudolf did have a red nose, though.

This was also the case in Meade Grade School when the children would color in the line drawing of the Jack o’ Lantern which would then decorate the window of the Stockgrower’s State Bank. All of his classmates would color in perfect orange pumpkins with green stems, with the goal to “stay within the lines.” There would be 22, all lined up where they were displayed. I drove by one day to get money and saw that there was a purple one with some patchwork, color extending all over the paper and I knew that was my son’s. He did make the stem green, so it’s not as if he didn’t have some semblance of respect for context of fellow pumpkin artists.

So, mainly I was thinking about Christmas this year, about my parents, and had this drawing stuck away in a folder to share with everyone this season. So here’s the main point!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Adams Family BOTAR Ball Dancing Videos

by admin

note: my comments in red

"Stayin' Alive!"

Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.    – Lord Chesterfield

Jack Adams somehow knew this at an early age, he does it so well. 

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOtWND3rTWI[/youtube]

 

And, of course, they’ve always condemned dancing. You know, you might touch a member of the opposite sex. And you might get excited and you might do something natural.  Frank McCourt

From a woman who gave up on enforcing the “no grinding” rule at private school dances.  “I just look at it as safe sex.”  

Jan Davis, woman headmaster of Wichita Collegiate who was pulled out of retirement from the Wichita Public School System to serve at my daughter’s private high school. 

 

But in reality we are accompanied by the whole dancing universe.  Ruth St. Denis.

Mildred Evelyn Lee Ward is my Grandmother. She taught school with her Master’s in English to help put my Grandfather Paul Ward through law school during the Depression. But she found time to teach dance on the side, living this motto “life is a dance.”

 

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.  William James.
aahhh…..so that’s why I admire these qualities…hmmmm….

 

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.  -Molière

what an idea! we must find more time for this….

 

Dance is bigger than the physical body. When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers, because you’re dancing bigger than that; you’re dancing spirit.  –Judith Jamison.
as with all creativity, in painting, business, people…..

 

Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness. Mason Cooley.
and I do both, to both rein it in and put it out…

 

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. –Henry Fielding.
keep it in check….

 

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire. George Bernard Shaw.
so that is what it is?

 

Dancing is a sweat job. Fred Astaire.
among other satisfying things in life…

 

Dancing is a wonderful training for girls, it’s the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it.
Christopher Morley.so that is what we’re supposed to do….have not yet mastered….

 

and….some of the best dancing partners are women….

Lisa Revare Hickok, Marthe Dreher Tamblyn, Jane Fenn Wallace. Three SMEast '78 Great Women and Dancers.

Disco dancing is just the steady thump of a giant moron knocking in an endless nail. -Clive James.
I just thought this was funny.

 

Dance hard

Dance while you can

In whatever you do

Even when you don’t know what you should do…

Especially then!

-Paula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

62nd Botar Ball to Benefit the American Royal Association. Muehlbach Hotel, Kansas City. Oct. 22, 2011.

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National Hereford Association Bull. Faces n-s politically neutral to KCK, but no bull about it, he faces north. Prevents the newly developing city from forgetting its roots as a cattletown.

In the spring of 1949, newly appointed Senator Harry Darby gathered a group of civic leaders to find a way to interest young people in promoting the American Royal.  Their common passion was the American Royal, one of the country’s largest horse and livestock shows and a unique and legendary event in Kansas City.  The Royal had come to symbolize the country’s good life straight from the Midwest-land, agriculture, animals.

By 1970, after twenty-eight years of existence, the American Royal Coronation Ball was replaced by the profitable BOTAR Ball, raising more than $1.5 million to date in 1999.  The Charles N. Kimball Lecture “It’s All About the Eating: Kansas City’s History and Opportunity” says it all.

excerpt from the lecture:

THE SPIRIT OF THE ROYAL (A hundred years of growin’)

All bricks are bare now, where a thousand cattle bawled.

The window signs are changed where all the packers called.

Though the yards which penned the critters now are bare,

the heartbeat of a city and its spirit linger there.

The ghost riders come at midnight with jingle in their gait,

The agents and commission men are getting figures straight.

Calloused hands with stubby pencils working numbers in their heads,

Hot coffee and cigar smells rousing buyers from their beds…

You can’t quite see their faces or the color of their eyes,

But you know they remember things that you can’t realize.

They keep the blood a flowing… through the city’s veins,

As they lean back in the saddle, look up the hill across their reins…

And see the city growing, see the concrete sprawling out,

Covering up the grassland where they used to ride and shout.

They think about their bellies and the beans they used to eat,

They put the bull on the east horizon, and brought the nation meat.

They are the founders of the city with the cow stuff on their feet,

The echoes of what they did rebound from every wall,

They’re the soul of the American Royal, They’re the ones who built it all!

