Janet's Blog

I received an unexpected package in the mail today, from my sister, Laura, who forwarded me her granddaughter, Emma's, school Geography project. Emma lives with her family in south-central Nebraska. Her fifth grade teacher has directed her students to mail a journal to a friend or relative, with instructions to write about the area where they live, and then dispatch the journal on to someone else. By mid-April, when the journal is supposed to be returned to the school, each student should have journal entries from several people all over the country. In addition, each writer is asked to mail a postcard to the school at the same time they mail the journal to the next person, so all of the students can see where all of their journals are going. This sounds like a good way to get young students excited about Geography. After I finished writing the letter for Emma's journal, I realized that many of my blog readers might enjoy reading it, too. I've touched on some of the content...

Just outside of Gering, right next to Scotts Bluff National Monument, is a fairly new museum, formerly called the Farm and Ranch Museum (FARM), and now known as Legacy of the Plains. The museum sprawls over several acres, including some working fields and plenty of old farm equipment, as well as a large, dedicated, museum building, some fully furnished period houses, a barn, and a blacksmith shop. Although it's a mecca for school field trips, the museum is open year-round for anyone to stop by and see what farming and ranching were like in the Nebraska panhandle from the late 1800s throughout the twentieth century. Every September, the museum sponsors a Harvest Festival, where the old machinery is fired up and used to harvest the year's crops: some combination of corn, dry edible beans, sugar beats, pumpkins, and potatoes. The old guys who volunteer their time at the museum are in their glory, using horse-drawn equipment, or driving vintage tractors through the fields. Even the...