Makov No. 8

Makov No. 8, the Smejkal family farm, is directly in the center of Makov.  There is a gate at the end of the short driveway and right outside of the gate is a parking area and the civic building.  We were there during  election day, and so a few cars were coming and going from the building.  On the outside of the building is a plaque featuring the town coat of arms - I don't have a photo but Dad does, so I will post it later - it has a picture of a poppy flower, because, as Jan Smjekal explained, Makov means "town of poppies"! But of course it does! Do you think that Grandma Bals made kolaches filled with poppyseeds on a whim?!

But back to the gate - it is located in the same spot that an earlier gate once stood. This earlier gate can be seen in one of the family's old photos, but it is also shown on the headstone for the Smejkal family plot that is in the cemetery at the church in Jistebnice, a headstone made by  J. V. Dusek, a well-known artist from Tabor.  Frank's (the Grandfather) wife died in February of this year and so she was buried here not that long ago.

It definitely stands out in the cemetery, as most of the others were more traditional. We did not ask which family member commissioned the headstone but we would sure like to find out. On the  headstone is a depiction of a sower; a sower which reminded us immediately of the sower on top of the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln by Lee Lawrie. I wonder if some of the Makov locals made the same kind of comment as Ernie Pyle - click on the link below the photo to read what he said about the Nebraska sower.

 http://bisonwerks.com/SowerAscent.htm

I found another sower designed by Lee Lawrie that also resembles the Smejkal headstone, but it seems to be more classical and less peasant-like. It's on a building at Michigan State Univerity:

And this last sower doesn't really have anything to do with the trip to the Czech Republic, but I have to add it because it's very peasant-like and it's by my favorite artist, J. F. Millet:

As far as the sowers at Makov No. 8 - Zbynek has two more years of school - he is doing some sort of schematic design of heating and cooling systems? - and then he will take over at the farm full-time.  Right now, he works on the farm in the evenings and on the weekends.