Rich Hawkins 4/27/99

The Royal is the symbol of our past; but more importantly, it is the symbol of our future….I thank all of you for coming and listening. It’s an honor for me to deliver the last Kimball lecture of the 20th century on a subject that could be our shining star for the 21st century. Let’s invite the folks who feed us all to dinner.  After all, we still have to eat…and I remind you, It’s All About the Eating!” 

Oct. 21, 1999. Mr. John A. Dillingham.

Children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of old and new Civic Contributors to Kansas City and Kansas in Agriculture, Business, Community, and Preservation participated in this event. It was held Oct. 22nd, 2011 at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. And it was grand!

Here are some very amateurish highlights of the event:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq5zISxcUkQ[/youtube]

A little tight there, Dad! But I'm confident she'll make a break for it...though always her father's daughter.

 

Beautiful Cerise presents...Mama Connie & Mama Paula were BOTARS together. In fact, as petites, they danced beside each other.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A6fcBwax9A[/youtube]

Note: One of the ladies featured had a paternal Great Grandfather who served on the Livestock Exchange Board whose Cattle Company, still in existence, was a charter member of the American Hereford Association.  Her maternal grandparents made contributions to Kansas City in the areas of preservation, architecture, and education. Mom and Dad were a BOTAR and GOTAR and continue in their respective fields to pursue work in agriculture and architectural history in the state of Kansas.

This lady BOTAR works in marketing for an agricultural advertising agency  based in St. Louis with offices located in downtown Kansas City. She lives in a loft in the Kansas City Board of Trade Building and walks to work.  It is a block away from three different downtown architectural offices of her maternal Grandfather.  And, Lacy Amelia Adams can herd cattle, vaccinate and build feed bunks with the best of them as

“some of the best cowboys are indeed, cowgirls.” 

The mounted roadie: Ride Tall, He’s always watching.

by admin
"Went to see a horse about a man"

Went to see a horse about a man.

Taking a roadie is taking a break. I think we may all do it, always have, in all times and places, by whatever mode of transportation is available. And times, it has only been in my mind.

The restlessness, the need for freedom, I think, is a part of who we are, or at least who I am. Being a 5th generation Kansan and a 4th generation Jayhawker, it might not seem as though I’ve left home. But I have lived in Paris and traveled quite a bit, in the states and across the state. And we all leave home in different ways. Through the books that I read, adventure is only as far away as my thoughts. And I always return home, wherever that may be, with a new perspective.

"Location:  ridge in the home pasture"

Location: ridge in the home pasture

Sometimes taking a roadie is by horse. In the aerial, you can see that I’m in the home pasture on a ridge (the line) about a mile north of the headquarters, on the north side of the Cimarron River. As it goes, really not very far from home. But it’s the concept that counts.

I’m going to include this photograph that my father-in-law Raymond Adams took, for it is far better than mine. He said one time,”if want to get close to God, you get up on that grey horse and ride up that hill behind the house and you will be about as close to God as you can get.”  And another thing he said, “I am one helluva cowboy.”

Ride tall, he's always watching.

 

Santa Fe Cowboys: Sam, Sam and Tommie Lee

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Santa Fe Star Reportee, the paula paparazzi

“Committing another boundary invasion but here an interesting one. This is Sam Shephard in bar at Rio Chama. the 2nd time I’ve dined with him in Santa Fe. The first was with he, Jessica, and the kids in a French restaurant off Grant.  I think he had a driver.  Finally, I  found a place in Santa Fe where people knew KU basketball should be on the flatscreen, with wireless for my mac, with good beef.”

-Facebook, Mar. 19, 2011.

"Playwright Sam Shepherd"

Playwright Sam Shepard, Rio Chama Bar, Santa Fe, NM

Citings: Pink Adobe, sum 2004.

Sam Donaldson and date

Menu: Rosalea’s apple pie a la mode de cinnamon.

Trivia:  Sam Donaldson has a ranch.

comment:  Like flies to cowdung what I am doing wrong…even the celebrites I site seem to be landed kinda cowboys with ranches and they are climbing out of the wordwork…

Tommie Lee and his beautiful dark-haired wife were spied by Jack on the way to the restroom. Though, I felt we’re almost related already to Tommie Lee through my friendship with Paul Clark, an oil and gas landman in Amarillo, who was classmates at UT with Tommie’s wife #2.

Menu: dunno, since Jack spied him on a restroom trip he didn’t pause to glance.

Demeanor:  Tommie, grouchy. Wife, charming

Trivia:  After we dined, a son I know, his travel copy of Lonesome Dove for southwest road trips in hand, catches the eye of the pretty lady and asks for a sign from Mr. Jones.  “Where do you live?,”  she asks. “on a ranch”.  “so do we,”  she said. A signed copy, “Lieutenant Jack Call.”

Comment:

“Ranching is one of the most creative things you can do.”

-A Landowner in San Saba and Van Horn, Texas. I saw this in an article about Tommie Lee Jones that was in Vanity Fair.

 

a few men and fire stories…

by admin

Backburning in the Kansas Flint Hills. Wabaunsee County.

