Monthly Archives: March 2026
My niece, Elizabeth, is one of the busiest people I know. As a teacher who loves her job, by this time of year, she is also looking forward to the end of the year! She has more free time then, to do the many other things she loves to do! Even though it’s only March, she has already begun raking the yard to prepare it for the spring. Elizabeth has a real eye for what will look nice in the yard, and she enjoys shopping for flowers and plants that will create that atmosphere.
Elizabeth also loves to travel and has the opportunity to do a lot of that during the summer. She and her sister, Jenny, and her niece, Aleesia, drove to Colorado to attend a Christian concert earlier this month to see a group of bands they all enjoy listening to. They had a great time and cannot wait to go to the next one! Elizabeth loves concerts and attends many during the year. Especially during the spring and summer. She almost always goes to Nashville or somewhere else to see her favorite singer, Carrie Underwood, at least once a year. She jokingly calls Carrie, her “BFF!”
This year, Carrie will be in Montana. Elizabeth and two of her good friends, Lacey and Jamie, will be attending 
that concert, and spending a few days with Jamie’s family in Montana. They all like a good road trip but haven’t been able to get together to travel for a long time so they plan to take good advantage of this opportunity to do both things.
Elizabeth is also a huge sports fan. Her top three favorites are football (Denver Broncos), baseball (New York Yankees) and basketball (Denver Nuggets), in that order! She and her lifelong friend, Kristina, who lives in Colorado with her family, traveled to Denver last September to see the Denver Bronco’s play, and last week they went to Denver to see the Denver Nuggets play. Elizabeth has even traveled to New York to watch the Yankees play more than once! She is such a sports fan, that her little dog, Holiday has to be dressed up in a jersey for each team whenever she watches a game on television! Her other pup, Gracie, would have to wear a 
jersey, too, except that Gracie has ripped hers off, and shredded them in disgust the few times Elizabeth tried to put them on her! She has been known to dress her other dog, Scout, in jerseys, too, but Scout has escaped lately, since Holiday tolerates it so well, or at least most of the time!
Elizabeth is very close with all her siblings and with her cousins. They all get together during the year for concerts, games, and downtown events. This girl is very rarely not busy. Probably only when she is asleep!
I would have to say Elizabeth is a person of many, many interests and never lives a dull moment! Happy birthday, Elizabeth!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
Astrid Lindgren had always loved words and stories, and while she may not have known it at first, she also possessed the ability to tell a good story. As a child, Lindgren devoured every book she could get her hands on, from the adventures of Robinson Crusoe to the spirited tales of Anne of Green Gables. She penned several creative essays that impressed her teacher, and one was even published in the local newspaper. That story, unfortunately, and the attention that followed, led to teasing from her classmates, and she vowed never to write again. How sad that even in those days, children could be so cruel.
Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson, later known as Lindgren, was born on November 14, 1907, in a red wooden house in the small town of Vimmerby, Småland, Sweden. She was the second of four children of Hanna Jonsson and Samuel August Ericsson. The family lived on a farm called Näs, which had stood for 500 years and had been rented by the Ericssons for three generations. Her childhood was happy and carefree—after finishing her chores, she roamed the fields and nearby woods freely. With her siblings, she spent time climbing trees, swimming in the river, and playing in the barns. This sense of childhood freedom is reflected in her stories, especially in the beloved Pippi Longstocking books.
Lindgren fell in love with the magic of words at just five years old, when a farmhand’s daughter read her a story. Her first book, Snow White, came from a teacher, and she was thrilled each time she got a new one. In her biography Astrid Lindgren, author Eva-Maria Metcalf shared a quote from Lindgren about her passion for books: “I can still remember how these books smelled when they arrived fresh from the printer. Yes, I started by smelling them, and there was no lovelier scent in all the world. It was full of foretaste and anticipation.”
