It's time for Positively Kansas coming up.

History goes to the highest bidder as collectors compete for pieces of the state's agricultural past.

Also which has spawned its share of professional athletes through the years.

Well, here's one you probably don't know about.

Playing a sport you may not realize is big business.

Plus, art has no limits on this Sumner County farm.

Learn about the family with the most talked about hay bales in Sumner County.

And wildlife journalist Mike Blair shows us the fascinating relationship between flowers and bugs in Kansas outdoors.

It's another stunning wild edge report you don't want to miss.

I'm Sierra Scott.

A half hour of information and inspiration is coming your way on Positively Kansas.

Positively Kansas is brought to you in part by.

Before investing your hard earned money.

Make sure your financial advisor understands your objectives.

Mark Douglass CFP Serving our community for over 20 years, providing customized financial solutions that focus on the individual.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas serves more than 930,000 Kansans in various programs.

Independent member of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association supports keeps.

Programs support provided by the F price KOSMAN Memorial Trust and Trust Bank Trustee.

Bringing you the Kansas Wild Ed segments on positively.

Kansas.

Agriculture has been the lifeblood of our state from the very beginning.

But as the economics increasingly favor large scale operations, farming becomes a harder business to pass on from one generation to the next.

Chris Frank shows us a sign of the times as one family's farming legacy is sold off piece by piece in Marion County.

Marketing a 75.

I've got 175 202.

Do you need a bit of an element of everything?

The rhythmic cadence of the auctioneer sounds across the little farmstead near Hillsboro collectors, along with the just curious escape to summer heat under the shade tree as the sale goes on.

Serious buyers study items a bid considering whether the pieces fit in with their buying needs.

He got his pocketknife out and he thought, everybody else can make a seed.

I'm going to make a scene.

GLYNN What describes his late father, Virgil's passion for farm equipment seat making?

Virgil Whipkey started his business of manufacturing his own designs of cast iron seats in 1970.

Those lucky seats are being sold here, along with the other brands Liedtke collected over the decades.

Some of those makes date back more than a century.

He made a liftgate seat on the backside.

You can see l. I can't, you son.

Glenn says his dad collected hundreds of seats.

The more valuable ones, he says, are made of cast iron.

He says some misnamed the seats by calling them tractor seats.

So a cast iron seat was designed for the horse drawn implement itself.

Tractors, for the most part, had pressed metal seats not nearly as valuable across the board.

But we move on.

Lest you think seats are the only sales attraction here.

It takes high aerial views to see the hundreds of items being auctioned in the little collection covering several acres of the farmstead.

Virgil and Phyllis Liedtke died only nine days apart in April 2019.

Virgil was 92.

Phyllis, 89.

The two farmed here their whole lives with the help of sons Glen and Syd and daughter Brenda.

Most of the tractors in these rows were purchased for his own collection.

Others, however, are those the elder Liedtke and his children farmed with.

Glen, says Dad, like other Kansas farmers, had to learn how to repair tractors by getting his hands dirty.

It was often a farmer's only option, he says.

And back then, in those thirties and forties when something broke, especially during the Depression era, you couldn't just go to town necessarily and buy it.

And you may not have the cash to try to, you know, hire somebody else to fix it.

So things were made much simpler back then, but he was the one who would be able to take a head or crank an oil pan off of a tractor and make some adjustments and do some fixing up.

And so he was more mechanically inclined even than his father was.

At a point, Virgil added small motors, tilling implements, threshers, tractors and more to what started as his collection of seats.

But what we have left here is just a lot of a lot of good, rare, interesting pieces of equipment and tractors that got into the restoration business kind of in the in the early sixties and then throughout the seventies.

Besides machinery, there are very collectible old company and product signs coveted by collectors.

They're very collectible people.

You know, man, caves are a popular thing.

And guys like to have, you know, the old Ford or the Phillips 66 or Quaker State or Champion Champlin.

They love to have these things hanging in there in their man caves.

He says some of the online bids for these signs are well into the thousands of dollars.

The signs will do well, no question about it.

Now, not everything is highly collectible.

Liedtke says some of the old implements will wind up being yard art, including the often seen images of plow wheels decorating the home driveway entrances.

Glenn admits all this collection business was his dad's passion, not so much his.

Glenn had a career as a voice in choral music instructor at the collegiate and high school levels.

But he encourages others, especially the younger generations, to think about and learn the history.

These vintage farm pieces represent.

History is important.

We all learn from history.

Farming was more challenging and labor intensive then.

Well, it represents the industrial revolution to start with.

Take an old threshing machine like this, for example.

