Das Haus April/May 2016

DasHaus April/May 2016

Tourist spot Garden of Eden home a big draw for Lucas.

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CONTENTS

Food safety.4 Community dinners and fundraisers are great, but food can be dangerous.

At home6

Garage sale time....... 10

The Internet has allowed for year-round sales.

The Garden of Eden home is a popular stop.

Das Haus is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601. Find it online at www.HDNews.net/DasHaus.

Copyright Š 2016 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Das Haus is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News.

Printed by Northwestern Printers, 114 W. Ninth, Hays, KS 67601, northwesternprinters.com.

Publisher, Patrick Lowry, plowry@dailynews.net Advertising Director, Mary Karst, maryk_ads@dailynews.net Designer, Nick McQueen, nmcqueen@dailynews.net Account Executives: Joleen Fisher, Ashley Bergman, Eric Rathke Creative Services: Juno Ogle, Mallory Goeke

Tips for a new home.12 Five mistakes new homeowners can make that attract pests.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Linda Beech is a family and consumer science agent with K-State Research and Extension in Ellis County.

4 DAS HAUS April/May 2016

Community food safety

Community meals are a great way to bring people together, and selling food is often an important way for non-profit groups to raise funds.

But no one wants their event to make headlines for a foodborne illness.

Cooking large quantities of food for events such as fundraising dinners, community meals, concession stands, family reunions or funeral dinners is different than cooking for a family. Serious food safety problems can occur if proper practices are not followed.

A successful quantity meal requires careful attention to a series of details, but here are a few pointers to increase your chances for success.

Planning Careful planning should be the first step. In Kansas, a license is not required for food sold by community groups for fundraising purposes less than seven days per year. But, even though a license is not required, the event must be in compliance with proper food-handling guidelines, and might be inspected by a food inspector.

Review the menu and remove any high-risk foods that could be a food safety concern.

Be sure the facility has adequate equipment for cooking and cold storage, and that all are in good working order. Use an appliance thermometer to monitor the temperature in refrigerators and freezers.

Personnel

Volunteers are an important workforce for community events, but be sure that everyone:

a. Washes their hands. Your facility should have a designated hand washing area with soap and disposable paper towels. Keep in mind hand sanitizer is not an acceptable substitute for hand washing when serving food to the public. b. Wears clean clothing. In situations where it may be difficult for food handlers to keep their clothes clean (such as outdoor fairs or festivals) consider providing clean cloth or disposable plastic aprons for volunteers to wear. c. Avoids touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands. Use utensils (spoons, tongs, etc.), deli papers or disposable gloves. d. Refrains from eating and drinking in the food preparation area. Encourage workers to take their food to the eating area and avoid tasting food with cooking utensils.

Cooking It is temperature that determines doneness, not color or time, so be sure to use a food thermometer to ensure protein foods reach a safe internal temperature to kill harmful micro-organisms. Post a temperature chart as a reference. To prevent cross-contamination, thermometers must be cleaned and sanitized between uses.

Thermometers can become inaccurate over time or if dropped, so be sure to choose one that can be adjusted and check it often. Use the ice-point calibration method to ensure accuracy (see box).

Cooling Large quantities of food heat up slowly and cool down slowly. This prolongs the time food spends in the temperature danger zone and can increase food safety risks. For safety, hot food should be cooled to 40 degrees within four hours of cooking. To speed cooling: • Put the large container of hot food into an ice bath, stirring frequently to release heat more quickly. • Divide large quantities into smaller amounts in shallow containers for faster cooling in the refrigerator. Vent the containers by leaving the covering slightly open to allow heat to escape.

Ice-point method of thermometer calibration 1. Fill a glass with crushed ice.

Add water to the top of the ice and stir well.

2. Immerse the thermometer stem at least 2 inches into the ice water without touching the bottom or sides of the glass. Wait for 30 seconds before adjusting.

3. Without removing the stem from the ice, hold the adjusting nut under the head of the thermometer with pliers or a small wrench and turn until the pointer reads 32 °F.

• Check the temperature of food with a clean thermometer to be sure it is cooling adequately, and take corrective action if necessary.

Also check the temperature inside the refrigerator to be sure it is handling the load.

