Nebraska Life Magazine November-December 2024 by Flagship Publishing

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

FEATURES

22 The Long, Hard Winter

The first blizzard hit on Dec. 13, 2022, the start of 120 consecutive days of blistering snow across the Nebraska Sandhills. story and photographs by Nicole Louden

30 Small Town Vintage

ReMain in Springfield brings new life to antique wares and vintage home goods, revitalizing Main Street’s corner store. story and photographs by Becky McCarville

40 From Farm to Fork

In Waterloo, Ellsworth Crossing celebrates Nebraska farmers by featuring over 100 different farmers, ranchers and producers. story and photographs by Tim Trudell

44 Homemade Heartland Delights

Explore these eight Nebraska-made products and businesses just in time for the holiday season. by Ariella Nardizzi

Bayard pg. 66

Ellsworth pg. 22

Columbus pg. 14

Elba pg. 64

Ravenna pg. 44

Lexington pg. 44

Oxford pg. 14

DEPARTMENTS

14 Flat Water News

Grand Island pg. 58

Sutton pg. 44

Fairfield pg. 20

Waterloo pg. 40

Brainard pg. 44

York pg. 44

Lincoln pg. 44

Fairbury pg. 14

Pinnacle Bank in Columbus sends Nebraska holiday care packages to service members; the newest book by Omaha native Gordon Hopkins explores Wild Bill’s claim to fame; Oxford’s local museum displays a collection of over 500 railroad dining car items.

18 Trivia

Don’t be a third wheel and answer these questions about Nebraska’s three-lettered towns. Answers on page 61.

20 Storyteller

A Nebraska Life reader escapes a schoolhouse fire near Fairfield during the winter of 1955. Learn how you can be published, too.

36 Museums

Big or small, these museums preserve Nebraska history and heritage for all to experience.

52 Kitchens

Save these warm recipes for your next holiday feast.

56 Poetry

Our poets weave together tender memories around the table, celebrating simple meals, card games and good company.

58 Traveler

The Stuhr Museum’s Railroad Town comes to life with an 1890s Christmas celebration; the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha decorates for their annual Holiday Poinsettia Show.

64 Naturally Nebraska

Alan J. Bartels mentors a young hunter on outdoor basics, starting with a BB gun and a few pop cans.

66 Last Look

Photographer Jeff Phelps captures Chimney Rock illuminated by red and green lights, surrounded by a white blanket of snow.

Omaha pg. 30, 58

Ralston pg. 30, 44

Springfield pg. 30

Gretna pg. 30

ON OUR COVER Cranberries, raisins, orange juice and honey meld together to create a tender pork tenderloin entrée perfect for holiday feasts. See recipe section on page 52. PHOTOGRAPH BY DANELLE

Above: Alan J. Bartels, Ken Smith, Larry Fasnacht Page 7: Nicole Louden, Becky McCarville, Alan J. Bartels

McCOLLUM

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

Volume 28, Number 6

Publisher & Editor

Chris Amundson

Associate Publisher Angela Amundson

Managing Editor Lauren Warring

Production Assistant Victoria Finlayson

Design

Jennifer Stevens, Mark Del Rosario

John Anton Sisbreño

Photography Assistant Erik Makić

Advertising Sales Karla Steele, Sarah Smith

Subscriptions

Liesl Amundson, Janice Sudbeck

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CONTRIBUTE

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Impressing the grandkids

Thank you so much for publishing my poem (“Butterflies in the Garden,” June 2024); I am honored that it was chosen. My grandkids think it’s great that I still write.

Jerry Gronewold Kearney

Angus for Valentine’s Day

The picture of feeding time by David Schuyler on page 52 (Poetry) of the January/February 2024 issue – perfect!

Carole Kopietz Fort Collins, Colorado

Summer memories

Long ago, a family started a rite of passage that would become a four-generation tradition, held dear by family, friends and any who cared to participate.

The annual treks to a little place called Merritt’s Beach in Plattsmouth were a bedrock in our family history. From the 1950s through the 1980s this was the spot to celebrate a hot summer weekend and swim, eat cold chicken, potato salad and let the little ones run around until they fell asleep on a blanket so moms and dads could catch a break. The adults were also good for a hot game of cards that lasted all day and interchanged partners.

The day of the gathering required the careful packing of the car so the maximum amount of stuff could be smashed into the trunk to allow enough room for the humans in the actual car. My grandmother would get up at dawn to fry the chickens and make some side dishes of deviled eggs or cake.

As I got older, in the 1980s, some friends and I brought our friends to the place and enjoyed Saturdays of drinks, sun, fun, volleyball and cards for most of the summer. People floated in and out of the group, bringing their kids or fur babies. It was a grand summer.

It was the best summer.

By the time I wanted to bring my kids, the park had closed for renovations. The park had been so many things to so many people over the decades – it was a swimming hole, a beach with sand volleyball, at one point they had music combos, then

it was called Muscle Beach for the body builders that went there.

I wish the RV park and their families well. I hope they each have their “best summer.”

Joyce Argo Wymore

The horrible Winter of 1948-49 started in November (“Storyteller,” January/February 2024). By December we were in trouble in O’Neill.

This picture was in December in front of my mother’s beauty shop south of the intersection of the two highways. There wasn’t any place to move snow to, so the wall got taller – quite a sight every day. The streets were full of water when the melt came in the spring.

My cousin and her friend were coming in and I thought I would get a picture of the wall with their height of 5 feet 6 inches. There were cuts in the wall so anyone with a car could park and get to a store – of course there were not a lot of cars in town at that time.

We were headed home to O’Neill the first part of January and stopped at a filling station in Norfolk. They told us to get right back on the road – the snowplows had just headed in, and we may be able to get through. We did, but with all the snow everywhere, we couldn’t recognize places we had always gone by.

Sometimes we have long conversations about what we saw, how we managed to get groceries, trying to keep jobs, trying to get some place to help family. I have more respect for people who dared to settle in this part of the country.

Wihlma Price Hastings

Behind the Huskers

We enjoy each issue of Nebraska Life, but the September/October 2024 issue was a special delight. The article, “Equipping the Huskers,” paid tribute to the unsung heroes working behind the scenes. They put in

SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Send your letters and emails by Dec. 1, 2024, for possible publication in the next issue. One lucky winner selected at random will receive a free 1-year subscription renewal. This issue’s winner is Stephen Murray of Georgetown, Texas. Email editor@nebraskalife.com or write by mail to the address at the front of this magazine. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

O’Neill’s wall of snow

long hours before and after each game and celebrate or suffer along with the team. Our grandson, Cade Argo, and some of his friends were pictured at work in some of the article’s photos. Thank you for adding a bright spot to our day.

Joyce Argo Wymore

A magazine ode

I cannot wait for each issue of Nebraska Life to arrive. I read it in one sitting. I was inspired to write this poem as a way of saying thanks for all your hard work. Happy holidays to you and your staff, and blessings for the new year.

Rich Yost Rich Yost Bellevue

If you enjoy lush river valleys, rocky canyons or sand hills so great, you’ll miss most of those if you choose to drive the interstate.

There is nothing wrong with shelter in some upscale hotel chain, but have you ever considered shelter in a place that once held bushels of grain?

A river full of tubers, or a field of hay-freshly mown, you won’t see any of those if you’re playing on your phone. You’ll find camping, glamping, and so much more in our state parks. You might spot buffalo, bighorn sheep or even western meadowlarks.

Don’t miss taking in a Wild Wild West Buffalo Bill Cody Show, or how about ice skating at a park on the banks of the mighty Mo?

Other states might have bigger cities and boast of fancier places. Give me a rancher in boots and lots of wide-open spaces.

When you have an opportunity to take a road less traveled, pull off that paved highway and find a road that’s graveled.

You’ll always find interesting stories and magnificent photos from cover to cover, showcasing our great state. That is why I am a Nebraska Life lover.

With love, from Tex-arbraska

I’m a Nebraska native-born in Holdrege and grew up in Grand Island. I relish every issue of Nebraska Life when it arrives in my mailbox in Georgetown, Texas. My wife is from New York City, so Nebraska Life has been a helpful way for me to introduce her to the good life in Nebraska.

Stephen Murray Georgetown, Texas

Noteworthy news, entertaining nonsense

Santa’s Nebraska Elves Bank sends care packages to service members for the holidays

BY ARIELLA NARDIZZI

Five hundred and fourteen loaded boxes sit stacked against the wall of Pinnacle Bank in Columbus. Each is lovingly filled to the brim with a bottle of Dorothy Lynch salad dressing, Nebraska Bow Hunters’ deer jerky and handwritten letters from local schoolchildren.

The grateful hands of military service members will receive these care packages across the globe. They are stationed thousands of miles from their families come

Christmas, but each package brings a little bit of Nebraska heart to the base.

Since 2010, Pinnacle Bank has worked tirelessly to send holiday cheer to the troops by coordinating a tremendous care package drive. The program rapidly grew from 24 boxes in 2013 to 514 in 2023.

The project hits close to home for Kim Tobiason, a bank employee who’s been involved for the last decade. Her family’s military legacy dates to her great-grandfather’s involvement in the Civil War, her father’s Army service and

now her nephew’s Navy enlistment.

From Sept. 11 through early November, the bank opens its doors to community donations. People provide food, personal care items and monetary support for shipping and additional materials. Volunteers’ efforts are just a small reminder to the troops of their hometowns’ humble appreciation for their service, Tobiason said.

In November, 60 community volunteers rally in the basement of Pinnacle Bank at 23rd Street to transform donations into neatly packed boxes, sent to bases both

At Pinnacle Bank in Columbus, volunteers gather to pack holiday-themed care packages with Nebraska-made products, hand-written letters, knit slippers and hard candies. From out of state to overseas, service members receive a little bit of home away from home.

