technology in agriculture

We missed out on seeing bunches of kids in costumes up here (if there were any) but we certainly saw staff in costume for both Dinner and Supper. I don't know what to call these "creatures" but it would be difficult to say anything about their attractiveness or absence thereof with their big mouths, short legs and big bottoms. Rosellen on the other hand was quite attractive and colorful with her outfit. There were several others that were interesting and others that I just didn't catch on as to who they were representing. Jeremy wore a large horse shoe around his neck with little yellow "pips" down around the open end that I never did get figured out. Maybe that was the "trick" and the "treat" would have been knowing what it represented.

Paul Siebert was back to Brookdale this afternoon and provided entertainment for the October Birthdays. There were an unusually large number of them that Rosellen recognized during a break in Paul's program. He not only provides excellent "sing along" music but also tells the story that goes with it. It seems that movies have done much more to popularize Country Music than did cowboys. He started his 50 minute program with the Guitar and big hat but switched to a Derby hat as he sang Celtic songs.While he played a conventional Banjo, the one shown here was hand made with a squash base covered with goat skin. It originated in Africa. He also played a Jaw harp, Dulcimer and button Accordion. He has a wonderful singing voice but can do imitations, even whistle and yodel. He said the program he provided us was the same as he did each of the 8-days of the State Fair.

Barb Liska, the head Dispatcher of the Seward County 911 office had the program today at Kiwanis. The primary responsibility of the Seward County Communications office is to dispatch for the Seward County Sheriff�s Department, Seward Police Department, Milford Police Department, all fire and rescue calls in Seward County, and handling all 911 and non-emergency calls. To report Crime Stoppers Tips, Call Crime Stoppers 402-643 3334.  Following her presentation  and questions from the audience, it seems that a couple people had difficulty getting through to her with the 911 number. In that case the number 492 643 4576 will get you to the Dispatcher. Another problem mentioned was coming upon an accident on a country road and not being able to determine the location. While the intersections are all marked, it can be a problem if you are driving by landmarks and are not aware of the road name or number. I would hope that technology would soon enable our smart phones to give us a Lat/log

Rev. Bob Perry from the Seward United Methodist Church led the Church Service at Brookdale this afternoon. Eli Stark provided accompaniment for Hymn singing. Rev. Perry used scripture readings  that told of Job being blessed with great wealth only  to see it destroyed and eventually returned, to support his discussion of our "accepting the new normal". I can't think of any place where the message would be more appropriate than  at a facility like Brookdale. None of us would be here were it not that we are adjusting to a different life style than what we enjoyed in our own homes. Like with Job, having faith in the Good Shepard to lead us is the only way we can adjust and accept this "new normal". Rev. Perry's examples were of his Dad's athletic endeavors that eventually led to golf; and even to the number of holes that he could play/day. I have been very fortunate in being able to "give up" jobs, public service positions, and recreational activi

Our Spectrum Internet service has been erratic the past couple days, being "off" most of the time. I wasn't able to send a blog page yesterday.  The repair truck just pulled out so maybe they have it "fixed". Carolyn got us up to their house this afternoon. It's been a couple weeks since we've been inside so were very impressed with the progress. The counter tops and all the trim work is a big part of what hopefully will get done in the next couple weeks. A lot of work is still to be done in the bathrooms too. Carolyn is very pleased with the wooden beams in the Great Room that includes the Living, Dining and Kitchen areas. The view out the back of the house is beautiful this fall with the trees and grass so colorful. The area is a major addition to the City of Seward North Cemetery. They are having an addition added to the recently poured patio out the glass doors which will make it a very neat area. Carolyn has really been involved in every detail and

We at Brookdale were honored this afternoon when 5th graders from Saint John's came over to entertain us. They sang with various ones providing accompaniment on the piano, two girls played violins and they recited Bible verses along with their songs. During a break they passed out greeting cards with a little treat. Most importantly, they visited with us. Rosellen told us this morning about old folks regaining their childhood by watching kids play "kick the can". I felt a certain amount of youth in talking with them and telling of my 5th grade in "Oak Grove" country school northeast of Garland. We had just got back from Elaine getting her hair cut and set and my doing some shopping when we walked into the Dining Room for the entertainment.  In walked Carolyn and Jack. They had already been down to get his chocolate ice cream cone. Julie then also came up and we had a good visit in our unit. Carolyn and Ben continue to be involved on a daily basis in the construc

