A Hodge Podge of This and That!

Last week I made the trip east to visit with YGGG#1 to spend some time after a long and cold winter. I had been trying to get there for over a month in between snow and ice storms. Finally, the great day time arrived and I got on the road quick! One short break in Ogallalla, Nebraska to check out my favorite store for Memorial Day flowers. They always have a great selection so I loaded the car with bunches of beautiful poppies and roses. When YGGG #1 and I get together in Mid May before our Salt Lake trip, we will spend 2 days decorating all our family graves in Box Butte county. We have nearly 30 to attend in three cemeteries. What a job- but what an honor!

My next stop was North Platte, Nebraska. Just in time for lunch and then..SHOPPING. Grannie one suggested we go right away to the quilt shop as she knew I had been waiting to get there. Somehow she blames me for all the shopping, but since I don't get to a good place to shop very often it is fun to go and besides she does not complain much. She follows (or maybe leads) and off we go. New material, new books, flowers, sewing notions, craft stuff, clothes, purses. Two old grannies sure can have fun and spend money. The only time genealogy comes in second is when we go into shopping mode for a few hours. My dog, Babee, who went along for the trip only managed to get into trouble a couple times while we shopped. New venetian blinds will be in order for YGGG one now. Hope the dog can get a job to pay for them!

We surely are starting to show our age though. What a nuisance..we had to stop and rest often, but only after several hours and many miles on foot. Grannie one propped up her new knee and I rested my back. I got a 2:30 boost of "5 hour energy", which wound me up and I was good to go again. We got out the research notebooks, hit the computer library catalog and were off and running until late night, every night for a week. The notebooks are now bursting with new ancestors and records to find at the FHL in May. Eleven at night came fast every evening and it was time to read a bit, before the "day" was gone and we had to start all over again. The monthly meeting of the North Platte genealogy society, watching WDYTYA on Friday night and The Generations Project on Monday, and even more shopping rounded out my stay in North Platte. Two old granny sisters-in-law sure can make work but we do have great fun!

Back home this week has brought more challenges to get all my research done for my notebook to take to the Libraries. YGGG #1 helped me to line up some areas to search, now I must get busy and peruse all the good websites for helpful clues before we leave to head west. Go Hubby isn't getting much for homemade meals these days either as I am just to darn busy! At least that is what I tell him. I have been trying to get him to write another story for my personal blog: Those Old Memories. It will save me time and besides, he gets better reviews (and comments) than I do! Will I ever get it all done in time? It's just get up and go to bed and the day is gone. Do any other genealogists or wives ever get caught up?

While organizing my research stuff, I have spent some more time on a great site for Swedish researching. I have been here before but thought some of you might like to check this one out if you are into Swedish research, especially within Skaraborgs Län and specifically around the
Falköping area. Annelie Jonsson has a really great site, Emigrant.se and she is very involved with GenealogyWise and the Swedish groups with helpful advise. Late night dates with several great state web sites have kept me occupied too. A nice cup of white hot chocolate and left over Valentine truffles have rounded out my "dream" dates. The clues of more names and places to follow up with have just been the wonderful bonuses!

A busy month ahead for sure. I will give a small program at our local genealogy society meeting in April on the use of the various census records. That will be fun but I must get the power point done soon so I can get back to my ancestors. Our oldest Granddaughter will graduate in May in Topeka, Kansas so Go Hubby and I will travel east for that event. We are anxious to see all 8 grandchildren and spend a couple precious days with family. Our son will leave his family at home in Kansas and come back to Alliance with us after graduation.YGGG, Ruby, will be here the next day. Son, Jason, is going to help the YGGG's do cemetery work early and see us off towards Salt Lake City on the 22nd of May. He will house and dog sit for me for the two and half weeks that the YGGGs will be in Salt Lake City. While Go Hubby is working, Jason will do some fix up things around here for us. He and his Dad will have a little time together to take a "bike" ride and do some gardening and house painting --all while I play at the Family History Library. Yea!

Finally a nice day today, spring may actually be heading our way. Wish I could play but alas must get back to work on my notebook. All of this and that keeps coming to mind. Dreaming of the future trip to Loveland, Colorado for the Family History Expo, where I have been and where I need to go. Next stops: websites for Tippah County, Mississippi and Carroll County, Tennessee. Those Hopkins and Henleys are waiting in the wings.

You Go Genealogy Girl #2- Cheri

She's HEEEERE!

Finally, the third time is a charm! After two failed plans in the last six weeks, my sister-in-law, aka #2, is here in my home, sleeping in my spare bedroom, using my electricity to plug in her laptop (when she remembers to do it), eating my food, using my shower and staying up until after midnight. But, are we ever having fun!! We talk non-stop, perhaps in our sleep, as we have not been together for a long time.

