Thinking and about work on this Wednesday. This is Willard N. Brink II, my grandfather, posing with his Brink's Hatchery truck. I remember him as a retired Postman, but before he carried the mail, he was raising chickens. His wife, my grandmother Leona, was a librarian in her later years. I also have a great grandfather on my Mom's side of the family who raised chickens for awhile. I may have missed my calling.

My Gr-Grandmother with her siblings and her parents in front of their sod home near Mason City, Nebraska. 1880's. This was the initial dwelling on what would become a successful ranch. Happy Earth Day!

Memorial Day was one of the bigger Holidays for my Mom growing up. When I was young, I was fortunate to travel "up the line" with my Mom and Uncle to visit the graves of their grandparents, etc. "Up the Line", meant driving up the highway from where my Mom was raised to all the little towns along the way where our family had put down roots. These were people I didn't know, but had a kinship with. On these trips I was fortunate to hear many stories that went along with the cemeteries. My great grandfather was the undertaker, his wife would sing at the funerals, my uncle helped plant and water the trees along the entry road to the cemetery (literally hauling buckets by hand). My grandfather's twin siblings who died in infancy are buried in unmarked graves under a tree near the family plot. These stories are endangered. I have decided to preserve them. Here are some of the ways I will do that...

1. Preserve media. I have a video I shot on one of these trips. I just took it to a firm that is going to digitize it. I'm hopeful that it contains most of the landmarks I'm trying to preserve. I'm excited to see it...again.

2. Create a website. This will probably be the portal to where these memories will live. I'll tell the stories, show the photos and videos, play the audio, all of the things that we've held on to, will have a digital home here.

3. Make and collect new content. I have been planning an oral history project for some time now. Time to stop talking about it and actually do it. I'm also going to continue to put my research up in an accessible way using this site.

These are just a few of my thoughts over lunch, anyone else doing something similar?