Kim Tobiason

stateside and global. “Packing night is chaotic, but so much fun. Everyone who shows up knows what they’re doing it for,” Tobiason said. “Without the community, we wouldn’t be able to make this happen.”

Members of the community flex their creative chops in various ways each year. Kindergarten to high school students from Columbus Public Schools and Scotus Catholic Schools create thoughtful artwork and letters. Volunteers elaborately decorate each plain brown shipping box’s exterior with holiday designs and colorful drawings. One woman painstakingly knit pairs of cozy slippers for every military member who received a box. Another crafted homemade Christmas ornaments.

“They love the food and other items we send, too, but it’s so touching for the troops to receive the heartwarming and personal messages,” Tobiason said.

Boxes also include copies of Nebraska Life Magazine and hard candy in place of packing peanuts to ensure every nook and cranny is filled. One year, volunteers stashed specialty sauces donated from popular fast-food chains like KFC Honey Sauce and Taco Bell Hot Sauce to spice up notoriously bland ready-to-eat meals.

The bank also urges community members to identify loved ones actively serving in the military. Keri Schnell, Pinnacle Bank vice president, has coordinated the project since 2015. In 2020, she received a call from an appreciative soldier who grew up in New Jersey, 1,500 miles east. He’d never stepped foot in Nebraska, nor knew anyone there. His gratitude for a care package that miraculously found its way into his hands is not why the volunteers do it, but it warms their hearts to know they’re received.

“Well, come and see us,” Schnell said with a laugh. “Now you know someone here.”

To donate or to provide troop names and addresses, contact Kim Tobiason at ChristmasForOurTroops@pinnbank.com.

Wild Bill Hickok’s fame just might be a scam

BY LISA TRUESDALE

In the game of poker, a hand containing two pairs is okay, better than one, anyway. But not if the four cards are two black aces and two black eights.

Those are the cards James Butler Hickok – “Wild Bill” – was apparently holding when he was shot to death in a saloon in Deadwood, in the Dakota Territory, in 1876. Aces and eights? That’s been known as the “Dead Man’s Hand” ever since.

It’s the stuff of legend, but it’s appropriate, since it seems most of what we know about Wild Bill is shrouded in mystery, uncertainty, lore and downright fabrication. (Even the origin of his nickname is uncertain.) Gordon Hopkins’ new book, Wild Bill’s Mustache: How the Press Created a Western Myth, collects historical newspaper articles from across the country and combines them with Hopkins’ own modern-day writings about Wild Bill that were published in the Fairbury Journal-News.

tion, writing: “The legendary gun battle between James Butler Hickok and David C. McCandles has been told and retold, exaggerated and fictionalized to the point where fact and fantasy are virtually indistinguishable.”

In fact, Hopkins wrote, “There are facts and there are myths, and the distinction between the two only becomes more blurred the further away in time we get from those days. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the life, legends and lies of Wild Bill Hickok.”

Taken together, the fascinating and often unbelievable stories (and Hopkins’ wise observations) illustrate how the media – even way back at the turn of the 19th century – could magically turn someone into a celebrity.

Why was Wild Bill so famous in the first place? Hopkins knows how to answer that one: “After reading every newspaper account I could find about the man, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that, like many of our own well-known and controversial figures, Wild Bill was famous for being famous.”

As Hopkins chronicles the life of Hickok, he exposes how many stories about the man are clearly false but are somehow widely accepted as the truth.

Though it’s widely believed that Wild Bill’s first documented murder was committed at Rock Creek Station near Fairbury, Hopkins even calls that into ques-

Wild Bill’s Mustache: How the Press Created a Western Myth

By Gordon Hopkins and the Fairbury Journal-News FJN Books

269 pp, paperback $15, hardcover $25

FLAT WATER

Oxford’s dining-era china evokes silver era of train travel

BY TOM HESS

The California Zephyr streamliner train crossed Nebraska throughout the 1950s and ’60s, charming its passengers. Zephyrettes – the train’s smiling female servants, as attentive as airline stewardesses – made a lasting impression. So did the menu in the dining car: among the dinner entrees, broiled halibut for $4.25, and broiled steak for $5.95, the meals served on fine china.

Raised in Oxford, a village that straddles southeast Nebraska’s Furnas and Harlan counties, Gary Schroeder remembers the Zephyr. The streamliner was one of many passenger and freight trains that arrived at and departed the Oxford station, along the Burlington Route. Precious train memories among Schroeder’s most vivid.

Schroeder served with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and its predecessors at the Oxford Depot for 28 years.

Schroeder rode the Zephyr in 1965 from basic training to his post in the San Francisco Bay Area as a 21-year-old Army serviceman. He had no money for the Zephyr’s lavish meals, but the Army paid for it, including a 45-cent slice of cherry pie. Schroeder remembers the china on which the pie was served.

Since that train meal in the dining car nearly 60 years ago, Schroeder has collected more than 500 railroad dining car items, some worth thousands of dollars. That’s a treasure for someone whose first job was selling train tickets at the Oxford Depot and unloading boxes of perfumy Avon product in the 1960s, all for $17.32 a day.

Schroeder’s collection is housed in the Museum of Oxford, a former Oxford school house. It includes 90 patterns from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), which pulled the California Zephyr, and about 40 other railroads. The collection started when Schroeder visited an antique store

in Lincoln in 1990; an employee asked about his interests. Schroeder mentioned railroads. The employee pointed out a butter pad with its pattern of violets and daisies. Schroeder bought it and brought it home.

Schroeder has been hand-selecting items ever since. He keeps watch of prices of railroad china. He’s particularly fond of a so-called Indian Tree pattern of plates, platters, pitchers, which can fetch a good price on auction sites. The pattern is based on a 19th century Chinese design, fruited boughs encircling a fruit-bearing tree, with the Pullman brand engraved at the top. Family forms Schroeder’s most precious train memory. On the schedule of his 1965 Army trip, he saw that the Zephyr would stop in his hometown at 3 a.m. He notified his parents ahead of time. They met him at the station at zero dark thirty – just the morale boost that an Army serviceman, moving far from home, needed.

Gary Schroeder has collected more than 500 railroad dining car items including wares from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad that pulled the California Zephyr across Nebraska. His hand-selected collection is on display at the Museum of Oxford on Central Street.

Alan J. Bartels

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Wide-open spaces and cozy campfires. Time to relax and time to work. Journey alone or become part of something bigger. That’s what you’ll find here—a small town with deep roots.

THREE-LETTER TOWNS

‘Tri’ your hand at these questions about these Nebraska locales. Questions by BEN KITCHEN

Oak is home to quadrennial reenactments of the Indian Raids of 1864. Oak was raided because it was located along what, which increased the number of settlers in the area?

What North American canines serve as the mascot of the PotterDix school district? When entering Dix, a sign informs you that you’re entering the “Country” of these animals.

The only three-letter place to be a county seat is Ord, the seat of what county? The county is named for its location relative to the North Loup River and the Middle Loup River.

4 A newspaper report in 1884 claimed that a group outside of Max encountered what, 63 years before similar claims were made in Roswell, New Mexico? It has since been confirmed that the story was fabricated.

5 Bee is home to what dodecagonal building, originally built as a dance hall, that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981?

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No peeking, answers on page 61.

Jacob Hannah/Lincoln Journal-Star

Ord-born Rod Dowhower has had a lengthy football career, holding various coaching positions from 1966 to 2001 and even winning a Super Bowl as quarterback coach for the Washington Redskins in 1992. His first NFL head coaching gig was with what AFC South team?

a. Houston Texans

b. Indianapolis Colts

c. Jacksonville Jaguars

Ord is the most populous three-letter town in Nebraska with a population of 2,112 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Which three other towns nearly tie for the lowest population with an average of 50 residents?

a. Ayr, Dix and Bee

b. Max, Oak and Ong

c. Ayr, Bee and Oak

“Wanted! A live [BLANK]...that can keep an audience awake for a half-hour.” So reads a slightly redacted memo from the Juniata Herald that drew Albinos Powers to Ayr in the 1880s, according to Juniata’s Catherine Renschler. What job fills in the blank?

a. Methodist preacher

b. Opera singer

c. Teacher

9 No two three-letter places are in the same county, but Ayr, Oak and Ong are all awfully close to one another. They’re all within an hour’s drive of what other city that’s over 100 times more populous than the three of them combined?

a. Columbus

b. Fremont

c. Hastings

What was the original name of Dix? It was originally named for a city in Illinois, but the name was shortened because it shared a name with another Nebraska locale.

a. Dixon

b. Dixton

c. Dixville

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11 Believe it or not, Bee’s name could’ve been even shorter: It’s called Bee because it lies in the B Precinct of Seward County.

12 Chicago O’Hare International Airport has the code ORD because the airport’s namesake, Edward O’Hare, hailed from Ord, Nebraska.

A plaque in Ong features a list of 57 names under the header “Roll of Honor,” a tribute to the Ong residents who fought in World War I.

Max is situated close to the Republican River. A 1935 flood caused substantial damage to the community as the river rose, running bluff to bluff. The flood caused more problems than just water: it produced a fair amount of quicksand!

There is one more three-letter place in Nebraska that hasn’t been mentioned yet, though for good reason – it’s a ghost town, so nobody lives there. The town is appropriately called Boo.

Seth Varner

Schoolhouse Fire

story by BARBARA EPLEY-SHUCK

JANUARY 1955 WAS blustery, snowy and cold in Clay County near Fairfield. I was 18 years old in November and teaching at a little country school with 10 pupils. The oldest student was 13 and in the eighth grade.

On that Friday morning, I built a good fire in the wood stove, and we were warm all day. It was the last hour of day, and we were busy with artwork when there was a wild knocking at the door. A man I knew opened the door and shouted, “Get out of here now, the school roof is on fire!”