It represents those years before combines were invented, which made harvesting Kansas wheat and other grains so much simpler and easier.

You go out there to those horse drawn pieces of equipment, there's a lot of crude, a lot of crude innovation.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it didn't work.

But it's almost laughable sometimes to see how crude some of those ideas were.

But but but they were dreaming of, wow, how do you how do you make this happen?

The innovators who figured out how to make a machine practical and productive succeeded, at least for a time, after all.

Many of the company names seen here are no longer in business.

And so there was just hundreds of of companies that sprang up trying to be what we now recognize as a John Deere or a Kasich or an AGCO or something like that with very few companies.

Those industrial are those tractor companies that are recognizable.

Very few of those survived.

Some old time farmers who remember these machines will remind us how difficult it was to hand-crank them, to get them started.

We had an old timer come through our museum one time and he says, Oh, that tractor that started so hard, he said, My dad and I, we would crank all morning and then we'd plowed in the afternoon.

So yeah, it was there were a lot of challenges for that for them back then.

These small engines don't look like much now, but they were lifesavers for Kansas farmers back in the days before electricity came to rural areas.

These small engines with their pulleys pumped, water grinded, feed, ran butter, churns, washing machines, generators, bus calls and the list goes on.

George Wayne Walker Jr from Onaga in part of Waterman County, can't seem to get enough of them.

Sort of addiction, you know, ferrous oxide addiction.

You know, got to have less for us.

Got to have more iron.

I got starting high school and been collecting Indians basically all my life.

So, well.

He's definitely hooked.

So, like.

Potato chips can have just one 175.

I've got to have.

Collectors here buy, sell and trade to get what they want.

RL Brenner and partner Martha Huber operate an antiques and yard art store in eastern South Dakota.

They make the long trek here looking for collectibles.

Always been interested in this kind of stuff.

Ever since I was a little feller.

So that's how it goes.

They will resell, reshape or remake their purchases into yard art, hoping to make a profit.

Well, when you.

Make your own product, it takes going to an auction like this.

Buying items.

That's my other half.

That does a lot of the reconstruction, welding, making or repurposing or trying.

To make it back to original again.

So it takes the knack of knowing how to make it back or create a new item to requalify.

But it gets even better than that already.

But I think a lot of.

This auction has been in the family planning for more than two years before the Liedtke parents died in 2019.

Even Virgil's last words to his son had to do with dealing with this collection.

And I didn't realize it, but it was the very last words I heard my dad tell me a day before he died.

He said, when he was able to say it, he says, I'm sorry, I have to leave all of this for you to deal with.

Of course, I go up to him, give him a big hug and say, Dad, that's okay, we'll manage.

We're fine.

I have had to rethink those words quite a bit lately.

As I'm saying, yeah, it is a big job.

I I'm wore out.

This is this is overwhelming.

What took a lifetime to collect sells in a two day auction with these pieces going to new homes, new collections continuing the stories and keeping the history they represent alive right.

There.

193 Good man.

This is Chris Frank near Hillsboro for Positively Kansas.

Liedtke hopes the new owners of that antique equipment preserve and display it.

It's a window into the challenges farmers have faced through the years, using such simple, primitive equipment.

Compared to today, from the plains of Kansas to the Swiss mountains, the scenery couldn't be more different.

Jody Larson of Wichita is living her dream as a professional athlete.

She's a rising star in European professional leagues.

Chris Frank has her amazing story.

Walk it out.

Walking out.

It's rare to find Jody Larson without a smile or an encouraging word.

Good for the students she coaches.

Yeah, it's nice.

Good.

But her otherwise easygoing, friendly demeanor turns to aggressive attacking.

When you're on the opposite side of the volleyball net now, you may not understand the language of the Finnish announcer on this clip, but you will understand when he says Jody's name.

Jody Larson and I thought the girl in the hall thought.

This video is from a match in Finland.

That's Jody at the net in Red Jersey with the number one attacking and then blocking a return to win a point for her team.

She's beginning her fifth season in the fall of 2021 as a professional volleyball player in Europe, before professional volleyball in the U.S. has had its fits and starts with leads coming and going.

U.S. volleyball hardly compares to the big money making in American sports.

But in Europe, Larson says, volleyball is a big deal.

I mean, every country has a volleyball league, almost especially in Europe.

Everyone has at least two, three, four, five levels that you can play in in each country.

So it's very popular over there, especially men's volleyball here.

It's more of the coasts.

But over there of men's volleyball is just as popular as women's.

It's very different.

And that difference, as Jodie puts it, allows her to make a living with her new team in Geneva, Switzerland.

I can't wait.

I've never lived in such a big city, so I'm really excited.

