Flat Matthew, He Delivers

It is almost time for Flat Matthew to head back to Illinois.

Flat Matthew wanted to have a party before he left. So he invited Round Matthew and Round Matthew's dad for pizza.

Michael ordered the pizza. Tom and Flat Matthew went to get the pizza and bring it home to eat. Flat Matthew, he delivers.

Flat Matthew was very excited to see Round Matthew again. Flat Matthew showed Round Matthew everything in the house, and they played computer games together. Round Matthew told Flat Matthew about school, and showed Flat Matthew how to read. Round Matthew is good at reading. Flat Matthew is not so good at it yet.

Round Matthew and Round Matthew's dad are driving home to Illinois today. Flat Matthew will go home tomorrow on a postal truck.

Round Matthew will be in school Monday. Flat Matthew will get to school sometime later this week, we hope.


Before we bring the adventures of Flat Matthew to an end, here's one last question for you.

Do you think that Flat Matthew looks like Round Matthew?

We do. Flat Matthew and Round Matthew have the same goofy grin. It is one of the things we like about them both.

Tom

Flat Matthew and the cranes

On the way back from Baraboo, Flat Matthew and I stopped at the International Crane Foundation. The Foundation's visitor center is only open from April through October, so we did not get to see any cranes. Flat Matthew did hear some cranes squawking, though, while I took his picture outside the entrance gates. The gate looks like cranes standing among reeds in the water.

The International Crane Foundation works worldwide to conserve cranes and the wetland and grassland ecosystems on which they depend. ICF is dedicated to providing experience, knowledge, and inspiration to involve people in resolving threats to these ecosystems. They even breed cranes so that endangered species do not go extinct.

They have been part of the effort to save the whooping cranes. This is the tallest bird in North America, and in 1941, there were only 21 left. Today, thanks to the efforts of groups like the International Crane Foundation, there are over 340. Flat Matthew said that 340 did not sound like many, but it is a lot more than 21.

Young whooping cranes have to be taught to migrate from Wisconsin to places like Florida and Texas for the winter. They used to learn by following adult whooping cranes, but because there are so few adults, rescue teams learned that the young cranes would follow an ultralight aircraft to learn the way. The picture is of the first migration of young cranes to fly from Wisconsin to Florida in January, 2009.

Flat Matthew thought it would be fun to fly in an ultralight aircraft. Maybe someday he can join one of the groups that help to save the cranes and fly with them.

Michael

Flat Matthew goes to Baraboo

This morning Flat Matthew went with me to Baraboo. Baraboo was the home of the famous Ringling Brothers who had the circus, and today it hosts the Circus World Museum on the location where the circus used to spend the winter by the Baraboo River. The sign above is on one of the buildings downtown on the square.

The Museum wasn't open yet, so Flat Matthew had to look across the river to see some of the old circus train cars and other buildings. I told him maybe he could come back and work there in the summer, because he already looks like a clown. Flat Matthew did not laugh. Actually, the circus museum does have peformances in the summer, and they have a special show that kids who are visiting can be part of. And you can even ride an elephant or a camel, if your parents think that is okay.

After that, we went downtown. Baraboo is also the county seat of Sauk County, and here is Flat Matthew on the steps outside the County Courthouse. Then we went to visit my friends at the law office where I worked when I first moved up here from Chicago.

You may think of lawyers as always being in court and dealing with murderers or other criminals because of the television shows you have seen. But lawyers help people in lots of other ways. They help them buy and sell property. (Tom was a real estate attorney in Chicago before he retired.) They help them write wills and set up businesses and all sorts of other things. Once when I was working at the law office, we helped a group of Amish families who wanted to have their own cemetery out in the country where they lived.

This is a picture of the office where I used to work. Linda, the woman sitting down, now does what I did. Evelyn, the woman standing in the back, is one of the lawyers, along with her husband Joe. They both knew all about Flat Stanley and were happy to have their picture taken with Flat Mathew. When Evelyn and Joe's grandson did a Flat Stanley, they took Flat Stanley to their farm to see all the lambs that had just been born. Flat Matthew didn't get to see any lambs, though. He was very polite because he said lawyers make him nervous.

