Soil Conservation Terraces

This was at the Gade farm east of Seward in 1953 during the Grange/Soil Conservation District Field Day. The Day consisted of showing the construction of terraces, dams, waterways, and various Soil and Water Conservation practices. This pictures shows terraces being built with Servis Co., Whirlwind Terraces. I was working for the USDA Soil Conservation Service at the time and had helped with the surveying of the practices. My brother Don is on the Oliver tractor with the closest terrace.

This view shows the Whirlwind throwing the soil up into a ridge that will become a gradient terrace. Row crops are planted on the contour between the terraces. Some of the terraces that were built back in the 50's are still in existence, but many have been rebuilt with tile outlets and some have been rebuilt parallel to prevent "point rows". Other practices such as no-till, cover crops, etc., have demonstrated success in reducing soil erosion, but in many instances, a system of terraces is still necessary to limit the rate of soil erosion to not exceed 5 tons/acre/year.

A Special Kiwanis Flagpole Installation

Our Kiwanis Flag Pole crew have installed hundreds of flag poles  but this morning, they had a first. They put up a larger than regular pole by working from the roof  and threading the poll down through 3 snug fitting collars to a base that had been installed on the side of the building. The Crew today included Dale Rocker, Ken Meyer, Ted Payne and Dave Oates.

  It was all two of the fellows could handle to work with the large pole on the roof and get it in position to slip down through the collars to the base. This installation was scheduled for earlier in the week but with winds of 30mph and gusts much higher, it would have been very dangerous. Even with very little wind this morning, it appeared to me that getting it in position to slip through that first collar was the most critical phase of the whole operation. The Flag installation was done by ropes which enable it to be raised and lowered from the ground level. The County Courthouse Dome is the focal point of downtown Seward and always makes a nice background. It also helps identify location.

Part of Seward's 150 year History

We went through some of Elaine's old family pictures today and came across this one of where her Koch Grandparents lived in the late teens & early 1920's. Their house is the one to the lower right of the picture. The intersection looking to the west is 1st and Oak street. The Seward City Mill and Dam are shown just beyond 2nd street. The little RR water tower is shown on further west on the night side of the river.

Tragically, these pictures were taken by a fellow doing repair to the Brickyard smokestack across the street (Columbia Ave) to the east. After doing his repair work and taking pictures, he fell to his death but these, and other pictures survived. We drove down to this neighborhood this evening and much of it is still there. The Koch house and little stripped barn are still there. The area has filled in over the years. The Mill burned in 1938 and the dam was later removed.

Seward County and Seward's Sesquicentennial Kick-Off

Nebraska, Seward County and Seward will be celebrating their 150th Birthday during the year of 2017 and many events and celebrations will center of the milestone. One of the first "official" events of the yearlong celebration was an official "Kick-Off" Celebration this last evening, March 5 at the Bottle Rocket Brewery here is Seward. The event featured a Nebraska Roast Beef dinner, Special music, a birthday cake, along with comments and reflections of the year ahead. Bottle Rocket previewed their new Seward Sesquicentennial Brew. Past and present elected officials of Seward and Seward County were recognized. Clark Kolterman, Seward 150 Chair, served as MC,  "Sam and Sue" gave a tribute for the event, Julia Marble led the Nebraska Youth Honor Choir, Andrew Pavel-SHS '17 recited Ted Kooser's, "So This is Nebraska", Chas Prochnow-SHS '18 read a paper on "Our Sesquicentennial". 

Roger Glawatz, Chair of the County Commissioners gave a brief report as did Seward Mayor, Josh Eickmeier after which Commissioners and Council members were presented and photographed.

The evening's festivities were concluded with the singing of the Nebraska State Song, "Beautiful Nebraska" by Jim Fras and Guy Gage Miller followed by "God Bless America". 

A Good Time was had by All.

Toys for Jack and I.

I went to a Schweitzer Auction yesterday down in our Seward Ag Pavilion. It included material from more than one client which amounted to a large number of items covering a broad range of "stuff". Great Grandson Jack is enamored with fire trucks and their were many of them shown on the sale bill. Elaine warned me against bringing home anything when we already have more "stuff" than we need. I assured her that I wouldn't bring anything home that Jack and I couldn't "play with". That gave me quite a bit of latitude. These little Herefords caught my eye; they were within the criteria for taking home, and they had some personal memories. I had worked on road construction the summer after HS and saved enough money to start to University but Dad was getting into the Purebred Hereford business.

He convinced me that putting my money in a bred heifer would probably be a better investment than going to college. While we got great returns on the investment, my college degrees were delayed until after marriage and family. The Herefords yesterday sold above my price range, but I was successful in getting Jack this little wind-up train engine along with a little wind-up fire engine and army tank. He hasn't seen them yet, but know he will be pleased. I had bid on some of the other fire trucks but believe these will be things he can pick up in his hands and have fun with. I've already had them running around on the top of our kitchen table

Original Owners

This was taken on March 27, 1992 when we drove home our '92 Buick La Sabre for which we paid Rolfsmeier Motors $18,372. It has been a good car with never having been in an accident  and needing very little repair beyond a new serpentine belt, tires, batteries, etc. It now has 156,599 miles on the speedometer. I have always had the oil changed at around 3,000 miles and have never had to add oil between changes.

Nor have I ever applied any wax or polish other than what it got going through the car wash. Elaine and I have each had a vehicle for a number of years, but as this one reaches it's 25th birthday, and Elaine doesn't drive very much anymore, we may part with "old reliable". I started it up this afternoon for the first time this year and drove around the block. We have a situation tomorrow where our each having a car will be more convenient. We have driven it very little since giving up golf, but it has been handy for those situations like we have tomorrow. As I look at this picture, I believe we have changed more in appearance than the car.     I am editing this blog page a day later to include a picture that we took this afternoon, nearly 25 years after the first one.

Happy Daughter and Dad

This picture demonstrates that when one of your children are Happy because of something they do or have done, it makes you happy too. And, it doesn't matter how old either of you may be. I wasn't in the best of moods yesterday when some of my photo equipment didn't work, the stock market was down, and it was a gloomy day. But when Carolyn pulled into our driveway with a new car and a big smile on her face, my mood quickly embraced her excitement. We were aware that she had been doing some shopping so it wasn't a big surprise, but her enthusiasm was. And, on first sight, we could understand why. It is a very nice vehicle. She moved the driver's seat back, put me in it, and explained all it features. It is a Forester Model Subaru with computerized electronic equipment that does more things than I could imagine.The built-in safety features are very important to her with Grandchildren as is the "green" emission system and fuel economy. She picked us up later and took us to a Church pancake dinner. By the time we got home I had decided that if President Trump said anything that might cause the market to take a hit, I might just sell-out and get a new car. However, he gave an optimistic speech, and the DOW responded today by gaining over 300 points, scooting right past the 21,000 threshold. I think I will hold my stock, continue to drive the old Buick, and still share her excitement.