#potwin

Potwin, KS, United States

16/11/28 11:30AM

(38.0, -97.0)

July 31st Potwin, Kansas The Bartel Family's Elk Farm

Walking to Potwin a pick-up truck slows down and a man pops his head out. "You Rebecca?" he asks.

"Yeah, you must be Jerry."

He offers to give me a ride but I assure him, "I made it this far. I'll follow you."

Jack, Ron's brother (the fellow I stayed with at Lake Windfield) has arranged for me to stay with his high school buddy Jerry Bartel and his family on their elk farm just South of Potwin, Kansas.

Jerry's parents started raising elk, not for the meat but for their velvet antler. The elk are not harmed in the process and the antlers actually grow back, making for a lucrative cash crop in the supplement business. The Bartels made good money selling velvet antler, mainly to North Koreans who used it as an aphrodisiac. But when the US implemented a trade embargo with North Korea, they started processing the elk for the meat.

Jerry works in construction as a framer but enjoys woodworking as a hobby. He wife met his Rachel in high school. Jerry and Rachel are trying to enact their dream of living off the grid. They built their own home, they garden, can the harvest, raise chickens, goats, and they even have a small orchard.

When I tell them about my walk they say that they are not on the path of the Keystone XL pipeline, although they've been approached by natural gas companies about drilling on their land via hydraulic fracturing. Rachel tells me they flatly refused. She and the family have seen the documentary Gasland, "I've got my kids here on the farm. Why would we ever even think about taking that risk?"

While Rachel cooks dinner. Jerry introduces me to the kids who have just come home from day camp. A precocious pair, Audrey has a natural tendency for art and Jeremiah is intellectually gifted. Audrey draws me a picture of tulips, while Jeremiah tries to explain to me how to make a robot move. After dinner the two rush off like best friends to play in the basement.

After dinner Jerry asks me if I'm afraid of heights. "Well, not really, I guess." Great, I'll take you up in the scissor lift. The kids get wind of this and start to chant:

"scissor lift! scissor lift! scissor lift!"

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