Seward's Sam Koch

Sam Koch, #4, did his hometown proud last night. He is shown here with 12 seconds left in the Superbowl game and his Ravens leading 34-29. Sam did just what he was supposed to do by taking care of the ball, killing as many of those 12 seconds as he could and then going out of bounds. Then with 4 seconds left, he got off a booming free punt from the 20 yard line and by the time the 49er's punt returner made a few moves but was taken down, the game was over. Sam did his part in a great Superbowl victory. He has gone a long way since making 100 punts every day after school when he was in Junior Hi. There were a lot of stories floating around Seward today about a young man who grew up in "Our Town Seward".  The Lincoln Journal Star noted this morning that Seward's Amy Heidemann who is the lead singer of the band Karmin and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine this fall is going to have to share some of the Hometown fame with Sam Koch. 

Our Friendly Undertaker

Here is Elaine visiting with Greg of the Zabka Funeral Home here in Seward. She and Greg have had many conversations over the past couple months.  Elaine was the local contact for the burial of a Cousin who died in California, had no close family and wished to be buried with her parents here in Seward. We have been friends with Greg and Dixie for many years. Greg and I are on a local Board of Directors, in the same Fraternal Organization, and they and we attend the same Church. and are members of the local "Magazine Club" (Seward's oldest social organization) Unfortunately, he belongs to the Rotary Club and I am a Kiwanian. During the 25+ years that we have known them, we watched their 2 little girls grow up, get married and have children. Their Mortuary has an excellent Web site at www.zabkafuneralhome.com/. It provides current information but is also adding archival records. In checking the web site this afternoon, we were saddened  to see that Rick Kilzer, the 62 year old son of Willard and Audrey died this morning. He has been in poor health for a number of years but in our last conversation, Willard was optimistic that Rick's therapy was helping him improve. He and Willard can now join a "Newcomers Club" together. 

"Come on Kid"

Willard's "Celebration of Life" service was held this morning at The Great Plains Community Church with Rev. Galen Skinner Officiating. It was a very appropriate service that recognized Willard's honesty, love of God and Family, and his life as a Farmer. Rev. Skinner read a poem by Eleanor Lynn Culver as part of the Service which was reflective of Willard. The final verse was:

"I think a man who loves the soil

Finds happiness in rich supply,

Though toil he must to earn his bread

He reaps much more than wheat and rye,

For with each little grain or pod

He cultivates a faith in God"

After the Service, we enjoyed lunch at the Goehner Fire Hall. It was an opportunity to visit with family and friends and share our memories. I had played baseball among doing many other things with Willard and was asked, "What position did he play?". He was versatile enough to have played anywhere but his normal position was 2nd base. This picture (and our faces don't show very well) was taken in the latter '40's. He is kneeling, 2nd from the right. (I am standing in the back row peeking around the big guy in the middle). I believe Carl Bock was managing the team when the picture was taken but Willard managed it for a few years following. During his tenure as Manager, he came up with the signal, "Come on kid" for the batter to bunt and have a "suicide steal" when a runner was on 3rd. We had fun with it because it usually worked and Willard was even called, "Come on kid" occasionally..   

For the Birds

Our bird feeder needed filling again today. The Cardinals, Juncos, Finches, Bluejays and sparrows are the main customers. It did warm up a bit today and it looks like the Groundhog will see his shadow tomorrow indicating another 6 weeks of winter. I have noted in my "scheduler" the dates 90 days hence from the foggy days we've had during January. We will need all the rain we can get in Mid-April if we are to avert another drought year. Weather forecasters are not optimistic. We will need to have part of our front yard reseeded this spring as well as the rest of it needing to be "over seeded". We will probably do more watering this summer than we did last year. I was optimistic that the bluegrass could go dormant and come back but it didn't. I've learned that it takes a bit of water along the way to keep it alive. We did receive our "Gurney's" seed catalogue the other day and Elaine suggested we may want to plant garden instead of grass. We did that one year when we were back in Virginia and had sweetcorn within a few feet of where the buses rumbled by. It did get the ground in shape to plant bluegrass that fall and we reestablished a nice lawn. I don't expect we will try that here in Seward. 