I told him that all the real lawyers I know are nice people, and he did not have to be nervous about them. After all, Tom was a lawyer and he has been very nice to Flat Matthew. But if he wanted to be afraid ...

The building that you see on the corner behind Flat Matthew is a store that was built in the late 1800s. The people who work there today say they sometimes see or hear the ghost of the wife of the man who built it. I don't know if that is true. I have been in the store and it seems like just an old store to me. But Flat Matthew didn't want to go in and see. Just in case. So we took the picture from across the street.

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you think that is why Baraboo is called Bara -BOOOOO?

Michael

Flat Matthew, Big River

Tom and Debbie took Flat Matthew to the Wisconsin River this morning.


As Tom was was driving into the parking lot on River Road, Flat Matthew spotted a huge pile of logs. Debbie told Flat Matthew that the Department of Natural Resources was harvesting some of the trees in the area.

Flat Matthew, Forester, wanted to inspect the logs before walking into the State Natural Area.

Flat Matthew climbed up into the pile of logs. Flat Matthew felt very small. Can you find Flat Matthew in the picture?


Flat Matthew stopped and looked at the river as he walked along. Flat Matthew is looking at the Cambria cliff. He was surprised to see a tree growing right out of the rocks.

Flat Matthew didn't understand how a tree could grow out of a rock. Tom told him that the sandstone is very soft, and tree roots dig down into the rock, just like tree roots dig down into the ground. Flat Matthew said, "You're funny, Tom!"

I don't think that Flat Matthew believed Tom. Do you?


Finally, Flat Matthew got to Sunset Cliff. The river was way down, about a hundred feet. Tom wouldn't let Flat Matthew go near the edge, because it was icy, and Flat Matthew might fall.

Debbie told Flat Matthew that this was her favorite place on the river. When Debbie was a little girl, her family would have picnics right where Flat Matthew was standing.

If you look way in the background, you can see Louis Bluff. Louis Bluff was the place where the first European settled in the Dells area, in the 1830's. Today, Louis Bluff is part of the State Natural Area.

Flat Matthew and American history

We took Flat Matthew to visit a couple of local cemeteries because of historical figures buried there.

There is only one veteran of the American Revolutionary War who is known to be buried in Sauk County, and the cemetery is one that we often pass on the way back from Reedsburg. So we stopped to show Flat Matthew. The gate was locked at Dellona Center Cemetery, and Flat Matthew had to look at the grave from a distance. Here he is beside the historical marker with this information:

Private John Greenslit is the only known Revolutionary War soldier buried in Sauk County. He enlisted in the Connecticut State Troop Sep 01, 1782 at the age of 15, serving one year under Captain Benjamin Durkee, stationed at Fors Trumbull and Griswold, Greenslit saw action on Long Island. He was born Jun 5, 1767 at Hampton, CT. John and Salome Pitts Greenslit came to Dellona in 1855/56 to join two of their eight children, Henry and Stephan. John Greenslit died April 1, 1856. Salome died in April, 1860, aged 94. They are buried at Dellona Center Cemetery.

John who died at age 89, owned a lot in this cemetery. However, there were markers for John and Salome in the Fairfield Cemetery. Salome died at the home of a son in Fairfield Township. As a result, it is uncertain whether John's body was removed from the Dellona Cemetery to Fairfield or whether the marker in Fairfield is a "memorial" marker. The stones at Fairfield have since deteriorated and are a pile of stones but it is believed that at least Salome is buried there.

After that touch with the Revolutionary War, we went to Spring Grove Cemetery on the edge of Wisconsin Dells to honor those who served in the Civil War. Tom's great-grandfather was among the local men who fought for the Union, and he was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg before going on to be part of Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas which helped end the War. This statue of a Union soldier is at the highest point in the cemetery, still keeping watch.

