Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Month: June 2023

A Follow Up on Howdy Neighbor – How to Find a Location

Last week, I posted about finding that a large number of relatives were from a smallish area in Germany. I had some requests from people who wanted to know where their relatives were from. So here are some tips you can use to try to find out.

Get On Board! A Train Themed Baby Quilt

I have made many kid quilts over the years as gifts for friends, family, and coworkers. Only once have I made a quilt that was a commission. I had made a quilt for a co-worker and they loved it so much they had me make one for their older child.

The little guy I made this quilt for was big into trains, so this was my design.

Howdy neighbor! Where are you from?

When we were working on last week’s post about Henry and Anna Vonderhaar, I was interested to note that their parents had all immigrated at about the same time. I started looking at where they were from and discovered it was very likely they knew each other before they moved to Iowa. They were all from the area near Ankum, Germany.

Hammer Time With The King of Tools!

Shop textbooks call hammers “the king of tools”. Maybe that’s because the first human tool use probably involved smacking something with a rock. Or maybe it was because blacksmiths used to make all the tools, and they mostly used a hammer to do it. But either way, today we’re going to have a look at hammers.

Happy anniversary Henry and Anna Vonderhaar

On June 16 1908, Henry G. Vonderhaar married Anna Wellman at St. Mary’s Church in West Point, Iowa. Anna Wellman was Walt’s first cousin twice removed.

Is Your Hero Made of Cardboard? Paper Minis for RPG’s

Miniature figures to depict the characters in an RPG can really add a lot to a game. But conventional metal miniatures are heavy, fragile, and expensive. They’re bulky to store and difficult to move, and you need a lot of them. What’s more, you need to paint them yourself, and that’s an entire skillset (and, for some, and entire hobby) in itself. Paper minis serve as an alternative that provide most of the advantages of conventional minis without many of the drawbacks.

Happy birthday 3 times great grandpa George Link

Today we go back another generation on the Link line. George Link was born in Bavaria Germany on June 9, 1798. We talked about his son, Walt’s great great grandfather in this post.

No tagine pot? No problem!

In our recent post about the year of saying yes, I talked about making lamb for Easter. I had about half of the lamb left after allowing for leftover meals, and decided it was time to branch out into a cuisine I had always wanted to try – a Moroccan tagine.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine served over couscous with mint, cilantro and toasted almonds.

Happy birthday 3x great grandmother Sarah Pearson Mendenhall

Sarah Pearson was born on June 2, 1795 near the Bush River Settlement in South Carolina. Her parents were Abel and Anne McClure Pearson. Sarah is Walt’s great, great, great grandmother.

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