This is the old Burlington Train Depot we saw in Gemini Park, Bellevue, Nebraska, a few days ago. Sarpy County Museum acquired the depot for one dollar on the condition that it be moved from the railroad tracks. There’s a military display in the nearby museum.
The depot was built
by the Omaha and Southwestern Railroad in 1869 and later served the Burlington
Railroad.
The depot has been
moved twice. It was moved from its
original site on Block 4 Anderson’s Additions to Hayworth Park. That location was one mile south of its
original site. Unfortunately, that put
the building in the Missouri River Flood plain. It was subsequently moved in 1987 by the Sarpy
County Museum to Gemini Park, which is adjacent to the Sarpy County Museum. This puts the depot in a safe place, well out
of the flood plain. Today, it is the
oldest surviving train station in the State of Nebraska.
Last Monday, Larry
drove his boom truck to Omaha to have it worked on, then rode his KTM
motorcycle, which he had hauled on the truck, home again. This proved to be a more lengthy operation
than expected, because before he’d gone far, he discovered that the bearings
were going out on the rear wheel – and he didn’t have any tools with him. He stayed off the main highway and rode
slowly until he got to a store where he could buy bearing grease and a tool to
tighten the wheel as much as possible.
He stopped frequently to tighten it and apply more grease, and managed
to get back to the shop in one piece.
When he was ready to
come home, though, rather than risk another seven miles, he called me to come
get him.
Tuesday
afternoon, I found an update on my coffee order, via the UPS Tracking Page:
On the Way, Lenexa, KS,
United States, 05/06/2025, 11:03 A.M.
I spent the day quilting – and
listening to what sounded like a nest of brand-new baby raccoons chirring and
squeaking their heads off in the walls on the east side of my quilting studio. I set off an odor bomb in one of the
cubbyholes under the eaves in the hopes that the mama raccoon would transport
her babies elsewhere. I don’t believe
she’s done so yet. But I have more odor
bombs! It won’t hurt them; but it will
run them off.
Larry is planning to take a day off
this week or next week to repair the outside areas under the eaves where the
critters must be getting in.
The Baltimore orioles are back!
They’re so pretty, and I love to hear them sing. They like the suet with berries that I’ve
been putting in the suet feeder.
Supper that evening was fettuccini
with chicken and broccoli.
By 11:00 p.m., the last two Safari Animal
blocks were quilted, and there was only one row of Cock’s Comb blocks and one
border to finish.
Wednesday
morning was quite nice, in the high 50s/low 60s, so I spent a couple of hours
working in one of my big flower gardens. I nearly have the gardens in the front done. The purple irises are in bloom, and the
lily-of-the-valley is still blooming, too. There are blossoms all over the chokecherry
tree, and they smell sooo good.
UPS informed me that
my coffee was “On the Way, Columbus, NE, United States, 05/07/2025, 5:48 A.M.”
Well, if it
arrived in Columbus at 5:48 a.m., why couldn’t I have it that very day?!
Fortunately, I still had Cameron’s Toasted
Southern Pecan coffee. And it was
downright good, too.
It got up to 76° that afternoon, and
was a sunny, pretty day.
By 7:00
p.m., the last row was done on the Safari Animals quilt, with the bottom border
to go. It was time to head to church. I would finish the border when I got home; it
wouldn’t take long.
Larry
called a minute or two after 7; he was just going past Madison, 27 miles to our
north. He would not be home in time for church.
The hostas and
Autumn Joy sedum along the front walk have grown like everything in the last
week. I wish the Lily-of-the-Valley was
more long-lived; it’s almost done blooming for the year. I love its sweet aroma; it’s one of my
favorites.
Thursday
was another nice day – 74°, bright and sunny.
The first order of the day was vacuuming,
sweeping, and dusting. I do that once
every decade, whether it needs it or not. 😄🤣😆
When that was done, I loaded my young
friend quilt on my frame and quilted a couple of rows before quitting
for the night.