Not far away is an unusual grave, unusual because it is decorated with a Confederate flag. This is the tomb of Belle Boyd, who had been a spy for the Confederacy during the war. Although she worked tor the South, after the War ended she toured the country, giving talks about her experiences and encouraging the unity of the nation. "One God, one flag, one people -- forever!" was her motto.

Belle had been invited by the Grand Army of the Republic to speak in Kilbourn City (as the town was then called), but she died here on June 11, 1900, before she was able to deliver her talk. The Union soldiers buried her in the local cemetery with honor. Later soil from her native Virginia was brought to the grave so that she might lie in what had been her own land, and stones were collected from all of the former Confederate states to help build her monument. And that is why there is a Confederate flag and a Confederate veteran's marker up here in a Wisconsin cemetery.

The caretaker of the cemetery says that he once saw what looked like the ghosts of Confederate soldiers near Belle's tomb, but Flat Matthew didn't see any when he posed for this picture.

Michael

Flat Matthew, Don't Jump!

The most famous picture of Wisconsin Dells was taken by H.H. Bennett, a pioneer photographer. Bennett took the picture in 1886. The picture shows Bennett's son, Ashley, jumping to Stand Rock.


The picture is famous because it was the first picture taken with a stop-action shutter. The shutter was powered by a rubber band. Before Bennett invented the stop-action shutter, people had to sit very still to have their picture taken.

Bennett lived in Wisconsin Dells. Today, his studio is a museum run by the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Flat Matthew likes to have his picture taken, so he wanted to visit the museum.


The museum is on the main street. It has many pictures taken by Bennett, and you can visit his work room, just as it looked when he was taking pictures.

Flat Matthew liked looking at old things, and he thought it was funny that Bennett used a rubber band on his camera.

But what Flat Matthew really wanted to do was to jump to Stand Rock.

Tom wouldn't let Flat Matthew jump. The jump is six feet, and that is too dangerous for Flat Matthew. Tom said, "Flat Matthew, Don't Jump!"

So Flat Matthew just thought about it.


This is what Flat Matthew imagined.

Don't try this at home, Round Matthew.

Tom

Flat Matthew learns about the meridian and time

Today Flat Matthew visited Reedsburg, a city of about 10,000 people twelve miles away. It was founded in the 1840s, about the time that Tom's family moved to the farm where we live. There is a log cabin pioneer village and museum on the edge of town, but none of the buildings were open today. So Flat Matthew had to look at the cabins from outside. It was a sunny day, so he wore his new sunglasses.

One interesting thing about Reedsburg is that it is located directly on the 90th meridian, which means that clocks here are exactly in sync with the sun overhead. When the sun is highest in the sky, it is exactly noon Central Standard Time.

For most of human history people measured time based on the position of the sun; it was noon when the sun was highest in the sky. Farmers and other people who work outdoors can still tell time by looking at the location of the sun during the day. Until the 1800s, cities would set their town clock by measuring the position of the sun, but every city would be on a slightly different time. There was no such thing as what we call Standard Time today, where all the towns in a particular part of the country have exactly the same time. (Wisconsin and Illinois are both in Central Standard Time, and during part of the year Central Daylight Time.)

You know about time zones if you watch television, because shows that are on the air in Boston (Eastern Time) at 8:00 p.m. are on in Illinois (Central Time) at 7:00 p.m. Or if you call your grandmother long distance in California, it is a different time there than it is where you are in Illinois.

Flat Matthew didn’t understand, so we went on the internet to find out more. Flat Matthew discovered that Britain was the first country to set the time throughout a region to one standard time, and it was all because of our friends, the railroads. The railways cared about the differences in local time because their schedules had to be the same everywhere to within a minute. It took forty years for all the clocks in Great Britain to be set to the same Standard Time, though.

Standard time in time zones began in the U.S. and Canada in 1883, also because of the railroads. Prior to that, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by a well-known clock (on a church steeple, for example, or in a jeweler's window). But the railroads needed to be more accurate and uniform.