Lindgren’s life wasn’t easy, even after she escaped the cruelty of her schoolmates. In 1924, she started working for the local paper, the Wimmerby Tidningen. She stirred up the town when she cut her hair into a bob, embracing the “flapper” style of the 1920s liberated women who wore short hair and defied social norms. At 19, pregnant and facing judgment from the Vimmerby villagers, she moved to Stockholm. Her son, Lars, was born in 1926, but she had to place him in foster care because she couldn’t afford to support him. It was the hardest thing she ever did.
While in Stockholm, Lindgren studied stenography and found a job as a secretary, though the pay barely covered food, rent, and train trips to Copenhagen to see Lars. She later worked at the Royal Swedish Automobile Club, writing tour guides for drivers, where she met Sture Lindgren. They married on April 4, 1931, after which she happily gained custody of Lars. Their daughter, Karin, was born in 1934. For a number of years, she set aside her natural ability to write…until Karin rekindled it, that is. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1940s that she began to reconsider her childhood decision. Pippi Longstocking was created in 1941 when seven-year-old Karin, bored and stuck in bed with pneumonia, asked her mother for a story about “Pippi Långstrump” (Longstocking). Karin had made up the name, and it instantly sparked Lindgren’s imagination, leading her to dream up tales about the wiry, spirited, freckle-faced Pippi, whose braids jutted out to either side. Pippi quickly became a favorite with Karin and her friends. Lively little Pippi would go on to make Astrid Lindgren among the most widely translated authors ever, after she shot to fame in the 1940s with her creation of the beloved 
storybook character. Throughout her life, she penned over 40 children’s books, selling around 145 million copies across the globe. Lindgren passed away at her home in central Stockholm on January 28, 2002, at the age of 94. Her funeral was held at Storkyrkan in Gamla stan, attended by King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, other members of the royal family, and Prime Minister Göran Persson. Dagens Nyheter described the ceremony as “the closest you can get to a state funeral.” It was a fitting tribute to a beloved author.
My niece, Amanda Reed has spent most of her adult life working in the banking industry. She worked her way up through the system, and last year she was promoted to Vice President of Operations at Rawlins National Bank. We are all so proud of her accomplishments. Not many people ever achieve such a great status, but Amanda is a very hard-working person, and she is driven to succeed at everything she does. Amanda is a very motivated person. She is a dedicated and loyal worker, and that is, of course, what the Rawlins National Bank saw in her from the beginning. They knew she was the right person for advancing through the company. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see he in the position of President of the bank someday. She is, after all, highly motivated.
Amanda and her partner, Sean Mortensen owned a cabin in the Snowy Mountains. His parents also owned a cabin there too, and a while back they sold their cabin to Amanda and Sean. His parents’ cabin was a better fit 
for Amanda and Sean, so when they decided to sell it, Amanda and Sean bought it. Now, they have sold their cabin, and they couldn’t be happier. They love spending time at the cabin, and they can go there year-round, so it makes the cabin a great purchase. Amanda and Sean love the quietness of the cabin, and the wild animals that sometimes almost seem like pets, because they really aren’t afraid of Amanda and Sean. They have been able to see animals most of us never can, like fox, moose, coyote, and more.
Amanda, Sean, and their daughter, Jadyn and her boyfriend, Marcus are all very outdoorsy people. They love boating, hiking, skiing, snowmobiling, 4 wheeling, motorcycling, and just about any other sport you can imagine. They also love hunting and fishing. In fact, right now Amanda and Sean are in Louisianna doing some 
bow fishing and enjoying the area. They are two of the most active people I know. They and a large group of friends get together often to enjoy so many activities that it would make most of us tired just thinking about it. Nevertheless, this family takes that as everyday activities. It is one way to stay young, and they are quite good at it all. Today is Amanda’s birthday. Happy birthday Amanda. Hope your vacation is fabulous. Have a great day!! We love you!!
Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, is a semi-ghost town in Custer County just outside the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Strange that it is called a semi-ghost town, but that’s what it is. It would seem that either it is or it isn’t, but I suppose the fact that the current population of the town is about 125 people, could have something to do with it. This small community began as a stage stop on the Sidney-Deadwood Trail for the Northwestern Stage Company during the Black Hills gold rush of 1875-1876. It was named for a gap west of town that once provided shelter for buffalo herds.
Due to its location at the junction of several trails, Buffalo Gap became an important way station and supply depot. As a result, George Boland, the station manager and distributing postmaster for all mail coming into the Black Hills, built a roadhouse that provided food and overnight accommodations for passengers and freighters. By 1880, the gold rush was winding down, but the Black Hills, opened to settlement in 1876, continued to draw newcomers, something I can understand, since my husband and I visit the area every year. In 1885, the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad came through, marking the end of the stagecoach era. That same year, a railroad station was built along Beaver Creek, and the town of Buffalo Gap was officially laid out, serving as a stopover for travelers and a hub linking wagon roads to the Black Hills and Hot Springs.
The arrival of the railroad ended the long, exhausting cattle drives of the past. With large cattle ranches spreading across the Black Hills and Cheyenne River ranges, Buffalo Gap thrived, becoming one of the nation’s busiest cattle shipping hubs. Before long, around 1,200 people called the town home, and it boasted about 140 businesses, including 17 hotels and restaurants, four general stores, a hardware store, a clothing shop, two drugstores, a furniture store, a bank, four Chinese laundries, and 23 saloons.
As with any Old West cattle and gold town, Buffalo Gap saw its share of transients, rowdy cowboys, and outlaws. Doubting the sheriff’s ability to keep order, some local businessmen decided a town marshal was needed. They turned to Arch Wilder Riordan, a former cattle drover who had settled in Buffalo Gap and run a combination drugstore and saloon. Standing six feet tall and weighing about 240 pounds, Riordan had an easygoing manner and was well respected. He took the job for $75 a month and proved effective enough that the town’s rougher crowd hired a Wyoming gunfighter named Charlie Fugit to get rid of him. Their plan was to start a bar fight, and when Riordan arrived, Charlie would shoot him. But when the moment came, Charlie was fatally surprised to find the marshal was quicker and more accurate with his gun. Riordan survived, as he did in several other dangerous encounters, always drawing his weapon only when necessary. Years later, he was appointed a US Marshal.
As often happens in a boom-bust town, things had slowed down by 1885…beef prices dropped, and the open range became overgrazed. The hot summer and drought of 1886 made matters worse, with brush fires destroying much of the rangeland and water sources drying up. Then came the brutal winter of 1886–1887, which brought blizzards sweeping across the West and temperatures plunging to -30° in some areas. Known as the “big die-out,” the cold snap wiped out up to 75% of the northern cattle herds. Afterward, most large cattle operations left the area, and ranching became a local affair. Homesteaders moved in to farm the land, but more years of drought drove many of them away as well.
By the early 1890s, Buffalo Gap’s population had dwindled, leaving its streets much quieter. In 1895, a resident’s cow knocked over a lantern, sparking a fire that burned the town to the ground, much like the Great Chicago Fire and other similar disasters. The town never fully bounced back and was never restored to its former glory. The fire wiped out most of the central business district, and only a few buildings or businesses were ever rebuilt. By 1910, the town’s population had fallen from its heyday of 1,200 to just 280. The drought dragged on for years, and more farmers left. Still, the ranchers gradually returned. During this time, the town auditorium, fairgrounds, community building, and fraternal lodge halls continued to be used for various community activities, from fairs to dances to traveling shows.
While the town was virtually a ghost town by then, it continued to hang on. The auditorium was built to showcase agricultural exhibits for the Buffalo Gap Fair, which was one of the area’s most notable events for years. This annual fair, featuring a rodeo, stock show, and crop displays, brought together local farmers, ranchers, and tourists eager to see the participating Lakota Indians. The Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation joined various rodeo contests and camped on the edge of town. Many were celebrated bronc riders, but one of the crowd favorites was the “Tepee-Setting Race,” where two women would drive a wagon around the track and set up their tepees in front of the grandstand. The winning team earned a prize of five dollars.
