The Petrified Wood Museum, Ogallala, Nebraska Making a Stone Butterfly

The Petrified Wood Museum, in Ogallala Nebraska, exemplifies, the lapindary work of Howard and Harvey Kenfield. They were Masters of Lapidary Art and took their skills to another level. They collected petrified wood from around Western North America, and developed techniques to make petrified wood artwork.

The artwork included making petrified wood music boxes and three dimensional picture art. The theme of the work included stone churches, stone houses, stone outhouses, and stone buildings reduced to scale. In addition, they also made butterflies out of various natural colored agates.

The Museum not only shows pieces from their huge collection of petrified wood but also includes agates from the western United States. One unique feature in the Museum is the display of how to make the stone structures and stone butterflies, (or at least the brothers techniques). In an earlier visit I decided to attempt to make a stone house, and the results were less than stellar. In fact, my building looked like something a three-year-old would make, so I dismantled it telling myself that some day I would do better.

This visit I paid close attention to the brothers step-by-step approach. I decided that first I will try to make a butterfly with various gemstones for the wings, body, and other parts. The equipment necessary is in my shop and I certainly have lots of beautiful rocks, just waiting to be cut, shaped and polished. The challenge of couse is to find the time, as in retirement I have discovered that there is simply not enough time to do everything I want to do. No rocking chair for me! No doubt unforeseen problems will arise, plans will demand change, and delicate pieces will break. Now if my health will just hold…… Clear skies

Ps I f you ever find yourself traveling interstate 80 across Nebraska, stop and enjoy the free Petrified Wood Museum, (this is our third time we have studied the lifetime works of the two bothers)

Spring Migration, it’s time to head North

Winter is long over and its getting hot and humid in South Texas on the Coastal Bend.. Too much for us Winter Texans so the Northward Migration is in full blast. Earlier a group of friends from Oklahoma left and now the rest of them are leaving.

We gathered to watch our friends go and the first to leave were a couple from South Dakota, Doug and Maureen. The Happy Hours Cat, Susie also watched, (she is a feral cat that allows us to per her!)

There was a short delay as the next couple had to remove their state flag, Colorado, from their rear view mirror, but Kenny figured it out, (it was all in good fun as his fishing buddy, we won’t mention Bill’s name, from Michigan admitted the prank).

Next to head north were friends from Oklahoma, Lynn and Bobby, Joyce, and Ed and Marsha. Most of their Oklahoma contingent had already left. Finally, Pam and Roy, Renita’s sister and her husband Roy started their four-day drive to Iowa where they work as campground hosts in one of our favorite county parks.

The park was emptying, and the next day we joined the exodus along with our friends Dan and Barb. They are fulltimers, stopping for a birding week at High Island Texas, before trips to Alabama and Tennessee. We don’t pull our fifth wheel anymore, but have it stored twenty miles from the Gulf of Mexico’s Coast, hoping to avoid any possible hurricane damage. We are traveling further than anyone else with a migration of over nineteen hundred miles. As I am writing this, we are staying in a motel in Ogallala, Nebraska, watching snowflakes welcome us back to the North, (we see snowflakes in May and June at our home in Star Valley, Wyoming, (we live at 6200 feet in elevation). Tired and sore from four days of driving we are going to spend a couple of nights here before we get back on the road. This gives us time to visit a couple of rock shops! One can never have enough rocks, (it’s a safer investment than the current stock market) Clear skies Ps RVers never say goodbye but instead like to say, “See you down the road!”