With the passing of Marty's dad on September 18th, I thought I'd share some information and photos of him and his family.  "Richard" was a very independent man.  His mom passed away when he was about three due to complications from a burst appendix.  Four years later, his father passed away from leukemia.  Upon his mom's death, he and his older brother went to live with his mom's sister and her husband.  In a paper Richard had written, he said that during the time between his parents' respective deaths, he only remembered his dad coming to visit a couple times.  The reasons are not known, but I'm sure the absence of both natural parents had life-long consequences even though his aunt and uncle were good people and cared for him and his brother greatly.

He graduated high school, joined the Navy during WWII serving aboard the USS New Mexico.  The ship was engaged in a battle at Okinawa where it was hit by kamikaze planes.  Over 50 of his crew-mates immediately surrounding him were killed and over 100 wounded, but he survived with only bruises.  Upon returning to civilian life, he went on to college and entered the work force becoming instrumental in developing FAX transmission machines.   He married, had three children and later divorced and never remarried.  

ca. 1926/7

"Fred" & "Richard" ca.1929/30

"Richard" with his aunt & uncle

"Richard" in Navy

USS New Mexico after being hit by kamakazes  (photo taken from USS Wichita) 12 May 1945  Richard said he was between the forward superstructure and the stack, about 40 feet from point of impact.

"Richard" and "Alice" on their wedding day

"Fred" and "Richard" with their mom

"Fred" and "Richard" with their dad

"Richard" with his maternal grandparents. 

Richard's early life was spent in Colorado.  He returned there for a time later on and was there for a family reunion in 2002.  

As his family was in Colorado for a number of years in the early to mid-1900s, along with his wife's family, I researched online for Colorado records.  One source I came upon is the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.  This site is free and I located a lot of small-town tidbits that gave insights into who the family visited, how they spent their time, what relatives came to visit, hospitalizations, and school activities and events.  I found information on some marriages, some deaths, but surprisingly little on births.  We even discovered that "Fred" had a first wife, which Marty didn't know or remember ever hearing about.  

I hope you enjoyed this very brief journey of a man who, as Frank Sinatra sang, did it (his) way.  He had a good life.  He had a long life.  We will miss him but will remember the times we shared in his life.  Ten years ago we thought he was not going to make it after an illness incident, but after three months of care, he regained his strength, rebounded and went on his way living alone until he was gone.

Today is a day of celebration as Richard's grandson, our very own Nick, turns 19.  Being the birthday-boy, he gets to choose where we eat dinner. 

September is Gone, and October is Well on its Way

Does that sound like a familiar theme?  My blogging lately has been very much on the back burner.  As has my quilting which is why there have been no posts on Webs of Threads either.  Just what have I been doing? 

Genealogy.  Have I mentioned that back around the early part of the year I purchased the Legacy 8 Deluxe genealogy software, and am re-entering everything manually as opposed to creating a Gedcom file and transferring the records?   There were reasons for my madness, but it would take too long to explain, but trust me, re-doing manually is far better.  It also gives me fresh eyes to review the content, and do further research in areas that need it, and there are many so it's going slowly.  I can also verify and annotate my sources better.

One side of my family hails from Norway; from a little fishing village known as Helgeroa.  Way back in the mid- to later 1800s, a few of them, independent of each other, left Norway.  Some came here to the States, and others went to Australia.  My grandfather wrote out a genealogy with short biographies of some of the older known ancestors, based on what he remembered his parents telling him, some very old photos he had, and by communication with descendant relatives in Norway and Australia of those earlier emigrants from Norway.  The difficulty is that Grandpa didn't have the very specific connections of just who was connected to whom - in other words, who the common ancestor was that we're all connected to, nor do the contacts I have in Norway and Australia.  

I feel strongly that I have the connecting family, but no solid sources to validate it.  In the early 1800s, there was a man named Ola Anderson Bua and his wife Maria Elizabeth or Anne Marie (not sure which is accurate if either).  They had children, obviously.  It would seem at least three sisters and a brother if I'm correct.  