Meanwhile, Larry mowed for the first
time this spring.
We had scalloped ham and potatoes and a
vegetable mix of green beans, carrots, and peas for supper, and strawberry-rhubarb
crisp ice cream for dessert.
Almost every evening when I head out
to retrieve the bird feeders for the night, the raccoons are already
there. A large one shows up now and
then; but lately there have been a couple of young, roly-poly ones snarfing
down the bird seed. They hightail it for
the deck stairs when I open the patio door, but if I talk politely to them, one
invariably stops at the top of the steps and looks at me contemplatively. If I make no move toward him, but just go on
talking quietly, he looks from me back toward the bird feeders, obviously
hoping for just a few more bites...
After a moment or two, he tentatively heads
back across the deck to the feeders, giving me a few nervous glances as he
goes. He scrambles up the railing...
grabs a mouthful of seeds... and then decides, Yikes, this is just too
scary. She’s liable to turn me into
giblets and gravy! – and off he scampers, pell-mell after his sibling, who
is waiting for him at the bottom of the steps, one story down.
Shortly after he gets down the stairs,
they both go scurrying off into the darkness.
I can’t see where they go, as it’s too dark; but I can hear them
rustling quickly through the leaves.
This is one of the last blossoms on
the crabapple tree. It’s all
leafed out now.
Some of the weeds – let’s call them
‘wildflowers’ – have pretty blossoms, too. This is Tall Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium
loeselii). Those yellow blooms are
smaller than my littlest fingernail.
Friday afternoon, my grandson Levi was
planning to come after school to tune my piano — and suddenly I noticed: his quilt was sitting nonchalantly on the
leather sofa in the music room, with his name (remember the big blue embroidered
letters appliquéd on the front?) practically glowing in the dark!
I dashed in there, folded it right-side-in,
and put it in my bedroom.
Levi arrived about 4:00 p.m. – bringing me a soft, warm cheese Danish. I told him it spoiled my whole diet for the
day, but I had to eat it right then, because it was warm – and I was
downright happy whilst I was a-doin’ it, too.
While he worked on my piano, I worked on my friend's quilt. By 5:30 p.m., it was done. The pantograph is called ‘Alpine’. It measures 45 ½” x 50 ½”. I used pale yellow 40-wt. Omni thread on top,
and pale yellow Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. The batting is 80/20; I don’t know the brand.
Levi spent some time using Larry’s
rubber mallet to pound the piano pegs tighter into the sounding board; this
should keep the piano in tune longer. So
he ran out of time to finish tuning the treble section; he’s finishing it today. Hannah and Joanna came that evening to pick
him up.
They brought me some gifts for Mother’s
Day: a bottle of World’s Only Winnetoon
(little town in rural Nebraska) Goat’s Milk Lotion in black raspberry-vanilla
scent, a beautiful, handmade, heart-shaped soap with flower detailing on top in
lilac scent (I love handmade soaps), and two coaster-sized pieces that
Hannah worked a pansy and a tulip into with tiny cross-stitching. I will put a ribbon through the little holes
at the tops of them and hang them in my quilting studio somewhere.
Before they left, Hannah played a song
– The Old Rugged Cross – and we sang together.
Saturday was National Archery Day.
Upon learning that, I extracted this excerpt from my journal of October
5, 2015, when Victoria was 18:
After leaving Keller State Park, we
stopped at an archery range so Larry could decock his crossbow by firing it
into one of the targets. He asked Victoria, “Want to shoot it?”
“Sure!” she responded, always game for
a new adventure.
We walked to the shooting range...
Larry showed her what to do... she prepared... pulled the trigger... and shot
the deer target dead center, right through the heart.
“How far away was it?” she asked
later.