Some people did not like the change. I can still remember my grandfather in Texas refused to change his watch for Daylight Savings Time. He insisted he would go by "God's time", by which he meant sun time. And I remember touring an old house in Virginia where the big fancy clock in the hall did not have a minute hand. When it was built, people only cared about the hour of the day. The tour guide told us, "If you arrived within an hour, you were on time."

We explained to Flat Matthew that in Reedsburg, when the sun was overhead and it was noon, it was also exactly noon Central Standard Time. In other places in the Central Time Zone, the sun might be overhead several minutes before or after when the clocks said it was noon.

Flat Matthew still was not sure he understood, but we took a picture of him anyway at the marker on Main Street in Reedsburg that reads "325 FEET EAST OF THIS POINT LIES THE 90TH MERIDIAN." The marker was dedicated on October 14, 1963, to designate Reedsburg's unique position in the state.

Flat Matthew thought it would be easier for him to understand if we got him a watch. We told him he is too young to have to worry that much about time anyway.

Another interesting things about Reedsburg is that Agnes Morehead, the actress who played Endora on the old Bewitched television show, lived there.

Michael

Flat Matthew slips and slides

This morning Flat Matthew was going to go with Tom and me to help clean the museum store at the railway. I had explained to him that Round Matthew likes to help keep the store in good shape, and now was a good time to clean it because most of the things we sell were in storage. That would make it easier to dust the glass shelves. On our way out, though, Flat Matthew slipped on the icy sidewalk and hurt his head.



So he decided he would stay home and sit on the sofa with Sundance and watch Saturday morning cartoons instead.

Sundance and Cassidy both like to sit on the sofa and watch television, but they like it better if they can sit on someone's lap. So Sundance was happy to have Flat Mathew for company while she watched Jimmy Neutron and Phineas and Ferb.

Do your pets like to watch TV?

Michael

Flat Matthew, the flamingos and other birds

Yesterday Flat Matthew stayed inside because the weather was bad. We had snow, sleet, freezing rain, thunderstorms and hail.

Today is a bright and sunny day, but it is still cold and windy out and the roads are icy. So I took Flat Matthew around and told him about our flamingos.

Tom built the house where we live on part of the farm his family has owned in Wisconsin since 1844! Most of the neighbors knew him, because he and his family used to camp here when they lived in Chicago. Rich and Peggy, though, who live in a beautiful log home across the road did not know us. They have a very nice yard and gardens that they keep in great shape, and Peggy teased Tom that she didn't want to look across the road and see a bunch of pink flamingos in our yard.

So naturally we went looking for pink flamingos. Today we have about 30 pink flamingos that we set up in large or small groups and move around the property. In the picture Flat Matthew is standing in front of a row of flamingos coming through the woods beside the driveway. Another flock is right by the entrance to the drive, which makes it easy for people to find us.

Fortunately Peggy thought it was funny as do our other friends. People even started to give up flamingo things, like this neon flamingo that a friend who is a priest in Chicago gave us. That one stays in Tom's office and studio beside his art supplies.

Other people have given us flamingo ornaments for the Christmas tree, a cookie cutter shaped like a flamingo, a flamingo wind chime and a small flying flamingo for the flower pot on the deck.

Tom made Peggy a flamingo that he painted purple and covered with glitter, and she now has it in her front yard. But the best flamingo is one she made and gave to us. Christmas morning of 2007, we went out and standing in the snow at the end of the sidewalk was this wonderful flamingo Peggy had decorated with beads, sunglasses and tophat. Today it is on the bench by the front door to greet all our visitors, including Flat Matthew.

Peggy and Rich also gave us a bird feeder, and Flat Matthew has been watching the birds with us. Because of the winter weather, there have been lots of birds at the feeder. In particular, we get a lot of woodpeckers, including pileated woodpeckers. You may never have seen one of these large birds, but they are the model for the cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker. We have seen up to three at a time in our backyard.

We also have an opossum that visits from time to time and a couple of squirrels. There are albino squirrels down the road from us, but we have never seen them in our yard.

I showed Flat Matthew our bird guide book where we keep a record of the birds that we see. We have noted over 30 different kinds of birds, including a large flock of wild turkeys and even an eagle.

