Who would’ve thought that chili — that blessed concoction that warms the tummy and the heart — would be controversial? But it is.

To bean or not to bean? Are tomatoes acceptable or anathema? Just when and how did it originate? These questions cause consternation and disagreement among many chili aficionados.

But why in the world am I even talking about chili in the middle of a heat wave? Well, because — dads!

Since today is Father’s Day, let’s dig into a figurative bowl of what is, at least to me, one of the most quintessential dad foods on the planet.

I also happen to be one of those people who thinks a good bowl of chili is comforting, soulful and delicious whatever the season.

Some people are chili purists, while others like to experiment. Purists believe chili shouldn’t include much beyond meat, hot chili peppers and spices. (Certainly not beans!)

Those who experiment add all kinds of things to their chili, including some that don’t sound too unusual (molasses, beer or coffee, for example), and some that I find truly unexpected (like peanuts, artichoke hearts or bamboo shoots).

A sharp divide exists in the chili world related to beans, specifically whether or not adding them prevents it from being true chili.

Texas journalist and chili cook Wick Fowler said (rather strongly), “If you know beans about chili, you know that chili has no beans!”

This isn’t surprising coming from a Texan, where in 1977 the legislature voted to make beanless chili, known there as a “bowl of red,” its official state dish. The proclamation states that “the only real ‘bowl of red’ is that prepared by Texans.”

The International Chili Society, which oversees roughly 150 chili cook-offs each year, allows the use of beans and other nontraditional ingredients in one of the four categories of chili in its contests. Hopefully, that settles it: chili can be called chili even with beans.

Personally, I like beans in my chili. In fact, if not for beans, I couldn’t make chili at all since I favor vegetarian versions over meat-laden ones.

Kassie Koontz, who along with husband Reuben own and operate the Koontz Mercantile in Middletown, agrees that beans belong in chili, at least in her version.

Koontz is the current champion of the annual Middletown Senior Center chili cook-off. She also won second- and third-place ribbons in the two contests before that.

She favors a mixture of three types of beans: black, red and white. The white beans cook down and dissolve like a thickening agent, while the other two, both heartier, remain intact, adding texture.

Koontz recommends using the freshest meat possible as it makes a big difference in flavor. She grinds her own from the steer they buy each year through the high school’s FFA chapter.

Koontz shared another secret: a surprise ingredient in her chili is brown sugar. Its sweetness balances the heat that comes from chili peppers and it also serves to thicken the chili. Between the white beans and brown sugar, there’s no need to use a thickener like masa flour.

Though they grow chili peppers in their home garden, they’re not ready by the time the cook-off rolls around in May, so she uses a combination of whatever chili peppers look good at the local market, Hardester’s.

The pandemic prevented the senior center from holding its annual contest this year and in 2020. We all hope it will be back in 2022.

Beef is the meat of choice for most chilis, but as you might expect, chili has been made with almost everything — venison, buffalo, pork, chicken, spicy sausage, goat, and even skunk, jack rabbit and rattlesnake.

Outback chili in Australia is made with kangaroo, in Norway chili is made with reindeer and in Alaska, moose is a favorite.

As to the history of chili, no one is entirely sure exactly how and in what form it originated. There are almost a dozen theories that attempt to answer that question. I’ll throw out a few just for fun and you can determine what you think is most plausible.

Some say the dish hails from Mexico. In a 1568 publication, “The True History of the Conquest of New Spain,” author Bernal Diaz del Castillo describes an Aztec stew made from the remains of sacrificed conquistadors, hot peppers, wild tomatoes and oregano.

Personally, I really hope chili didn’t originate that way.

Another tale tells of a 17th century Spanish nun, Sister Mary of Agreda, whose spirit, the story goes, was transported from Spain to Texas by angels while her body was in a trance. While there, she preached to the Jumano Indians and in exchange was given a recipe for a chili-like stew made from venison or antelope, onions, tomatoes and chili peppers. The recipe, which Sister Mary recorded, was the first written version of chili con carne.

Others cite the lavenderas, or washerwomen, who served the Mexican Army in the 1830s and 40s, as the first chili makers.

