The Kiehl family of rural Malta Bend was honored as the 2008 Saline County "Farm Family" during a special day at the Missouri State Fair on Monday, August 11. Each year, families from Missouri's 114 counties are honored with a dinner and are presented a plaque recognizing the award. From left are Danny, Kayla, Rick and Lora. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Kiehl family of rural Malta Bend enjoyed a relatively cool afternoon on the Missouri State Fairgrounds Monday, Aug. 11, to be honored as Saline County's Farm Family of 2008. They were taking part in the fair's Farm Family day, in which one family from each of Missouri's 114 counties is recognized.

Each year, Saline County's University of Missouri Extension Council and 4-H council select a family active in county 4-H activities. This year, Rick and Lora, along with Danny, 13, and Kayla, 11, were chosen for the honor.

"They are just an outstanding 4-H family and are all very active," commented Tracie Moore, Saline County's University of Missouri Extension 4-H specialist.

Rick has been farming in the Malta Bend area for 23 years, since graduating from University of Missouri-Columbia. He and his father, Martin, raise corn, soybeans and wheat.

They also "background" cattle during the winter months and raised hogs until a few years ago.

The whole family is involved in Malta Bend's Work to Win 4-H club. Lora is the club leader after restarting the disbanded club about four years ago. Rick serves as a woodworking project leader.

This year, Kayla, who will be in sixth grade at Malta Bend school, entered 24 projects in the Saline County fair multi-purpose building and won the high-point individual honor for "indoor" projects.

"We didn't really think anything about it," said Lora about the award. "It really surprised her." Kayla was presented a watch donated by Sturhahn Jewelers for her efforts.

Her project areas range from arts and crafts to foods, breads, child development and self-determined. She also had two projects, a "little embroidery quilt" and a "real leaf arrangement" on display in the state fair 4-H building this year.

"She had four projects that qualified and she had to pick which two," said Lora.

For the Saline County fair, Danny, who will be an 8th grader at Malta Bend, had 13 projects entered in areas ranging from aerospace, conservation and small engines to electricity, self-determined and hams.

Since Rick is in charge of woodworking for the club, he got the enrolled club members, including both of his children, started during Christmas break.

"Rick did woodworking over Christmas or they wouldn't ever have gotten done," said Lora, about the large number of projects the children completed.

One of Danny's projects was a full-sized bed frame for his room.

"He made a bed out of barnwood," said Lora. "He got the barnwood from our old barn and it still has the square nail holes in it."

Danny slept on the bed until time to take it to the fair, where he dismantled it and slept on a mattress while it was on display at the county fair.

Another woodworking project, a "scroll saw cutout" was picked to go to the state fair and be displayed this year.

One of Kayla's favorite parts of going to the state fair, which they do each year is to look at the projects in the 4-H building.

"We can look and get ideas for next year," said Lora.

Both Danny and Kayla are involved in sports at Malta Bend School, including basketball. Danny runs track for the school and Kayla will able to this spring. They are both members of the A honor roll and Kayla has had perfect attendence since her second year of pre-school. She also attended 4-H camp this summer for the second year in a row. The family is active in Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Mount Leonard and St. Peter's Catholic Church in Marshall.

In her spare time, Kayla enjoys reading, while Danny enjoys working on the farm, from "dawn to dusk." During the years he has learned to do almost every job on the farm "except drive the semi," said Lora.

For family hobbies, Rick joked that they help Lora, a Malta Bend teacher, get her classroom together for the school year.

She has been teaching at Malta Bend since 1985, and for the past nine years, Lora has been the teacher and director of Malta Bend's pre-school program. She is now in the process of building an "outdoor classroom" at the school.

"We're building it through a pre-school grant," she said. The new area will include several special learning areas, including one with building blocks and another for art. A music area will include several outside instuments including a xylophone, a marimba and a palm drum.

The "classroom" will be used for the whole school and each class will have a chance to plant a "garden" in a pot, said Lora. The space will also feature a gazebo when finished.

During Monday evening in Sedalia, the Kiehls were honored along with the other county farm families with a special meal in the Governor's tent on the state fairgrounds. They were also presented a special plaque and given a chance to take a picture with the fair queen and director.

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net