General

After seven-and-one-half years of inspired, bipartisan, civil discourse, we are likely bringing you the final twenty-four- page print issue of Prairie Fire. We have made a heroic effort to find a successor advertising manager after our revered co-owner, Nancy Hamer, became burned out after ninety monthly (successful) journeys to find twelve pages of advertising revenue each month.

Our Mission

We are pleased to have assembled a group of over five hundred advertisers, over one thousand distribution sites in seven states, and (depending on the month) eighty five thousand to one hundred thousand readers.

If you reread our mission statement in our inaugural issue (July 2007), you will see that we have accomplished close to all of our goals. For the few goals left unfulfilled, we shall (perhaps) add them to our next chapter, a path not yet precisely formulated. To our 1,080 essay writers, we say, “Well done,” “thank you,” and we urge you all to continue your great craft.

Click through to see this month's completed crossword puzzle.

By Jeff C. Johnson

Retirement in 2014 is as risky, uncertain, and difficult to plan as it has ever been. Here are my reasons for concern about the retirement road ahead:

Click through to see this month's completed crossword puzzle.

By Don Stenberg

The seventh- and eighth-graders lined up on the infield at Werner Park in Papillion tell the story of the Nebraska Educational Savings Trust best of all. Ball caps and glittery sandals. Hometowns stretching from Valentine in the west to Elkhorn in the east. Smart kids united in their dream to one day head off to college.

The students were winners in the 2013 Why I Want to Go to College writing contest sponsored by the Nebraska Educational Savings Trust (NEST). By law, the Nebraska State Treasurer is trustee of NEST. In all, 12 seventh- and eighth-graders were recognized last year in the writing contest, which enters its 12th year in 2014. Each winner received a sizable contribution to a state-sponsored 529 college savings account.

By Don Stenberg

Encouraging children to dream big and helping families prepare for those big dreams are at the heart of the Nebraska Educational Savings Trust (NEST), a division of the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office.

NEST is Nebraska’s state-sponsored, tax-advantaged college savings program.

By opening a NEST college savings account yet this year—or by making an additional contribution to an existing account—Nebraskans can receive significant tax benefits.

By Duke Engel

It all started with my face. At 57 and a half, I started to be concerned about getting old, but I didn’t know why because it didn’t seem like anything had changed about my life. It took about six months before I realized the issue was my face. It was these bags under my eyes and these wrinkles. Regardless of how I felt inside, there was no escaping the reality that my face had changed and I was looking old. Once I had realized the change, I did the only logical thing I could think of… I felt sorry for myself. Self-pity got boring after a while, and then I got proactive. I decided that ages 60 to 80 were going to be the fourth quarter of my life. If I lived past 80, my life would go into overtime. If I lived into my late 80s, my life would go into sudden-death overtime.

The next question was, “What do I need to change about my lifestyle if I’m not just going to survive but thrive in the fourth quarter?” There were seven areas of my life that I identified that would need to change if I was going to enjoy my life in the fourth quarter, and each of these areas would need a major transition to mark the beginning of that change. The first change I wanted was to become a more spiritual person. The transition to mark that change was going to be to walk El Camino de Santiago, which is arguably the oldest and most famous walking pilgrimage in the world. Santiago de Compostela is a city in northwest Spain where legend states the remains of St. James were discovered in the eighth century. For 1,200 years Christians have been walking from all of Europe across northern Spain on a route called “The Camino” to reach the beautiful, huge cathedral in Santiago to see the tomb of St. James.

Click through to see this month's completed Sudoku puzzle.

Click through to see this month's completed crossword puzzle.

By Andrea George

Located along the banks of the Missouri River in historic St. Joseph, Mo., the Remington Nature Center is quickly becoming one of northwest Missouri’s most popular family-oriented educational facilities. Having opened in the fall of 2008, the RNC houses creative displays that teach important lessons about history and nature.