Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 1215
Sufferings and hardships. Time and patience. . . . and governments. I’m going to try to tie these thoughts together for this week. Hope you bear with me. Governments: many different levels of governments affect our daily lives and it’s too easy to make a blanket condemnation of them all. Don’t do that as that would be an injustice. In general all governments are in existence to help provide law and order in our lives. On the national scene the government is supposed to provide protection for the citizens therein. A problem comes from how best t...
By Teraesa Bruce I’m writing poolside today, which sounds a lot better than it is. The flies and the teenagers are driving me absolutely bonkers. LOL! All summer long, I hear, “I wish I worked at a pool and could tan all day.” It sounds way more glamorous than it is, I promise. Just today I dug a big clump of hair out of one of the drains, and a couple weeks ago I fished a baby rabbit out of the pool. A friend of mine said to me, “I wish I had your confidence. I just don’t feel comfortable running around in a swim suit all day.” I laughed. It...
Being a long time farm wife, I’ve learned to recognize signs or signals given by my farmer as to what he really is feeling or wanting. The minute he walks through the door and asks if I have time to make a quick trip to town, I know he is in need of something that will require me to either go gather a machinery part, go to the vets to pick up some medicine for the pigs, or to pay a bill he forgot about. If he begins to talk about his parents and if we’d heard from them lately, I realize it’s time for me to have them over for a family dinne...
It’s almost the middle of July and the street in front of the newspaper has yet to be filled with trucks bringing wheat into Superior. The lack of trucks isn’t a surprise but it doesn’t feel right. There are several reasons. Wheat is no longer as popular with local farmers as it once was, this year’s drought has reduced, if not eliminated, the yield from many fields, and it is common for farmers to now bin the wheat on their farms as it cut and then bring it in to market after the harvest is completed. And I may not recognize their trucks...
As a teenager, summertime meant firemen’s carnivals. Almost every town had a volunteer fire department and one of their main fund raisers was a carnival. Starting after Memorial Day and ending around Labor Day there were few weeks a carnival was unavailable for an evening’s entertainment. There were professional “carnies” with their rides, fun houses, and games of chance as well as local clubs sponsoring food stands, bingo, raffles and other such activities. Most nights there would be live entertainment where you could dance, sing or just en...
I don’t know where to begin. It’s been a long week, and it went by so fast it’s a blur. We shuffled the Omaha boys around safely. Robert and his crew are all home safe, and Nicholas gets to stay with us for another week or so, and every one of our vehicles got a turn at leaving the drive. Having extra was a good thing this past couple weeks. Robert brought his motorcycle down, and had his extra stuff in the pickup that Donald drove. Since Donald left before he did, he was forced to leave a lot of stuff here. He tried to strap his gasol...
“O MY GOSH . . . WHAT ELSE” A common expression made by many people when they just learned of something new they thought would never happen. Last week there were a couple of those experiences I had and would like to relay on to you. • Cocaine in the White House . . . In spite of all the ‘Top Secret’ documents that left the government in the personal files of President Trump and President Biden, VP Pence and who knows how many others, I’ve always felt the White House was a pretty secure place. But with President Biden’s son, Hunter being...
July has arrived and with it has come fireworks, camping, picnics, swimming, fresh garden products, family reunions, freezers of homemade ice cream, boating, fishing, county fairs and vacation trips. Usually in this rural area July means checking cattle, baling alfalfa hay, spraying or digging thistles, cutting out cedar and locust trees from pastures, finishing the planting of milo and feeds, and finishing wheat harvest. This July wheat harvest around here is almost a “no go.” Lack of moisture caused for the wheat to be thin, short and not the...
Weather forecasting has changed over the years and for the most part the changes have been for the better. But we are still quick to criticize the weather bureau forecasters when they get it wrong. We won’t be satisfied until they are right 100 percent of the time and to the very minute. Saturday we were told there was a 90 percent chance of rain which might come in torrential amounts. It did rain some place and it was torrential someplace just not where I was so my take is they got it wrong again. Based on that forecast, the Superior C...
Deer ‘O deer Me . . . Every spring I pay attention to the number of deer I see. Both running across our land and those sleeping along the side of roads. This year it seems I’ve been seeing more deer than usual (whatever that is). I guess I’m trying to guess what the November Deer Hunting season will be like. Then I read in several different places that those experts in the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission have already done all the estimating and they have already decided to reduce the hunting pressure on deer by reducing firearm permi...
This month is going to equal a lot of miles on the Mini Cooper. Friday George and I took our typical little road trip to get the kid but left early to run a few errands in Lincoln and Omaha before picking up Nicholas. The battery in the key fob is dead and we were hoping to replace it. Turns out the car is actually supposed to charge it, and the battery can not be replaced. Now the problem is, why isn’t the car charging it? Not really a big deal, and not something I am going to lose any sleep over, that’s for sure. We decided to take the Min...
Q: Should Christians go out and evangelize proactively or should we wait for opportunities to come to us? A: Yes and yes! The Bible lays out the great commission for His Calso in Acts 1:8, “You shall be witnesses of me…” These verses make clear that our purpose for living as Christians is to share the gospel with the world and train up others to do likewise. The gospel (which literally means, “good news,”) is the best news that has ever been shared with the world and it is vitally important for the world to hear it (John 3:18; John 5:24; etc...
