Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

The first meeting of Flatwillow Homemakers will be on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at Linda Gershmel’s home. We will be filling out our program/hostess booklets. We will also have opportunity table and secret sister revealing. There will be an election of officers since we were not able to meet last spring when we usually do that. One of the items on the agenda is to discuss the possibility of not doing secret sisters this year. The Covid restrictions makes it more difficult to get out and about and it will be one less thing to worry about with everything else going on. Hopefully, all will be able to be there. It is always fun to meet up again after our summer break. We haven’t meet since February so it will be especially fun to catch up on all the news.

Winnett Seniors are still only doing take-out meals for anyone that wants one. They will deliver in Winnett, but if you live out of town and want a meal, they will prepare one for you. You just need to pick up your delicious meal. Thank you to Patti and Cassie for continuing to prepare delicious meals and for all the volunteers who help to deliver meals. Depending on what happens, they are hoping that by October, we can again begin in person lunch and meetings.

School started in Winnett on August 24. The first week is in the books and it went very well. Teachers and students alike were happy to be back in the classroom and reconnecting with their students, friends, classmates, teachers. We welcome Kyle Hubbard as the new music teacher, Megan Nunn is the new head school cook, and Skylar Thompson will be teaching English and Spanish. Welcome all to our school.

Sports practices have been going well. The first volleyball games and football games were held this past weekend. I don’t know all the scores; I do know the Jr. High football team lost to Tri Cities, but they did an incredible job and had lots of fun. The volleyball teams won. It is so nice to see the kids out playing and enjoying their sports after missing out on their spring sports season. There are fans allowed to watch the football and volleyball games. We just have to remember to follow the guidelines for social distancing. We are so lucky in our small communities that we can easily do this and enjoy watching our kids play.

Today feels like fall is coming. I don’t know about you, but I am so ready for cooler temperatures and fall weather. I don’t want cold temperatures or snow yet, but so ready for fall. Grasshoppers have been awful this year. I didn’t get much of a garden this year, the grasshoppers made sure of that. We did get our haying done but it was a race to stay ahead of the hoppers; not sure we won that race. We do have hay in for our cows so we are as ready for winter as we can be, I think.

The first annual Winnett Booster Club poker run was held last week. They started at the Winnett Bar and had several stops to pick cards to fill out their poker hand. There were a lot of participants and everyone had a good time. What a fun activity that involved anyone who wanted to join. Thank you to the families that were a “poker stop” where you got out and visited, had refreshments, received your next card and then on the way to the next stop. Thank you to all who helped organize and put it together.

Be sure and complete your Census form, either online or in person. We need every person counted. It will help our county and our state. There are census workers out and about so if they stop by your house, they are just trying to get everyone counted.

I want to say a big thank you to Laura Nowlin and Betsy Bradley for their work on getting Flatwillow Hall on the National Register of Historic Places. I received word this past week that Howard Lepper (Flatwillow) Hall was chosen to be added to the National Register. That is exciting news. There was a lot of research done. All the board members (and me) met with Laura and Betsy to all give information and stories on how the Hall has been used for the last 100 years. There is a lot of fun history about the Hall. If you ever have a chance to read “Pages of Time”, which is a history of this area, there is a section on Flatwillow Hall. Thank you again to all. This is a wonderful honor for a grand old Hall, which in its day was the hub of the community with dances, plays, card games, potluck dinners and still is used today for meetings, dances, dinners, weddings, funerals, etc. There will be more history and more memories for years to come.

Stay safe everyone. See you next time.