Our Motor Home

It will be 30 years this summer since we bought our new Lindy Motor Home. It was built on a 350 Chevy chases with a V-8 engine, automatic transmission and averaged between 7.5-8.5mpg.  Julie was 3 years old and Carolyn was just ready to start her Teaching career. The four of us went on an extensive trip for our first "outing". It took us to the Black Hills, Devils Tower, Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, MT, Rock Springs, WY and home. During that first year we went on several short junkets and back to North Carolina to visit kids. We had the Motor Home for 12 years during which time we drove it some 30,000 miles. In '84 the 4 of us went to visit Tim's in Columbus, IN, on to Franklin, NC to visit Jon's and from there to Oklahoma City for a SCSA meeting. In '85 Julie went along with Elaine and I when we visited Tim's, Verlon in Richmond, VA, down to Jon's in Oxford, NC where we all went to an event at the  H.H.Bennett farm. Jon's went along with us up to D.C. for an SCS 50th Anniversary Banquet. We visited Ralston's in Arlington, VA and on up to Davis's near Harrisburg, PA and on home. We covered much of the same ground in '86 by again taking Julie along and going to an SCSA meeting in Winston Salem, NC. We visited all 3 boys and their families on the trip. In '87 Elaine and I drove the Motor Home along with the VW to the SCSA meeting in Billings, MT. We "camped" on weekends with a group of friends from Seward on numerous occasions  and made many short trips during these years. We made a couple trips with the "rig" up to Wisconsin while working over in Ankeny, IA. In '92 Carolyn and Julie went along with us on a trip to Yellowstone. And, in January of '95 we drove it down to Donna, TX where we spent a month including a tour through the Copper Canyon in Mexico. During the past 2 days, I have blogged about the trips we made with the Kilzer's in '87 & '88. In April, 1995 we decided to pass it on to let others enjoy it as we did for those 12 years. 

Motor Home trip to Iowa in '88

Yesterday I wrote about Willard & Audrey going with us to Canada for fishing. This blog is about their accompanying us in our Motor Home in September 1988 to the International Ag Expo and National Plowing Contest that was held near Amana, IA. There was a wide variety of competition and exhibits. Herb Plamback moderated a joint USSR-US event and a parade of tractors and equipment from many countries. We enjoyed seeing the Amish farmers plow with horses and mules as much or more than those with huge tractors. We visited with Wilmer (Vinegar Bend) Mizell, a former St. Louis Cardinal baseball pitcher, whom I had met earlier in his role with USDA. Vice Presidential candidates Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle both spoke. (Their famous debate was about a month later). We visited Middle Amana and saw a Hummel painter from Germany at work. We went on to Homestead and ate at Duke Zuber's family style restaurant. Then we traveled to Boone, IA for the Dick & Sharon Thompson Farm Research Field Day. Their sustainable agriculture objectives were to market all  their products through animals and had developed outstanding systems to do so. I remember of Willard commenting that if he were younger, that is the way he would like to farm. We stopped at the DeSota Bend Wildlife Refuge on our way home. It was a great trip.

Fishing at Delaney Lodge in Ontario

Yesterday I wrote about my 80 year relationship with Willard. One of our experiences was a fishing trip to Canada in the fall of 1987. We drove our Motor Home. On our way we stopped near Slayton, MN and visited with people Willard had worked with during wheat harvest the summer after graduating from HS. We saw the Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 on a  HR in the bottom of the 9th by Tom Brunansky. We drove 451 miles the next day through International Falls and on to Kenora, Ontario. The next morning we were flown in a WW II era plane to Delaney Lodge, about 45 miles NE of Kenora. Our cabins were quite primitive but the fishing was excellent. We had 4 days of fishing with Indian guides in each of our 2 boats. They cleaned the fish and fixed excellent "shore lunches". Elaine was the first one to catch a fish which was a Northern about 2 feet long and the guide tossed it back saying, "Too small".  We fished on the English River which was like a big lake with numerous islands. One day we saw smoke raising from one of the Islands and went over to help put out a fire that had gotten out of control. We drove home on I-29 after driving over to near Winnipeg. It was on the "cut-off" around Winnipeg that Willard was driving, the ladies were in the back part of the Motor Home and I was asleep in the passenger seat. It was during the "sleepy" part of the day and Willard dozed off for a minute; we found ourselves off the side of the road down an incline of about 15 feet. It was Willard's skill in driving that he didn't panic, gained control , took the rig on down the incline and then back up on the highway without any consequence. It was a great trip, and we brought back a big batch of frozen Walleye.