My inherited records include photos of persons identified by name and as "cousin of Ole" or "... of C.N." No link to parent, so it wasn't known if they were cousins from their mothers' or fathers' sides.  In a search at Ancestry, I located a researcher who has the exact picture of one individual...aha, at last, a little bit more of a connection through that researcher's wife's mother who was the niece of one of the pictured 'cousin'.  I'm still not seeing "same names" in their tree though but the connection is there in the Ancestry DNA records - so we are related.

Norway used the patronymic naming system up until about 1923 when they were forced by law to choose a single family name, at which time they had the options of choosing a farm name instead.  This all complicates research, which I can only do via the internet...in English!  There are a few good sites with info, but compared to what I can access here in the states for state-side residents, it's minimal.  Many names also had variant spellings depending on who wrote them down.   In this one family the surnames went from Nilssen in Norway where he was the son of Nils, to Nilsen, then to Nelson, and his youngest brother opted to go with a farm name of Aske rather than Nilssen or its variants.  It seems far too many males were Ole/Ola, Nils/Nels, Anders/Andreas, Martha/Marthea/Marta, Anne/Anna, Kisten/Kistine/Kirstine.  Let's not forget the names with their special letters, Ærling, Øyvind, Åsmund.  Ahhhh, such fun.  Actually, it is, though often frustrating.

Time Keeps Moving Along

It's been well over a month again since my last update.  What have I been doing in all that time?  Well, nothing exciting, that's for sure, and that's why there have been no posts!  And there's still been nothing of importance to really write about, but I thought I'd at least check in so you'd know I didn't kick the bucket or something!

I did get out to dinner with a couple of lady friends last night.  That was a pleasant couple of hours with pleasant company and good food.  I had had breakfast with one of them a month or so ago, but the other I hadn't seen since March so it was nice to catch up again.

Hubs and I will be "celebrating" our 20th anniversary next week.  Neither of us has mentioned it, so expect it'll come and go like every one of the last 19...just another day. 

Nick finished his junior year of high school, so we now have an official high school senior in the house.  He says he's looking for a summer job...we'll see how that goes.  He stays up late and then sleeps until noon.  

A mama hummingbird (the 2nd one) hatched babies a few days ago.  Sadly, today I noticed she wasn't gathering bugs in the air in the back yard like usual and hadn't come back to the nest, though she was at the feeder once.  I also noticed an ant trail on the branch to the nest - it's right outside my kitchen window!  I took a stool out and pulled the branch down a bit - it sits about 6' high - and no babies anymore - so something happened since late yesterday.  The first mama to build and use this nest was very skittish & I'd had to put a curtain over the window so she wouldn't fly away every time she saw activity in the kitchen.  That one's hatchlings seem to have suffered a similar fate while I was away in April.  This was a different mama - different markings - and she wasn't skittish at all.  At times, she would hover right outside the window and watch me. She also never flew off the nest when I went out to refill the feeder even though I'd walk right past the bush the nest is in.  Maybe in the days ahead it'll be "third times a charm" and we'll get chicks that survive to adulthood.

I've worked on my genealogy quite a bit over the last few weeks.  I switched to Legacy8 software from Family Tree Maker, and am going through a huge learning curve - not as easy as when I was younger.  I am getting there though, and in all fairness to myself, this software is so much more powerful which is what is making all the different elements a learning challenge.  An interesting tidbit I uncovered in my research was that the second wife of my paternal uncle, was in the same orphanage as my step-dad was at the same time - they were enumerated on the same page.  My step-dad had a different surname at that time, as did the aunt.  I asked him if he recalled her name, but he didn't, and while I still send Christmas cards to her, she never responds.  Neither she, nor my step-dad were truly orphans, but this was back in 1940 when an orphanage aka children's home was available to parents who for whatever reason were no longer, or temporarily unable, to care for their children.  She was there with two siblings.  I don't know how long they were there, but my step-dad was there for five years until a biological aunt adopted him...yet his bio-parents were both still living.

My dad had his lower back surgery.  Sounds like it went well, but he wasn't happy that they made him stay in the hospital for a couple extra days because he's so non-compliant.  Additionally, he spent a week or more at rehab/care facility for the same reason and so that he'd be forced-compliant.  He seems to be more inclined to comply now - I don't think he wants to be back in that same position again.  He'll be 83 in August and has never been compliant with much of anything in his life.