Chuckwagon cooks on the cattle trails of the American West are also credited. These “cooks on the go” pounded dried beef, fat and chili peppers into easily transportable bricks which were reconstituted in boiling water over campfires for hardworking cowboys.

Or, as another story goes, was chili brought to Texas in the early 18th century by transplants from the Canary Islands?

In this scenario, King Philip V of Spain hoped to thwart French settlers from expanding westward from Louisiana by sending Canary Islanders to settle in San Antonio. Apparently, Canarians added copious amounts of cumin, a key ingredient in today’s chilis, to their slow-simmered stews which also included meat, chili peppers, garlic and wild onions.

It’s possible that the spicy stews of the Canary Islanders influenced the 19th century “Chili Queens,” who famously sold chili in San Antonio’s Military Square to passersby for decades, eventually leading to the wide popularity of the dish.

To complicate the question of chili’s origin even more, Rudy Valdez, a member of Colorado’s Ute Indian tribe, won the world chili championship in 1976 with a native recipe he claimed dated back 2,000 years.

Perhaps versions of chili developed in a variety of places at different times.

However it happened, one thing’s for certain — chili continues to evolve and grow thanks to cooks who experiment with techniques and ingredients. At the same time, purists ensure that their time-honored version of chili remains the same.

I’m pleased to offer a recipe today from the Six Sigma Ranch and Winery of Lower Lake, which, in addition to wine, sells ranch-raised meats at their tasting room.

Ranch manager Christian Ahlmann tells me they currently have grass-fed ground beef available for making this chili.

The recipe was developed by their tasting room manager, Mr. T, who also happens to be a great chef.

Six Sigma Chili from Mr. T’s Kitchen

Ingredients

1 pound Six Sigma ground beef
1 pound Six Sigma bacon ends
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, diced, and divided in half
2 ounces tomato paste
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cans red kidney beans
2 cans cannellini beans
Salt and pepper to taste
Cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and paprika to taste
Optional toppings: cheese, jalapeño and sour cream

Directions

Brown chopped bacon ends in a large pot. Remove when crispy.

Remove half of the bacon fat and cook ground beef in the remaining fat.

Move the browned beef to one side of the pan and add garlic and half of the onion to the other side. (Reserve the other half of the onion for topping.) Cook until the onion is translucent.

Add browned bacon, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes to the pot. Stir until incorporated.

Drain beans and add to pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.

Season to taste. (Don’t be shy with spices — remember, salt is your best friend until it’s your worst enemy.)

Cook for one hour.

Spoon into bowls, add toppings and enjoy!

Recipe by Tameron Detrinidad (Mr. T).

Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.

 

When my oldest son, now nearly 13, was born in July of 2008, I thought I could easily balance my career and my desire to be far more engaged at home than my father and his generation were. I was wrong.

Almost immediately, I noticed how social policies, schools and health care systems all make it difficult for dads to be highly involved and engaged at home. Contradictory expectations about work and family life abound.

As a fatherhood researcher with four kids of my own, I am convinced that fathers are transformative figures for children, families and communities.

But a man’s mere presence, paycheck and willingness to punish misbehaving children is not nearly enough. Many of the benefits of fathering for children come from dads being nurturing, loving and engaged in all aspects of parenting.

When fathers are caregivers – when they provide emotional support and act affectionately toward their kids – the effects go well beyond growth, development, good health and solid grades. My research shows the benefits also include having children who value emotional intelligence, gender equality and healthy competition.

Nurturing versus stoic dads

Thinking about the broad impact fathers have, I analyzed how fathering affects different social values – such as a belief in gender equality – in May 2021.

Surveying more than 2,500 American fathers 18 and older, I found that involved fathering has a long-lasting impact on the personal principles and cultural perspectives of children.

In my survey, the differences between the least nurturing and the most nurturing fathers are stark.

Surveyed fathers who reported that their own fathers were highly withdrawn tended to be hypercompetitive, emotionally stoic and unappreciative of women’s contributions outside the home.

In contrast, surveyed fathers who said they had highly nurturing dads were much more likely to achieve their goals in a healthy manner, be more emotionally open and believe in equitable partnership.

How dads instill values

Several decades ago, many fathers were unwilling or unable to provide their children with emotional support or physical care. Instead, they focused on bread-winning, children’s discipline and simply being present in the home.

