Lake news
By TOOTSIE SNELLING
Marion County Park & Lake reporter
The osprey showed up this past week — a sure sign that fall is here. I haven't seen but one so far, usually there at least are two. They should get full with all the shad we have in the lake. They are fun to watch as they hover and dive for fish.
The rain stayed away for Art in the Park but it sure was windy. We had a couple of women from Missouri staying here and going to Hillsboro. They wondered if it blew like this all the time in Kansas. I just laughed and said, "This is just a prairie breeze."
We had several vendors staying here and also several couples who just came to go to both fairs. Some of the men came to fish while the women went shopping.
Sonie Rust, Dale, and I went in to Marion but decided against fighting the crowd in Hillsboro this year.
We enjoyed seeing what all the local people do in their spare time. (I wanted to buy one of Jeff Jirak's benches but Dale wouldn't carry it around for me.) Ha ha! Just kidding! If you saw them you know what I mean.
A big pat on the back to Margo Yates and her staff for all the hard work that goes into Art in the Park. Most of the work is last minute (either late at night or early in the morning) stuff to do and they do a great job of getting it done. The state fair was going on that week and she was in charge of that booth too.
No new fish pictures, but with all the wind of last week not too many fishermen were around. If it turns cooler this week like they say, fishing should pick up a little as more people will want to get out and fish. So grab your pole and come on out, fall is the best time to fish.
Dale had a second cousin visit us over the weekend from Omack, Wash. They stayed in the campground in a beautiful motor home. While here she visited with cousins Annie Hanschu and Elfie Switzer to gather information for her genealogy book. They also traveled to Cottonwood Falls and El Dorado. On their way back from El Dorado they went to Potwin to visit another cousin, Dorothy Wilson.
We told them to be sure and come home through Burns to see all the painted roosters. Well, they didn't say much to us about them and on Sunday morning we found out why. A county officer came by to visit with Dale and said he had been busy rounding up chickens! After our comical remarks he said that someone had taken the painted roosters from all over Burns and that he was finding them all over the county. There had been 18 reported missing but he had found 21 so far! So we all had a good laugh about the chickens and Dale's cousin said they wondered why it was such a big deal, they had only seen three in the whole town!
They also went to Art in the Park and thought it was wonderful. She got a lot of her Christmas shopping done and said she had to go to the bank and get more money to finish their trip.
I kept in touch with my brother and family in Tampa, Fla., this past week. They were waiting to see if Ivan was going to come their way. They did get lots of rain but missed the bad part of the storm. The pictures on TV were terrible. I sat up late one night just watching the newsmen getting battered around in the wind and rain.