There's not been much else of interest lately.  For my quilting world activities - or lack thereof, I'll put a brief post over on Webs of Thread.

File Cabinet Update

Here we go.  I was so excited these came early.  They were scheduled for between Friday and next Wednesday!  The delivery man brought them into the house - should have taken a pic of them still in the boxes, but I was too anxious to find a box-cutter and see how they looked.  But first, since they were a minimum of two days early, I had to clear out and sweep up the space.  

I then opened each box, and carried them, one at a time, up the stairs.  They aren't heavy, about 20 lbs. each.  Once upstairs and in the room, I had to screw the handles on - easy peasy.

Cleaned, empty space

That empty space sure makes it look like there is a lot of room.  Very deceptive.

one cabinet

The front of the cabinet is at the 30" from the wall mark - that's the depth of the table-top.  Notice the empty space behind.  That 12" space will be utterly wasted.  Keep this in mind.

two cabinets

It's beginning to look good.  That 12" floor space loss is still gnawing on me though.

handle and screws

The only assembly required was putting the handles on.  I had to find a Phillips head screwdriver.

three cabinets

Can you envision a work surface yet?  What I have come to realize, is they just might be a smidgen too high.  The cabinets measure 35.5 (more like 35.75) and the table-top will add another inch.  I won't have any back problems, but the top of my shoulder may grouse if I have to do a lot of cutting.  I could get a 1" - 1.5" thick board to stand on when cutting, which would really make it ideal.  I am not complaining.  Slightly too high is better then bending over with the back problems I've already experienced in recent years.

four cabinets

All four in place and handles attached.  There were no dents in any of them, and I also avoided adding any dents :)  Carrying them up the stairs though sure showed me how out of shape I am.  Especially the first two, but then I kind of got used to it.

Now, keeping in mind that 12" space behind the cabinets?  I'm going to recommend you go to my Webs of Threads site, because that actually deals with my quilting.  See you over there.

So Excited

I am SO over-the-top excited today.

If you've followed me here and on Webs of Threads, you may recall a few posts about how small my Creation Station is and my arrangement of furniture within.  

During the last couple weeks I've been considering an option that will kill two birds with one stone in giving much-needed storage space for my dozen or so genealogy records boxes (which includes easy access to the records), and I need to put my cutting table at a more ergonomic height.  I was at a local stationery store and saw the file cabinets.  Particularly the ones with three drawers.  They were displayed up on a shelf so I couldn't measure by standing next to them, so an aisle so away, I found a yardstick, lucky me!  The cabinet height measured 35.5"...seems good to me. 

That gave me the idea to put the cutting table top on four of them, giving me a total of 12 drawers for genealogy purposes.  The table top I use is a 30" x 60" heavy laminated top from an old metal desk.  The desk was scrapped as it was falling about, but I knew I wanted to keep the top specifically for this usage.  But first, I had to come home and measure, because I couldn't remember the dimensions of the top.  I wanted to make sure four cabinets would fit side by side under it...and they do will, perfectly.  

Taken from doorway

zoomed-in

Whew, I took a break, and got the area cleared.  Now I just need help of one of DH or son to lift that heavy top off, remove these two file cabinets, and unpack and bring in the new 3-drawer ones.  These old 2-drawers have that huge 'empty' area at the bottom which adds height, and the new ones don't so that's why the 3-drawers still only measure 35.5" high.  Add the inch of the table-top, and it's perfect height for cutting.  I use that thin grippy mat stuff between the cabinet and table-top so that there's no sliding.

For now, I'm resting, and I'll be finding lunch soon.  Maybe I'll go down and see about getting the cabinets out of their cardboard shipping containers (and hope none have dents!).  I may have to install the handles, so will take care of that too if need be.

I'll post finished pix later...or tomorrow.

Computer Insanity

I wrote about some of my computer issues on Saturday.  Some of those issues continued but hubs has my laptop working for now.  He's waiting to see if the problem returns once I shut it down.  I'm not planning on shutting it down until at least Friday night as I then know he'll be able to work on it Saturday if the problem does return. Any sooner and he wouldn't be able to work on it until he's "off work".