I think I stood in shock for a minute, and he repeated himself. Then I came to my senses.

“Pick up what is important to you and let’s get out,” I said. Some children grabbed their coats, and I picked up the new record player and a few of the latest books and followed them out the door.

Our rescuer was hurrying to a neighboring farmhouse to have someone phone the fire department. We all rushed to a safe distance and watched the orange flames leaping from the top of the building we had just been inside.

The driver returned and tried to drag some things out. A parent turned into the driveway – the one who was supposed to be calling the fire department. She came to see how bad the fire was before she bothered them, thinking perhaps we could put it out ourselves. Then she hurried back and called.

It was a party line, so soon there were others there trying to get things out of the school, but it was too dangerous. When the firemen arrived, the roof was collapsing, and part of the building was gone. They tried valiantly with the water in their tank truck as the wind-

mill only gave a limited amount of water. There was nothing left but ashes by the time school would have been dismissed. As we watched the flames eat up our school, we tried to keep each other cheerful. One sixth grader looked at me and said, “Boy, Miss Epley, we sure are going to have a mess to clean up before we can have school Monday morning.”

But we did have school that next Monday. Those enterprising people found another school that had desks, books and a stove, a few miles away. It was in better condition than the one that burned.

What caused the fire?

There were huge cracks in the chimney that the school board had known about for years, and although my fire that morning had been ordinary as fires go, the old chimney wasn’t going to stand any more heat and it had been smoldering all day.

Our only exit was the door which was enveloped in flames shortly after we escaped. The windows were covered against the weather with both storm windows and heavy screen plastic covering. The parents predicted we could never have forced our way through.

The children were all safe. I was so very calm until, through the milling crowd of people, I saw my father rushing to me.

It was only then that the tears started to roll.

That night was almost completely lost to memory. I know friends took me dancing, but everything was hazy. Later I realized I was in shock. When that wore off, I realized my fur coat and glasses had burned in that school. I had been in zero weather without a coat and hadn’t even known it.

The sun sets behind a one-room schoolhouse near Pawnee Lake in eastern Nebraska.

Erik Johnson

The Long, Hard Winter

120 days of snow cover the Nebraska Sandhills

story and photographs by NICOLE LOUDEN

During the winter of 2022, heavy blizzards persisted across the Sandhills for four months, each day documented by an Ellsworth rancher.

“Under the whole sky there was nothing but the white land, the snow blowing, and the wind and the cold.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

IT’S LESS THAN 24 hours after the Dec. 13 blizzard has ended. The snow has relented, but the winds continue. My husband, Jon, and I bundle up in thick winter gear and ski goggles to go check on the cattle and feed.

After getting the cows grained at Ellsworth, Jon wants to try and check the cows corralled in Susan Valley. He will plow ahead of me with the tractor, forging a path through the drifts so I can bring the feed pickup.

It takes us nearly an hour to travel the two miles down south, plowing the road as we go. The wind picks up even harder and the road begins drifting shut behind us. An iridescent cloud forms, hovering above the earth, like a thick, glittery fog. A ground blizzard like I’ve never seen be-

fore, it is snowing from the land up. It’s as if the prairie has thrown her head back in a defiant howl, emptying the contents of her stomach back up into the sky.

For four days the wind screams and tosses powdery snow in the air. Four days the cattle grow restless, locked up in corrals near the barns. Four days the highways are all closed, and the mail doesn’t run. We grow restless, too. Four days I watch the wind scrub bare spots open of snow on the ground and pile into ever-changing, ever-growing icy sculptures. When the wind finally abates, Jon hooks on to the snowblower with the tractor. A giant beast of a machine that I’ve never seen used in all my 20 years on the ranch. Jon’s dad bought it after the winter of 197879, the deep snows that year prompting the

purchase. “Does it even work anymore?” I ask before the behemoth roars to life. It gobbles through the five- and six-foot snow drifts, throwing snow in an arc of white. I shudder as I watch.

Two days later, another blizzard rips across the hills. New snow dumps fresh white powder over snowbanks thick with dirt. Roads blow shut again with snow, stranding motorists across western Nebraska, many people traveling for Christmas. Temperatures plummet to minus 23 degrees, with wind chill at 55 below. Pipes burst in homes, schools and businesses in Alliance. At the ranch, we can’t start any of the vehicles – even plugging the tractors in doesn’t help. Cattle trail miles down the road, drifting over fences buried under snowbanks.

After the first blizzard on Dec. 13, roads shut down including Highway 27 heading north, closing businesses like Morgan’s Store in Ellsworth. Nicole Louden and her husband, Jon, worked each day to tend their cattle and ranch, careful to get the tractor and bale processor running.

When the snow relented and began to melt, new blizzards arrived with fresh snow even through the calving season. Nicole and Jon worked each day to chop ice, clear the water tanks, shovel snow and deliver feed. The harsh conditions wore on everyone, including the cattle.

THE DAY AFTER the second blizzard, I peer out my kitchen window into the shrub next to the house. A starling hangs dead in the branches. Two days later, when we strike out to feed cattle, I spy a dead rabbit in the meadow next to a drift. I wonder in shock how many animals were lost in these storms.

December closes foggy and silent, snowing again. I stand as I photograph the falling snow, feeling weary and empty. The winter has only begun.

January turns the calendar to a new year, but snow and cold continue. Snow finds its way into the water tanks, creating an icy slush. “If we don’t clear it out, it’ll freeze up and turn to thick blocks of ice,” Jon tells me. He hands me a shovel and grins. “Now we paddle.” We drag our shovels through the slush, paddling the slurry toward the lead pipe. It mixes and melts as we row in tandem, shoulders aching.

A cow slinks her calf – a miscarriage –and Jon says the stress of the winter is the likely cause. How many more will we lose before spring? We watch as a jackrabbit chews on the protein feed tub we’ve set out for the cows; range is scarce with the

month-long snow cover, and the wild animals are looking for food.

I help shovel fluffy, thick snow out of bunks, tripping over frozen cow manure, coughing and sputtering in the cold. I gaze at the hills and the snow falling around us. Pale snow clouds blanket the sky so it’s blindingly white everywhere and disorienting; earth and sky as one solid snowbank. The wind blows hard enough for

more road closures just in time for another blizzard to mark January’s end.

The mercury sags, dropping to 23 below zero again. I help Jon chop ice at the tanks, clearing the water for the cattle once more. Every fiber, every sinew of my deltoids is soon on fire and an ache builds in my back and forearms. The windmill creaks under a light breeze and a small stream pours from the lead pipe.

Despite repeated storms and long days tending to ever-freezing windmills and icy water tanks, Nicole and Jon paused to appreciate winter’s beauty, capturing frosty fences, frozen windmills and a yellow-headed blackbird amongst the cows.

Early February brings a week of warmer temperatures, enough to see some snow melt. The hills take on a freckled appearance before another round of snow covers them on the 9th. A layer of mud forms between the still frozen ground underneath and the icy snow on top. We try to load steers to haul in a trailer, everyone slipping and falling in the frozen sludge.

It snows fresh on Valentine’s Day, after a day near 50 degrees. A blizzard marks the 22nd, postponing all Ash Wednesday services. Temperatures drop again. Jon uses an ax to chop away thick snow and ice around the extension cords in the yard and unplugs the Christmas lights. Cattle walk up and over the sagging fence, buried old and anew under drifts, on top of hardened snow berms out onto the railroad tracks. It is a challenge getting them back and another to repair the frozen fence.

The snow melts slowly, and great brown areas span the sun-kissed tops and sides of the hills, leaving all the low spots, crevices and washouts still thick with snow. It gives the whole scene a liquid look – as if thick cream has been poured out over the hills – white pools gathered against the relief of brown. Deep snow remains on the southeast sides of fences, trees, houses and soapweeds, slumping lower after each warm day. The warm days are short-lived in February though, as another snowstorm caps the month and carries us into March. We bring the heifers near the barns and corrals, readying to calve in this mess.

THE SNOW MELTS in March on days above 40 degrees. The sun tarries each night and stirs earlier each day. The length of light grows, I feel it now in my drives to and from work. The drifts soften into spongy, mushy snow. Old, tired, dirty snow. Snow that I chip away at on the sidewalk, the tired heaps that have been here for months. I jam my shovel into their depths, flinging ice and slushy snow away from wet pavement. Remnants of the December blizzards linger, holding fast their claim over spring. Not yet, they cry, not yet.

Jon tells me he continues to count consecutive days of snow on the ground. A cooperative weather observer, he says

Thick snow banks persisted across the Sandhills coupled with new squalls and storms. Every day, Jon reported snow on the ground as a cooperative weather observer until April 13, the first day with no visible snow after four months of winter.

the record sheets ask, “Is snow on the ground?” And he answers yes. How many days is it now? 82? 83? I tire of counting the chops of winter’s ax.

A squall passes overhead. Dark, gray, towering clouds spit rain and sleet and ice. Jon worries we are running out of feed. He stretches the cattle; the feed must last through calving.

Five geese and four ducks land in the meadow. I spot red-winged blackbirds woven among the tall reeds and cattails, glittering with thick frost.

March is a blur of cold and calving, but warm sunshine dapples the jumble in between. By the first day of spring, the ground is still frozen, the lakes iced over, the temperatures too low. Even so, there are little signs of hope in the hills: ducks,

geese, swans and gulls gather at the edges of opening water, blackbirds trill alongside a lone meadowlark and there beneath a retreating snowdrift are tender green shoots.

The five geese in the meadow double, then triple; there are at least two dozen waddling on the grass. The end of March brings one more snow to usher in April.

The full April pink moon hoists itself over the hills, scrambling through crunchy, icy grass. More warm days follow, and the last remnants of the glacial landscape melts away at last.

On April 13, Jon records the first day with no visible snow in 2023, marking 120 consecutive days of snow on the ground since Dec. 13, 2022. Four months of snow. Four long months of cold and difficult winter.

