Horse Belly High

This was taken a few days ago and the Corn is now several inches higher. When I was a kid and we cultivated corn with horses, it was common to talk about corn being "Horse belly high by the Fourth of July". This corn achieved that height by the 4th of June. The forecast is for possible rain this coming Sunday or Monday which would certainly be welcomed. The drought index released this week shows some extreme conditions in the western part of the state and moderately dry conditions over many parts of Nebraska and Iowa. I rode with Perry  in his golf cart today who had been in Iowa and Missouri earlier this week. He told of their need for rain being much more critical than ours. We here in this local area have been fortunate so far. Last evening we went to Goehner to eat at Bubba's and saw several center pivot's in operation. Our weather has been very unusual so far this year and we hope that our normal 26" of moisture may still come on a timely basis. Most farmers have a pretty strong faith since their livelihood is largely determined by "Mother Nature".

Part of Family Tree 1905

This is a continuation of yesterday's message regarding Lance being in Seward from a Lincoln, NE Television station doing some filming for "Lance's Journal" on "Our Town Seward" which will be shown the week of July 4. This picture was taken in the street on the north side of the Turner house shown yesterday. Mother was a bit younger when this picture was taken and is riding on the Donkey with a younger brother.

Here is the caption that Mother provided in 1986.

Seward & Family History

Lincoln, NE CBS Channel 10/11's "Lance's Journal" has been in Seward this week filming segments that will be shown on "Our town Seward" during the week of July 4th.  People achieve status by various means and I have become recognized by some people as a "Seward Historian" merely by  continuing to be alive. I was a part of Lance's filming this afternoon and told of my Great Grandfather coming to Seward in 1873 soon after the City was platted. He had come over from Ireland as a young man, fought in the Civil War with an Illinois Regiment  and after a few years of farming in Illinois, came west. He built a house withing 3 blocks of where we now live and it was there my Grandmother was born in 1879. The attached picture was taken in 1907 and my Mother is the little 7 year old girl looking at the Donkey instead of the camera.

Here is the caption to the picture that Mother wrote on 12 5 1979

63 and Counting

We are enjoying this beautiful bouquet of home grown roses from the Matzkes. It was 63 years ago on this June 5 date that Elaine and I exchanged our vows that have held up over time. We are planning to "go out" for dinner this evening as a part of our celebration. We had a big Anniversary celebration at the time of our 50th but 63 is one that normally doesn't muster up that much attention. There were two couples honored in last Sunday's paper that were celebrating their 70th. At one time Paul Harvey would even announce the names of any reaching that milestone and while it is happening more frequently now, it's still pretty special. Even 63 and counting is pretty good. Thanks to everyone who helped to make them special which includes Chuck and Jan for the flowers.

Is Tiger Back??

It was great seeing Tiger Woods birdieing 3 of the last 4 holes to win the Memorial this afternoon by 2 strokes. The highlight was his chip-in birdie on the 16th hole from about 50 feet out.  He looked like the Tiger of old in his 73rd PGA win to match Jack Nicklaus with that number. It was a good sports day with the Royals and Yankees both winning. We went to early Church in order to make a 11:30 tee time and were pleased to find that Social Hour at Church was moved to take place between the end of early Church and the 10:30 service. We enjoyed the Social time with the opportunity to visit with several people including Clifford Lowell. I have just about finished reading his book "The Early Years", so had some questions about his writing that were clarified. He has written other books and some "unpublished" stories. I would probably do more writing were it not for my "exercise program" that involves playing golf nearly every day in addition to watching PGA golf and Major League Baseball. 

Time Marches On

Elaine and I just got home from being to the Cemetery where we picked up plastic flowers which we had placed on family graves for Memorial Day. We didn't get out early enough last year and lost a large collection of such decorations that we had  used for a number of years. When we had that supply, we covered many distant relatives and even others. Having to buy new supplies this year limited our coverage. Walking up and down the isles picking up our flowers was a bit like visiting old friends.  We concluded that we "knew" more people out there than we would on the City sidewalks today. It was also interesting to note the age of some of the "old" people that we had known. Many of them were not as old as I am now.  Though Dad was 93 and Mother 90. After getting home, I mixed us a drink and we toasted each other to our "good health". We also acknowledged appreciation for good genes. All of this followed my reading Joe Klein's cover story this afternoon in the current Time magazine on "What I learned from the Last Days of My Mom and Dad". But I did shoot under my age playing golf earlier today and hope to do so again tomorrow.

Corn, Rats & Capitol

This was the early summer of 1970 when we lived on Arlington Ridge Road. The grass in our front yard lawn had died out the previous year so we decided to get the soil in shape by planting it to garden and seeding it back to Blue Grass in the early fall. Jon had completed his Freshman year at Wakefield HS and Elaine was back home from her weekly beauty shop appointment. Our corn was really pretty successful and we enjoyed a few Roasting Ears. However, the corn attracted Rats that we figured came up from Four Mile Run that was only a couple blocks away. We were able to get rid of them by destroying the corn but it was another one of our many adventures. It's not the kind of story that one normally associates with the Washington, D.C. area but an example of the mundane things that go on within the "shadow" of the Capitol. The project was successful overall and the grass did well on the site in future years.