We also had to get our ISP involved on Monday as we had no internet or cable first thing in the morning and that will not work with Marty's working at home.  The tech found a couple problems outside in the neighborhood, and all has been sort-of good since.  This morning the TV had a lot of pixelation issues but that cleared after about an hour, and we dropped internet once, but it came back up within minutes...not a good thing that it dropped, but it was around the same time as the TV pixelation issue, so maybe a little behind-the-scenes work was still going on.

This evening my Dell is driving me insane!  I only use that laptop now for my Family Tree Maker, and only still use IT because it's FTM2006 and hasn't been updated...ever, on my machine, and won't run on my Win8 machine.  FTM is no longer being supported by Ancestry.com but has been taken up by another company just recently, but I haven't decided what to do going forward.  The Dell is so old, I'm afraid it's just going to poop out one of these days, so I need to decide soon regarding FTM - I'll probably purchase the newest version and load it onto my Lenovo Win8, but I'm not sure I can transfer the OLD data from the very OLD FTM to the newest version.  OK, that was a total rabbit trail.  So just what is it about the Dell that's driving me insane?  It's making a faint high-pitched mechanical-whine noise and what's really weird is, if I hold my head in one position, I don't hear it.  If I move my head slightly, it's there.  I've put my right ear on the keyboard and hear it, but I don't hear it with my left ear when I put it on the keyboard.  I'm ready to put my headphones on to block it out.  I've never noticed this sound before.  So is it the machine?  Am I insane?  Did my right ear hearing change in a day?  Do you have a spare white coat?

This Week

If anyone wants to know what I have been doing all week since my last post, this is it.

I've worked some more on recipe and menu review, tossing, saving, tossing, saving - haven't used any of them to cook by yet.  

I've worked on updating my stamp album - after 14 years I'd forgotten what I'd done with it, and what supplies I need in order to have it organized and up to date. I need to purchase glassine envelopes and window mounts.  I have yet to put things back into the closet from whence one box of related materials was hiding....behind EVERYTHING of course.

I've also resubscribed to a genealogy site..for six months, and hopefully I'll make good use of my subscription.  With my back and forth traveling since Feb. 2014, I let it lapse and haven't worked on my genealogy at all, and the company emailed an "offer I couldn't refuse", though I almost did.  I spent an hour or two yesterday poking around again.  I haven't dug those boxes out yet.  Heck, I don't have to, they're still taking up space in the middle of the guest room.

Then of course, are the normal mundane chores of housekeeping...not my forte' but I attempt to at least keep a few things up.  Flylady says 'sweeping the middles, still blesses the family', or something like that.  If she only knew.  The housekeeping in my head never equates to what actually gets done :/  I'll have to go back to her site and see what she says about the 2" thick carpet of dust atop the bookshelves and under the beds.

Oh, and don't forget the time I wasted (that's why the housework didn't get done) playing Pirates of the Caribbean on PS3 - I'm sure I'm being prodded to quit as the game has frozen on me each of the last two times I've played it.  I will say, all the dishes, except three utensils sitting in the sink, are clean and put away aside or in the dishwasher to be cleaned.  I'm not sure said dishwasher will survive until we decide to get that two-years behind original planning kitchen remodel done - remodel isn't even on the docket.

There were outings to do some shopping; today was a Costco run so that took up the entire morning - I should remember to NOT go on Mondays! 

 Those are the highlights, now, off to pay the bills and figure out what to have for dinner.  If you didn't catch that, I'll be multi-tasking by thinking while paying the bills, could be dangerous.

Distractions

I haven't posted any quilty stuff on Webs of Thread because, well, I just haven't done any quilty stuff all week.  I might get to some by the weekend.

What I have worked on is a little bit of genealogy.  No real research, but organizing and filing.  There's a whole lot of that to do!

I have a large quantity of very old film from back when each film shot was a 2.5" square, or 2.75" x 4.5" and strips of multiple images that are approximately 1 7/8" x 5 1/2 or 1/38 x over 5 1/2.  All before the 35mm film strips.  My goal is to scan and reprint them all.  I have done some of that in the past with my Hewlett Packard All-In-One printer, a function I didn't know it would do when I bought it, though I did have to make my own film holder to accommodate those sizes - necessity is the mother of invention I've heard.  I attempted to scan a couple nights ago, but the printer doesn't seem to want to do that anymore.  It gave me the same sound and error messages it gave me a few weeks ago when I attempted to send a fax and couldn't.  It may have something to do with a computer connection.  Marty was going to see if he could help with it last night, but I think we both forgot.  