As was common in the life of any town, the needs changed, and in 1923, a high school was built. In 1926, the Nolan grain elevator was built to support the shift toward grain farming. The horse-breeding industry was thriving, and the town still served as a cattle hub. Then, as cars became common and machines took over farm and ranch work, Buffalo Gap began to shrink. A new state highway routed through Hot Springs and Custer State Park pulled traffic away from town. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930s further cut down the local population.
The beginning of the end came in 1938, when the railroad discontinued its spur line to Hot Springs and stopped shipping cattle from Buffalo Gap in about 1953. By 1960 most of the town’s businesses were closed for good. 
The old Citizens Bank building served as a First Western Bank branch for many years before it finally closed. Today, the town’s main hub is the grain elevator and feed store. The church still holds regular services, and the post office remains open. Most of the residents are gone now…and only a semi-ghost town remains.
His job as a stoker was the one, most likely to be fatal in a ship sinking…or at least very likely to be fatal, because when a ship sank or took damage, the seawater would flood the areas where the stokers worked first. Nevertheless, that was the job Arthur John Priest, an English fireman and stoker had, and one he managed to survive as he worked on four ships that eventually sank…with him onboard. Priest worked on the RMS Titanic, HMS Alcantara, HMHS Britannic and the SS Donegal. The fact that Priest survived all four of these sinkings, earned him the moniker “The Unsinkable Stoker.”
Priest was the son of Harry Priest, a laborer, and his wife, Elizabeth Garner, and one of twelve siblings. He was born in Southhampton, England on August 31, 1887. In 1915, he married Annie Martin (née Hampton) in Birkenhead. The couple had three sons…Arthur John, George, and Frederick Harry. The family spent several years living at 17 Briton Street in Southampton.
Priest worked as a stoker deep in the engine rooms of steam-powered ships. A stoker is “a person who tends the fire for the running of a boiler, heating a building, or powering a steam engine. Much of the job is hard 
physical labor, such as shoveling fuel, typically coal, into the boiler’s firebox.” He was part of the “black gang” of 27 men that included six firemen, two trimmers, and a steward known as the “peggy,” who brought them food and drinks. The job was grueling, often done shirtless in the intense heat of the furnaces. During his time as a stoker, Priest survived four ship sinkings and two major collisions, most of which occurred during World War I. These included the RMS Asturias (collision on her maiden voyage, 1908), RMS Olympic (collision with HMS Hawke, 1911), RMS Titanic (sunk by an iceberg, 1912), HMS Alcantara (sunk in combat with SMS Greif, 1916), HMHS Britannic (sunk by a mine, 1916), and SS Donegal (torpedoed by SM UC-27, 1917). Remarkably, fellow Titanic survivors Archie Jewell and Violet Jessop also lived through the Britannic’s sinking with Priest, though Jewell later died on the Donegal. In 1917, Priest was awarded the Mercantile Marine Ribbon for his service in the Great War. After the sinking of the SS Donegal, Priest gave up working at sea and left his job as a stoker. He spent the rest of his life in Southampton with his wife, Annie, often saying that “no one wanted to sail with him after those disasters.” I suppose his “retirement” was a matter of necessity. When it became apparent that the company was having trouble filling the positions, it might have been easy to decide that the problem was superstition over what might be looked at as “bad luck” on the part of one stoker.
Aside from his survival tales, little is known about his personal life. Reports say he passed away on February 11, 1937, at his Southampton home at the age of 49 due to pneumonia, with his wife Annie by his side. He was laid to rest at Hollybrook Cemetery in Southampton, England, and earned the nickname “the unsinkable stoker” for his remarkable stories of surviving at sea.
