Aunt Amy died

Most of us didn't know Aunt Amy or her niece Karen Evans.  Karen is the granddaughter of Gilbert Saxowsky by Randi.  She and her husband, Michael, live in northern Illinois.

Karen just reported: "I just wanted to let you all know that our dear friend and Aunt Amy has gone to Heaven."

I just found an email from Karen dated August 25, 2008, asking for prayers for Michael's aunt Amy.  This email reminded me that the world is full of wonderful people.

Hello everyone, I have a favor to ask.  A very wonderful woman that is my great friend and my Mikes' aunt has cancer and is very sick.  I am asking that you would please, please pray for her and send out as many powerful thoughts for her that you can. She is truly a beautiful soul and a wonderful mother to two great kids, Neil and Brook.  She has her husband John who has been her rock!   I know that there is no stronger power than prayer and love!  We would all need this love in times like this and I know that all of you my family and friends are the best and strongest people I know!  Thank you all for being so awesome!   I am setting up a email for her in the hopes that everyone who gets this will send her a prayer and a quick word of support.  In talking to some people who are in the know about these things,I have learned that the power of prayer, love and positive thoughts are enough to conquer these grave ills!   I know most of you don't know this beautiful woman but I can guarantee you would love her if you did!!  So that is all I am asking for, I know together we can take care of and heal each other, so please if you would pray for her to be healed and please just send her a quick word of support and please pass this on to everyone you know wether they know me or not, thank you and God Bless!!!!!   Thanks guys, I love you all!   Karen It is good to let wonderful people know that they are not alone, even when walking through the dark valleys.  You can use those venue for those comments.

Binders and Draft Horses

In a recent email from my sister, she wrote about the moment when our parents decided that it was time to buy a swathers.  She referenced the machine to be replaced as ????.  The ???? represented a binder, a machine pulled by a tractor, that cut the nearly ripen grain, gathered the stalks together until there were enough to bind into a bundle with a twine.  It was the mechanism the tied the twine that failed so frequently that they decided to buy the next generation machinery.

Draft horses?  Surely draft horses could be considered a common symbol of our ancestors upon their arrival on the farmland of the Dakotas.  I only remember grandpa Ziegler and Lenhart using horses in my days.  I do remember horses at the Saxowskys but never did I see them used.

When did we get our first tractor?  Was it a John Deere A or B?

The Trip to the Yellowstone

It probably was 1952 then we went to the Yellowstone.  Without digging out the photographs, I remember George running down the gravel road with the security of a beginning walker.  He was probably two and a half years old.  The other option is 1951 when George was one and a half and would have been much less secure on his newfound feet.

That would make me eight, which is fitting considering that I remember a fight with a boy we visited in Greeley, Colorado on that trip.  The family was that of the son of George Treiber.  I suspect we stopped by the Black Hills on the way south although I think there were more than one trip to the Black Hills in our youth.  The Yellowstone came after the stop in Greeley.  The stay there was probably one night in is a small cabin and the rumor was that a bear was digging through garbage cans that night.  

I suspect that a final stop was in the Roosevelt Park and badlands where the picture of George walking down the road was taken.  

A final memory is that grandma Sax painted a picture copying one of the slides Dad took on the trip.  She projected it on a paper on the refrigerator where she traced it.  Do you remember the "pasted on" face on the painting?  Who was that?  Do you remember the bears eating from the car?  And the donkeys, or was that another trip?