Other distractions were on my heart and mind.  I learned on Sunday night that the son of a dear friend, going all the way back to 8th grade, was stabbed by his ex-girlfriend and died.  I cannot describe the grief I felt not just in the loss of his life and how, but for my friend's loss.  He was her only child.  He was a good 'kid' - age 38, had just bought his first house in January, he & the gal had been engaged, then a month ago, they no longer were.  All of those who knew him do not believe the account as reported in the news that he broke into her home.  He isn't here to defend himself and there's only her side of the story.  It's still under investigation, so hopefully the truth will prevail.  It's so very unbelievable and my friend has a long road ahead of her dealing with her loss and should there be a criminal case brought forth, she'll be faced with that. 

My brother who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, I have learned is now home.  He needs prayer for more than just his health and salvation.  The Lord knows those issues.  

Chicken bones and trimmings are simmering in the pot; it'll be chicken soup/stew for dinner tonight.  There wasn't a lot of meat left, so I pulled out a couple of breasts and am boiling them up separately.

Duck, Duck, Duck

Yeah, I'm watching the Ducks womp Washington.  While I did not attend either school, I am rooting for the Ducks of course, after all, I am a Duck Out Of Water!

And speaking of Ducks, yes, I am here in the wet land again, and hooray, it has been wet off and on.  I've enjoyed that part.  I will most likely be here for another three weeks, maybe more.

My dad had a medical procedure on Wednesday - nothing requiring recuperation time, and it went well and so far nothing appears to be amiss but full results won't be in for about a week.  The very next day we drove over to the hospital where he will, finally be having the surgery on his cervical spine to remedy his previous surgery in the same location, for his pre-op.  I hope he quits complaining after this, but that's highly unlikely.  At his age, it seems he's constantly complaining of some ailment including his inability to regain the 20-25 pounds he's lost this past year, and that he no longer has the muscle mass of a 30-year old.  It's tough to be 81!

I'm hoping to take part in Bonnie Hunter's annual Quiltville Mystery Quilt again this year [watch for any updates at my quilt blog Webs of Thread, if I have any].  At the very least I will be following other bloggers' progress while I print out each week's instructions.  I've already picked up the paint chips from Lowe's and was surprised to see that the yellow one wasn't quite as yellow as my computer monitor made it appear.  I may be stretched to shop my stash for this one, not to mention my not being home, so may end up with some additions to my stash numbers again - oh darn! right?

With this trip north, I brought a box of genealogy to work on in my spare time and I have an embroidery project I can work on too.

Those of you who do, please keep praying for me in all areas as I continue to help my dad, rub elbows with family, and am so very far from my husband, son, and church though all are accessible via the internet.  Oh, and include my dad with his surgery which is for this Thursday, and that he'd be a "nice" patient - his reputation is one of non-compliance, impatience, hostility and a whole lot of 'language'.

Design Wall Monday, 11 November 2013

On my design wall today are elements for my November NewFO.  I have all the 9-Patch units done and have only begun working on the side elements that create the star points; the one you see is the only set of four that's done.  I was side-tracked over the weekend!

How was I side-tracked?  By genealogy.  You see, ArkivDigital, a Swedish genealogy site was offering complete viewing of their records ... FREE for the weekend !!!  And I like free, especially at this time in our life.  And who wouldn't like being able to search for document images in Sweden?  I was able to find, and save to file and print, about a half-inch tall stack of documents, mostly church records for births and what amounts to a form of census called "Household Records".  All of which gave me birth dates I didn't have and even names of siblings of my direct ancestors.  Some of these were from the very early 1800's.  All that to say, I didn't make much quilting progress.

Another small sampling of the 77, 9-Patch blocks, one with the star point units pinned next to it.

I love scrappy!  So much fun mixed in! 

Close up.  These are the only 4 "wing" sets I've done, who knows which 9-P they'll become attached to later.