I had an appointment with Dr. Donald Henslee who comes out from Lincoln to the Seward Hospital Specialty Center once per month. He reminded me this morning that it has been 26 years that he has been my Urologist. The Doctor who did my prostatectomy back in the spring of 1992 retired soon after the surgery and I've been with Dr. Henslee ever since. Though he monitored the increase in my PSA reading over the years; when it reached 61 back June of 2016, he decided it was time for hormone treatment. I had never had any radiation nor chemical  treatment following the surgery. I began a regimen of Lupron shots and a 7-day supply of Casodex pills. By October 2016 the PSA was down to 2.8 and by April of 2017, it was down to 0.70, and 0.47 in September. With what may have been some side effects, we decided to "pause" the Lupron for 6 months. It was at 0.40 in April and 1.16 today. We will continue the "pause" of treatment and look forward to the reading next May. I alway

My picture scanning took me into early June 1990 when we were living in Ankeny, IA and Tim, Laura and Tony came to visit. A couple days later, Carolyn and Julie brought Mother over to all visit. While we were able to show them many items of interest the first couple days, Mother went down coming back from the bathroom. We got her back in bed and made contact with local emergency medical people. We also called Dr. Pitsch, Mother's family Doctor in Seward. It was determined that we would take her back home and got on the way by 10:30am. Dr. Pitsch came over to our house soon after we got home and stayed for a couple hours. He called it a Mini-Stroke which would be called a TIA today. She woke up feeling good the next morning but Elaine stayed with her in Seward. Vivian had called all of the family to let them know of Mother's condition. She didn't appear to suffer any permanent damage and enjoyed a big 90th Birthday celebration in August but suffered a fatal stroke in Dece

The new Nebraska Slogan had generated a lot of discussion throughout the State and beyond. Our Grandson who is with a TV station in Raleigh, NC even was asked what he thought of it. It has caused many of us to stop and think about what may be an "Ideal" slogan. As a Native Nebraskan, I am very proud of our non-partisan, Unicameral Legislature that provides for public hearings on every bill introduced and 3 readings before the legislative body. Our Natural Resource Districts are also unique in that the sustainable use of our soil and water resources is the responsibility of local Directors elected by citizens within the district. Individual citizens have much more opportunity for their vice to be heard  with our form of State Government and Natural Resource Districts than in any other State. Can we someday have a slogan that captures this uniquness? Something like: "Nebraska: Where Your Voice is Heard"

This is one of the pictures added to the Flash Drive today as 1989 was completed. Dad had died on December 15th with the Funeral at the Seward UMC on the 18th with Rev. Ben Garrison. Sorges stayed for over a week with Mother and their were 13 of us around the table  for Christmas Dinner. "Elaine brought 4 pies, Larry fixed the Turkey and all the ladies brought things. We had a good visit during the afternoon. Eddy brought over their keyboard which Janice played and we sang "Star of the East" as well as several Christmas songs. " We might have even sang "The Lost Cord" but it wasn't mentioned in my notes. I hope that we can do some singing again next time when Sorges get back to visit.

Before writing about these two young HS sophomores from Oklahoma who have spent a couple days in a Leadership Training session here at Concordia University, let me tell of Nebraska's first Football win in the "Scott Frost era". It came today with a 53-28 win over Minnesota. It would appear from the final score that there was no question who would win. Especially if you heard that Nebraska scored our fist TD on the first possession with less than 2 minutes off the clock. Though the Gophers scored just before the end of the 1st half, the Huskers led 28-8. With them scoring a couple more TD's in the 3rd quarter making the score 28-22, they were driving in the red zone when Nebraska happened to pick off a pass that glanced off a helmet to stop the drive.  It appeared for a moment that "Here we go Again" but thank goodness, we didn't, and got that W.  The group of Oklahoma students were led by a teacher who had come up from that state to get her Teacher crede

We were treated at Brookdale this afternoon with a visit from the Polka Jamboree. While it is usually led by Franklin Hronik, he is recuperating from a rib injury. Jean filled in as their leader following in the footsteps of her father who served as leader ahead of Franklin. The pleasure that can come from 3 accordions, Drums, Elmer on the Tuba, and a French horn is just indescribable. They played and sang many of the old favorites and responded favorably to requests.  Leroy sat behind us, and we could enjoy his joining in with Elmer and Jean in singing many of the songs. Elaine and I even tried to do a little waltzing but our SAS shoes don't move very well to our dance moves. It was great entertainment and Best Wishes go out to Franklin for a rapid recovery.

