For now, the overall style and layout will remain the same. Many of the changes will be in usability, hopefull for the better. Most noticeable will be the reorganization of the menus and static pages.

The other major change will be the elimination of the Forum. Mostly due to its clumsiness to use, and lack of self-promotion, it has suffered from lack of use. We appreciate the efforts by those brave enough to trudge on and share their discoveries. For now it will remain online and accessible as the Forum.

We have decided to focus our efforts on maintaining the blog section, for now renamed The Ney Notebook, and make that more of a centerpiece of our online discussion.

Please bear with us as we make these changes, and feel free to offer your suggestions by contacting us.

We, at the NNC, are optimistic about the New Year — 2010. The Board is excited about the programs we have run at the NNC and are looking forward to improving the old and expanding into some new areas. We are excited about the involvement of NNC new members and the expansion of our volunteer base. Memberships and volunteers are two key elements that enable the Ney Nature Center to move forward.

However, the best excitement comes from just being at the NNC and experiencing Minnesota’s great outdoors whether through staff and volunteer “expert” programming, or on your own as you wander parts of the 450 acres that make up this Le Sueur County Park.

I wandered part of the Center this winter day on snowshoes. There are many designs for snowshoes today and they are made with a wide variety of materials. The ones I used were of a traditional Native American (Ojibwa) design, long and narrow, made with ash pieces laced together with nylon stripping, then covered with a marine varnish. The bindings were a leather material which is made to fit various boot sizes.

The snow wasn’t deep, the temp was about 10 above, the sun was shining, and no wind. It made for a perfect winter day to be out and about. The pond is lightly snow covered so that made for good snowshoeing as I checked some of the wood duck boxes. Animal tracks and signs abound and the deer trails are already well worn.

Come and visit us at the NNC sometime this winter and enjoy Minnesota’s Wonderful Winter Season. We have indoor programs, hiking, sledding, X-country skiing, possible skating on the pond, bird watching and other events. Visit our website calendar or call the Center to check on programs, weather and snow conditions.

Winter sunsets from the NNC looking across the MN River Valley are often spectacular. Come and see for yourself.

What we do know is who are to be our fearless leaders for 2010. At our December Board of Directors meeting we elected 2010 officers. Dick Peterson and Earl Gransee having agreed to continue in their positions of President and Vice-president and were elected into those positions unanimously. Josh Reinitz was nominated and elected as Treasurer as Fred Keup leaves the Board having fulfilled his term. Reta Lind was reelected as secretary and Karl Keup has volunteered to fill in for her on occasion.

These are all very important positions within our organization and I look forward to working – or in some cases continuing to work – with these very dedicated volunteers! Without volunteers in these positions this organization would not function, meet goals or survive to make the Ney Nature Center what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. Thank You!

Beginning in January, I am also pleased to welcome Brigid Tuck onto our Board as a newly elected Director. Brigid was nominated and elected at the Annual Meeting in November. Brigid has served on the Communications Committee, written articles for our newsletter and helped with the Annual Spring Fling. Welcome to the Board, Brigid!

The log cabin restoration committee made some good progress in 2009, and are looking forward to making plans for 2010 workdays. With the help of volunteers and Minnesota New Country School students, tasks completed this year included cleaning out the interior of the cabin and jacking up the sagging corner to original height.

We held three volunteer workdays in the summer, where we dug out the interior of the cabin, which had built up with over a foot of horse manure during the years it was used as a barn. The volunteers also helped jack up the sagging corner to original height, remove rotted logs, straighten walls, remove rotted siding, and re-build window framing.

In early autumn we had a workday with Jim Wartman and students from the Minnesota New Country School. The students boarded up all of the openings for winter, secured the doors, and helped straighten the east cabin wall. It was a beautiful day to work on the cabin, and the workday was documented by an MNCS student for the Henderson Independent newspaper. Thanks to MNCS for their continued support of projects at the Ney Center!!

We had intended to put temporary roofing on before winter came, but fall was a busy time for all of us and that project will have to wait until late winter or spring. If anyone is interested in getting bundled up and doing carpentry in February, let me know!!

With 2010 comes the next phase of the restoration project: log repair and replacement. The Ney Center is getting log material donated to do the repairs, and we will have workdays dedicated to replacing entire rotted logs, and repairing other logs with minor rotted areas with matching wood. Rest assured, the techniques we use will ensure the repairs will blend in with the cabin, and the replacement material is coming from other cabins of that vintage with similar texture and wood species.

After the log repair is done, we can put chinking in the cabin, put doors and windows in, and re-build the staircase so people can see the sleeping loft upstairs. We have been doing all the work so far with volunteer labor and materials, meaning the cabin will take another 2-3 years to finish (with almost no expense to the Ney Center).

However, we are always accepting donations to the cabin project, and would welcome anyone to help us secure funding for the remainder of this project. Please contact Josh Reinitz at (612) 756-3971 if you want to get involved or are interested in funding a portion of the project.

Thank you!!

Thank you to Fred Keup who is going off the NEEF Board of Directors at the completion of his term the end of 2009.

Recruited by long-time Board member Orville Heitkamp about four years ago, Fred also served the past two years on the Executive Committee as treasurer. He described his experience as – great and enjoyable – and sees so many good things on the horizon for the Ney Center with almost 500 acres of land and lots of potential.

During his tenure on the Board, Becky was hired as a part-time staff person and he feels that the Ney Center is becoming a first class operation. He especially credits Becky with doing an exceptional job with programming and promotion of the Ney Center’s activities. He feels we need to continue to find ways to finance our programs and paid staff and to promote membership, especially the new categories of business memberships.

Fred, a quiet, unassuming businessman from Belle Plaine, is involved in – a lot of other things – and wants to continue to be involved in some of the NNC projects. We appreciate Fred’s wise leadership and will miss his experience on the Board.