In a horrendous act, the co-pilot of a German airliner, Andreas Lubitz, intentionally flew the plane he was piloting at the time, into the French Alps, taking his own life and those of the 149 others onboard. The date was March 24, 2015, and at the time of the crash, Germanwings Flight 9525 was en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany. The plane took off from Barcelona around 10am local time and reached its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet at 10:27am. Shortly afterward, the captain, 34-year-old Patrick Sondenheimer, requested that the co-pilot, 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, take over the controls while he left the cockpit, probably to use the restroom. At 10:31am the plane began a rapid descent and 10 minutes later crashed in mountainous terrain near the town of Prads-Haute-Bleone in southern France. The controlled flight into terrain left no survivors. Besides the two pilots, the doomed Airbus A320 was carrying four cabin crew members and 144 passengers from 18 different countries. Among the victims were three Americans.
During the post-crash investigation, the investigators found that when the captain left the cockpit, Lubitz locked the door and refused to let him back in. The black box they found recorded Sondenheimer desperately shouting at his co-pilot and trying to break down the door. Like most airlines, in an effort to prevent a 9/11 style attack, 
Lufthansa had reinforced the cockpit doors. Unfortunately, at the time of this horrible Germanwings crash, the airline was not required to have two crew members in the cockpit at all times like US airlines did. Flight data also revealed that earlier that day, Lubitz appeared to practice his suicide plan, repeatedly setting the plane’s altitude to just 100 feet when the captain was momentarily out, then quickly resetting it so that his plan went unnoticed.
In their investigation of Lubitz, the investigators found that he had a history of severe depression and, in the days before the crash, had searched online for suicide methods and information about cockpit-door security. It’s hard to know is a depressed person will commit suicide, but it seems to me that if this diagnosis was known, Lubitz should have been removed from flying duties. Nevertheless, while the German native who flew gliders as a teenager, had joined Lufthansa’s pilot-training program in 2008, but took a break in 2009, to receive treatment for psychological issues, he was allowed to return, earning his commercial pilot’s license in 2012. He began flying for Germanwings, a Lufthansa-owned budget airline, in 2013. In the months leading up to the crash, Lubitz visited multiple doctors for an undisclosed condition and had notes deeming him unfit to work, which he reportedly withheld from Lufthansa. Here again, the knowledge that he was a pilot should have 
caused the doctors to forward their findings to his company out of the utmost prudence. By the time all of this information came to light, it was too late.
Pilot suicides involving planes are uncommon. The New York Times reports that a US Federal Aviation Administration study found that, between 2003 and 2012, only eight out of 2,758 aviation accidents were determined to be suicides. While that is a good thing, it also indicates a need to better screen pilots on a regular basis. That may seem like an invasion of their privacy, but they are responsible for the lives of so many people every day, and they need to be held to a higher standard.
My aunt, Sandy Pattan and I were talking about the things the current generation does that we and especially our parents (hers being my grandparents) would never even consider doing. Being a child of the 60s, I was less shocked by things that really shocked her. She would never consider a tattoo, and while I don’t have one either, my children and grandchildren do, and so do some of hers. Tattoos don’t bother me these days. Sure, people might expect me to gripe about the styles, attitudes, or something along those lines that is the current generation, and while I admit those things can be irritating at times, that’s not where my mind is tonight. What struck me is the simple reality that one day we’ll be handing the baton over to 
the current generation. Many people cringe at the thought, and when I see some of the kids around, I sometimes feel the same way. But we can’t judge them based on who they are today, because once responsibility hits, they’ll change in an instant…just like we did. No adult can honestly claim that their parents approved of everything about them…the clothes they wore, their hair, the music they loved, or the friends they kept. Sure, some things might have been acceptable, but not all. And what parent hasn’t sighed or scowled when talking about the so-called next generation?
Just as we were once the dreaded next generation and eventually became today’s establishment, they too will become the establishment of tomorrow. They’ll look at their children and friends as the next generation and hope that, just as they grew into responsible adults, their kids will follow the same path. And they will cringe at the things their kids see as 
normal and cool.