Clean-up Chlorine bleach is the least expensive and most readily available sanitizer for cleaning in the food prep and eating areas. And it doesn’t take much — one teaspoon per gallon of water will kill germs on surfaces. Use bleach as the sanitizer in a three-compartment sink, and a bleach solution in a pail or spray bottle for cleaning counters and tables.

Bleach effectiveness gradually diminishes when combined with water, so mix up fresh every four hours.

Community meals are a great way to build relationships and raise funds, but unfortunately, numerous cases of foodborne illness have been linked to such events. K-State Research and Extension has a new publication which can give helpful advice. “Volunteer Quantity Cooking Safety” is organized as a checklist of important steps for a successful large food event from planning through clean-up. The publication is available at county Extension offices across the state.

AT HOME

Home holds

A house so inviting, visitors keep coming back again and again

nothing back

L 6 DAS HAUS April/May 2016

UCAS — Visitors from more than 70 countries have made their way to Lucas — a small, Kansas town of approximately 400 people — to lay eyes on the unique, awe-inspiring sight that was the home of Samuel Perry Dinsmoor.

The cabin home was built from 1905 to 1907

by Dinsmoor, a farmer and Civil War veteran. Everything from the doors and windows on the home, to the massive sculptures surrounding it — his Garden of Eden — was carefully thought out and designed with the intention to keep

visitors coming back.

“He built this home wanting it to be a tourist attraction,” said Lynn Schneider, Garden of Eden director.

In Dinsmoor’s self-published “Pictorial History of The Cabin Home in Garden of Eden, Lucas Kansas,” he wrote, “This is my sign — GARDEN OF EDEN — I could hear so many, as they go by, sing out, ‘What is this?’ so I put this sign up. Now they can read it, stop or go on, just as they please.”

Dinsmoor’s detailed craftsmanship can be found throughout the inside of the home, especially on the main floor, which

Story by Maggie Gebhardt Photos by Jolie Green

he specifically designed with tourism in mind. He purposefully made no two windows or doors the same size, adding to the unique charm and appeal.

“It’s very ornate woodwork on this main level where he gave the tours,” Schneider said. “A lot of his older pictures don’t have any kind of furniture on this main floor; this is where he just showed people his different woodwork. It was really a very fancy house for that time period in this area.”

The upstairs, mostly consisting of bedrooms, and the basement, which served as more of a living area, were for Dinsmoor’s family. Basements were unusual for homes at that time period, as well, according to Schneider.

>>>>>>>>>

“He

built this home wanting it to

be a tourist attraction .”

Lynn Schneider, Garden

of

Eden

director

“This main floor was for the tourists, and his family mostly lived down in the basement,” said Connie Dougherty, Lucas Area Chamber of Commerce director. “That is exactly how Dinsmoor wanted it.”

The home’s exterior is made from limestone, which was quarried into long pieces to be constructed like that of a log cabin.

After the home was completed in 1907, Dinsmoor’s interest in concrete work was sparked, so he began creating large, story-telling sculptures, which now surround the entire outside of the house.

He used more than 113 tons of concrete and 2,273 sacks of dry cement, along with the necessary gravel and sand, to construct the giant sculptures that make up his Garden of Eden.

The creations depict Dinsmoor’s

interpretations of society, religion and government at that time, and include Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the reflection of modern civilization surrounding the ideas of the populist party, who were against big businesses taking advantage of the working man. These are only a few of the many depictions on display.

“So, there are a lot of snakes going after things — they represent big businesses going after your working man,” Schneider said. “But in the backyard, it’s more Dinsmoor’s idea of how modern civilization should have been.”

In addition to the many sculptures depicting his beliefs, Dinsmoor also built a mausoleum, which is located in the corner of the yard. Within this extremely secure construction lies Dinsmoor’s body — mummified and openly on display — and the body of his first wife, which is surrounded in concrete below him.

“When she passed away, she was to be buried in the mausoleum, but the city wouldn’t allow it. So she was buried out in the cemetery,” Schneider said.

“So, he went out there and dug her up,

brought her back into town and into the mausoleum, put her in her casket, and ran concrete over it so they couldn’t come get her.”

A man who consistently pushed the envelope. A man who expressed his ideas and beliefs without hesitation. A man who constructed his own tourist site, which

even 84 years after his death, still has people from all over the world talking, just as he wished.