April closes with a few more nods of winter’s grasp with more snow, more cold. But it melts quickly and the grass greens. By May we see a profusion of wildflowers, the start of one of the most beautiful, showiest summers we’ve ever seen.

At times, we wondered if we would make it through to this side of things. Through the long winter and onto green grass with the cattle, through calving and branding, through the school year fraught with new challenges for our little family. We ran out of hay, ran out of feed, ran out of help.

But made it we did, and for our winter-sore eyes, each wildflower that bloomed, each blade of grass that sprouted, each migratory bird that returned felt like a celebration more than ever before.

“The winter had been so long and hard that the sky in spring was like a reservoir: not fresh water, but fresh light.”

Gretel Ehrlich, Unsolaced

story

and photographs by

Small Town Vintage

BECKY MCCARVILLE

Antique wares bring new energy to Springfield

VINTAGE TREASURE SEEKERS find joy in both the hunt and the discovery. Finding a hidden gem – like a velvet orange Davenport sofa reminiscent of grandma’s living room or a piece of designer history just waiting to be restored – is worth the hours of shopping store to store. Antiquers actively search for pieces to add to their personal collections or to sell at their antique shop.

The owners of ReMain, a vintage shop in downtown Springfield, can relate to the thrill of the hunt. It’s how they acquired a rare Adrian Pearsall sofa with side tables. Driving down her neighborhood street one day, co-owner Ashley Evon spotted wooden, tapered legs, indicative of Pearsall’s mid-century modern style, and what looked like pieces of a sofa piled up against a neighbor’s garage door. Not knowing if it was for sale or free curbside “junk,” Ashley and her husband, Jordan, knocked on the door with a mix of trepidation and anticipation.

At ReMain in Springfield, owners Alicia and Joe Victora and Ashley and Jordan Evon curate specialty wares, antique goods and vintage furniture. They opened ReMain with the hopes of revitalizing the downtown area, choosing “ReMain” to reimagine Main Street as a hub for the local community. After opening in 2022, more Main Street storefronts followed, including Corky’s Workshop.

It turns out, the homeowner was clearing out the house and had more vintage pieces in the basement. Not only did the owners of ReMain save a piece of design history from the landfill, but they also made a connection with a neighbor and her circle of friends, who invited them to weekly neighborhood get-togethers.

“It turned out to be a beautiful couch that we saved from the dumpster, which is always what we’re trying to do,” she said. After listing it for sale at ReMain and online, they made another connection with a couple from Illinois who drove to Springfield to buy it. “There are

people that are really hunting for the perfect piece for their house.”

While brainstorming store name ideas, owners Alicia and Joe Victora, and Ashley and Jordan Evon played around with words like restore, recycle, reimagine, reengage, revitalize, redefine, resource and remain. ReMain struck a chord, encapsulating the family’s mission to help revitalize the heart of Springfield and to be a resource for the community.

OVERLOOKING SPRINGFIELD’S

Main Street, ReMain draws customers from the surrounding communities of

Omaha, Lincoln, Ashland, Louisville, Gretna, Plattsmouth and beyond. Siblings Alicia and Jordan grew up in the Springfield area, and their dad has owned the corner building that currently houses ReMain since 1990.

It was Springfield’s first commercial building, built by founder Capt. J.D. Spearman. Over the years their building has been a general store, town hall, post office, hardware store, quilt store and a photographer’s workspace. The vision for ReMain was to reopen the corner store for the community and make it a homey gathering place. It took a year

Siblings Alicia and Jordan grew up in Springfield, their dad the owner of the corner building where ReMain opened its doors. Antique treasure-seekers and home-goods shoppers now find their way to ReMain to peruse an ever-changing collection as new finds are added.

Jeremy Buss

to clean up and build out the space. After collecting a store’s worth of vintage furniture, bric-a-brac, nostalgic treasures and local makers’ wares, ReMain opened in 2022.

“It started a movement to open up the rest of the buildings that are storefronts on Main Street,” Jordan said, noting that Main Street is becoming more accessible to the community as more people hang out their shingle. For example, Corky’s Workshop recently reopened after being shuttered for 30 years. Keith Hentzen, who owns Springfield Drug and Old Fashioned Soda Fountain, bought the building with plans to rent out half the space to a restaurant and other businesses.

“We used to be kids eating ice cream with Keith at the drug store and now we are

in the SBA (Small Business Association) with him and are business owners alongside him,” Alicia said.

ReMain collaborates with other business owners on Main Street for community events, like a pop-up floral design workshop with Leaf + Petal, the flower shop down the street. They hosted the annual OMG Vintage Market at the Springfield Community Center, drawing around 850 people to Springfield –something the downtown business owners hadn’t experienced before.

“We brought it here because we wanted to scale it up and we knew we had the support of the City of Springfield and local businesses,” Joe said.

Groovy music, retro vibes and food offerings make the market an experience as

attendees browse the variety of vendors. The next OMG event is slated for April 2025.

Each owner’s role reflects their talents and passions within the family-owned business. Alicia is a “people-person,” making connections and collaborations. With a background in digital media, Ashley creates engaging content that often tells the story of a particular piece. Jordan focuses on sales and enjoys tinkering with lighting and electronics, while Joe has roots in space planning, design and sales.

Everyone creates posts on ReMain’s social media outlets to reach customers and a wider audience. There’s no shortage of content to create. “These pieces have stories to tell,” Ashley said. “The store has stories to tell. The people that come in here have stories to tell.”

In addition to sourcing new pieces for the shop, ReMain’s owners connect with other local businesses to bring more shoppers and visitors to Springfield, including a pop-up workshop with Leaf + Petal and hosting the OMG Vintage Market at the Springfield Community Center.

Explore these small business vintage shops around Metro Omaha

ReMain in Springfield is one of many vintage shops in Metro Omaha that reimagines seemingly landfill-bound goods, restoring or creating something new from antique pieces. Visit these other small business shops as you shop for home goods near Omaha.

ReMain Springfield

In the store, ReMain’s inventory leans heavily into mid-century modern (MCM) furniture and home decor, but many styles and eras are represented, from antique to vintage to retro. Intermingled with vintage luggage, kitchen gadgets, lighting, reupholstered and original MCM furniture are handmade candles in vintage glassware, local honey, crocheted koozies, hand-crafted rolling pins, steam punk-style art made with found objects and artisan-created stained glass. Over 35 local makers and artisans showcase their products. Remainspringfield.com, 192 Main St., Springfield.

Out of the Box

Ralston

Located in the new Granary District that extends from Ralston’s Main Street to 72nd Street, Out of the Box is housed in a historic 100-year-old granary building. With 20,000 square feet of reclaimed, antique, high-quality and designer home products and furniture, treasure seekers find a multitude of contemporary, antique, retro and vintage styles. outoftheboxstore.net, 7401 Main St., Ralston.

15Two Home

Melissa and Jacob Peterson, co-owners of 15Two Home, grew their vintage business from a side hustle at local markets to a recently opened brick and mortar store in old downtown Gretna. The minimalist space, reminiscent of an art gallery, allows the authentic mid-century modern pieces to stand out. A glass and steel garage door opens to a wide cobblestone street. 15twohome.com, 118 N McKenna Ave., Gretna.

A Little More Like Home

Omaha, Joslyn Castle District

While midtown Omaha might not suggest visions of a quaint community, Elise and Jeffrey Schaecher have created a vintage space in the Joslyn Castle District, aptly named A Little More Like Home. They look for the clean lines and high quality of mid-century modern pieces they’d like to see in their own home. The Schaechers have discovered gems like rosewood tables and collections of high-end pieces in Nebraska’s small towns and the surrounding states. “Sometimes we end up traveling to places we wouldn’t imagine ourselves going to,” she said. alittlemorelikehome.shop, 3801 Dodge St., Omaha.

Mod Lines

Omaha, Ak-Sar-Ben/ Elmwood Park Neighborhood

Opened in 2015 in the Ak-Sar-Ben/Elmwood Park neighborhood, Mod Lines specializes in authentic, curated, quality vintage and mid-century furniture, home decor and accessories. The showroom teems with refurbished pieces, making the old feel fresh and modern with new upholstery and refinished wood. With a robust online presence, the store’s followers clamor for videos and posts showcasing its ever-changing inventory. facebook.com/modlines, 5170 Leavenworth St., Suite 100, Omaha.

Gretna

FREMONT

Dodge County Historical Society Museum/ Louis E. May Museum, p38

GOTHENBURG

Gothenburg Pony Express Station, p 62

GRAND ISLAND

Stuhr Museum, p 36

KEARNEY

Museum of Nebraska Art, p 36

LA VISTA

Czech and Slovak Educational Center and Cultural Museum, p 38

LEXINGTON

Dawson County Historical Society Museum, p 38

MADISON

Madison County Museum, p 38

MINDEN

Pioneer Village, p 39

OMAHA

The Durham Museum, p 37

SEWARD

Nebraska National Guard Museum, p 38

YORK

Clayton Museum of Ancient History, p 37

Wessels Living History Farm, p 37

Explore ancient Rome, the Near East and much more. Special Bible exhibit shares the story of scripture from scroll to modern translations. Children’s interactive Little Kingdom now opened!

View rare artifacts from the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Roman Empire! Young and old can experience the museum’s Little Kingdom interactive area. Uncover objects in an archaeological dig, “live” in an ancient house and “shop” a Roman market. Admission is FREE with donations always accepted.

