Spring is Springing! The park near our campground is beautiful with lush green grass and plenty of pretty flowers.

The campground itself is quite pretty…

Especially if you like dandelions!

Grandkids Performing

We were privileged to see both Peter and Dayna perform in their school’s final music program for the year. The program was very nice, and of course our grandkids did very well!

The next day was Dayna’s piano recital. It was in a nice venue at Wesleyan University, in the north east part of Lincoln. The campus has many interesting buildings, but we weren’t there for the architecture.

Dayna played beautifully!

And of course took a proper bow afterwards…

Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach

Saturday some of us spent some time making lunch for homeless folks at this beautiful facility. They serve two meals a day there for any who need them. Our gang of friends does one meal a month.

Grilled cheese sandwiches, corn, salad, chips and cookies. Ron and Vicki have been doing this for 28 years! That’s like 100,000 sandwiches! They have quite a system, and it works well. There are a lot of folks who enjoyed the 200 or so sandwiches we made that day!

Mother’s Day

The next morning was Mother’s Day, and Kevin and I made breakfast for the moms and all the rest of the family. Ok, Becky and Cherryl helped too, but it was our job. Kevin made Dutch Babies – light airy pancakes that were fantastic! I made Aebleskivers – a danish delight with a light pancake batter formed into balls in a special pan, and with hidden goodies inside. We did strawberries, chocolate chips, and strawberry-rhubarb sauce. Plenty of that sauce was great on top of these exotic dishes, to complement other fresh fruit and fake meats. 🙂

Homestead National Historical Park

A ways south of Lincoln is this interesting park. Documenting the Homestead program the government operated from 1862 till 1988. The program was to “Civilize” open land in the midwest and further west. 160 acres was the usual land grant, and you had to live on the land and make it productive… in other words, support yourself. The program was a terrific chance for many folks, but required a fantastic amount of work on their part. Millions of acres were parceled out over the years. The program was shut down in 1976, with the exception of parts of Alaska. The last participant was a guy in Alaska, who met all the requirements by 1979 but didn’t get his deed till 1988. He ended up selling the land a few years later.

The downside of the Homesteading was that the government was giving away land that the Native Americans considered their own. Conflicts were many and tragic. Some really sad stuff here.

The Museum has lots of fascinating exhibits of what life was like for the homesteaders… vehicles, tools, machines and furniture. It is amazing how hard these folks had to work to survive, and interesting to see how machines were invented that changed the scope of that work.

A preserved cabin is interesting in that it held a family that had 12 children! They slept in the loft and everyone survived the harsh winters and grueling farm work. Amazing.

Another museum had exhibits outside that I found interesting. Rather than try to relay all the info to you, I will make you read it yourself (if you care to.)

Can you imagine making all the rope needed on a farm?

I’d never heard of “Oiling the Hogs!” This simple gadget was filled with oil, and the pigs would scratch themselves by rubbing up against the wheels, which then bring healing oil up and onto the pig.

A picturesque bridge leads over to a garden area.

A little farther away is the Freeman School. Made of brick, this sturdy schoolhouse served prairie children from 1872 till 1967. It is actually still in service, with kids from other schools spending a little time here to learn what schools were like a century ago.

Note the stove in the back of the school, with the stovepipe running the length of the building to get heat more evenly distributed.

I guess I’ll close this bit with a shot of Peter looking for a way “out.”