Janet's Blog

A few weeks ago, Bill and I headed to a family reunion in Norfolk with daughter, Victoria, and son, Levi, in the back seat. On a Friday morning, we angled our way up to Alliance from Gering, then caught Highway 2 across the sandhills. I like to call it "no man's land," because the whole region, though beautiful, is very sparsely populated. When we drive to Norfolk, it takes us about six hours of driving time, plus another hour or so for necessary stops, to go the 373 miles from here to there. It's important to note that I feel like regular stops are much more necessary than Bill does, but he usually humors me. The problem is that there aren't too many places to stop along the way, so we have to plan carefully for mealtime stops. There is a 200 mile stretch where the biggest town might have 200 people on a good day. Most communities have at least one gas station with an abundance of snacks and various kinds of drinks, but none of that is on my doctor-prescribed, lo...

All around me, it seems like so many people are hurting. This isn't too unusual. It's just the way life is sometimes. We can go for several weeks or months when everyone around us seems to be doing just fine. But then, BOOM! All of a sudden, everything seems to be going wrong for so many people we know. Right now, I know several people who are fighting cancer, and several more who have been hospitalized with rare and not-so-rare maladies. Some have broken bones that are healing--slowly.  Many people in my area have hail-damaged cars and homes, or even whole fields--and livelihoods--destroyed by hail or drought, or both. Not too far away, ranchers are struggling to recover from devastating wildfires. I've watched happy marriages dissolve into divorce. Babies have been born with lifelong challenges. Older adults are plagued with various ailments, including gut-wrenching dementia. Children and young adults have been killed in car accidents. Sudden death, at any age, is devasta...

Our recent rains have produced some green grass at last. Thank you, God! I was walking on the path that borders the east edge of Scottsbluff National Monument, just at dusk. It was a beautiful evening for a walk, still hot, but somewhat cooler since the sun had dropped behind the Monument. A soft, southeast breeze kept me comfortable as I moved briskly along the path. My first glimpse of the carnival, in the distance. As I headed south, back towards my car, I spotted a light, flashing in the distance. At first, I wasn't sure what I was seeing. The blinking light reminded me of a police car's light bar, but it was the wrong color. As I walked along, I began to notice other lights twinkling on the far side of the alfalfa field--hot pink and green, blue and yellow. Then, it dawned on me: it was the Oregon Trail Days carnival, set up at Red Rocks on the southeastern edge of town. I haven't been to a carnival in years, not since our kids were quite small. As an adult, I find car...

When I was a little girl living in Norfolk, Nebraska, I used to meet Aunt Marilyn in the park that was situated just over the Elkhorn River bridge, about halfway between her house and mine. Marilyn is just four years older than I am, so we were raised more like cousins than aunt and niece. We loved to play in that park; we especially loved the wide slide. So when Marilyn told me, not too long ago, that the playground had been demolished to make way for a new and better park, I was a little skeptical. While we were in Norfolk recently for a family reunion, I asked Bill to drive by the park so I could take a look. The change was so dramatic that Bill and I walked all over the new park. It had been turned into a river walk! When Marilyn and I played in the park so long ago, we weren't really aware that the park bordered the river, because it wasn't at all accessible to the park. But now! A new, wide biking and hiking path borders the river, even crossing the river with a new foot ...

I was sitting on my patio this afternoon, admiring the pink water lily blooming in my backyard pond, when I noticed a squirrel approaching the water. He must not have spotted me, sitting quietly on the bench nearby. He positioned himself at the corner of the pond and leaned over to get a drink. I moved just enough to take his picture. He finished drinking before he finally noticed me and scurried away. This spring, I've noticed plenty of birds perching on the big rock in another corner of the pond, where they can also drink, and quite a few neighborhood cats, as well, who often jump the fence to gaze longingly at our eight goldfish, and get a drink of water. I've also noticed that we've acquired at least one neighborhood opossum; I've spied it hugging our house as it turned the corner and headed toward our backyard.  I didn't think anything of it until a couple of weeks ago, when my neighbor called me over to the fence.  Wendy wanted me to know that another neighbor...

The Wounded Knee Creek flows right through the middle of the family ranch, which borders South Dakota to the north. The ranch, which is used by various extended family members for hunting and vacations, has been one of my favorite places ever since I visited there for the first time, nearly 60 years ago. Now, my grandchildren are the fifth generation of our family to explore everything the ranch has to offer, next to, over, and even in the Wounded Knee. As soon as we arrive, sleeping arrangements are negotiated--some in the main house, and others in the bunkhouse nearby. Then, the kids all beg to go down to the swing, hanging from a 150 year old Cottonwood tree that sits on the creek bank. On the Sunday afternoon before Memorial Day, Bill and I arrived a little earlier than the rest of our crew, so as soon as Bill turned on the electricity and primed the pump so the plumbing would work appropriately, we transferred the food from our cooler to the refrigerator, and headed down to the s...