Brother Don, Gladys and their daughter Laurie came up from Syracuse to visit and have Dinner with us here in Brookdale this noon. We had an excellent breaded Shrimp meal in the private dining room. Laurie took this picture and told of the upcoming marriage of their daughter. She and husband Jim have both had successful civil service careers at the Offutt AFB. The painting on the wall is of the house at the farm where Don, I and our Dad grew up and where Don and Gladys lived after getting married. (The clock is from Elaine's maternal side of her family). Our visits always result in each of us learning of some new family connections. I pulled up some of my old "Crow's Nest" post that helped answer some of our questions. It was ironic that their visit today was on the 122nd anniversary of our Dad's Birth. Don raised a Toast to him which we all joined in with our water glasses at the Dinner table.

This Seward, Alaska Visitor's Center shot showed up in our 1989  pictures today. It is not very visible but the sign I'm pointing to says, "Seward, Nebraska - 4,135 miles" with an arrow pointing south. (We have a similar one here that points north). We took this on July 12th after having left home for Alaska and a Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Meeting in Edmondton, Alberta, on June 19th in our Pickup truck with a Shell over the box and fitted with sleeping accommodations, food and clothing storage. (We got back home on August 5th) While my scanning process has been to transfer to Flash Drive those pictures which may be of interest to our family in the future. It also has the current benefit of my going through all of our pictures and making the decision on which to select for transfer. Our travels present a particular challenge since I doubt that family will have much future interest in a picture such as this, but I haven't given up on being able to p

Progress continues to be made on the Hughes house. I got this picture about 3:00 pm today as they were putting siding on the south side. A plumbing truck was there so something was going on in the inside as well. It is still very muddy so I didn't even think about getting out of the car. The temperature rose to 70 degrees late this afternoon under clear skies with dry weather forecast for the next several days. We hope it will "dry up" the mud like the 5 inches of snow we got on Sunday was all gone this morning. We personally had a busy day by going to Walmart, the Bank, Elaine going to the Beauty Shop and my getting  hair cut. The Boston Red Sox just got a Grand Slam HR to lead the Houston Astros 8-2 going into the bottom of the 8th inning. 

Julie and John came up yesterday with Sadie and Jack. They brought Brownies right out of the oven and served them with ice cream. Excellent. They had planned to go to Omaha but changed their plans as the snow continued to fall. It seems that Seward with it's 5 inches was among the greater amounts received yesterday. Our low temperature of 25 degrees also came close to setting a record for this date. It was amazing how the snow melted today. The sun shown brightly all day but the temperature was in the 40s. There is very little snow left except in the shaded areas. John had taken some pictures of the kids playing in the snow in their back yard before they came over. He handed his phone to Jack to bring it over to show me. While it was a neat little video, what amazed me was Jacks ability to "play" the phone. He will have his 4th birthday later this month. Sadie is equally impressive but just not as outgoing as Jack. The two of them play off each other and get a long real w

The snow flakes began soon after 9:00am this morning and by 11:00, you could have tracked a rabbit across the lawn. This is the way our Patio looked about 2:00pm. It tapered off and the 5 inches on the table settled down to  about 3 as the temperature fell. It is to get down to 25 degrees tonight but are to have several days of Indian Summer following. I noted son Jon's involvement in USDA organizational changes in a recent post. He has just sent the following as a follow-up: "End of an Era, Continuation of a Legacy Tonight, October 13, 2018, ends an era of more than 150 years of service to the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) by the Vrana/Flowerday family. I have carried this conservation tradition forward for more than 42 years, the last 22 years of which have been in Washington, DC in National Headquarters. Tomorrow I begin my service in the Business Center of the USDA Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area. The bu

Dave and Mary Beth McWilliams came out to visit this afternoon after seeing the Nebraska loss on TV to Northwestern with Friends in Lincoln. Though it appeared that Nebraska was on it's way to winning the first game in the Scott Frost era with a 10 point lead and 5 minutes to go, it was not to be and we lost 34-31 in overtime. The drama was close to that in the Seward HS loss to York last night where York scorned 3 TDs in the final 8:40minutes to win 42-40.  Carolyn and Ben came up also soon after McWilliams got here. We all had a good visit and Carolyn took this picture. Dave was even able to reset the dpi default level for the picture scanning I'm continuing to do. We had sack lunch with the Nebraska game on so while we went to eat supper, the others went past the new Hughes house. They then drove past several of the former homes here in Seward of Family members. We continued our visit when they got back and certainly enjoyed their coming out.