Today is the luck of the Irish day, aka St. Patrick's Day. We are celebrating by doing something ... oh yes, we are going to continue identifying photographs of relatives and ancestors. Actually we are doing a pretty good job of figuring them out. We will also head out this evening to the North Platte Genealogical Society meeting. I may have to reintroduce myself as their President because I have not been there since January. My faithful Vice President took over for me in February while I moaned, groaned and elevated my new knee. Now the knee is much better and after three hours of shopping with # 2 yesterday, I can proclaim it is almost like the old one before the old one got bad. You know what I mean!

We have also been syncing our iPod Touches. Since we are planning a big trip to Salt Lake City toward the end of may, we'll also sync our thoughts on the research we will need to do while there. In preparation for the trip, we'll soon begin planning our food stash and wardrobe (and for me all my shoes I'll take). Lil' Red may be dragging all the way across I-80 to "This is the Place."

Our plans this week also include tweaking a trip for the local genealogical society to visit the museums and research centers where #2 lives. This will happen in July. At least it probably won't snow then! Sandwiched between all these trips we will make our reservations for the Family History Expo in Loveland, CO in June. Hope my other knee holds up during all these escapades.

We also purchased identical purses, so #2 is going to put a flower on hers so we can figure out who has what. However, it should be no problem as hers will be a heavy purse. I have been making iPod Touch pouches in my recovery mode. They are designed for just about any clothes that I have in my wardrobe. Some are funky and some are sentimental and some are just downright .... iPod Touch pouches.

Now I'm off to physical therapy to show them I can bend my knee and get a workout. When I get home #2 should be out of bed, planning our day and lining up genealogy projects. What is it they say about twins? Double the trouble? We aren't twins, but when it comes to genealogy, we are definitely "double the trouble. "

Ruby ... aka #1

Wishing We Were Going...

The You Go Genealogy Girls, as "Bloggers of Honor", have been invited to the upcoming Family History Expo in Salt Lake City on March the 18th. This Expo will be concentrated on the field of "Immigration" and should be a great one to attend. How we wish that we would be able to go. Jealousy doesn't usually come around in our usual postings but this time it has. We envy anyone who is going to attend this Expo! We will still be recuperating and organizing for the upcoming summer travels, but you can bet we will be on the road soon and we will be heading to the Family History Expo in Loveland, Colorado the weekend of June 25-26th.

If you never have attended a Family History Expo, check out their new web site and make your plans to attend the upcoming special Expo on "Immigration" or one of the other great learning weekends that are coming up this year. The You Go Genealogy Girls attended the Expo last year in Sheridan, Wyoming and had a blast. As "Bloggers of Honor", we got to participate in some fun extra curricular offerings but the learning classes of the Expo were definitely the highlight. If you would like to read of our fun trip to the Expo in Sheridan, Wyoming last summer, you can review those blogs here, here, here and here! Whew...we were busy grannies!

Everyone from the beginner to the seasoned researcher can find lectures that they will love and best of all, will learn from. The Expos offer great chances to meet new genealogy friends, enjoy good food, shop great genealogy vendors and attend excellent lectures. We are lucky that Holly Hansen and her group have worked to bring some of these Expos to areas of the country that are centralized so that many people have the chance to benefit from their awesome genealogy learning lectures.

We surely hope that you will be one of the lucky ones to attend the "Immigration Expo" on March 18th in Salt Lake City. We will be thinking of you all with envy!

Buffalo Chips, Cow Patties...and Such!

Cow patties, buffalo chips and such things. This is literally the kind of "___" that sometimes keeps me awake at night. Sleep...who needs it?

My husband, AKA "Go Hubby", has written a short story which is posted over on my personal genealogy blog: Those Old Memories. You can click here to read "Grandpa's History Lesson". I am thinking that reading and publishing his story about Grandpa and cow patties must be the source of the thoughts that were running around in my brain last night.

Today, I know more about "cow patties" than I ever wanted to. Buffalo chips and cow patties have been used since the days of the pioneers in our country and for hundreds of years before in other cultures. They are gathered, dried and burned for warmth. Many people in India still harvest cow patties for daily use and some bronze artisans burn them because they offer uniform and hotter heat as fire box material. I read an interesting story at Texas Escapes about the Texas chips and patties. If you care to further investigate the history of this subject, please feel free to follow these links to enlightenment! Cow Patties by Mike Cox, and cow-patties-make-good-energy offer different points of view. If you have an afternoon to fritter away, try a Google search on the subject, the images are awesome to say the least. Did you know that chips and patties are dried and crafted into clocks and paperweights? They are also popular items for the playing of cow pattie bingo which often involves betting on the winner and his placement of the smelly surprise. Cow pattie tossing contests still live in the west! How about cow pattie cookies...the recipe may be found here---Yummy!!!

If you are a serious genealogist and cemetery researcher, I am sure you have also encountered a few cow patties, deer droppings and such along with those left by "graveyard rabbits". Alas, the ones left by the real graveyard rabbits, those furry, long eared, four legged types!

Until next time: may your powder stay dry, the sun always shine upon you, the wind be at your back and may your boots stay clean and dry. Don't be discouraged from trekking across fields and cattle watering holes to visit that old abandoned family cemetery. Just buy some taller boots!!!