It will soon be time to celebrate another Independence Day, July 4th, the birthday of our country, the United States of America! It would take a giant birthday cake to hold our country’s 247 candles. When we think of America’s most patriotic songs, some of the songs that come to mind are of course the “National Anthem,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “This Is My Country,” “America,” “God Bless the USA” and “Yankee Doodle.” My father’s favorite patriotic song was “God Bless America,” and as the church’s song leader, at every patriotic holiday...
My nephew and his family live near Accident, Maryland. They stopped by North Central Kansas this week for a brief visit with relatives including his grandmother, parents, aunt and uncle. The Blauvelts met Garrett and family in Osborne about 11 a.m. Saturday. The Maryland residents left by 5 p.m. headed to Limon, Colorado, where they planned to stay the night. One of their goals on this trip is to visit the Four Corners Monument area. The monument, marks the only spot in the United States where four states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New...
Q: What are the differences in the four gospel accounts? A: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are indeed about as different as four works on the same subject can be! Each was written to a different recipient or recipients, each had a different author with a unique relationship with Jesus, and each was written for a slightly different reason, which gives each account a unique flavor and feel. Many scholars think the Gospel of Mark was written first. It carries with it the energy and fervency experienced by the early church as the gospel was racing...
I think this week I’ll pass along little bits of news you may have not heard of before. Nothing earth shaking, but of interest to me at least. • In Philadelphia there is a Memorial Chapel to honor the deaths of four chaplains in the U. S. military that gave their lives by giving up their life preservers on a ship sinking in the North Atlantic in early WWII. The Lawrence American Legion has donated to their support in the past. Well, I get a request for donations from them yearly. Nothing strange there, but this year they added something new...
I’m writing you from my porch tonight. Yes, I said night. I know, I’m weird. It’s not hot in the house or anything, I just prefer outside to in. I’m all wrapped up in my blankie, with the fan blowing on me because it’s a still night and without the fan, the bugs would bug me. I’m just clicking away at the keyboard, I love laptops, I love wi-fi, I love modern tech, when it works. LOL! Could I live without them? Yes! There are so many ways to communicate anymore that it’s overwhelming. I have one kid who will text and call. Another that will only...
Burr Oak, my hometown, is unusual in having two main road bridges with creeks running under them, within the town’s city limits. Since the town was founded where the Burr Oak Creek joins the White Rock Creek, there had to be bridges on the north side and west edge of town. The first iron clad bridges were used for many years. My family crossed the bridge on Highway 28 on the north side of town to visit my grandparents. It would rattle every time it was crossed. Next to the bridge, in a low place, was the Huntsinger filling station. The tall i...
It’s about time for the three kittens that have been calling our yard home, to be moved on to their adoptive home. More than a year ago, a farm family placed an order for two kittens that liked to be held. When Midnight, the stray cat that calls our neighborhood home, had three kittens last March, we began a process to tame the kittens and teach them to enjoy socializing with people. It seems to have worked, perhaps too well. When I went home for lunch Monday noon, the kitten we call Two Tone, came down out of a tree, ran to me, looked up a...
Q: I know we are supposed to hate the sin but love the sinner. I am having trouble with that. Can you help with how to do that? (Part Two of Two) A: Last week we talked about our need as believers to have compassion on sinners, having the same understanding and mercy for them that God has for us (Matthew. 18:28-35). However, we can go too far in the opposite direction if our concern for sinners leads us to be soft or “wishy-washy” about sin itself. The Bible maintains a perfect balance between firm condemnation of sin and love for the sin...
Last week was what nightmares are made of. We had swimming lessons all week, and I am still waking up in the night attempting to catch a child as they jump in the pool. I am surprised I haven't awakened George, or gave him a black eye, as I jump in my sleep reaching out into the unknown. I had planned to get photos of the Pony Express coming through Oak. I rushed around and made it to town 25 hours early. I felt like a moron sitting in my car by the park looking like a drowned rat, wearing my...
A belated “Happy Father’s Day” to all the fathers out there. Hope you had a nice day. Mine was quiet: attended Mass, had a nice late breakfast, a nap in the afternoon and did a little ‘garden’ activity and had a nice steak supper. To someone my age, I’m guessing that is about as good as it can be. A O I get a quarterly magazine from the University of Nebraska Alumni Association. In the most recent issue they ask alumni to share memories. Their question in this issue was: “What is your favorite remembrance from Memorial Stadium?” I f...
While driving past a corn field, a large red bull was spotted, lazily grazing in the lush corn without a care in the world. My husband and I talked about who the bull probably belonged to, but couldn’t come with a clue. My husband assured me that before dark, the owner would come and direct the bull back to a pasture or lot where he belonged. The next day, a visitor stopped by and mentioned she had noticed a large red bull out in a corn field. Apparently, the owner either came and got the bull but it escaped again, or it had been roaming around...
A modern marvel caused this writer’s home to slip a few decades back in time this week. While growing up in the country, modern services like running water, inside conveniences and electricity were not common, if even available. We routinely kept about 30 gallons of water available, should our well not be available. And while they may not have been conveniently located, we never removed all of the outside conveniences. (Editor’s Note: When this article was proof read on Tuesday morning, one of our younger associates asked “Why did you have...
Living in the country, laundromats required major effort to ready. You had to gather all the laundry together and haul it several miles. For this reason, we always had our own washers and dryers when I was growing up. When I went off to college, there were washers and dryers in the basement of my dorm. The main difference from doing laundry at home was having enough change to feed the machines. Linen was provided in the room and board contract, so I only had to strip the bed, round up my towels and take the pile down to stand in the laundry...