Do you know anyone who is a birdwatcher? (Or who has flamingos in their yard?)

Michael

Flat Matthew Spreads the Wealth

Flat Matthew walked up the road today to help Jerry on the farm.


Flat Matthew checked out the corn and used the corn to feed the cows. Flat Matthew is little, so he had to feed the cows one ear at a time.


After Flat Matthew was done feeding the cows, they lined up for a picture with him. Flat Matthew was very careful to stay on his side of the fence. Each of the cows weighs almost a ton, and Flat Matthew would be even flatter if a cow stepped on him.

The cows went "Mooooo ...." Flat Matthew didn't say anything back - he just grinned. Flat Matthew knows how to get along with cows.


Jerry wanted Flat Matthew to help spread the wealth on the corn field across the road from Tom and Michael's house. Flat Matthew checked the wealth to make sure that it was wet and smelly (Eeewww, Flat Matthew!), but he didn't fall in. Flat Matthew still smelled like a rose!


Then Flat Matthew went for a ride with Jerry, all around the corn field, spreading the wealth. The wealth will help Jerry grow more corn this summer, and the cows will have plenty to eat next winter.

Flat Matthew liked riding in the tractor. The tractor was way up high and made a lot of noise.

Tom

Flat Matthew and the Ho-Chunk

Flat Matthew learned about the Ho-Chunk, a Native American nation that has been very important in the history of Wisconsin Dells.

The Ho-Chunk are known as the "People of the Big Voice". The Ho-Chunk language is the mother tongue for the Sioux and other Plains Indian languages.


We took Flat Matthew to the Kilbourn Library to see the display honoring Chief Silver Tongue, who sang at the Stand Rock Indian Ceremonial for many years. The ceremonial celebrated the traditional dances of the Ho-Chunk.

The Ho-Chunk have a long history at Wisconsin Dells. The river was a gathering place for the Ho-Chunk, who came to participate in sacred ceremonies.

When Europeans came to the area in the 1830's, the Ho-Chunk were removed to South Dakota and Nebraska. Later, the Ho-Chunk began to return to Wisconsin.

The earliest Ho-Chunk to return to Wisconsin settled in Black River Falls. The Ho-Chunk opened a school and bought land for hunting and farming in the area.

Later, the Ho-Chunk returned to Wisconsin Dells.

Chief Yellow Thunder was the first Ho-Chunk to return to the Wisconsin Dells.

Chief Yellow Thunder bought 40 acres of land just south of the city. He lived on the land until he was a very old man.

Other Ho-Chunk families also returned to Wisconsin Dells, following Chief Yellow Thunder.



Flat Matthew visited the land bought by Chief Yellow Thunder. The Sauk County Historical Society put up a monument to Chief Yellow Thunder many years ago. Today the land is owned by the Ho-Chunk nation.

Many Ho-Chunk -- the Funmakers, the Dekorahs, the Lonetrees, the Thunderclouds and many other families -- now live in the Dells area.

The Ho-Chunk opened the "House of Wellness" not far from Chief Yellow Thunder's land. The center has a gym and swimming pool, exercise rooms, medical and dental clinics, and rooms for meetings.

Flat Matthew visited the House of Wellness, but it was dark and we did not take a picture. He watched a basketball game, and looked at the swimming pool.

Flat Matthew did not have his swimming trunks, so he did not go swimming. Do you think Flat Matthew should have gone swimming?

Tom

Flat Matthew and the arts

Today Flat Matthew helped me send some books out. I have been writing magazine articles for many years, but recently I published my first book, a mystery novel. Although people can buy it online, some order it directly from me. So Flat Matthew helped me pack the books to take to the post office.

I pointed out to Flat Matthew that by keeping this journal of his adventures, we were writing a book little by little. After I explained about writing, he told me that I should write a book about Round Matthew and how he volunteers at the Riverside & Great Northern Railway and what he does every day helping his dad and mom and the other adult volunteers. I thought that sounded like a good idea, too. I will have to talk to Round Matthew and his parents about it.