These traditional norms left many contemporary fathers ill-equipped for modern parenthood. Contemporary social norms set broad expectations for fathers: rule enforcement and economically supporting the family while also providing for children’s physical and emotional needs.

Broad paternal involvement with kids is important because dads have unique effects on kids. Children’s values, beliefs, emotional expression and social development are strongly associated with fathering. Kids are better regulated emotionally, more resilient and more open-minded when their fathers are involved in their education and socialization.

Boys, for better and worse, often mirror the habits, interests and values of their own fathers.

My colleague Scott Easton and I found that how one’s father behaves is especially powerful given that cultural, social and institutional norms about fatherhood are much weaker than they are for motherhood.

For example, mothers have traditionally been known for showing children affection and providing emotional support. Social expectations for these behaviors are not well defined among fathers. As a result, dads have a much larger impact on their sons’ fathering behaviors than moms have on their daughters’ mothering behaviors.

Positively, this means that a sizable portion of men replicate the best attributes of their own fathers – such as being loving and affectionate. Negatively, this means bad behaviors – such as extremely harsh discipline – are sometimes repeated across generations.

However, some men compensate for their own fathers’ poor or nonexistent parenting by forming their own ideas and values about parenting.

Benefits for all

The findings from my survey build on decades of research on the benefits of positive fathering. And these advantages aren’t just for children.

Mothers and other parenting partners are healthier and happier when fathers are highly engaged with their kids. Men who care for and support their kids benefit too – with improved self-image, life purpose and relationships. And communities gain increased trust and safety from the relationships built when fathers positively participate in their kids’ activities, schooling and social networks.

Valuing supportive fathers

How can American society ensure that healthy competition, emotional openness and respect for women are widespread among future generations of men and fathers? Part of the answer is by valuing loving, supportive fathering.

That means more support for fathers in workplaces, public policy and institutions. Paid family leave, flexible work arrangements and integration of fathers into prenatal and postnatal care are all effective ways to encourage fathers to be more involved.

Many fathers increased their share of child care tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. These shifts may become permanent, ultimately changing cultural values around parenting and gender roles.

Society also needs to provide clearer messaging to fathers about what does and does not work in parenting. For example, my colleagues and I have shown that men who believe they should be nurturing parents are more involved in their children’s lives. Fathers who demonstrate healthy masculine traits like assertiveness and strong goal orientation also tend to be sensitive, engaged parents.

Thus, there are many routes to transformative fathering. And this is not simply behavior for biological fathers. Fatherhood is broadly defined, and people often look to nonbiological father figures like relatives, stepfathers, foster fathers and unrelated mentors.

All men who support and care for children have a critical role to play in instilling positive social values in future generations.

[Over 106,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Kevin Shafer, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Canadian Studies, Brigham Young University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As the nation celebrates Father’s Day, data released in the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual Current Population Survey, or CPS, shows that the number of children living without a father in the home has dropped to a nearly 30-year low.

The Census information shows that children living without fathers is down to 18.3 million. Or 25.1% of U.S. children, the lowest number of children in father-absent homes since 1993.

National Fatherhood Initiative, or NFI, a nonprofit organization working to end father absence, credits this significant reduction to the tireless work of individuals and organizations at the local, state, and federal level to proactively engage fathers in their children’s lives.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, when children are raised with a father or father-figure in the home, they are:

— Four times less likely to live in poverty;
— Two times less likely to drop out of high school;
— Seven times less likely to become pregnant before the age of 18;
— Less likely to commit crime and be sentenced to prison.

Based on the data reported in the 2020 CPS, there are 2.3 million fewer children in father-absent homes since that figure peaked at 20.6 million in 2012.

The proportion of U.S. children living without a father in the home has also reached its lowest point since 1990.

This positive data comes as fathers across the U.S. have seen improvements in their relationships with their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a study conducted by the Making Caring Common Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, 68% of dads report that the pandemic has brought them closer to their children — with large numbers of fathers reporting having more meaningful conversations with their children, getting to know their children better and sharing more with their children about their own lives.

Involved dads have a positive impact on their children’s overall emotional and social well-being.
Over the past 27 years, NFI has worked to equip human services agencies to serve fathers through the delivery of nearly 10 million skill-building resources and the development of responsible fatherhood programs used by thousands of human services agencies across the country.