“Ten feet,” answered Larry at the
precise moment I replied, “A quarter of a mile.” haha
When Larry got home early that
afternoon, I helped him get my longarm out of my quilting studio so he could take
it to Nebraska Quilt Company for me, since he was going to be traveling through
Fremont on his way to pick up a scissor lift someone wants him to work on. The Avanté needs a thorough tune-up, as it
skips stitches if I use anything smaller than a size 20 needle. The rear touchscreen doesn’t work right,
either.
I won’t be needing it for a little
while, as I’ll be starting to sew Lyle’s quilt.
I began putting the binding on the
Safari Animals quilt – and managed to remember before it was too late that it
saves time and effort if I embroider the label first, place it in a quilt
corner, hand-sew two sides, and then affix the sides at the edges of the quilt
at the same time I sew down the binding.
In all the years I’ve been making quilts, I think I’ve remembered
that... twice.
That evening, Victoria and the children brought me a large ceramic pot with a big yellow marigold, a red celosia (cockscomb), and a white petunia, along with a thermal mug of iced coffee Victoria had just brewed in her new coffee maker.
Carolyn gave me a little hummingbird trinket box.
Violet gave me a set of wooden salt-and-pepper shakers. I told her how I used to collect them when I was little, and I wound up with some from all over the States when I traveled with my parents; but one Christmas I gave them all away to the kids in my Jr. Choir. So I was happy to have another cute little set!
Willie could hardly
wait ’til I opened his sisters’ gifts; somehow his wound up last (luck of the
draw, you know). He stepped excitedly
from foot to foot, and then, when I started unwinding the paper from his gift,
he could contain himself no longer, and exclaimed, “It’s a tardinal!”
Sure enough, it was a bright red little
cardinal. He immediately showed me how
it opens, and has room inside for a ring or a small necklace.
I told him, “The entire name for it is
‘Northern cardinal’, and when they’re bright red, they’re the daddy cardinals!”
“Yes!”
He nodded vigorously in agreement.
“It’s a daddy tardinal!”
Sunday after church, Andrew and Hester and the children gave me a pretty pop-up card of a little bird in a birdhouse, a Ferrero Rocher milk chocolate and hazelnut candy bar, and a picture book called 500 Traditional Quilts.
I am particularly fond of
traditional and old-fashioned quilts. I especially
like the ones in this book because so many are intricate and complicated, and
you know that’s what I like. ♫ ♪
When a book is chockful of pictures
of quilts, and not taken up with patterns and instructions, there are more
quilts – and then I can almost always design or draw similar ones in my EQ8
program. I used to do that with children’s
clothes, copying designs from the Wooden Soldier magazine, where a little
girl’s dress might easily cost $250. There are a few quilts in this book
that I’ve seen in person (‘in quilt’?) at quilt shows. Some of the Japanese quilters are skilled
almost beyond imagination.
This
afternoon, Levi came to finish tuning my piano.
I sent him this picture earlier, writing, “My ears, when I tried playing my piano the
last couple of days.”
It was a pretty
day today, though it got a bit hot, up to 87°. It was windy, too; a gust of about 25 mph hit
a while ago and rattled the rafters.
Levi was
still working away at 7:00 p.m., so I fixed a quick supper: Colby Jack grilled cheese sandwiches,
cauliflower and broccoli, and cherry-pomegranate juice. He’d brought some green globe grapes with
him, and gave some to me.
45 minutes
later, he asked if I’d like to try the piano.
I would, and I did. It sounds
beautiful.
Bobby came
and picked him up soon thereafter.
Now Larry
is home, and I’m fixing him a grilled cheese sandwich. An apple pie just came out of the oven. (I helped it; it didn’t get out on its own.)
Now to
finish that binding! I plan to start on
Lyle’s quilt tomorrow.
Oh! – my
coffee finally arrived on Thursday, three weeks and two days after I ordered
it. I guess, in the scheme of things,
that’s not too awfully long. But
next time I order coffee, I just might order from Amana in Iowa. Their coffee beans are good, and orders only
take three or four days.