ADMISSION IS FREE Check Facebook page for hours

Open Tues-Fri, 10 am-5 pm • Sat 1-4 pm claytonmuseumofancienthistory.org

ClaytonMuseumOfAncientHistory.org

402-363-5748 • 1125 E 8th St • York

402-363-5748

1125 E 8th St • York, NE

Paid for in part by a grant from the York County Visitors Bureau

Lower level of the Mackey Center on the York University campus

Located in the lower level of the Mackey Center on the York College campus

Explore Fremont’s

Georgian Architecture

Dec. 19-22, 6-8:30 pm

Join us the week before Christmas for a magical Treelight Stroll through the museum, where over 30 beautifully decorated, themed trees await! Bring the whole family and experience the wonder of the season in a way you’ll never forget!

Open Tues-Sat, 10 am-4 pm

805 N Taft St • Lexington 308-324-5340 • dchsmuseum.com

From Farm to Fork

Waterloo market supports over 100 Nebraska businesses

story

and photographs

by TIM TRUDELL

ANNOUNCING SUNRISE,

the rooster’s crow awakens 40 hens in the coop and the Ellsworth family in rural Sarpy County. The day begins with daughter Cailin heading out to the pen, opening the gate and watching the chickens scramble as they begin a day of free-range scouring. The eggs will later be sold alongside hundreds of other Nebraska-based products at Ellsworth Crossing, a farm-to-fork market near Waterloo.

On a five-acre farm southwest of Springfield near the Platte River and Schramm State Recreational Area, Tony and Amber Ellsworth pinch themselves to remember that life is not only good for them and their six children, but it’s also not a fantasy.

The Ellsworths realized their dream-come-true when they opened Ellsworth Crossing in 2021. Beginning with 10 farmers, Ellsworth Crossing now works with more than 100 Nebraska-based vendors to provide all sorts of goods, from Plum Creek Farms chicken to honey-based jams.

Daughter Cailin, a budding foodie, handles the daily chores of releasing the chickens – and ducks – to their daylong freedom of roaming the pastures. Unafraid of the ducks flying away to sights unseen, instead, the colorful fowl line up like soldiers in formation and march off to explore the day.

These fowls aren’t destined for the plate - they’re egg layers. Cailin peruses the coops in search of eggs like a shopper at a grocery store hunting the best cut of meat. In the end, she will add a few dozen chicken and duck eggs to her basket.

Soon, they’ll be sold at the market.

While the Ellsworths longed to live in the country, running a store of their own was never part of their life plan. Instead, Amber, a Nebraska native, spent part of her youth in rural Colorado, where her family raised cattle and bison.

Tony grew up in Fort Calhoun.

Wanting to experience something new after high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Family and friends assumed he’d stay in Southern California after the Navy, but Tony longed for the fresh air and friendliness of Nebraska.

Both single parents when they met, Amber and Tony fell in love, married and combed two households. They sought a new home together in the country near Springfield.

The Ellsworths’ farm originally raised chickens for market, butchered at Plum Creek Farms near Beatrice. When Dean and Amy Dvorak, owners of Plum Creek Farms, decided to open a farm-to-fork store near Omaha, they asked Amber to run it. When the pandemic hit, the Dvoraks sold the store to the Ellsworths, and Ellsworth Crossing was born.

Tony and Amber Ellsworth own Ellsworth Crossing, a farm-to-table market featuring over 100 Nebraska farms and businesses. Local shoppers and farmers come to their store in Waterloo to find homemade and small business goods from across the state.

Tony Ellsworth

The market has grown from an original 10 farm-to-fork partners to include more than 100 Nebraska-based small farms and businesses. Branded L Longhorns from Wisner brings the beef; bison steaks come from Central Nebraska Buffalo, a three-generation ranch in Hordville; Burbach’s Countryside Dairy in Hartington provides fresh milk; Jisa’s Farmstead Cheese in Brainard adds their specialty cheeses; and honey-based products come from It’s All About Bees in Ralston.

Gathering around a small horse trailer on a sunny Saturday morning, people anticipate the opening of the gate, as Adam Wackel, owner of Plum Creek Wagyu in Crete, brings live animals for Ellsworth Crossing’s meet-your-farmer Saturdays.

As promoters of Nebraska agriculture, the Ellsworths enjoy connecting customers to their Nebraska farmers with animal encounters and corporate tours.

Tony often discusses the importance of agriculture to Nebraska – a $31.6 billion industry – and shares the role that humane and holistic farming plays across the state.

Supporting small and family-owned farms is vital to Nebraska’s future, Tony said.

Watching shoppers pick up frozen chicken, beef and bison steaks, fresh dairy and cheese, as well as Ellsworths’ eggs, Tony smiles, acknowledging the positive impact their store has on fellow Nebraskans.

An even bigger boost for the store is a visit from a particular type of customer.

“We have farmers come in to get their steak and cheese. And they buy our eggs,” Tony said. “Farmers supporting farmers.”

While supermarket shelves may be stocked with a variety of groceries, customers stopping by Ellsworth Crossing know they’re going to find products unavailable elsewhere – freshly picked eggs, homemade pico de gallo and even cinnamon apple rings.

It’s a country life that honors the Ellsworths’ roots, paying it forward for other Nebraska farmers and businesses.

Ellsworth Crossing started in 2021 with 10 farm-to-fork partners. Today, their business supports farmers, ranchers, producers, makers and more – all from Nebraska.

Tony Ellsworth

8 Homemade Heartland Delights

by ARIELLA NARDIZZI

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, bestow Nebraska’s finest to Santa’s nice list. From farmfresh delights to small-batch specialties, these homegrown goodies pack local flavor straight from the heartland to your festive table.

The Chocolate Season Lincoln thechocolateseason.com (402) 466-1139

BAKING IS A sixth love language for Erika Jensen, owner and co-founder of The Chocolate Season. It burgeoned from a young age in the kitchen of her grandma, who taught her the invaluable lesson that every one of life’s seasons is best celebrated with chocolate.

The family-owned Lincoln chocolaterie and espresso bar began as an online business, producing chocolates in an old two-room schoolhouse north of Omaha. They opened their first brick and mortar in 2010, offering hand-painted chocolate truffles. Grandma’s presence is still felt in every corner of the chocolaterie; recipes like her flaky quiche crust are beloved by customers, made to feel like family the moment they enter the shop’s doors.

Erika, adoringly referred to as a “flavor alchemist,” designs edible artwork. With

bon bons and truffles as her canvas, Erika decorates each artisanal chocolate to engage all senses through varying textures, flavors and sensations. Each hand-painted, bite-sized treat contributes to a vibrant collection in their best-selling gourmet chocolate boxes.

BonBon, a catering coffee and treats

truck, tailors a tantalizing array of cinnamon and sugar coffee cake, Scotcheroos and cappuccinos for hire at personal events. Hot cocoa bombs, crunchy peppermint chocolate bark and classic peanut brittle with a brown butter twist are only a few stocking stuffers that will be gone before the presents are even unwrapped.

The Chocolate Season in Lincoln provides hand-painted artisan chocolates. Truffles, bon bons, bark, bars and caramels are all made in small batches at their shop on Village Lane.

The Chocolate Season

Jisa’s Farmstead Cheese

Brainard

jisacheese.com • (402) 545-2000

AT JISA FARMS, corn, soybeans and alfalfa grow from the fertile soil of their Butler County farm. This land has fed the Holstein herd since Lad Jisa started the dairy farm back in 1946. Back then, Jisa Dairy milked 10 cows. Three generations of Jisa patriarchs carry on the family tradition. Lad’s son Dave and grandsons David and John operate proudly at the helm.

When milk prices plummeted in the early 2000s, Dave decided to turn his dairy into value-added commodities like ice cream or cheese. Ultimately, he went the savory route; cheese was a staple in Americans’ diets. He joined the University of Nebraska food technology department’s pilot cheese plant. Here, he received assistance in making his first batch of cheese, product labels and nutrition facts panel. Jisa’s Farmstead Cheese was born. Three times daily, 300 cows are milked, and their fresh milk is transported just one mile down the road to the family’s cheese plant in Brainard. In vats that hold

up to 20,000 pounds, the milk is heated, cooled and carefully cultured before it transforms into creamy cheese curds. The curds are then pressed into blocks or kept as cheese nuggets, seasoned and prepared for its vacuum-packed journey to tables across Nebraska. Meanwhile, the leftover whey feeds the next generation of calves, keeping the cycle of good cheese flowing.

Jisa Farms’ creamy Havarti block, smoky Buffalo Wing nuggets and award-winning California Garlic Pepper nuggets, an American Cheese Society award winner, are something worth savoring.

Jisa’s Farmstead Cheese began as Jisa Dairy in 1946 with 10 Holstein cows. Today, the herd of 300 are milked three times every day to produce family favorite cheeses like their creamy Havarti and New York Cheddar.

Alan J. Bartels

Nutt Family Country Market

Ravenna nuttfamilycountrymarket.com (308) 440-7833

ON WARM SUMMER DAYS, you’ll often find the Nutt brood – Bailey, Gunner and Charlie – wandering through their family farm, baskets in hand, picking plump plums and wild berries straight from the bountiful vine. For the Nutts, every jar of jam begins here, where the fruit is handpicked by the same small hands that help stir each batch.

Led by Josh and Danelle, the family remains steadfast to old-fashioned methods of hand-stirring each product, crafted thoughtfully in small scales. Danelle’s mom, Marj, helps with jelly-making when the kids are in school. What began as only a few flavors in 2010 has flourished into the heart of the Nutt Family Jams & Jellies, a beloved farm-to-jar operation all made with ingredients grown right on their Ravenna farm.

The crew concocts flavors such as a saporous plum jelly, Danelle’s family staple for generations. Other delectable spreads include a sweet chokecherry jelly and tart strawberry rhubarb jam.

Beyond jams and jellies, Nutt Family country Market offers farm-fresh eggs, elderberry supplements and baked goods – all produced with the same care as their hand-stirred sweet spreads.

Homemade jellies, jams and baked goods come from the Nutt Family Country Market in Ravenna. The Mill Coffee & Tea in Lincoln continues to roast fresh coffee blends since 1975.