These agencies have pivoted dramatically during the pandemic to offer services and peer-to-peer engagement on virtual platforms, reaching fathers they wouldn’t have been able to with in-person facilitation and helping them be the best dads they can be.

“Our nation’s children depend on us to give them the best environment in which to grow into healthy adults,” said Christopher Brown, president, National Fatherhood Initiative. “The latest data from CPS, coupled with new trends toward stronger father-child relationships during the pandemic, are cause for celebration. Despite these shifts, the number of children living in father-absent homes is still unacceptably high. We will continue to build capacity in communities to address father absence through evidence-based programming, training, and resources.”

The annual CPS gathers data from a sample of U.S. households to identify estimates of America’s families and their living arrangements.

Data are categorized by how many children under the age of 18 live in different households: two-parent (married and not married), mother-only, father-only, or neither-parent (i.e. other relatives or no relatives).

NFI uses this data to track father absence in the intervening years between the decennial census.

The 2020 U.S. Census, with data to be released throughout 2021, will reveal greater trends related to father absence through data gathered from all U.S. households.

In 2019, NFI released the eighth edition of Father Facts. This publication is the most comprehensive source of data on father absence at the national and state levels and on the consequences of father absence and benefits of father involvement for children.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many dogs this week ready for new homes for the summer.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American bulldog, Chihuahua, German shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, McNab, pit bull, Rottweiler and shepherd.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.

‘Marshmallow’

“Marshmallow” is a 4-year-old female Havanese.

She is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-1042.

Male American bulldog

This 8-year-old male American bulldog has a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-958.

Female Rottweiler-shepherd

This 2-year-old female Rottweiler-shepherd mix has a medium-length black and red coat.

She is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-791.

‘Ren’

“Ren” is a 2-year-old male McNab-sheepdog mix with a short brindle and white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-785.

Male pit bull

This young male American pit bull has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1028.

‘Boo’

“Boo” is a 10-year-old male Chihuahua-dachshund mix.

He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-1039.

Female German shepherd

This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a medium-length black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-975.

‘Koko’

“Koko” is a 10-year-old male Chihuahua mix with a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-897.

Rottweiler-pit bull mix

This 1-year-old female Rottweiler-pit bull mix has a short black coat.

She has been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-731.

‘Brutus’

“Brutus” is a 5-year-old male pit bull terrier with a short gray and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-670.

‘Seager’

“Seager” is a young male pit bull-hound mix.

He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-1011.

‘Apollo’

“Apollo” is a 2-year-old male husky mix with a medium-length red and white coat and blue eyes.

He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-783.

Male husky

This 2-year-old male husky has a medium-length red and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1024.

Female pit bull terrier puppy

This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 33b, ID No. LCAC-A-853.

Male pit bull terrier puppy

This male pit bull terrier puppy has a short black coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 33d, ID No. LCAC-A-855.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

As the last snow melts, NASA’s SnowEx teams are packing up the snowshoes, skis, and scientific instruments they’ve used all winter to study snow in mountains and prairies.

Now, they’re turning their attention to a different kind of mountain — all of the data they collected.

This year, SnowEx teams took snow measurements at six sites across the Western United States, on the ground and with drones and airplanes flying overhead.

This information will help scientists determine how much water the winter snowpack holds, which is crucial for managing water resources for drinking, agriculture, hydropower, flood forecasting, drought and wildfire management and more.

In addition to studying snow, SnowEx researchers are also evaluating how accurately various techniques can measure snow in different environments.

In the future, NASA hopes to launch a satellite dedicated to studying snow — and the water it stores — from space, in order to understand how changes in the snowpack affect droughts, wildfires, and more.

One of the main goals of the multiyear SnowEx campaign is figuring out which instruments may be best suited for the job.

“We’re not going to solve the snow monitoring problem from space with one technology,” said HP Marshall, an associate professor at Boise State University and SnowEx 2021’s co-project scientist. “A big part of SnowEx is figuring out the best way to combine field work, remote sensing, and modeling into one framework.”

In 2020, the SnowEx campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the team couldn’t finish their airborne experiments.