She continues to rise in the European ranks, getting into more competitive leagues there.

And then hole in squeeze at the top.

And you should feel Evert feel it.

She returns to Wichita when league play in Europe ends.

Her summer breaks include working in local volleyball camps where she passes on what she's learned to others.

Nice.

Ellery drives and he throws one to lunch.

Push off.

Good.

Just like that.

Larson made a name for herself with WSU soccer.

Volleyball.

She played her junior and senior years there in 2015 and 2016.

She was the MVP in the conference tournaments both years.

She was also honorable mention all-American.

That got her noticed by European sports agents.

There was an agent that reached out to my coach.

You feel it.

Good.

At that time, she didn't know there were professional volleyball opportunities overseas.

And when she's back home on season breaks, she often hears from people who are surprised to learn of for volleyball.

Yeah, I mean, I get a lot of questions because they're like, Oh, I didn't know you could do that or How does that even work?

Like, how did you find a job?

Do you sign a contract?

You go over, you play for this team, they pay you.

It's almost the same thing.

It's just nobody knows.

What she means is most Americans don't know.

Jody was part of a winning team at May South High School.

Still, she says, it took playing club volleyball and playing in large national tournaments to get noticed by university scouts.

She committed to playing for the University of Oklahoma as a high school sophomore.

At the University of Oklahoma.

That was kind of like my dream school growing up because my dad's from Oklahoma.

Ready?

Go now.

There's a funny story about her time at O.U.

When Larson hosted a high school recruiting prospect.

And I hosted Hayley Bosworth on her unofficial or her official visit.

And we were standing there in my dorm room, and her dad's there.

Larson had no idea the girl's dad was none other than Brian Bosworth, better known as the Bombers.

The Buzz was an all-American linebacker on OSU's national championship team in 1985 and a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1986.

But the buzz was also notorious and known for his often outrageous behavior that resulted in Coach Barry Switzer kicking the bars off the team after Bosworth's short NFL career.

Bosworth turned to acting with movies and television appearances.

And here he was, standing in Larson's room.

And I had no idea who Bosworth was.

But Jodi's father knew.

Her parents happened to be on campus and waiting for their daughter to meet up with them.

They were like, Where are you?

Like, where?

They're trying to find me.

And I was like, We're in my dorm room, but this guy's just talking forever and we can't leave.

And he goes, Who is it?

I go, It's.

It's one of our recruits, Dad.

His name's like Bosworth or something.

And my dad freaks out.

He goes, The boss is in your apartment or your dorm room.

And I'm like, Yeah, who is he?

And my dad was like, Can you get his autograph for me?

I got to meet this guy.

Larson's O.U.

Dream didn't turn out as she would have liked.

So she transferred to WSU and played on conference championship teams.

Now, Larson keeps an album of European news clippings.

Her first European stop was to a team in France.

Larson was selected team captain in her second year there.

That's a big rarity for a not for a foreigner or a non-French speaking person to be captain in a French team.

So in her third season, Larson moved on to Finland to a new team in a higher league.

She played there two seasons.

Last season I went to the best team in Finland and we ended up having probably for me it was my best performance I've ever had.

And though coming off what she calls her best season of play, Larson says there's room to grow and she wants to continue her climb.

It's just that I have to keep moving up.

That's kind of been the the ladder I'm climbing now.

Larson embraces the new countries she's living in by immersing herself in the new cultures.

I want to do what they do.

I want to eat what they eat.

I want to try what they try.

Because, like, how often do you get to live in a place for eight, nine months and really just get to live like a Finnish person or a French person?

So.

Larson is considering other options when her pro playing days are over, but for now, she'll get acquainted with her new Swiss Alps surroundings while thinking about her playing days on the plains of Kansas.

This is Chris Franke for Positively Kansas.

Larson developed her playing skills very early in life with the help of her mother, Teri Larson, who coached high school volleyball in maize.

Now to the great outdoors, where wildflowers produce fascinating shows as her sweet and colorful blossoms attract a host of insects and spiders.

In this week's Kansas Wild Edge report, Mike Blair shows us how these creatures use stealth and strength while feeding on their beautiful food sources.

Few have the time to sit in a patch of wildflowers for an afternoon, especially when the heat index is above 100 degrees.

But that's perfect for arthropods, and they provide a wildlife show worth watching.

I spent hours today among grassland bloomers and observing with binoculars and cameras.

I was spellbound that the life around me on its face, the viewing was all about pleasantries.

Butterflies.

Bees.

Grasshoppers and wasps fed on the flowers.

Larvae fed on the leaves, pew painting and emerging as adult courting and mating continued the live stream.