We didn't go out of the building today and made some progress on my picture scanning project. This one is from my June Birthday in 1988. We had the Folks down for a Vegetable Beef Soup lunch with all the trimmings. According to my Journal, it was the 8th consecutive day over 100 degrees. Julie and I went swimming that afternoon. Carolyn and Ben had gone to Lincoln and the Highway had "buckled" down by the airport. It cooled off the following day. We had an interesting call from Jon this afternoon telling of some of the reorganization that is underway in USDA. He will become part of the Farm Production Business Center (FPBC) under Assistant Secretary Northey. He will be sending us more details in the near future.

Carolyn brought Great Grandson Jack up to visit today a few minutes before we had to leave for Elaine's dental appointment to get a new crown. I was on the computer in the west room when they came. I hollered to "come on in" and Jack ran in to where I was and gave me a big hug. He showed me his new "tractor loader spoon" and Carolyn got him some Ice Cream for him to demonstrate. Carolyn even brought up our car from the garage so we had a bit more time to spend with him. After getting Elaine to the Dentist, I went on to Walmart and did our week's shopping. We drove up past the new Hughes house under construction after picking up Elaine with a new tooth and some fillings. We were please to see siding being installed and progress being made. A special activity was underway here at Brookdale all afternoon. A young merchant with shops in the Houston, TX area was here to visit with people about their antiques in a manner similar to the "Antique Road Show"

Every so often we have the choice of Chicken Tenders or BBQ Ribs for the Dinner meal here at Brookdale. This was the day that Elaine chose the Ribs. Like the Country Girl that she is, her eating them is demonstrated in this picture. I'm sure they were good and there was nothing left for the dog on the bones when she finished. We are sharing one of my "left-over" Chicken Tenders as I write this.  We were pleased that Rev. Jo Ellen with the United Methodist Church was up this afternoon to serve a group of us Communion by intinction. It was very well received and we later were able to confirm that our pictures from 3-4 years ago can be used in the new Church Directory underway.  I indicated to her of my pleasure of her recently becoming a member of our Kiwanis Club of Seward. She adds to the percentage of very capable women in the Club including our President, President Elect etc.

I finished putting 211 pictures from 1987 on a 32GB Flash Drive today. Many of them are included in these 2 Collages. It was another interesting year as we balanced time between family, job, travel, social, religious and environmental activities. Julie's birthday and her recital with Mr. collier were early in January after Elaine and I had participated in Gov. Kay Orr's Inaugural Ball. I began service on the Presbytery committee on Ministry. The ice at the farm had as much interest in the winter as water in the summer. We attended a National Association of Conservation Districts meeting in Reno, NV, went on to Phoenix, AZ where we visited Verne and Carolyn Bathurst and went on the Nebraskan Irrigation tour, We had a Soil Conservation float in the Goehner parade, appreciated a Blue Bird that Verlon carved for us. We danced to Dad's Accordion music at Ted & Muffy's. Enjoyed our garden, the Garland Alumni reunion, Staff picnic at Dayle Williamson's, the Seward swim

Commander Dan Gross provided the program at Kiwanis here in Seward today where he has been a resident for the last several years. As a reservist, his deployments include Iraq and Kuwait 2007-2008, and Dubai in 2012 and numerous others while on active duty. He is now involved with the Navy program of returning the remains of fallen service members to their families here in the United States for Ceremonial burial. He told of the large number of bones that continue to show up in Vietnam and the efforts involved in their identification. Families have a choice of bringing the remains home for burial or having them interned in a Military Cemetery. He has conducted a funeral within the past couple weeks for a recovered and identified individual from Wahoo, NE that had been lost for some 50 years. He told of the dignity involved in the transportation of each individual. The remains are placed in a casket with a personal escort who stays with it even to his having spent a night in an Airline Te

This picture represents the way Elaine and I look tonight as we watch the "pickers" on the History Channel. Elaine is working in a "clothes washing" project but catching most of the TV program. We thought we had a lot of stuff but the things you see on that program make us realize we had very little. Sundays are rather slow days here at Brookdale. The highlight of my day was seeing Rev. James Keck deliver his message on TV this morning. It was a continuation  of his "Courage" theme which he says is having a "brave heart". One of the Fast Food Chains used the slogan, "Be like Mike" during the Micheal Jordan era. He says we should adopt a slogan of "Be Like Zech" and went on to tell the story of Zechariah's conversion from being a hated tax collector to a  after climbing a tree to see the Lord. I may have not put all the pieces together since I'm not that familiar with Zechariah but I understood the importance of his use