For 2021, the science team had three major goals: conduct a time series of L-band Interferometric Synthetic Aperture radar (InSAR) observations in diverse snow conditions, measure the reflectivity of the snow surface, and study snow distribution in a prairie landscape.

A Gulf Stream 3 aircraft, carrying the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture radar (UAVSAR) instrument from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, flew over seven sites in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Montana from mid-January until the end of March. UAVSAR is an L-band InSAR, a special kind of radar, that SnowEx is using to measure changes in the mass of the snowpack.

The snowpack’s mass can change drastically from one UAVSAR flight to the next. For example, a large snowstorm may dump massive amounts of snow in one area over a short period of time. Some of the snow may melt or sublimate — skipping the liquid phase and going straight from solid to gas. It may also get redistributed by high winds.

The SnowEx team is testing how well the UAVSAR sensor can detect these different changes in the snow’s mass. Summing up the changes in snow mass over the winter season will help the team calculate how much water is stored in the seasonal snowpack, or snow-water equivalent, or SWE.

“With UAVSAR, what we’re looking at is change in SWE from one flight to the next,” said Carrie Vuyovich, lead snow scientist for NASA’s Terrestrial Hydrology Program, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Scheduled for 2022, NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plan to launch the NISAR satellite to study changes in Earth’s surface from space. NISAR will carry an L-band radar instrument similar to UAVSAR, and the SnowEx team is testing how they may use NISAR observations to study snow.

As the planes flew overhead, scientists collected data on the ground below. They measured snow characteristics such as snow depth and density, the size of individual snow grains, temperature, how reflective the snow surface is, and how much of the snowpack is ice, snow or liquid water.

The team collected these measurements from snow pits — car-sized holes dug in the snow. From inside the pits, scientists took samples at different depths to see how the characteristics of the snowpack varied from layer to layer.

The SnowEx observers also measured the snowpack using ground-based remote sensing tools similar to those used from the air and space.

The data collected during SnowEx is publicly available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center; more data sets are published every month as scientists from across the country complete processing each of the raw data sets and carefully checking them for errors.

Scientists on snowshoes or skis also used handheld spectrometers to measure albedo, or how bright and reflective the snow surface is. Albedo plays a huge role in how fast the snow melts. It depends on a range of factors, such as the size and shape of individual snow crystals, how much of the snow has melted already, and impurities like dust on top of the snow.

From the air, researchers measured albedo using the Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Next Generation instrument from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Comparing the airborne and ground measurements will help the scientists identify how different factors contribute to the snow albedo.

This year, SnowEx added a site in a prairie, which is an important but understudied landscape when it comes to snow science.

While the amount of snow in prairies is much less than what falls in the mountains, “a large percentage of the snow-covered Earth is considered prairie. Snow in those areas is important for agriculture and contributes to flooding,” said Vuyovich.

These exposed landscapes often have high winds that move snow from one area to another, forming deep snow drifts in some areas and leaving only a light dusting of snow in others. Because of these variations, the SnowEx team wanted to see how well remote sensing can detect these large changes in snow cover over short distances.

All of the experiments went smoothly despite the pandemic, said Marshall. “There are always challenges,” he said, citing risks of hypothermia, avalanches and dangerous roadway conditions. “But COVID was a big additional challenge that we weren’t used to dealing with.” To ensure that everyone was safe, the team implemented routine COVID-19 testing, masks, social distancing protocols, and limited passengers in vehicles.

SnowEx teams also recruited local snow scientists to help collect data in the field. “These teams were completely instrumental in making this campaign a success,” said Vuyovich. “That was the only way we were able to continue SnowEx this winter.”

After a successful winter in the field, the SnowEx team is changing their focus from snowshoes and spectrometers to laptops and high performance computers.

In mid-July, 90 members of the community will participate in a weeklong hackathon, which will provide tutorials for working with SnowEx data and group projects to build software for analysis of the large data sets.

Next winter, the SnowEx team plans to conduct experiments in the Alaskan tundra and boreal forest. Full data analysis involving broader community participation will continue into the future.

Sofie Bates is a member of NASA’s Earth Science News Team at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — This year’s Middletown Days Queen and Princess contest had a big turnout, with 13 talented girls coming out to participate in the two-day competition after months of practice.