It made a kaleidoscope of color and the soft buzz of humming wings added music to the summer ambiance.

But the sprawling flowers, busy with thirsty and well-dressed visitors, was a killing field as well.

In the jungle of leafy cover drama waited.

Hunters like winged prairie.

Robert flies dashed to catch unwary diners.

These ferocious and abundant predators aren't picky.

They eat each other as well as large and dangerous prey, like bumblebees almost always successful in their attacks.

They are sometimes stung and killed by escaping adversaries.

Other hunters, like ambush bugs that hid among the blossoms, seized their prey as it landed within grasping distance.

Then they pierced deeply with huge siphoned mouthparts that liquefied and sucked out the victim's body contents, leaving only dry shells for some predators.

Natural camouflage helped them to hunt crabs.

Spiders hid in plain sight, able to grab and stun their victims instantly with potent venom.

Jagged ambush bugs lying motionless were all but invisible to feeding prey, and they too were able to subdue larger and more powerful victims with their swift bite.

But camouflage can work both ways.

Amazing color patterns and even shapes and forms helped hide some from hunting eyes.

Walking sticks were a great example as they fed invisibly among grassy plants.

Spiders were ever present, among them the skillful and dangerous jumping spiders.

These, whose eyesight is among the best of the arthropod world, were fearless in attacking large prey like powerful grasshoppers.

Some even killed and a larger spiders that wandered close.

Amazing discoveries like these are always part of an outdoor day.

And I was better for the hours I spent watching.

I'm Mike Blair, four Positively Kansas.

Next time, Mike shows us how the Turkey population thrives in Kansas.

Now back to the farm where a Kansas family has been delighting neighbors and passers by for 25 years.

Anthony Powell shows us how.

Driving along this lonely stretch of highway 81 in Sumner County.

You hardly expect to see your favorite Kansas City Chiefs brought to life in the form of hay bales.

The unique art is courtesy of the Lungren family of Caldwell, Kansas, who's been making the hay creations for a quarter century.

But 2020 was a game changing year for the Bales.

I think it was because it was the Chiefs that we got all this attention.

The Chiefs team has had the Lungren phone ringing often with interview requests.

Once you start talking to them, you realize the hay bale art is about much more than football.

Rod started that as a family activity to do things as a Christmas card to the community.

So that when people drove by, they enjoyed they enjoyed looking to see what we'd made.

Pam is referring to her late husband, who passed away in February 2019.

Rod came up with the bail art idea in the mid-nineties.

Over the years, the Lungren family would come up with so many amazing creations from Mickey to trains and several, several others, all from bales stacked together.

Fabric and some paint.

The chief's theme was a tribute to Rod.

The Chiefs was his.

He would be so proud of the this because the Chiefs have always when even when they weren't good.

He was always back in the Chiefs.

So he would be he would be smile.

And I know he is.

After Rod passed away, the couple's three daughters knew it was up to them to keep things going.

Pam says a new theme is something the women think about for many months.

Usually it's harvest.

They're on the combines and in the trucks, and they decide they come up with these ideas.

And of course, with three daughters, none of them do agree.

Usually what everyone can agree on is how great it is, knowing this family tradition will keep going strong.

That's because the grandkids have become involved in the hay bale art.

Good old fashioned outdoor fun.

Yes, my grandchildren do love to be on their electronic gadget.

Boy, they drop them and run when they find out we're doing Vail art.

The family also knows it must keep constructing the bales because they have become so important to folks in this area.

The community has been so supportive.

We always have people coming up.

I do.

Oh, usually about Thanksgiving.

Well, now, before that, probably Halloween, they'll come up and say, What are you doing this year?

What's what's it going to be?

I said, I can't tell you.

It's top secret.

Can't tell you.

The bales start going up Thanksgiving weekend because that's when Pam's daughters and their families are all home.

It usually takes a few long days to finish them, and even though it can be a lot of work, the Lundgren stay motivated, knowing how much joy that Bales bring.

And of course, there's the joy they know they're bringing.

Family patriarch.

Rod.

This was his baby.

In Sumner County between Caldwell and South Haven.

I'm Anthony Powell for positively Kansas.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

I'm Ciara Scott.

See you next time.

Program support provided by the F Price Kosman Memorial.

Trust and.

Trust Bank Trustee.

Bringing you the Kansas Wild Ed segments on Positively Kansas.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas serves more than 930,000 Kansans in various programs.

Independent member owned Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, supports KPS.

Before investing your hard earned money.

Make sure your financial advisor understands your objectives.

Mark Douglass CFP Serving our community for over 20 years, providing customized financial solutions that focus on the individual.