Wait a minute, do you plan on doing my pressing?

Look at the fun ice-cream treats in there, yum.

Here, kitty, kitty, join me for tea in my garden?

Linking up with Patchwork Times and then I'll see what you've all been up to :)

Marty's at his all morning long interview, with four or five different individuals in rotation at that company, so I'm praying God's will and that if he gets this position, great, we can celebrate, but if not, that Marty won't be discouraged and will recognize he just needs to keep trying, God will provide in His timing and His location.

Wednesday (W)rambling

Do you have those times when you just don't feel settled enough to stick to any one thing for any length of time?  I do, and I don't like it, and wish I weren't that way.  But I am, so it is what it is. 

I see it's been several days since I last posted; just can't figure out how that happens.  Re-read first paragraph. 

I've been staying up late entering genealogy information into my Family Tree Maker software database.  It's time consuming, and I research at the same time over at Ancestry.com and several other sites depending on what information I'm trying to uncover.  I'm simultaneously adding to my tree at Ancestry.com.  The FTM software, I believe, has the ability to allow me to work in one and it's entered in both locations, though I could be mistaken, but there is some information on some folks that is best left to just my eyes and not to be seen by those out in the who-knows-where parts of Creation, so I enter the data separately.

And, because I've been staying up late, I've been sleeping in as Nick is now out of school for the summer.  Tomorrow however, I'm expecting the A/C man at 8:00 a.m. so I need to be up and ready for the day before he gets here, so that means to bed at a decent time tonight.  Our A/C is keeping us plenty cool, but the problem is that we have three zones controlled by three controllers and it seems a damper motor has stopped working as one of the two upstairs zone's controller, when activated, is cooling not only the rooms it's supposed to cool, but the entire downstairs as well, which is a single zone.  It gets way too cold downstairs when all one is trying to do is cool 1/2 the upstairs.

Raven decided this morning was a very good morning to play fetch again.  And she was a very good girl at it too.   She happily ran off chasing that green-striped stuffed mouse and trotted head held high to bring it back squarely to be dropped at my feet.  It's been awhile since she's been so obliging.  Oh, she's still played, but would only bring the mouse half-way so I'd have to go get it, or she just wouldn't bring it back at all, or she'd come in and mewl like she wanted to play, but not have the mouse, or the puff-puff, with which to play.  

What she's really saying is "please! let me down! I don't want to be held! ever!" She doesn't like to be held and always turns away from anyone trying to hold her

What do you do when you have this who-knows-how-old fabric, that looks, and feels like sheets from the 1960s?

A ruler added to show size of those blue roses.

This is what you do: you cut it into big squares and use it as foundations for a string quilt :)

The squares from each piece.

Leaving a strip of the original fabric showing in each block.  These blocks will be further cut and moved around before being rejoined.

Before sewing any strings onto the foundations, I sorted through my string bin and pulled what I thought would work for the look I was going for, both color-wise and print-wise.  The two different fabrics have different string fabrics for the most part.  And do you know, the bin seems to have no less in it now than when I started plus the fabrics I pulled from the bin seem to still fill the two containers I'd set aside for them.  How does that happen?  So, one of the things I've been trying to figure out is, how do I whittle that down even more?  Guess I'll be pulling some more ugly fabrics for foundation squares, and I may make the foundation strip not show at all or be skinnier at least.

I also have Nick's Washington DC trip on my mind.  He leaves early Monday morning.  He's never been away from us, nor we from him, for this long, nor this far before.  I guess this Mama is just a wee bit nervous about that long air flight even though there are about 27 adults going along with 35 or so students and one is the mom of Nick's best friend, and she's my friend as well so I know she'll watch over him like a hawk.

Design Wall Monday and other Activities

(Quilty stuff at bottom)

CHORES:  It's Monday and up until fixing my lunch, which consisted of only putting my leftover Panda Express meal from last night's dinner into a bowl and then into the microwave, I've done nothing but chores today.  Gathering, sorting, washing/drying, folding, hanging and putting away laundry - 4 loads so far!, picking a chicken carcass for home made chicken soup, putting a beef roast into the crock pot for dinner - either tonight's or tomorrow's, as yet undecided.  I've cleaned the cats' litter box, reviewed my pantry inventory, and of course took Nick to school before any of that. 