Like us, most kids will grow into responsible adults if we instill in them the values we were taught, along with love and respect for their feelings. With that foundation, they can blossom into people we’re proud of. Kids seek approval from someone, so while you don’t need to pretend to love their clothes, hair, music, or attitude, it’s important to praise them when they truly earn it. Without positive reinforcement, they may act out just to get attention. We can’t be absent from their childhood and still expect them to become great adults. Loving, encouraging, and keeping them in our prayers is the most important thing we can do for them…and for the grownups they will become.
Mary Elizabeth Tyler née Sawyer was an American woman from Sterling, Massachusetts. She is thought to be the “Mary” who inspired the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” At least that was a claim she made at age 70. However, the authorship of the rhyme remains unknown, and there is no absolute proof that the Mary was the right Mary or that there was truly such an incident at all.
The Redstone School, which was once attended by Tyler, now stands in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Mary Elizabeth Sawyer was born on March 22, 1806, on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts, to Captain Thomas Sawyer and Elizabeth Houghton. She was the younger of their two children. Sadly, her father passed away when she was just 19 years old. The family lived at 108 Maple Street in Sterling. Their place was known as the Sawyer Homestead. Due to the story around Mary, the property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Unfortunately, it was tragically destroyed by an arsonist in 2007.
The way the story about the lamb played out was slightly different that the famous nursery rhyme. The rhyme makes it seem that the lamb followed Mary to school, but in reality, Mary did have a pet lamb as a young girl, but it was at her brother’s suggestion, she took the lamb to school that day, which caused quite a stir. Mary remembered that a young man named John Roulstone, nephew of Reverend Lemuel Capen in Sterling, was visiting the school that morning. At the time, it was common for students to prepare for college with ministers, and Roulstone was studying with his uncle. Delighted by the lamb incident, he returned the next day on horseback to the old schoolhouse and handed Mary a slip of paper with three original stanzas of a poem written on it. However, this story rests solely on Mary’s recollection, as the slip has never been found. The earliest known publication of the poem appears in Sarah Josepha Hale’s 1830 collection, supporting her claim as the sole author.
Although there’s no evidence to back it up, several spots in Sterling, Massachusetts, keep the story alive. In the town center, there’s a 2-foot statue and historical marker for “Mary’s Little Lamb.” The Redstone School, where Mary supposedly went and the incident allegedly happened, was built in 1798. Henry Ford later bought the property and moved it to a churchyard at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. In 1835, Sawyer married Columbus Tyler, a Vermont native who served as steward of the McLean Asylum in Belmont, Massachusetts, for about forty years, while Mary worked there as a matron. They built a large home in Somerville, Massachusetts, and were instrumental in founding the city’s First Unitarian Church, completed in 1845. Mary was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Women’s Relief Corps and also helped establish the Women’s Industrial Exchange. There is no record of the couple ever having had children.
In 1876, at 70 years old, Tyler claimed she was the “Mary” from the poem. The following year, she joined nineteen other women in helping to save Boston’s Old South Meeting House by selling fleece from her pet lamb, attached to autograph cards. The fleece had once been made into socks by Mary’s mother. Tyler passed away on December 11, 1889, at the age of 83, and she was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, beside her husband, who had died eight years earlier at 76.
The Old West was a rough place to settle for a man, much less for a single woman. When we think of women in the Old West, we think of families, schoolmarms (often daughters of families), the soiled dove, the rancher’s daughter, Indian guides, of a wild west gun show type, but rarely, if ever do we think of a female homesteader…out in the west…on her own place!! Nevertheless, they most certainly did exist, and some of them were very successful!! These were gutsy women who might have been seen as prim and proper back east, but in the West, they held their own and stood their ground!!