I write and Tom paints. After helping me with the books, Flat Matthew looked at some of Tom's paintings. This one in our living room is of the street where Tom and his family used to live in Chicago.

We have a lot of art in the house, but not all of it is Tom's. The pots you see above the painting are on a lighted shelf that runs the whole length of the room near the ceiling. The shelf was made for plants, but neither Tom nor I thought we wanted to climb up on ladders all the time to water plants. Tom's wife Helen had made the pots, and she gave them to him to put on the shelf.



These black and white paintings are of people from the neighborhood where Tom and I used to live. The paintings hang on the wall at the entry to the house, and they are big. The one just above Flat Matthew is three feet high and four feet wide. You can see how small Flat Matthew is in comparison.

Here Flat Matthew is standing in front of a painting in Tom's office, which he also uses as a studio. It is the front of an old pickup truck. Can you tell that that is what it is?




Here Flat Matthew is swinging on a panel of stained glass that hangs by the door from the library onto the deck. It was made by an artist who lives nearby. He also gives classes, and Tom has thought about learning how to do stained glass himself. This panel is called Autumn Solstice, and it uses fall colors and shapes that make us think of nature.

It is hard to see Flat Matthew in the picture because the light behind the window, that makes it easy to see the stained glass, makes it dark around Flat Matthew.

Do you have any hobbies like writing or painting?

Michael

Flat Matthew and Mad City

Flat Matthew went to Madison with Tom and Michael to see the Mad City Model Railroad Show this weekend.

The show is very big -- it is as big as about 60 houses -- and Flat Matthew saw many things.

Flat Matthew went to the Riverside & Great Northern exhibit first because he visited the railroad last week. He said "hello" to Dave, Mary, Dale, Reed and the others he met last week.


Flat Matthew met Eric and looked at Eric's trains. Eric volunteers at the railroad in the summer, doing many different kind of things. Round Matthew helps Eric. Meeting Eric was a special treat for Flat Matthew, because Round Matthew told him about the fun he had helping Eric at the railroad last summer. Round Matthew has driven this train. Do you think that Flat Matthew could learn how to drive it?


After talking to Eric, Flat Matthew went to see the rest of the show. Trains, trains and more trains. Big trains, little trains and really tiny trains. Flat Matthew thought that this train looked a little bit like Eric's train. Can you tell how it is the same and how it is different?


The show had toys, too. This is Flat Matthew looking at the "Oscar Meyer Wiener" trucks. Oscar Meyer wieners are made in Madison. Do you know the Oscar Meyer Wiener song?

I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener,
That is what I'd really like to be.
'Cause if I was an Oscar Meyer wiener,
Everyone would be in love with me!

Of course, if you were an Oscar Meyer wiener, someone would eat you. That wouldn't be so good.

When Flat Matthew wasn't looking around, he was helping Michael with the gift shop that the R&GN brought to the show. Round Matthew helps Michael in the gift shop during the summer, and Flat Matthew learned how to help, too.

Tom

Flat Matthew was impressed by many of the layouts he saw at the show, with models trains running through tunnels and around mountains and by cities and towns. When he got home, we showed him that Tom has been working on a model train layout in the basement. It is a model of the railroad crossing the Wisconsin River at Kilbourn City back in the late 1800s. That was the name of Wisconsin Dells back then. Here is a picture of Flat Matthew standing down in the River behind some of the buildings Tom is using to make his model. You can see how Tom has carved foam and painted it to look like the formations and bluffs along the river. He hasn't finished his model yet.

The railroads were very important to the development of the United States in the nineteenth century, and often towns and cities grew up because of where the railroad tracks were laid. Kilbourn City is such a place, and it was built because the new tracks crossed the river here. Before that, the nearest town had been Newport. When the railroad came through where the city of Wisconsin Dells now is, everyone moved to the new location and Newport became a ghost town.

Michael

Flat Matthew volunteers at the library

When I was about nine years old -- which was 50 years ago -- I was a student worker in the library in my elementary school. I continued to work in libraries in school and college. Now I volunteer at the Kilbourn Public Library in Wisconsin Dells. Today Flat Matthew went with me to help out. (You can tell I didn't take that photograph today, can't you?)

