This photo was taken by legendary Freeman photographer Willard Waltner sometime in the 1960s and shows the campus of Freeman Junior College in the foreground and a strikingly baron landscape beyond. It was taken looking to the southeast, with the South County Road running diagonally across the top of the image.

Some of the 60-plus members of the Freeman Public track team stand on the sidelines cheering on others running for Viborg-Hurley junior Kobee Sherman as part of a "Run for Kobee" fundraiser Thursday afternoon, April 5. It came just weeks after Kobee was diagnosed with bone cancer and was made possible thanks to the support of local residents, businesses and organizations who offered to pledge money based on the number of laps run during a one-hour period — from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

A pair of Canada geese are on the move on the edge of Spitzberger Lake located one mile south of Freeman on the eastern side of Valley View Golf Course.

Maurice Waltner, who began his first four-year term as Hutchinson County Sheriff in January, is pictured in the county police pickup on Tuesday. Waltner was in Freeman for The Courier's 5-Minute Interview, which is published in the April 6 edition. Below is a sampling. To read it in its entirety, check out this week's issue available online to subscribers later today and in print tomorrow. The first three months have been … Exciting. Not overwhelming, but busy. What’s your department’s primary focus?

A group of house finches enjoy a Monday afternoon meal one day before the weather turned less-than-ideal for eating outdoors. Cold, windy and wet weather will mark today and tomorrow before the conditions finally turn to more springlike weather. A beautiful weekend is expected with even warmer temperatures coming next week.

The April 3 landscape that includes Silver Lake and surrounding area shows that ice and snow are still the reality several weeks into the spring season, although considerable melting has taken place. And while the winter weather has been around for what feels like forever — and while another system is moving across the state Tuesday and Wednesday — it appears that a corner will be turned thereafter. Highs are expected to be in the high 50s and low 60s for the Easter weekend.

With temperatures climbing through the 40s and into the 50s this weekend, considerable meltIng is taking place. The result is standing water like this in a field on the edge of Freeman just east of Fensel’s.

Dog tracks in the snow show the dusting the Freeman community received in the overnight hours, and while winds were a factor, the impact of the latest weather event was minimal. The sun is out and temperatures are expected to be closer to normal through the weekend before another system is expected to move in on Tuesday.

A city garbage container is reflected in a puddle following an overnight shower — the beginning of what is expected to be a wet 24-hour weather cycle. Rain and high winds are expected to develop this afternoon with a chance of snow toward evening hours. While the region that includes Freeman won't see nearly the totals expected in the central part of the state, some accumulation is expected. And with wind gusts reaching into the 40s later tonight, it's going to look and feel like winter all over again.

Freeman High School juniors Cami Fransen and Torrie Zachariasen work on the Hollywood sign that will be part of the Hollywood-themed prom set for Friday, March 31. The popular social event is set to go on despite the incoming weather, with photos to be taken in the afternoon inside the school gym, a banquet set to start at 5:30 p.m. followed by the Grand March that is open to the public.