This year’s Royal Court includes Queen Emalee Pickens and Princess Rylie Slaight, and Kaitlyn Counter, Jadyn Owens, Emmy Hayes, Ciara Francis, Gracie Schnabl, Kailey Snell, Lynzi Snell, Payton Schuster, Faith Crawford, Emilia Lord and Stella Brand.

They will be participating in this year’s Middletown Days Parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 19.

The parade will be followed by food, Kids Playday, vendors, and more at the Middletown Central Park stage and arena. Visit the Middletown Days website for a complete schedule of events.

Organizers said the group of 13 did not disappoint during the competition.

Day one took place at the Central Park Arena on Saturday, June 12, where they had to show off their skill with their horses.

The following day they had to switch gears and clothes for the final three events.

In addition to mastering each skill, the girls are responsible for selling 500 beef raffle tickets each. But, it’s all for a good cause. Middletown Days is the single largest fundraiser for the Middletown Central Park Association and the money from each ticket sold goes toward maintaining the arena.

This year the beef is donated by Benjamin Ranch & Mobile Slaughter. First place is half a beef and a second and third ticket will be pulled for a quarter beef each. Tickets are a dollar and you need not be present to win. So, if you see one of the girls this weekend at the park, buy a ticket.

Greg Evans, real estate agent and horseman, has been working with the girls to prepare them for the first day’s six events. They worked on horse mastership which includes haltering, grooming and explaining what’s in their caddy; showmanship and halter which involves walking and maneuvering the horse through patterns and inspection; Western pleasure which measures skills while walking, jogging or loping; and the reigning pattern, controlling and guiding the horse.

They also practiced barrel racing, basically maneuvering in a clover leaf pattern on their horse (their time serves as the tiebreaker).

Lastly, they worked on the queen’s waive, which several of the younger contestants said was their favorite event. It involved riding one and a quarter laps, while waving, in a safe and controlled manner.

There were 11 girls vying for princess, and the competition was stiff with several strong contestants.

In fact, no one girl swept the competition on Saturday: Stella Brand, 7, won showmanship and halter and also the reigning pattern; Jadyn Owens, 11, won the horse mastership category; Rylie Slaight, 8, took Western pleasure; Payton Schuster, 9, won the barrels; and Kailey Snell, 9, won the queen’s waive.

For the queen competition there were two contestants. Kaitlyn Counter, 15, made a strong showing on her quarter horse, Levi. But, Emalee Pickens, 18, had an excellent day showing her horse, OG (Original Gangsta) and won all six events.

Day two started out with the girls actually taking a written test to measure their horse knowledge and Schuster got the highest score. After that, it was all about poise as each girl presented a speech for the judges and modeled western wear.

Owens won for western wear and Emilia Lord, 6, won with her “All About Me” speech where she revealed the age of her mother and stated that her two younger brothers’ job is “being trouble.”

Queen contestant Counter gave a beautiful speech about the history of Middletown Days, Middletown Central Park and Hope City. She began by asking members of the audience a series of questions and to stand if they had ever run for queen or princess, helped out at the park, or been grand marshal. She won for speech in her division.

In keeping with Counter’s theme of community, all of the girls bonded and helped each other throughout the competition. A former queen even stepped in to help.

Alisha Mackey, the 2014 queen, lent Schuster her horse, Chicken, a few days before the event because Schuster’s wasn’t cooperating. She also lent her saddle to Counter.

Alisha Mackey’s mom, teacher Michelle Mackey, came down on Sunday to help the younger princess contestants read their tests. This year there were six contestants who were aged 6 to 8.

At the end of the hard-fought competition, Rylie Slaight was crowned princess. She is a third grader at Middletown Christian School. Her favorite rodeo event is steer daubing. She enjoys showing goats and chickens for Middletown 4-H, playing soccer and spending time with her friends.

Emalee Pickens was crowned queen. Pickens just graduated from Middletown High and enjoys pole bending and goat tying, but her favorite event is barrels because “it's fast and it’s just you and your horse.”

Neither girl had ever competed in the Middletown Days competition before.

Evans was proud of all the girls for sticking with the long process and improving so much.

The girls have already stated that they will be returning for next year’s competition and several new girls have expressed interest, as well.