“It does so much for the Lucas community,” Schneider said. “We have over 10,000 visitors a year here, who come just to see Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden.”

Garage sale season Internet puts a new twist on clearing out your closet

Tribune News Service Erin Hughes folds clothes for her Facebook page, Erin’s Cleaning Purge, a social-network yard sale in Wichita.

Garage sale

with a year-round twist

By Annie Calovich Tribune News Service

10 DAS HAUS April/May 2016

WICHITA — There’s nothing quite so serendipitous as stumbling over a good garage sale — when the weather is nice.

But if you’re looking to make a little cash by getting rid of your stuff, the Internet, with its relentlessly specific and targeted abilities, bypasses the need to tag things, borrow tables and clothes racks to display them, open the driveway to the public, and wait for spring.

Some people are making transactions year-round on buying and selling groups on Facebook. “Yard sale,” “garage sale,” “trading,” “exchange” and “swap” are some of the terms used for groups that allow members to post items for sale, seek items they want or buy other people’s stuff.

“It’s kind of like an online garage

sale,” Kelly Bryant said of the group she started in January 2015 in her neck of the Wichita woods. It’s called “East Wichita, Rockwood, Woodlawn Village & LakePoint Area Trading.” Many of the transactions are done via porch pickup.

Denise Groene of the Better Business Bureau says the Facebook groups are “a good way to get a lot of visibility without having to do the leg power to market a typical garage sale. It’s a great way to make some extra cash and clean out items.”

But people still need to use caution when meeting strangers for transactions, she said, and she herself has dropped out of a group because she wasn’t comfortable doing business that way. She pointed out Andover has what it calls an “e-commerce exchange zone” — two parking places at the police department to more safely trade money for goods.

In addition to groups that are tied to a geographical area, Facebook has specialty groups that sell particular types of items, from wedding supplies to auto parts. Some are defined by neighborhoods, and some are citywide. Some groups have strict rules that limit items they sell to brand names, while others have few if any restrictions.

One downside to shopping: Imagine going through photos of stuff at a garage sale rather than taking everything in at a glance, or quickly rifling through it. Downsides to selling: Imagine having to photograph and type in a description of each item you’re selling. Even though it wouldn’t seem worth it, items are sold in some of the groups for as low as a dollar.

And you can’t sell everything at once; groups have limits such as five active posts from a particular seller at one time.

Groene shakes her head at people who are able to sell, say, a pot holder for a dollar. “You have time to meet someone for a pot holder? And wait for someone you’ve never met before?

“But if you’ve got something that is of value and worth selling, it could definitely be a good thing.”

So how do you find one?

First, you have to have a Facebook page. Then you can go to the search box and start typing in a region. You’ll see names of groups appear. Click on a group and see whether any of your friends are already members. If the group is closed, your friends can invite you to join, or you can ask to join the group yourself. The administrator makes the decision. People who live outside a designated group area can often still join but are expected to travel to the area for transactions.

Check out the rules, number of members, and types of merchandise to see if you want to stay.

The next thing to do is familiarize yourself with the terminology: “Cross posted” means the item has been posted on different groups; “porch pickup” means that if you’re buying an item, you will have to pick it up on the seller’s porch; “EUC” means “excellent used condition”; “ISO” means

Hughes sorts clothes for her Facebook page. “in search of.”

There are even groups within groups. When Erin Hughes started cleaning out her clothes closet — the one that is a time capsule dating back to her high school days — she decided to see if somebody could use her stuff.

Rather than go through a garage-sale group, she decided to do her own — Erin’s Cleaning Purge.

This way she can sell to people who are her size, or who are interested in the teaching supplies the former teacher also is selling. In her own group, she doesn’t have to abide

by the rules of posting, say, only five items at a time. All of her sales will be porch pickup only; “I’m not meeting anybody. I don’t have time for that.”

And when she’s done, she’ll just delete the group.

“I am actually not a huge fan of the actual ‘garage sale’ groups,” Hughes says.

People try to sell everything, she says.

“I just feel like half the stuff on there is trashy, and then if you put on there, ‘I’m selling this dress for $4’ and people try to make a bargain — take it or leave it.”