This is one of the many 1987 pictures that I scanned today and it relates to our discussion with Carolyn and Ben this morning about growing old. We have seen the decline of some of our fellow residents and also marvel at the ability of several in their upper 90's. Dad would have been approaching his 91st birthday at the time this picture was taken and Mother was 87. While we maintained a close relationship with the Folks, we were involved with our farm and my job until retiring in the spring of '88. I was pleased that the Folks enjoyed my 2nd retirement party in Lincoln. We had our Farm Sale in the spring of 1989.  The Folks attended that and talked about all of the interesting things they had done out there including Dad's field work.  After the Farm sale we spent 6 weeks on a camping trip to Alaska and attending the International Soil and Water Conservation Society annual meeting in Canada. While there, I accepted the position of Executive Vice-President of the organizati

Here are 3 of the pictures which were included in my scanning today. The first 2 were taken on Easter Sunday, 1987 and the 3rd on a few days later out at the farm of Julie, her doll and "her" hydrangea. She was so impressed with the bloom of hydrangeas that we saw earlier at Monticello that we bought one and put it on the north side of the attached garage at the farm. She and John continue to have them in landscape plantings. The Easter pictures were to show off her new dress, new doll and her long curly hair. I think the curls were all natural but she seamed to outgrow them. There is probably more to that story than what I am aware but certainly enjoy working with pictures of "those good old days".

Dr. Brent Royuk, Dean of Arts and Science at Concordia University here in Seward, presented the program this evening to the Magazine Club. His topic was the history of his family home they have owned here for the past several years. He also has a web site with many old post card pictures of historic Seward subjects. We had met before but really appreciate what he is doing to document some of Seward's history. His house is in the same City Block as our house was on 1st Street. We thought of it as the "Davey Justice" house since they owned it for some time ahead of the "Royuks". The house was built in 1908 as a "Parsonage" for the Congregational Church and utilized by a number on Pastors over several years. Brent has done a tremendous amount of research on-line, through County Records, our City Library, the State Historical Society, etc. He obviously enjoyed getting all the "pieces put together"  and telling people about it. While many or even

Elaine felt much better today. She was up for our Oatmeal breakfast and went to the Dining Room for both Dinner and Supper. She had several stop by and express their pleasure is seeing her back. She took it pretty easy with a nap this afternoon but is doing a washing this evening. Betty Tomes helped her with it a bit A couple of our light circuits cut out last night at the end of the 9th inning so we went to bed. Jim got it fixed by jiggling the circuit breakers. I had checked them but none were "flipped"- just weren't making the connection. Ken Siemek tells us that the temperature hit 94 in Lincoln this afternoon. It fell short of the 96 degree record set back in 1938. We had a cold front come through early this evening with wind gusts of up to 59 mph dropping temperatures to 63 at 8:20. We are to have a high in the mid-50's tomorrow and a 60% chance of rain during much of the coming week.

I finished scanning my 1986 pictures yesterday and moved into 1987 today. Here is one taken at the Goehner, NE 100 year celebration on May30. This is of Bob and Lee Graff, longtime Goehner area residents. Growing beards wasn't as popular than as it is now but was done for Centennial celebrations such as this. Smith Brothers cough drops we popular in those days and pictured two men with full beards on the box as the "Smith Brothers". It was a most interesting entry into the parade that extended for nearly two miles. I showed this picture to Lavonne,  Bob's widow, at Supper here this evening. We sat at adjoining tables. We were involved in the event with a Seward Grange float telling of  Nebraska using 3,000 gallons of water and 2 bushels of soil for every bushel of corn we produce. I had noted their being more people in the parade than watching it. Elaine woke up with a bad headache this morning and was down for most of the day. I had given her an Aspirin early and a

I finished my scanning of 1986 pictures today and ended with 152 on my Flash Drive. Many of them are the ones on this collage that I did several years ago. It was a good year where we balanced our lives between the Farm, my Job, Family, Traveling, etc. The farm was a continual challenge that offered pleasure for us as well as the whole family. I believe my folks really enjoyed the place. The Guys and Dolls square dance club in Lincoln that we joined with Viv and Eddy Soucek was fun. We participated in Eddy's coffee for his Retirement from SCS. We spent Easter down at the home of brother Don and Gladys in Syracuse, NE. We went on an extensive Motor Home CW trip with Julie to visit families in Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina.  We visited Dollywood and Opryland as well as Colonial Williamsburg. Aunt Anna (Vrana) Barth's funeral here in Seward provided an opportunity for a cousins reunion. Tim's drove back and spent a week or so with us during mid-December. Julie always ma