Nutt Family Country Market

The Mill Coffee & Tea Lincoln millcoffee.com • (402) 475-5522

LINCOLN’S FIRST COFFEE and espresso bar, The Mill Coffee & Tea, wasn’t always an establishment synonymous with high-quality, craft java in the Historic Haymarket district.

Originally, The Mill stood through biting winters in the mid-1970s as a local bike shop, serving “shop” drip coffee that was nothing to write home about. To generate revenue during the slow season, Dan Sloan, Duane Krepel and Dale Nordyke complemented Freewheelin’ Bike Shop’s mechanic services with better cof-

fee. Lincoln buzzed with excitement, tipping them off to the lack of high-quality espresso in Star City.

In 1975, the bike-aficionados became coffee connoisseurs and opened a small gourmet coffee and tea shop nearby. A decade later, The Mill only continued to thrive, growing to roast their own beans in-house. Today, the buttery aroma of small batch brews permeates their warehouse. Batches of sweet Colombian coffee with hints of black cherry and chocolate, a smoky dark Italian roast or a hearty, nutty-cinnamon blend invigorate the senses.

The Mill’s since grown beyond the bike shop. Dan Sloan still leads as owner, along with his wife Tamara, nurturing six locations around the city. Each cafe embraces the atmosphere of its respective neighborhoods in College View, Telegraph, Innovation Campus, 11th St. and even Midtown Omaha. But the flagship coffeehouse and roaster, the “granddaddy Mill,” still remains in the Historic Haymarket district on P Street.

If visiting one of their many locations isn’t in the cards, you can still taste their high-quality coffee straight from your own kitchen. The Mill offers online shipping for best sellers like the chocolate Nebraska blend, namesake Mill Light French Roast, whole beans, fine espresso grinds and a variety of teas.

And to think, Lincoln’s premiere brews all began with three guys on a bicycle with Dan Sloan still at the wheel.

Madeline Cass; Alan J. Bartels

Fuehrer’s Cheespred Sutton fuehrerscheespred.com • (402) 440-7510

WHAT BEGAN AS a humble bowl of homemade cheese spread at family gatherings is now, 64 years later, a cherished Nebraska staple. The creamy Cheespred melts smoothly on the palate. Then, it delivers a bold kick of spice that lingers pleasantly until the next bite. When Eddie Fuehrer returned from World War II in 1946, he and his wife Laurie opened a small market in Sutton selling fresh cuts of meat.

In 1960, the Fuehrers decided to take their family’s delectable cheese spread beyond the holiday table and offer it to their customers at the Sutton market. Dee, their daughter, recalls the early days of testing batches with her brother, Jerry. Carefully tweaking the spread until they found the quintessential balance of cheddar, American cheese, pimientos, garlic and green peppers, Fuehrer’s Cheespred was unanimously crafted to perfection.

Today, Dee and her son Scott Worster continue to honor her parents’ legacy and the original recipe, following her mother’s advice: “Never change it.” Their loyal customers echo that sentiment, too. For over six decades, their spread has grown from a cherished family recipe to a product found in over 75 stores across the state. The rich, creamy dish is a versatile favorite that pairs well with everything, from tailgate snacks and burgers to veggie platters and wine accompaniments.

Despite eating this family recipe for her entire life, Dee has never gotten tired of that savory flavor. After all these years, the Fuehrer family still spreads their joy – one delicious spread at a time.

It’s All About Bees! Ralston itsallaboutbees.com • (402) 216-4545

WHEN THE FLETCHER family began experimenting with honey-infused recipes, their trials led to a few early kitchen mishaps, affectionately referred to as “fruit soup.” Yet, these blunders were just the start of a sweet legacy that would blossom in Omaha.

The roots of this family buzz-ness trace back to the 1930s, when Margi Fletcher’s grandfather tended bees in Homer.

During World War II, demand for golden nectar surged due to wartime sugar rationing. Margi’s other grandfather, who owned a produce farm in Dakota City, added his own flavor to the mix, selling homemade jams and baked goods.

By 1972, the Fletchers officially entered the beekeeping scene. They acquired a migratory operation and moved their hives to crops needing pollination. Their nomadic lifestyle saw them through several relocations before finding home near Omaha.

As the family refined their craft, the “fruit soup” eventually melded into delec-

table honey-based products. They opened a quaint gift shop in 2004 in Ralston, originally taking up eight square feet of their larger commercial kitchen. They now occupy a larger storefront filled with products like Nebraska apple butter with honey, beeswax salve, honey mango salsa and bee-themed trinkets.

Under daughter Wendy’s guidance, the shop continues to thrive, offering a succulent savor of Nebraska’s best. A visit to their Ralston storefront or farmer’s market booths in Omaha is where happiness truly bee-gins.

Find Fuehrer’s Cheespred in over 75 Nebraska stores. Homemade honey products are found in Ralston. Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery in Lexington delivers sustainably-made bottles.

Dee Fuehrer; Megan Feeney; Dana Damewood

7

Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery Lexington macscreek.com • (308) 324-0440

AS A KID, Barry McFarland spent his days running around the expansive backyard behind his childhood home in Lexington. Now, the backyard is covered in grapevines where McFarlands’ nieces, nephews, kids and dogs spend their days romping around.

Barry’s parents only planned to plant a few grapes when they bought the land back in 1999. In their first years, they made 1,500 gallons of wine and intended to sell grapes to other wineries.

Now, Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery is a family affair, producing 10 to 12 thousand gallons every year. Barry, elementary school principal by day, spends his off-hours tending to vineyard business. His brother, Seth, holds the title of winemaker and brewmaster, and sister, Abby, coordinates events. It wouldn’t be a family business without mom and pop: Max and Theresa oversee sales and distribution, continuing their legacy along the creek’s burbling banks.

A prominent facet of the family’s winemaking is inspired by working with

Mother Nature, rather than against her. The McFarland family implements sustainable agriculture on the vineyard. They keep grapes pesticide-free, introduce bees to pollinate harvests and feed unutilized stems and seeds to local farm animals.

Due to the harshness of Nebraska’s winters, the McFarlands take pride in grow-

ing hardy grapes to withstand up to 30 degrees below zero. Buzzards Roost Blush is a semi-sweet pink wine that slides off the shelves, just one of a dozen varying wines on their tasting menu.

Mac’s Creek also is home to a brewery, featuring craft beers and hard ciders. “If you drink it, we probably brew it,” Barry said.

Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery

McLean Beef

York mcleanbeef.com • (402) 362-0055

MAX MCLEAN RISES with the sun each day, diligently hard at work until dusk. Within arm’s reach is the McLean crew –not just work family, but blood-related –who toil day in and day out to maintain their family farm. The cattle business is a 365-day job, providing top-notch, unparalleled beef to feed the country; it’s a job the McLean family takes seriously.

The 75-year-old farm has resided in York since 1949, four generations strong. Ralph and Maxine McLean acquired the land as a dairy farm, which Max has managed since 1993. From start to finish, the McLeans thoughtfully raise corn-fed calves to become healthy cattle for harvest. All their products are hand cut and dry aged to guarantee tender, flavor-concentrated beef commodities.

The family brand now includes a local meat market and butcher, cafe, nationwide online ordering and even a 24/7 vending machine in their York retail store. You read that right – a state-of-the-art vending machine dispenses farm-fresh steaks at the snap of your fingers (or rather, the press of a button).

The McLeans have mastered their craft for decades. Their hands-on approach and four generations’ wealth of knowledge delivers flavor and quality with every cut.

Four generations have tended to the 75-year-old farm at McLean Beef in York. Every product is hand-cut, dry aged for up to 30 days and packaged for their local meat market and butcher, cafe and even a 24/7 vending machine located off Highway 80 south of York.

Katie Bresnahan

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HolidayPerfection

Warm your home and your guests’ hearts – and stomachs – with these classics.

recipes and photographs by DANELLE

McCOLLUM

PORK TENDERLOIN, CRISPY POTATOES, brown sugar carrots and a cranberry dessert make for a welcome holiday spread to share with friends and family. Whether it’s fresh from the oven or the next day’s leftovers, it’s a feast made to share with those you love.

Cranberry Orange Pork Tenderloin

With fresh cranberries and orange juice, the raisins cook down into a chutney-like sauce, adding sweetness to slices of a tender, delicious cut of pork.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork tenderloin with salt and pepper, and brown on all sides, about 5-6 minutes total. Place in a lightly greased, 6-quart slow cooker. Add cranberries, raisins, orange juice, honey and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours, or until internal temperature reads 145°. Remove pork to a cutting board and let stand for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the liquid from the slow cooker through a fine mesh strainer into a medium saucepan, reserving the cranberries and raisins. Whisk together water and cornstarch in a small bowl, then whisk into the saucepan.

Bring to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened. Stir in the reserved cranberries and raisins. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve pork with the sauce. Add fresh parsley and orange slices to garnish.

Crispy Roasted Potatoes

Boil halved potatoes in a large pot 6-8 minutes, or until barely tender. Rinse potatoes under cold water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. Gently rake the rounded side of the potatoes with a fork to create ridges.

Place the potatoes in a large bowl, set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together butter, olive oil, garlic and rosemary. Pour over potatoes and toss to coat well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Generously grease a large baking sheet. Arrange the potatoes, cut side down, on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 450° for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn potatoes once during baking.

Re-season with salt and pepper if needed and garnish with fresh parsley before serving.

1 2-3 lb pork tenderloin roast

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup orange juice

3 Tbsp honey

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp water

1/2 tsp cornstarch

Fresh chopped parsley and orange slices for garnish

Ser ves 6

3 lbs baby potatoes, halved

3 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried rosemar y Salt and pepper, to taste

Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Ser ves 6

Balsamic Roasted Baby Carrots

Baby carrots coated in a balsamic and brown sugar glaze, then roasted until tender, might stick to the pan, so be certain to line it with aluminum foil. Don’t lose a single carrot!

Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper, or line with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place carrots in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil and 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (depending on your preferred sweetness). Pour balsamic and brown sugar mixture over the carrots and toss to coat well. Arrange in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast at 400° for 30-40 minutes, or until carrots reach desired tenderness.

Remove from oven and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with coarse salt and chopped fresh parsley.

1½ lbs baby carrots, washed and dried

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1-2 Tbsp brown sugar

Coarse salt, to taste

Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Ser ves 6

Cranberry Cheesecake Tart

Sweetened cream cheese filling is swirled with tart cranberry sauce and baked in a shortbread crust in this easy but elegant dessert.

To make the crust, lightly grease a 9-inch tart pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture for topping the cheesecake. Press the remaining mixture into the prepared tart pan and place the pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, start the cranberry sauce by combining all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to cook, stirring often, until the cranberries burst and the mixture has thickened, 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

To make the filling, beat cream cheese, sugar and orange zest with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Pour filling in an even layer into the partially cooked crust. Dollop the cranberry mixture over the cream cheese. Swirl cranberry sauce into the cheesecake with a skewer or sharp knife. Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture over the cheesecake; bake for about 30 minutes, or until cheesecake is just set and the edges are golden. Cool on a wire rack before transferring to the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

For the crust

1¼ cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

For the cranberry sauce

2 cups fresh cranberries

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp orange zest

1/2 cup orange juice

For the cranberry filling

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp orange or lemon zest

1 egg 1 tsp vanilla

Ser ves 12

WE’RE RAVENOUS TO taste (and publish) your favorite family recipes and stories that accompany them. Send recipes and stories to kitchens@nebraskalife.com or to the address at the front of this magazine.

Around the table, we are surrounded by those we call family. The table becomes a place to gather, share, play, mourn and remember. Nebraskans care for their family, by blood and by choice. It’s at the table that we find our home.

Our Parents – The Heart of Our Home

Alivia Ulrich, Crete

It was she, my mother, who gave her all, to care for us when we were small. She gave up her time, her dreams so we, could follow our own – she believed that we would go far, if so hard we tried and trusted God with all our might.

She showed us the beauty of simple things, and made our home a place where joy rings. She gave her voice, not to thousands, but three. She could have traveled to sing, but chose my siblings and me. And as her angelic voice lulled us to sleep at night, I was sure in that moment all in the world was right.

It was he, my father, who worked hard on the farm, to provide and protect us from the world’s harm. He gave himself to the Nebraska land, but was always there to lend us a hand; and to help us, guide us, teach us the way, and show us the blessing in each new day.

It’s the memories, I recall, of the stories he’d tell, that bring a smile to my lips and my heart as well. His strength, wisdom, and courage would abound; his laughter was contagious to everyone around. He taught us God’s Word and showed us too, how to live right, honorable, and true.

It was they, my parents, who taught us to believe, who told us if we never gave up, we’d succeed. They worked to give us a better life, and stood by each other, even through strife. They gave up their desires to help us reach our own; we studied and traveled, but would always remember home. And now it’s their wisdom and memory that I pass on, to my children – for those virtues should never be gone. Their love and life lessons will always stay with me, as I work to guide my own family.

Bobbi and Steve Olson

The Hub

Stephen A. Murray,

Georgetown, Texas

The hub of our house is the kitchen. First thing each day the sounds and smells flow out and fill the waking house. There’s taste of breakfast in the air –bacon, eggs, yogurt, cereal, fruit, toast with coffee as the morning host.

The hub of our kitchen is the table. Morning, noon, or night we gather to laugh, complain, argue, and eat –chicken, rice, asparagus, and cake. The table welcomes all who come though very sad when missing some.

At kitchen, at table, hearts share –our daily news, hopes, dreams, hurts, joys. It’s so much more than just the food The day is complete – God is good!

Unstable Card Table

Laura Hilkemann, Firth

Five newfound friends attending UNL

Unable to afford flying home

For both Thanksgiving and Christmas

Encircle an unstable, folding card table

Embellished with a fishbowl centerpiece

Filled with fragile, fallen leaves

From shedding, storm-shook campus trees.

These jovial, sweatered scholars are spirited

Over the music major’s warm pumpkin bars

Baked with Grandma’s guidance by phone

With accidentally generous cinnamon And served on folded paper towels

This concluding Thursday of November.

November

Carol Lukas Franssen, Steelville, Missouri

Indeed, it had been a year of plenty … A cornucopia of pain and trials, joy and salvation. Now it was time to reflect, to take comfort within our family and as we all sat with holiday china before us we hoped to put yesterday in its place.

Platters of food waited while each of us offered a personal gratitude … “canning was on the shelves, hay was in the loft, found a new friend at school …” Yet all these thanks could not unlock that single pain that held us – until our youngest spoke. She looked directly at her big brother

She looked at his wheelchair, his interrupted life

She saw his scars that mapped his second chance, and in her simple words she whispered … “ Thank you, for letting him stay”

Then all that was hard within us ... softened and we could feel thanksgiving.

SEND YOUR POEMS on the theme “Forever Love” for January/February 2025 issue, deadline Dec. 1, “Still Nights” for the March/April 2025 issue, deadline Jan. 1, and “New Beginnings” for the May/June 2025 issue, deadline Feb. 1. Email your poems to poetry@nebraskalife.com or mail to the address at the front of this magazine.

Ken Smith

TAKING TO THE ROAD FOR FOOD, FUN AND FESTIVITIES

by ARIELLA NARDIZZI

HISTORY

CHRISTMAS PAST AND PRESENT

DEC. 6-8, 13-14 • GRAND ISLAND

Trade in LED holiday lights for oil-burning lanterns. Step back in time as you walk the old-fashioned streets of Railroad Town, a recreated 1890s prairie village. As the piercing Nebraska wind whistles through the trees, the town glows with the warm, flickering light of torches hung from wooden storefronts. Bushy wreaths of holly and bright red bows bring Christmas Past to life in the present.

Wander past the blacksmith’s shop,

where the steady clang of hammer on iron rings. He’s busy filling last-minute orders, crafting a custom horseshoe or finishing gifts for a family in town. At the neighboring tinsmith’s workshop, the tinner forms his famous “tinsicles,” delicate ornaments you can create yourself for just a dollar to hang proudly on your tree at home. Next door, the planing mill buzzes with activity. Families assemble wooden toy trains, a beloved Christmas

gift of the era or purchase kits to take home for $5.

The town’s heart, the bustling Mercantile, overflows with shoppers eager to find superlative handmade gifts. Meanwhile, children rush toward Town Hall, where Father Christmas greets them, jolly and red-cheeked, with stories and old-world cheer.

Beyond Railroad Town, the journey through time continues. Rustic log cabins

The Stuhr Museum in Grand Island hosts its annual Christmas Past and Present, a favorite holiday celebration from the 1860s to present day.

Brad Mellema

offer a glimpse into how families prepared for Christmas in the 1860s, with simple decorations and hearty meals cooked over an open fire. At Cleary Farm, discover how Christmas celebrations evolved after 1900, blending old and new traditions.

For a taste of Christmas Present, head to the Leo B. Stuhr Building to find the “Fantasy of Trees,” a dazzling display of evergreens uniquely bedecked by local businesses. Fudge, cookies and cocoa lure you into the Melting Pot, while Santa’s hearty laughter fills the hall.

For an exclusive experience, members-only night is set for Dec. 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. The public can access the festivities on Dec. 7, 13 and 14 from 6 to 9 p.m., or Dec. 8 from 12 to 4 p.m. Stuhr Museum members receive free admission, while non-members can purchase tickets for $15. Whether you’re visiting Old Saint Nick or crafting tin ornaments, Railroad Town will fill your heart with the simple joys of Christmas, past and present. stuhrmuseum.org. (308) 385-5316.

WHERE TO EAT THE CHOCOLATE BAR

Satisfy your sweet tooth at The Chocolate Bar. Indulge in homemade chocolates, breakfast and lunch. Embrace the chocolatier’s dark side with the cafe’s dinner and cocktail offerings. 116 W. 3rd St. (308) 675-0664.

WHERE TO STAY

ISLAND INN

Owned by Jerry and Janet Loney since 1997, Island Inn is just a few miles from Grand Island’s attractions, including the Stuhr Museum. The homey inn offers an affordable stay for guests. 2311 S. Locust St. (308) 382-1815.

GARDEN HOLIDAY POINSETTIA SHOW

THROUGH DECEMBER • OMAHA

The scent of pine and the twinkle of lights reflected in frosted leaves welcome you into Lauritzen Gardens’ indoor gardens. The winter wonderland’s centerpiece – a towering 20-foot-tall poinsettia tree –soars as a beacon of holiday magic. Its vibrant red blooms cascade in idyllic symmetry, reaching skyward under soft holiday luster.

Through Dec. 31, thousands of poinsettias transform the Lauritzen Gardens into a festive sanctuary where nature’s wonders are elaborately displayed with holiday flair.

In the floral display hall and the Marjorie K. Daughtery Conservatory, the holiday express winds its way through lush greenery. Outside, on the festival garden patio, families gather around crackling fire pits, the sweet scent of toasted marshmallows mingling with the frosty air. In the Family Chill Zone, children giggle and play games while parents sip rich hot cocoa.

Stop by the botanical garden’s gift shop, where shelves brim with holiday treasures and unique keepsakes. Whether marveling at the poinsettia tree’s majestic height or enjoying the serene garden trails, Lauritzen Gardens offers an enchanting escape into a world overflowing with holiday cheer.

