Ogallala Commons Interns Stay Connected
Simone Cahoj, Board Member, Ogallala Commons
Through
the use of Google Hangouts on Air, Ogallala Commons’ intern alumni will be able
to stay connected and learn from each other in the future. The first intern
alumni hangout is tentatively scheduled for the last week of July, and will
feature a presentation from intern Beto Rincon. During the Intern Orientation,
10 people signed up to present during our OC Intern Alumni Hangouts. Once the
Hangouts are completed, the entire conversation is recorded and uploaded to
YouTube, creating a record of exciting presentations and networking for
Ogallala Commons’ interns. More
information, including how to get on Google Hangouts on Air, the schedule of
Hangouts and topics, will be sent out. If you’re interested in participating,
add Simone Cahoj, simone.cahoj@gmail.com, on Google+ using your Gmail email
address. Plans are still in the works
for physical meet-ups at Prairie Festival in Salina, KS on September 27-29 and
Quivira Coalition’s Conference in Albuquerque, NM on November 13-15.
Intern Potlucks
Kansas Simone Cahoj, Board Member, Ogallala Commons
On June 20th, interns Parker Hassell, Julianne Essmiller, Summer Castens, Amy Korbe, Jenna Kreigh and Greg Laudenslager, and some of their supervisors gathered in Atwood, Kansas. Interns learned about the High Plains Food Cooperative from Chris and Sheri Schmidt, who had donated the meat for dinner. Interns also went on a walk through the area for a photo scavenger hunt. During the community walk, out of town interns were introduced to fresh ideas that they took back to their communities with hopes of implementation. The next intern gathering will be July 18th in Leoti, Kansas.
Texas P.B. Martin, Board Member, Ogallala Commons
On Sunday, June 30th, 2013, a few more than 20 wonderful people joined together at Paul & Betsy Martin's house in Seguin, Texas for a pot-luck meal. The jeweled gears of community on which we wished to focus on during this lovely day (in which we received a bit of rain and benefited by unseasonably cool weather) were several Ogallala Commons interns (Beto Rincon, Thomas Schroeder, and future prospect Crystal Mendez) and Intern Supervisors Paul Castillo and Cynthia Green. A big part for Sunday’s celebration was the partaking of locally-grown tomatoes, asparagus, peppers and herbs. In addition to discussions about communities and sustainability, some of the group truly relaxed and played horseshoes while the really young built with jenga and domino pieces.
Playa Field Day
Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons
It was probably the hottest day in the year
(104 in the late afternoon), but 19 attendees at OC's Playa Field Day on June
27th, were out prowling two recently wet but almost dry playas, out on either
side of the Texas/New Mexico line (western Deaf Smith County, TX and northern
edge of Curry County, NM). We left out of Hereford, TX at about 9:20am headed
west toward the state line. As one person said, "It was worth the
$10 registration just to see the green country!" Indeed, we saw two
recently-flooded playas (only partially filled) about 12-15 miles west of
Hereford in the shortgrass country. 
At our first stop, the playa that filled on June 5th was
only wet in the bar ditch, but we found lots of moist-soil playa plants, good
number of dragonflies (thanks to Dr. Nancy McIntyre and the nets she brought
along), plus tadpoles, toads, macroinvertebrates, and a checker garter snake.
At our second stop, we were out near a huge
90-acres range land playa on the property of rancher John Woods. The
playa partially flooded (covering about 45 acres) on June 5, but the surface water was almost gone. To eat our
sandwich lunch and ward off the heat, John allowed us to sit under the shade of
his back yard porches, where we were treated to an amazing "live
herp" exhibit by Robert Martin of The Nature Conservancy, from Santa Fe,
NM. After that, we head over a mile to an arroyo/gully, just west of the
big playa. The gully was still filled with rainwater for about 50 yards,
and was an amazing place to net all types and colors of dragonflies and damsel
flies.
Our
next OC Playa Management Day will be in mid-September.
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