NEWS: As I sat eating my lunch, I turned the TV on and of course, learned about the bombing at the Boston Marathon.  Yet another sad day for our country.  My prayers go to the Lord on behalf of those suffering directly from this incident. 

GENEALOGY:  I've mostly taken a break from all things quilty the last couple of days and have instead worked on some genealogy - I am paying for that Ancestry.com membership, so NEED to be using it more than I have been lately.  I once was invited to attend a focus group, and for doing so, received a full 1-year membership for free, but sadly that was a year I didn't get as much time in as I should have on the branches that would have benefitted, especially for the databases included in their world membership level.  

The branch I'm currently working on is my great-great-grandmother through my mother's father's side of the family.  Her maiden name was Lind.  I uncovered a whole lot of info - this computer age makes it so relatively easy to find out information even on younger, living individuals.  Sometimes it's almost scary knowing what can be found about people (now you know why I prefer to keep my true name hidden here on the blog where one never knows who may be viewing).   I uncovered a 3rd cousin-once removed, who lives here in my same town but on the other side.  Who knows whether we may have crossed paths somewhere over the last ump-teen years of my living here. 

QUILTY:  I'm thinking I really need to get this quilt finished. 

"Cumberland Mountain" pattern from Fons & Porter's For The Love Of Quilting pp10-13

Some of the quilting - 1/4" from seam lines, straight lines echoing zigzags - it's that line that crosses the vertical rows I'm not gung-ho about.

Not the best shot, but shows from the back how I started with straight lines the length of the quilt and then started following the zig-zags.  AND, the backing doesn't look very smooth in some spots - they WERE/ARE pinned, maybe not closely enough

My friend Lois had given me 'tons' of fabric from her years of making her own clothing - yardage and scraps - back in September 2006, and as a thank you to her, I started this quilt using many of those fabrics just two weeks later.  I worked on it off and on in 2006/2007, sandwiched it in 2008, and started the quilting in January of 2009.  At the time, I wasn't pleased with how I was quilting it, so stopped and put it away.  I'm embarrassed at how long ago that was and yet amazed at how much time has slipped away - doesn't give me much hope in getting all the quilts I WANT to do DONE in my lifetime!  I think at this point, I need to just press on and get it done so she can have and enjoy it!  Head over to Patchwork Times for more Design Wall reports.

Genetics

I just received my DNA (genetic ethnicity) results from Ancestry.com. My genetic heritage: 63% Scandinavian (Norway/Sweden etc) - no surprise, 26% British Isles - no surprise, 11% Eastern Europe - surprise - of sorts, as this did NOT include Germany but instead Poland/Belarus/Ukraine/Romania and also Greece! All my German ancestors must have migrated to Germany from either the north, or from the east, maybe a mixture of both as, on paper, my German heritage is over 25% of my ancestors. Hmmm, a lot of Greek art depicts men with really curly hair...must be how Nick came by his pencil-width tight ringlets! This also puts to rest the mistaken idea, based on some of our physical features, of having any Native American ancestry.

Does this mean I have to study historical migration routes and reasons for migrations?

I was hoping to be able to 'connect' with some additional cousins, but the closest any of these results revealed were connections from 5th - 8th cousins possibility based on genetic ethnicity. Had the results shown 3rd cousin or closer, the likelihood of an actual cousin would be more sure. These are early test results (of those submitted) so there's the possibility of more closely related kinship being revealed in the future

Usually this test is very expensive, but A.com had a $9.95 special towards the end of last year so I jumped at it. I don't recall if we were limited to one individual's test samples, but I'm also (now) wishing I had done Marty's too. Maybe they'll have another special rate some day.

