Siblings

You have heard of people being as close as “ two peas in a pod” but have you ever seen them as close as, “two kids in a tub”.  I was 18 months younger than Vivian but we were very “close” growing up. Our Country school teacher even thought we should be in the same grade so I “skipped” 6th grade so we could go to HS together. This picture was taken in Seward before we moved out to the farm. The spot where the tub was setting for the picture  as well as the whole 6 lots of the property on West Moffitt street, are now part of the Hughes Bros. storage yard.  Sadie and Jack, our Great Grandchildren  are about 27 months apart. Jack is about 3 months old now and Sadie has accepted him very well. We haven’t observed any jealousy on her part for needing to share attention. Maybe older sisters are adept at doing so, but like Vivian, they also seem to be sure to get their share. 

Grandma’s Spoon Collection

A casual comment by older people can set-off several hours of entertainment when there is little else on their agenda. This was the case at our house today when Elaine questioned how we may handle a collection of little spoons which her Mother had collected. There are some things which are nice to distribute to family members for a “keepsake” from their ancestors. For instance, I prize a 1877 Liberty Seated Quarter that was given to my Mother by her father when she was a girl since it was dated the year of his birth.  It was one of her prized possessions and will be passed along to future generations along with the “story” which has been written. But what do you do with a collection (35-40) spoons that stimulated pleasant memories of the person that collected them but probably have little personal attachment for others. If any of the Grand kids, Great Grand kids or family decedents of Elaine’s Mother would like to have one, we would be pleased to pass it on. Elaine’s Mother and Dad like many people of that era were able financially to so some traveling and buy a few “wants” in retirement that were impossible earlier. Flora took a lot of pride in her collection of spoons that were displayed on a special spoon rack. The collection includes spoons from our trip with them to California, their visiting us back in Washington, D.C. and a trip they made to Bogota, Columbia in South America to visit their son Dale and family while he was assigned there with the UN-L Rockefeller Project.

Tonic Water from Mike’s Market

I didn’t get downtown for coffee yesterday with the 6’’ of snow accumulating  so was anxious to go today. I had cleaned off the driveway and knew we needed bread and bananas which helped justify my going out in the very cold weather. After coffee, I stopped past “Mike’s Market”, picked up the bananas, bread and a few other things on sale. That included 3. 1 liter bottles of Tonic Water with Quinine on sale for $0.88. Quinine was recommended to me some years ago as a prevention of leg cramps and it works. I keep a supply in the lower level refrigerator and drink it while spending time down there in my shop, office or on the PC.  I paid cash for my few items and didn’t check the ticket until I got home, then noticed that the Tonic Water rang-up as $1.13. I questioned driving back down the 4 blocks to correct the overcharge or to just forget it. Then I realized Elaine hadn’t been out of the house for a couple days so she went along and stayed in the car while I talked to Mike. He was most appreciative of our calling it to their attention; it just hadn’t been changed in their scanner.  I justified the whole experience by doing a friend a favor. We like Mike, and he continues to make improvements in the store, its products and mostly, its management. My bargains this morning also included two of the best lemon pepper, roasted pork chops off the warm Deli counter that we have had in years. I’ll probably use the 75cents that I got back today to buy more pork chops from Mike tomorrow. 

Conservation Comic Booklets

This is a 16 page “comic booklet” published by the Soil and Water Conservation Society aimed at helping the conservation education of elementary school children.  This one on Plants is one of several published on various topics such as “Water in Your Hands”, “The Story of Land”, etc. They were written by experienced conservation educators, published by SWCS and sold   in bulk numbers to School Districts and Organizations which made them available to schools.  Teacher Guides were also available. These booklets were very popular during the ’80’s and during the years of my being the Executive Vice-President for the Society in Ankeny, IA in the late 80’s and early ’90’s. Like many educational tools, there was a move toward computerized material by the time I left the organization. I hope that many of the students who were exposed to these booklets are now among those in our society who feel strongly about the sustained use of our natural resources. And, today we need to think of our worldwide climate as a part of our natural resources which needs to be sustained. 

Conservation on the Land

This is a picture of the farm where my folks lived for some 25 years prior to their retirement and moving to town. They didn’t own the land but took care of it in a very commendable stewardship manner. The drought and depression of the 1930’s had such a profound effect on them and others of their generation, that they were reluctant to ever go into debt. The photo was taken by Richard Hufnagle and used in recognizing them and the owner as the Seward County Conservation District honor farm of 1969. They were presented the award at an annual meeting of the State Soil Conservation Districts which also included a commendation signed by Governor Tiemann. I had “laid out” the terrace lines in the 50’s while working with the Soil Conservation Service here in Seward County.  Dad got started farming on the contour and working with terraces on the old Vrana farm where we lived when I started working with SCS. It is somewhat ironic that Elaine’s parents were conservation farmers under very similar circumstances. Some of our first “dates” included her brother who was working for the Soil Conservation District building terraces and studying Agronomy at UN-L. It is little wonder that our youngest son has worked with SCS/NRCS for 35 years and is in New Orleans this week at the NACD (National Association of Conservation Districts) Annual Meeting where the Agency in rolling out a program called “Client Gateway” which Jon helped develop back in Washington, D.C.

Staying Busy on Groundhog's Day

The Groundhog saw his shadow soon after the sun rose this morning and it shown brightly throughout the day. While I cleaned most of the snow off our driveway yesterday, I went out this afternoon and got it off the sidewalk and that which blew in overnight. It warmed up into the high teens and some of the snow even melted. I didn’t go to coffee this morning nor to Kiwanis at noon, but enjoyed the day reorganizing computer files and looking at what I have stored on flash drives. The 1980’s box that I pulled off the shelf in the basement yesterday, continues to be most interesting. I read things this afternoon that I don’t remember ever having seen before. We were involved with so many activities during the 80’s in addition to our jobs, the farm, our house in town, etc. that we weren't sure if we were coming or going. I noted in one of my Journal entries that if I left the house by 7:15am, I could stop past the farm to stoke the wood stove and be at work in Lincoln before 8:00am.  I often listened to Paul Harvey’s “Rest of the Story” on the way home when I would again stoke the stove and do whatever else that needed to be done out there before coming on in to town.   It is interesting to look back on those days to “relive” the Happy Times and be appreciative of the many people who helped us through the difficult ones.
(Thanks to Elaine for taking the picture)

A Super (Snow) Bowl Day

This was the scene looking out our front door at about 8:30 this morning. We had already decided that we wouldn’t go to Church. We had rain and snow mixed yesterday and by evening the ground was covered with snow. By this morning we had some 6-7 inches of wet snow with high north winds. Our snow blower had set in the garage without being used for nearly 2 years but I decided it was time to put air in its tires and “fire-it -up”. It started on the first pull after putting gas in the tank, checking the oil, taking out the spark plug and squirting in some starting fluid. The City snowplow had cleared the street with a ridge of the wed snow piled at the end of our driveway.

Fortunately, I was able to get the driveway cleaned before the ridge of street cleaning froze  solid. The temperature dropped throughout the day from the high 20’s while I was out to nearly zero by now. It is a good day for “Super Bowl Sunday” by our being confined indoors. The halftime show and commercials are as interesting to some of us as the game. It’s not until the end of some commercials that we can tell what they're selling. My favorites are still the Budweiser's. It was bad enough that Verizon & AT&T stock went down this past week without having to watch the Sprint commercial making a deal for anyone turning in their Verizon or AT&T phones.