I was in the Flint Hills yesterday for the Symphony.  It was beautiful, very green with the recent rainfall. That’s a later post.

I have been looking at all the FB posts on fires in Arizona which brought thoughts of fire in my sphere. I have never lived in the Flint Hills, but I have visited the Maple Hill Ranch in the spring when all Adams brothers were burning pastures.

The conditions have to be just right.  A recent rain is requisite, but it has to be dry enough to get a good burn. An overgrazed pasture can’t be burned. If there is no grass left at the end of the pasture season, there won’t be enough for a fire in the spring: graze half, leave half is the rule of thumb. And, the wind is important. High winds are of course hazardous, but a light wind gives a good burn. Winds in Kansas are tricky, particularly in the southwest.

The burning season was traditionally March when there were longhorns in the Flint Hills. It is now more often April to prepare for putting cattle out in the summer. It’s generally accepted now as a good environmental practice, though there are safety precautions in place. I’ve driven I-35 KC to Wichita a time or two when the smoke was so bad everyone had to pull over to shoulder. As well, I don’t think the Prairie Chicken falconers are so thrilled with the practice.

The first step is backburning. Fireguards are laid down along borders in direction of the wind where there is no natural block such as a plowed field, water or roadway. As we “neighbor” in western Kansas for branding and weaning, Flint Hills ranchers often neighbor for controlled burns.

It is important to act on the right day and there may only be one chance. When I was working on my Academic Master of Architectural History Thesis on Mill Creek Skyline Road this came into play. Leland Schultz, the owner of Henry Grimm’s I-House (just across the road from the Flint Hills Symphony last night) specifically told me that it was not a good day for my KU Professors to come out. It was on their agenda to take a play day and photograph the family cemetary on the river. I relayed this and gave warning that they should forgo their plans. But, they headed out. It cost them access to the property for their teacher’s class meeting that summer. And they learned before the National Vernacular Architecture Forum Tour the next year. When the rancher says, “keep out” , you keep out. There’s a reason, he’s not out there riding around on his horse playing cowboy.

The story I told today on a post is one that the father of my children would rather forget. It endeared him to everyone in the county. We were in our twenties and living on the east side of the ranch, south of the Cimarron River in Beaver County, Oklahoma. And, the tamaracs and brush were multiplying quickly on the river.

Tom Flowers, soil conservationist for Meade County, noted that the brush has increased 40 fold since 1982.  So, John was actually on top of things. He did all the backburning and reported (I think he reported…) it to the county that he’d be doing a burn. I have to say, it’s not as popular or common at all in arid western Kansas so he may have skipped this part.

It was all going fine, but as happens in southwest Kansas, the wind picked up full speed on a dime. It still would have been okay, but there was a 30′ steep embankment along the north side of the Cimarron. The wind hit that fire and it rolled up that wall to the adjacent neighbor’s pastures above. That was a long night and next morning. John felt terrible, foolish, inconsiderate.

The reality is that everyone likes to come out for a fire. The volunteer crews and trucks came from Meade and Beaver counties. Maybe even Seward came by for the fun. John Adams is a good neighbor and steward, he keeps up his fence, and he will help anyone. Everyone was very sympathetic with how bad he felt. It was kind of a “welcome to the neighborhood” fire since John hadn’t grown up out there and had a few different practices. The neighbor on the upland side whose pastures were burned was thrilled. There were no cattle out at the time, so his spring grass had a great stand.

My job during all this was to run the sprinklers in the yard around the house. John’s uncle was burned out due to an electrical fire one year, but nothing has ever been close enough for me to feel that this was really necessary. I’m sure that’s poor judgement on my part. I always think I’ll be able to see it, run out, and get it all watered down in time. I have similar thoughts about going down in storm cellars, going into the right corner of a store when there are sirens, outrunning a tornado, or outrunning a buffalo that found it’s way into our yard. But, those are other stories.

So, we don’t do any controlled burning anymore on the ranch. And, this ensured that the local crews got an even bigger donation from the XIT Ranch from this point on. These are great men.

There are many naturally occurring fires in the summer due to lightening in southwest Kansas. When there is dry lightening, everyone is on the lookout throughout the night for any signs of red in the night or smell of smoke. It is difficult to judge how far away a fire is. With everyone living miles apart, one keeps an eye out for himself as well as his neighbor.

That’s about all I have to say. Except that, I think the guys all love it and it seems to always go into the night. I’ve never seen any women at the party.

I guess I would generalize that some men maybe like to play with fire. I have a good friend who’s little boy set their yard on fire playing with matches. She, of course, was very aware of all psychological makeup that this might impart having some concern. She said it wasn’t a popular thing to bring up in playgroup. He had two older sisters, so he probably just needed to get out of the house. The son is now a wonderful, successful, smart college bound male, no problems. He was also an intense long distance runner as a little boy. I’m sure he’ll go far.

I guess it’s just guys with a lot of their own energy playing with nature’s forces. And learning early life lessons about partnerships and who is ultimately in control.