T-T-T-Tuesday, memories and stuff

Not again! How'd I get so far behind here on the blog? Guess I've either been busy, playing elsewhere, or just not had a lot to say. Decided to change my header photo again. This is an old farmhouse we lived in two different times; once when I was in the 2nd grade, the other when I was in the 4th grade. This picture was taken back in the early 80's and the house has been added onto since then. We used to take jars and catch grasshoppers in that field. We had a horse name Fury, he was a pony actually. He liked to eat chili. We had another horse named Passion, she was my mom's horse and I don't remember ever riding her. Before these we had a dappled brown Welsh pony named Cocoa and she was the first horse I remember we had, but my grandma had two plow horses which she used to do farm work back in the 50s. They were Mike and Molly (funny, there's now a TV show by that name) and I remember sitting on their backs holding on to the brass knobs that stuck up on their harness collars. I was barely walking age in the pictures, but I remember it. I remember trying Neopolitan ice cream here. Playing with garter snakes, playing 100 dots on the blackboard in one upper room, my brother falling and breaking his arm and then keeping us all behind him going up the stairs when he'd hold his casted arm out, a big oak tree falling right in front of my parent's car as they drove up the road between the two bridges during the Columbus Day storm (1962), a babysitter that slapped me in the face because she was looking out the window and thought I was sassing at her, the day the new pastor came by inviting kids to a Sunday School he and his wife were starting just down the road, stepping on a dead bee in the living room and still getting stung, watching the movie Zot or Zots...I've never seen it since...being on the back of my dad's friend Vernon's motorcycle driving up and down the long driveway and getting burned on the muffler, and many other memories from here. But it was just one of many houses we lived in during the 50s and 60s up this valley where the ranch is that I call 'home'. The ranch owner died recently. His son and family still live there and I think he'll be keeping the ranch. I babysat him once when he was a baby and his parents went out for the evening. They were only on the ranch on weekends at that time. The house in this photo is the only one of the one's in the valley I lived in, still standing. After I graduated high school and moved away from home, my parents built two more houses at different times but I only stayed at one for about a month before moving to this dry land.

After a couple really warm, almost hot days, we're back into the 50's as a high today with some cloudiness. Low to be 35, brrr, but I love it. No rain though in the forecast for at least a week and then only 'showers' which may or may not materialize.

A second contractor will be coming over tomorrow evening to take a look at things. Sure wish we could've been on the ball enough to have had them out around the SAME time for estimates so the first one wouldn't be kept waiting. I'm tired of always dragging our feet on everything. I'm ready to get this show on the road! I've even packed up everything out of the one bathroom and am ready to do the same in the other. For that matter, I'm ready to pack up the whole kitchen too. We wait too long and I may even just pack up everything and move out! Not really, but it IS tempting, especially when I get frustrated with the fears and procrastination from my better half. If money were no object, I'd have the whole house gutted and rebuilt. Please, a girl can dream can't she? You have to remember, my only choice in living in the house was because I married a man who already had it and the market in '96 was such that it was in an upside-down mortgage and made no sense to sell at a loss and look elsewhere. I just didn't know it would take so long to do remodeling. We've done some things like put in retrofit dual-pane windows, copper repipe, installed A/C and replaced furnace, retextured the ceilings on the first level and stairwell, and tiled the kitchen/dining (that was out of necessity along with the repipe as we'd had a pipe break and flood the whole floor). We've also replaced the garage doors, the front door and repainted the exterior, and some of the interior - once and it needs it again inside. So we have done a lot, but the crucial, and most expensive, areas haven't been touched. Home ownership is not an inexpensive venture, is it?

Nick came home Friday night from an overnight school-related ministry out in the desert at a church ranch. The kids all did grunt-work. He was pretty sore after swinging a pick-axe for several hours - that's the most manual labor he's done in a long time! He also had a nasty rug burn on the top of one foot. I guess they were playing a game where you had to get the other person's sock off using only your feet.

I came across a website that had some info on my great-great-grandfather in Germany. I've had a copy of a couple of the pictures for quite some time, but the site has more info than I had. The biggest problem, is that it's in German, and Google translator only does a so-so job at getting the meaning of what's written. Within the site, when I do a search on Voltmer, I get two pages of links where the name is mentioned and/or expanded on. Now, to try to figure out who, and how, all the other Voltmer names are connected - that's where it gets confusing. Accurate translations are very expensive. I had his will translated a couple of years ago, which gave me his full name and the names of his wife and children.

I've done nothing quilting all week. Quilt guild meeting is Thursday night; will I at least have that community quilt done?...probably not :(