Daytime hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Standard garden admission rates apply during the day, but members can enjoy the show for free. On Dec. 1, 4-8, 11-23 and 26-31, purchase tickets for Bright Nights and see the gardens in splendid lights. lauritzengardens.org. (402) 346-4002.

WHERE TO EAT HERBE SAINTE

Herbe Sainte immerses guests in New Orleans’ vibrant culture, featuring regional delights like King Cake bread pudding and rich gumbo with spicy andouille sausage in a cozy, Crescent City-inspired atmosphere. 1934 S. 67th St. (402) 913-2396.

WHERE TO STAY

MAGNOLIA HOTEL

A historic gem in downtown Omaha, Magnolia Hotel blends vintage charm with modern luxury, housed in a 1923 structure designed to mimic Florentine architecture. Guests enjoy stylish rooms, timeless elegance and a hospitable atmosphere. 1615 Howard St. (402) 341-2500.

OTHER EVENTS YOU MAY ENJOY

DECEMBER

Drive Thru Christmas Village

Dec. 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24 • North Platte

Take a jolly joyride through Christmas Village at the Lincoln County Historical Museum. Admire Christmas lights from the warmth of your vehicle while snacking on complementary popcorn. Admission is free, 6 to 9:30 p.m. 2403 N. Buffalo Bill Ave. (308) 534-5640.

A 1940s Radio Christmas Carol Dec. 5-8, 12-15 • Kearney

The comedy series takes a slapstick approach to Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol, featuring over-the-top theatrics

and mayhem. Evening performances run Dec. 5-7 from 7:30 p.m. and matinees Dec. 8 and 15 from 2:30 p.m. Kearney Community Theatre, 83 Plaza Blvd. (308) 234-1529.

Jingle Bell Run

Dec. 7 • Papillion

Runners jingle all the way to the finish line in honor of four decades of the Jingle Bell Run. The race, including 5Ks and a kids run, raises funds for the Arthritis Foundation to find a cure for America’s leading cause of disability. Papillion Landing, 1046 W. Lincoln St. (402) 262-0144.

Kris Kringle Xmas Boutique

Dec. 7 • Chadron

Held at Dawes County Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Kris Kringle is a holiday celebration for the whole family. Bring the kids to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, shop for elf-approved holiday gifts and enjoy delicious breakfast and lunch

offerings. 4H Building and Event Center, 2009 E. Gordon St.

Victorian Christmas on Main

Dec. 7 • Plattsmouth

Yuletide carols waft through the air as Scrooge, the Snow Princess and Victorian-adorned characters wander the streets of Plattsmouth. From 5 to 8 p.m., sip steaming cocoa and cider, behold the tree lighting and visit Santa’s reindeer. Downtown Historic District, S. 4th St. (402) 990-2003.

JANUARY

Nebraska First Day Hikes

Jan. 1 • Across the State

Start the new year off on the right foot with First Day Hikes, inspiring Nebraskans to venture outdoors and discover the beauty of their own backyards. Enjoy a variety of activities, such as guided

Photo: Arturo Banderas

tours, horseback rides and community luncheons at participating state parks. (402) 471-0641.

Harlem Globetrotters

Jan. 9 • Omaha

Renowned Harlem Globetrotters return to Omaha for their 2025 World Tour at the Baxter Arena, showcasing athletic antics, astonishing beyond-the-court shots and riveting Slam-Dunk contests. Game starts at 7 p.m. 2425 S. 67th St. (402) 554-6200.

Seraph Bass

Jan. 12 • Holdrege

Bask in the resonant sounds of Seraph Brass, an award-winning female ensemble performing at 3 p.m. at The Tassel Performing Arts Center. The group has performed at shows with Adele, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony. 1324 Tilden St. (308) 995-2717.

Northeast Nebraska Farm & Equipment Show

Jan. 15-16 • Norfolk

The 38th annual agriculture show generates 4,000 farmers and potential buyers with one-on-one connections. Win cash and supply prizes, attend educational seminars and watch demonstrations – all free public attendance. Northeast Community College Chuck M. Pohlman Ag Complex, 2301 E. Benjamin Ave. (800) 284-2750.

Nebraska Deer and Game Expo

Jan. 17-19 • Lincoln

This three-day premiere expo at the Sandhills Global Event Center offers a range of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, along with expert tips and techniques for enthusiasts of all skill levels. Showcase your trophy at the popular Big Buck Contest and the Shed Antler Contest, and other opportunities to win prizes. 4100 N. 84th St. (308) 293-7475.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

Questions on p 18-19

Page 18, Top Valley County Courthouse in Ord

Page 18, Bottom States Ballroom in Bee Page 19 “Roll of Honor” plaque honoring Ong residents who fought in World War I Trivia Photographs

With

Holiday Open House

Harmony Nursey Nov. 11 ~ 9 am-5:30 pm

Shop Downtown York County ~ Nov. 30

Heritage Park’s Christmas Tour of Homes

Henderson Heritage Park Nov. 30th ~ 4-7 pm

Spirit of Christmas On Main

Dec. 2 ~ 5-7 pm

Greenery Workshop

Harmony Nursery Dec. 7 ~ 9 am-3 pm

Heart of the Holiday

Next Door Mentor

Author takes the neighbor under his wing

by ALAN J. BARTELS

DAD TAUGHT ME how to bait a hook, and to aim, load and shoot. Other than that, Mother Nature is the teacher most responsible for molding me into the outdoorsman I am today. Through hits, misses, slips, trips and falls, poison ivy, stuck vehicles, frostbite, snakebite and other lessons, she did a pretty good job.

After befriending the couple who moved in across the street from me several years ago, I put their teenaged son, Aidan, to work mowing my lawn, painting and doing other odd jobs. After storms blow through, he fills my pickup with branches in return for driving lessons on the way home from the tree dump. He’s a good kid and good help. When I was his age, I was more likely to be stalking rabbits with my Crossman 760 BB gun in woodlots near Greeley than helping neighbors.

A couple Decembers ago, and with the permission of his parents, I gave Aidan a similar model BB gun as a Christmas gift. After his family opened presents, Aidan and I spent Christmas Day in my yard learning the basics of marksmanship, and then how to turn pop cans into sieves. He’s a crack shot. The next day he accompanied me to a hunting blind along the Loup River near Elba.

I was deer hunting, but more importantly this outing was a test of the boy: Could he tolerate the cold, sit still and be quiet for hours on end? How often would he need to get out for a pee break? Would he enjoy the quiet isolation even if we saw no animals?

He endured the outing, and I’ve noticed a good head on his young shoulders. In fact, I’m the one that got nailed by the

electric fence on the way out, not Aidan. Hearing the repeat thud of BBs flying into cardboard targets across the street during spring and summer is proof of his continued interest.

As they always do, my thoughts turn to the deer woods when the longest days of the year begin fading into longer nights. Aidan’s parents aren’t hunters, but they appreciate the outdoors. When I asked permission to sign him up for a Hunter Safety course, his mom agreed with one caveat: that I go through it with him.

I’m old enough that I can get my Ne-

braska hunting permits without having ever taken Hunter Safety. Between work, writing projects, church commitments and other responsibilities, I have a lot to do. But, for Aidan, I made time.

I quizzed Aidan on the way to class each evening, reviewing the previous night’s lessons about respect for wildlife and how safety is paramount. The last Hunter Safety session included carrying an unloaded firearm and shooting live rounds under the supervision of trained instructors. Aidan, who already knew the fundamentals of marksmanship thanks to our backyard BB gun adventures, was one of the best in his class in the paper plate shoot. He was nervous about the final test – the dreaded written exam. I wasn’t. My neighbor kid was a crack shot with the written test, too.

With so much to do, would the 12 hours of classes plus drive time back and forth have been better spent doing something else? Not at all. That time was an investment in Aidan.

As his reward for passing the class and earning his Hunter Safety card, I purchased Aidan’s youth deer permit. He didn’t connect on the first deer he shot at, but success did come later in the season. We’ll hunt together this winter, and there’s room in my deep freeze if he harvests a deer. Will he be a hunter for life? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure, Aidan will grow up with a rooted-in-safety foundation in the outdoors, that, like Nebraska, he can always return home to no matter where life takes him.

He’ll also have a lifelong hunting buddy, friend and mentor with BBs and plenty of spare time.

Writer Alan J. Bartels teaches a young hunter how to stay safe outdoors and harvest his first deer after taking a Hunter Safety course.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

photograph by JEFF PHELPS

THE SKY WAS sharp and clear as photographer Jeff Phelps drove home from Scottsbluff to Sidney in the latenight hours of Dec. 7, 2022. The ground was dusted with freshly fallen snow, and the world around him was as still as Nebraska’s monolithic icon, Chimney Rock.

As he neared Chimney Rock, Phelps noticed red and green lights illuminating the national historic site. He knew he had to find a place to stop, unpack his drone and capture the magnificent view.

He pulled off into the parking lot at Chimney Rock Cemetery and launched his drone skyward. He remembers a feeling of wonder to see, from the air, not only Chimney Rock shown in festive glory, but the snow around it seemed to glow from the lights as well.

As the drone hummed above, Phelps heard a pack of coyotes howling in the hills. That night at Chimney Rock was his most memorable drone-flying experience ever.

Phelps became serious about photography after buying his first drone in 2019. He then started a photography business, High Point Aerial Images, which takes him around Western Nebraska on assignments.

Phelps enjoys hearing reactions from people who’ve been to places like Chimney Rock, but never had the chance to see them from a heightened perspective.

Jeff Phelps shot this photo of Chimney Rock with a DJI Mavic 3 Classic drone and a Hasselblad camera exposed at ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/60 of a second.

SUBMIT YOUR BEST photographs for the opportunity to be published in Nebraska Life. Send digital images with descriptions and your contact information to photos@nebraskalife.com or visit nebraskalife.com/contribute.

Image by gpointstudio