The subject of women on the homestead has been a subject of interest to many historians, who say that about 12 percent of the homesteaders in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and Utah were single women. When I think about these women living out on a homestead all alone, I cringe!! Some of these women either felt like life and love had passed 
them by, and others just wanted a new adventure. The homestead Act afforded them an avenue to realize their dreams. The Homestead Act of 1862, which let any 21-year-old head of a household claim federal land, gave these independent women the opportunity to travel across the country and to become landowners. By the early 1900s, a woman could pack her belongings, hop on a train, and make in days a trip that once took months. Upon arrival, a land-locator would take her by wagon or Model T to find her claim. To “sweeten the pot,” changes to the Homestead Act in 1909 and 1912 cut the time required to “prove up” and doubled the amount of land available to claim.
That was all the incentive Florence Blake Smith, a bookkeeper from Chicago, needed, after she learned about 
homesteading from a friend just before he left for Wyoming. She thought, “If he can do it, so can I.” Working winters back in Chicago to save enough for the required seven months on her claim, she persevered until the land was officially hers. Her story was far from unique. As it turns out, research shows women homesteaders were just as likely to succeed as men. Still, these women homesteaders would have to have “grit” for sure. The West was no place for sissies. There was no law, as often as not, and women were often in more danger than they knew. Still, women like Florence Smith, Nellie Burgess, Helen Coburn, Alice Newbury, Geraldine Lucas, and Elinore Pruitt Stewart…perhaps the best known, because the letters she wrote to her former employer in Denver were published in the Atlantic Monthly and then in a book, Letters of a Woman Homesteader. Her story most likely added validity and notoriety to the subject of women homesteaders. Well known or not, these women were a vital part of the American West, and an amazing group of women for sure.
We all know about the growing season of plants, but were you aware that children grow faster in the spring due too? That growth spurt is due to several factors, among them, increased Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for bone growth. Longer days and increased sunlight in spring boost vitamin D levels, which play that very key role in supporting a child’s bone growth. Another factor is that of hormonal regulation…increased daylight hours can lower melatonin levels, which may enhance growth hormone secretion, promoting faster growth. In addition, more time spent outdoors during spring allows children to engage in physical activities that stimulate growth. In the spring, fresh produce is easier to find, making it simpler to enjoy a balanced diet that encourages growth. Altogether, these factors make spring an ideal time for childhood growth.
It might seem surprising, but research shows that kids often grow faster in the spring, thanks largely to more sunlight and better nutrition. Several studies have found that the biggest growth spurts happen during these 
months. For example, a 2015 study of 760 Danish students revealed peak growth in April and May, while a 2022 study of thousands of Texas children also reported strong growth rates in spring and early summer.
The second-best growing season is summer. One of the most significant factors driving summer growth spurts is the relationship between sleep patterns and growth hormone release. Of course, when the kids don’t have to get up early to get ready for school, many of them tend to sleep half of the morning away. Growth hormone secretion occurs predominantly during deep sleep, particularly during the first third of the night when deep, non-REM sleep is most abundant. During summer months, children typically enjoy more relaxed schedules, allowing for longer and higher-quality sleep. This extended rest period provides more opportunities for growth hormone release. The combination of less school stress, warmer weather, and longer days often leads to better sleep quality for children. Without early morning school schedules, kids can follow their natural sleep patterns more closely. CMC Pediatrics emphasizes the importance of maintaining good sleep hygiene year-round, but particularly during these crucial growth periods. Children experience a rush of growth hormones both when they fall asleep and when they wake up. Longer summer sleep periods allow these hormones to work more effectively, contributing to the dramatic height increases many parents observe in their children.
Of course, another big part of growth is good nutrition, and when your child suddenly seems hungry all the time, their body is likely preparing for or experiencing a growth spurt. Their increased caloric demands are very likely part of the need for extra energy as part of that growth spurt too. Growth happens all year round, but kids often experience a boost in spring. Longer days, better nutrition, more time spent being active, and improved sleep all play a role in this seasonal spurt. Parents can help by encouraging outdoor fun, offering balanced meals, and making sure their children get plenty of rest during these lively months. Oh, and plan on needing new clothes before school starts again, because that is just a part of the deal.
