Vrana Farm near Garland

I continue to work on 1984 pictures and this is one of my favorites. It was Saturday, August 11th when Elaine and I took Mother and Dad on a ride in the country. We visited with Paul Wagenknecht before driving up through their south 40 and into what had been the pasture at the old Vrana farm. This picture of Dad was taken near the top of the hill up from where the pasture gate was at one time. It is apparent that the pasture wasn't grazed during this summer with the native grass showing good growth. My Grandparents, Joseph J. and Antonia Vrana bought the farm north of Garland and moved from Saunders, Co, NE to it in 1905. Dad would have been 8 years old at the time. This is where he went to Country School and spent a short time in Kansas City at an Auto Mechanic school. He and Mother were married in 1920 and lived in Seward with Dad working as a Highway maintainer for the state of Nebraska.

We moved out to the farm in 1932 when I was 6 years old. While we moved to a farm west of Bee in the late '40's, members of our family continued to farm the land until it was sold at auction in 1960. Dad actually had the high bid but after a couple days of being concerned about debt, they sold it to Paul Wagenknecht who had the next high bid.   Dad must have had many interesting memories as he took this picture of the area on the other side of the creek where the farmstead was located. I picked up a red glacial rock about the size of a wild duck which I kept along with a collection. It was brought along when me moved up here and is out on the patio.