In today’s Better Kansas, we touch on Medicare counseling, a fire safety activity you can do with children, pumpkins, risk management in agriculture and the 2020 Virtual Swine Day. It’s just a glimpse of what K-State Research and Extension across the state has to offer. Take a look, share on social media and subscribe. – Mary Lou Peter mlpeter@ksu.edu
Better Living, Better Communities
MEDICARE OPEN ENROLLMENT HAS BEGUN. If you’d like help sorting through your options from a trained, unbiased counselor who has no ties to an 
insurance company, check with your local K-State Research and Extension office. Some extension agents are trained SHICK (Senior Health Insurance Counseling for Kansas) counselors and offer one-on-one help for you or a family member or friend to confidentially sort through your best options with Medicare, Medicare Supplemental Insurance, Long Term Care Insurance and more. Medicare Open Enrollment for 2021 runs Oct. 15-Dec. 7, 2020. If your county or district extension office doesn’t have a SHICK counselor, there may still be a counselor in your area. Check with the SHICK program, a part of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services’ Commission on Aging, or call 1-800-856-5260.
OH, I REALLY LIKE THIS! Take a look at this proactive activity you can do with children to develop a fire escape plan for your house. It’s included in the Suddenly in Charge resources aimed at anyone, including teens and tweens who are helping take care of younger children during the pandemic … or any time. Other resources center on reading, physical activity, community and civic engagement. And if you’re interested in more preparedness topics, check out the Prepare Kansas blog.
Better Farming, Ranching and Gardening
WANT LONG-LASTING PUMPKINS ON YOUR FRONT PORCH? Just like the freshness with all fruits and vegetables, it makes a difference when they were harvested. Take a look at the most recent Horticulture Newsletter for tips on choosing a pumpkin that will last awhile, plus carving and roasting pumpkin seeds. This edition also has information on storing summer flower bulbs over the winter (plus a link to a video), native plants in northeast Kansas, cool season vegetable hardiness, tucking your lawnmower in for the winter, why some late season lawn seedings fail, and controlling broadleaf weeds in the lawn in fall.
UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER, FLUCTUATING MARKETS AND INTERNATIONAL OCCURENCES beyond our control make farming and ranching a risky, albeit rewarding, business. And this year with COVID-19, we’ve seen that forces we could never imagine can influence commodity markets and livelihoods. If you’re managing risk in agriculture, check out the Risk Management Strategies newsletter for in-depth information. Yes, there’s a lot of alphabet soup to digest, but the USDA kindly has an online helpful glossary of acronyms. You might want to bookmark it on your computer. It’s REALLY long to print!
IT’S ALMOST HERE! NOW’S THE TIME TO REGISTER FOR THE 2020 K-STATE VIRTUAL SWINE DAY NOV. 18-19 for updates on the latest K-State nutrition, feed safety and feed processing research. So much good information, including feeding sows before farrowing; preparing for a world without zinc oxide; the future of feed safety research; feed mill biosecurity; and other topics. It’s disappointing to not be able to meet in person, but the virtual format will keep people safe PLUS allows you to participate from wherever you are.
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For more resources and activities, contact the K-State Research and Extension office in your area. Check out our other blogs and subscribe to our weekly emails here: https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/blogs/