On the other hand, “it truly is amazing the things people will post. And will ask $50, and it’s like a pencil.”

Meanwhile, she’s working her way through her closet, selling items as she goes.

“This may be a long process. I’ve already got three bags of clothes for gals stopping by tonight. (But) it’s not in my closet anymore.”

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Berry Berry Quite Contrary Kayla Berry is a stay-at-home mom who enjoys creating, decorating and re-purposing old furniture and decor.

Chalkboard

storage containers

W

e all get them; usually around Christmas time. They are more than likely filled with goodies neighbors and friends bring us. And most of us throw them away, not really having a use for them. But one or two maybe gets shoved behind something in our kitchen cupboards. They line the shelves at thrift stores and are seen at many garage sales. I am talking about tin cans, if you haven’t guessed already. And I have found a purpose for this “throw-away” item.

With young kids in my house I am always looking for storage solutions, whether it’s crayons, ponytail holders, bows, toys, etc.

And these tin cans are perfect for that.

To dress them up, I gave them a few coats of primer. I like the spray kind in this case because it’s much easier and quicker. The next step is to spray them with chalkboard paint. I gave them each two to three coats. Let that dry for a day or two and then you need to prime your chalkboard before writing on it with chalk. Simply take the piece of chalk the long way, and rub it all over the can. Wipe it off, and it is ready for use.

You could even put a cute knob on top of the lid to make it easier to remove if you would want. If you want some color, simply use colored chalkboard spray paint or colored chalk.

12 DAS HAUS April/May 2016

Homeowner tips Keeping out unwanted guests can be a chore

Mistakes homeowners make that attract pests

S

pring is house-hunting season and with warmer temperatures and increased rain, it also is the season when pesky creatures can invade homes.

Even minor flaws in a new home should not be ignored as they can potentially lead to pest damage.

Ron Harrison, Ph.D., entomologist with Orkin, recommends new homeowners avoid making these five mistakes:

Overlooking tiny cracks Even tiny cracks and crevices in the foundation, doorways and walls where pipes enter the home could be inviting ants, roaches, spiders, rodents and other pests inside.

A rat can squeeze through an opening as small as a quarter and a mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime. Cockroaches, ants and spiders can enter through tiny crevices, too.

Pests are attracted to shelter, food and water. Homeowners should promptly clean up all water and food spills, seal any cracks and crevices around doors, windows and pipes and install weather stripping around and under all doors, including garage doors.

14 DAS HAUS April/May 2016

Obtaining second-hand furniture Buying a home is an expensive investment and it might be tempting to save money with furniture from a thrift shop or garage sale, but bed bugs, spiders and even scorpions have been known to dwell in second-hand upholstered furniture.

Once inside, they can spread from room to room. That’s why it’s important to inspect and quarantine — for several months if possible — all second-hand furniture before bringing it inside your home.

Ignoring insulation A home’s attic can be a gateway inside for many pests, such as rodents and cockroaches, that nest in insulation.

It’s important to inspect insulation for pest activity and damage: insulation that is wet, matted down, chewed or covered with droppings.

New insulation technology incorporates materials specifically designed to help deter household pests.

Ignoring flooring and siding damage Termites are called “silent destroyers” because they might be secretly hiding and thriving in a home or yard without immediate signs of damage. They cause more than $5 billion in damage every year in the United States, according to the National Pest Management Association.

House foundations, wood framing, furniture and shelves are all possible feeding sites for termites. In spring, termites can be seen swarming around windows or doors. Other signs of termite activity include buckling wood, swollen floors and ceilings and areas that appear to be suffering from slight water damage.

Brick and mortar homes are not termite-proof as they have wooden components, such as framing and flooring, that can host termite infestations. It’s important to work with a licensed professional to provide regular inspections.

Not repairing leaks Minor leaks might seem to be just that — minor -— but leaks or condensation, combined with increasing temperatures in the spring, can create ideal conditions for cockroaches and other pests.

American cockroaches, “camel crickets” and springtails can enter homes through tiny cracks and are attracted to damp areas, both in the attic or crawl space and indoors in the basement, kitchen or bathroom.

Small steps make a big difference. Fix leaking faucets, water pipes and A/C units and eliminate standing water on the roof or in gutters to help prevent an infestation.

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