When I was in elementary school, libraries were places where you checked out books. Today people come to the library for books, music CDs, books on CDs and cassettes, movies on DVDs and videos, and they also come to use the computers. In Wisconsin Dells, where we have lots of college-age students from places like Russia and Poland in the summer, they come to the library to use the language lab and learn or improve their English. We have a whole section of books in Polish, as well as lots of books on how to speak and read English.


There are a lot of volunteers at the Kilbourn Public Library, and we do many things to help the regular librarians. Above is a picture of Stephanie, and today she showed Flat Matthew how she was sorting through the movies that had been returned. Stephanie helps find the library card for each movie and returns the movie to its proper place on the shelf. She and I joke that it is a never-ending task. Stephanie volunteers at the library almost every day.

What I usually do at the library is called The List. That is the list of books and other items that other libraries in south central Wisconsin want to borrow from us for one of their patrons. So I get the list from the computer --today there were 54 items, which is about normal -- and go around to locate everything I can. Not everyone likes doing The List, but for me it is like a treasure hunt. I am learning where everything is in the library, and I get to see books that I may want to read myself. Sometimes finding books is more difficult than others. Here is a picture of Flat Matthew slipping between books to see if he can find one I am missing.

Today the list included regular books, DVDs, CDs, videos and some books on tape and CD, too. It took me about an hour to find everything. While I was looking for something, Flat Matthew guarded the cart that had the books I had already found. After I found all that I could, I took them to the computer where I scanned the bar code on the book cover. The computer then told me where to send it, and I put a sticky-note on the cover and put the book into a red box so that it could be sent out to the library that was requesting it. We have two stacks of boxes because the books go to different parts of Wisconsin. Flat Matthew climbed up between the boxes to look at all the things that were going to other libraries today. By the time we finished, the stack of boxes was higher than when he climbed it.

When we were done with everything and ready to go home, I had a book to check out for myself, and Laura -- one of the regular librarians -- did that for me while Flat Matthew watched. If you look carefully, you can see Stephanie in the background keeping an eye on everything.

Most of the librarians knew the story about Flat Stanley, and they were happy to meet Flat Matthew. They wanted him to come back and volunteer every week, but I explained that he would only be with us for a few more weeks.

Round Matthew and his parents volunteer at the Riverside & Great Northern Railway in the Dells, which is where Tom and I met them. Volunteering is a great way to learn new things, meet new people and help your community while you are having fun. Maybe you would like to volunteer at your library or some other place near your home.

Michael

Flat Matthew makes the snow and the cat go away

Yesterday Flat Matthew went with Tom and our neighbor Rich to Madison to help deliver a car. They had planned to visit some things in Madison, which is the capital of Wisconsin, but they got too busy with other errands and did not have a chance to take pictures of an adventure to report.

Last night, however, we got a little snow. This morning while I worked on editing something I am writing for a friend, Tom and Flat Matthew shoveled the snow on the sidewalk. Here is Flat Matthew with his special snow shovel standing by the sidewalk by our garage. The snow shovel is very small and you may not be able to see the handle that Flat Matthew is holding, but the orange shovel itself is down by his foot. I think he looks like Charlie Brown in this picture. Maybe it's the little stocking cap he was wearing.

Afterward, Flat Matthew and Tom came into the house to warm up. Tom got a telephone call, and I gave Flat Matthew a cup of hot chocolate in my Cheshire Cat mug and an almond cookie that Tom got at an Asian market in Madison yesterday. So Flat Matthew did get a reward from his Madison trip after all.

Do you know who the Cheshire Cat is? He is a character in the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and he disappears into thin air, leaving only his smile behind. The cat on my Cheshire Cat mug disappears when the mug is hot, and all that is left to see is the smile. If you look at the close-up picture of the mug, you can see that cat is fading away, but the red smile is still there. That made Flat Matthew smile, too.

Michael