VIP at the Cath Lab grand opening

Today we ate a VERY expensive lunch because the woodworker was a VIP.  Although the lunch was good, it was not worth the amount we paid for it.  Back in March he went to his doctor to complain of some health problems he was having.  The doctor sent him straight to the ICU that evening and scheduled him to visit the cath lab early the next morning.  He came out of that with some shiny new stents.  How does that make him a VIP?  Well, the local hospital has been working for about five years to build a state of the art cath lab and attract the right doctor to run it.  Their dreams came to fruition just a couple of days before Woodworker's visit back in March, so he got to be one of the first people to try out the new place.

Today was the official grand opening.  We had seen an article in the paper saying the open house would be from 4-6 pm, but then we got a special VIP invitation in the mail, inviting us to attend the VIP open house from 12:30-2.  When woodworker was in the hospital, a neighbor came to visit him, then ended up a week later getting a stent of his own, so we all went to the open house together today.  They showed us a couple of little videos and had a few speakers before officially cutting the ribbon. 

 That is the good doctor third from the left in the dark suit.

 A nice large screen TV for your viewing pleasure...if you enjoy watching the arteries of your own heart

We noticed the invitation included a luncheon, so we had fun debating about what food it might include since the new doctor, an 'interventional cardiologist', is an ardent vegan who desires all his patients to also become vegan.  We wondered what impact he might have on the luncheon menu.  He seemed mostly pleased with it.  There were no bacon wrapped hamburgers in sight.  Lunch included veggie trays, fruit trays, bread with artichoke dip, tiny chicken and ham salad sandwiches and shrimp.  I guess it came close to his standards.  We sat down to eat with doctors, hospital big wigs, donors, community movers and shakers and heart patients.  Lovely as it was, I do not recommend it as a way to get a 'free' lunch.

Thiesfeld and Bargmann Families

Heinrich Friedrich Dietrich Thiesfeld and Anna Dorothea Bargmann

The Thiesfeld and Bargmann families lived in a rural area of Germany near Hannover.  The Thiesfelds lived in Fredelake and Schierholz, both part of the parish of Wechold.  The Bargmanns came from the nearby town of Eitzendorf.  The families emigrated from Germany to Minnesota where the young couple eventually met and married. 
   
Heinrich Friedrich Dietrich Thiesfeld was born May 12, 1861, at Fredelake, Wechold, Hannover, Germany and died May 31, 1935 in Glencoe, McLeod, Minnesota.  He arrived in the US on September 16, 1871 with his parents and sisters.  We assume the family left Germany for financial reasons.  His parents were Johann Heinrich Thiesfeld and Christina Elisabeth Rebbe.  Sadly, Christina died May 12, 1872, just a short time after coming to America.  Johann Heinrich Thiesfeld later married Sophie Hoffmeier.

Anna Dorothea Bargmann was born May 17, 1872 in Eitzendorf, Hannover, Germany, to Otto Hermann Diedrich Bargmann and Wilhelmina Anna Maria Meyer.  Wilhelmina died in 1872 shortly after the birth of her twins.  It was 1879 when Hermann came to the US and later sent for his family. They lived first at Tinley Park, Illinois, before moving on to Minnesota between 1891 and 1893.  They farmed near Biscay, McLeod Co., Minnesota.  Anna Dorothea Bargmann Thiesfeld died July 9, 1941 in Glencoe.

 Heinrich Friedrich Dietrich Thiesfeld and Anna Dorothea Bargmann married April 7, 1893, in Hamburg, Carver Co., Minnesota. They were the parents of  Henry, Sophie, Marie, Dick, Minnie, Christina, Martin and Arnold.

Life on their Minnesota farm was a lot like life on a German farm of that time period.  They were hard workers, getting up early and working until 9 PM, with 3 hours in the heat of the day for a nap.  They worked hard and they ate hearty meals.  By modern standards, the food was swimming in grease.  They had a smokehouse where they made their own bacon and sausage.  Meals generally included lots of meat, potatoes and gravy.  They canned green beans and pickles, and made sauerkraut.  They braided onions and stored cabbage and carrots. The cookie jar was always full.  The concept of a Minnesota ‘little lunch’ with a groaning table was in full force on their farm.  There was an ice house to keep ice which was cut in the winter for summer use. 

The daily schedule was get up, milk the cows, eat breakfast, do farm work, have a huge dinner at noon followed by a 3 hour nap and then work until 9 PM followed by supper.

Sunday afternoons they read the newspaper, visited family and friends and played a card game called Schaffskopf.  After dinner the men would talk around the table while the women visited in the living room. 

Everything they did, church, school, newspapers, was all in German.  The eight children were born and raised in Minnesota, but spoke German.  When Dick grew up and married, his oldest children spoke only German.  Dick’s oldest daughter  was the great-granddaughter of the original emigrants.  When she first went to school, she came home with a note saying she needed to learn English.

Dietrich and Anna Thiesfeld family in 1918 before Henry went in the Service.
Front Row left to right: Arnold Thiesfeld, Anna Thiesfeld, Martin Thiesfeld, Dietrich Thiesfeld, Dietrich (Dick) Thiesfeld
Back Row leflt to right: Sophie (Thiesfeld) Brelje, Marie (Thiesfeld) Hanson, Henry Thiesfeld,  Wilhelmine (Thiesfeld) Mackenthun, Christine (Thiesfeld) Brelje

Herb garden completed for this year

This weekend with much wonderful help, the herb garden project is finished for this year.  Now I just have to wait for all the lovely herbs to grow bigger.

Gunther Family Museum

Can you imagine having your very own family museum in your back yard?  Tonight, on the occasion of the 95th birthday of the founder of the museum, there was a special open house at the museum.  I first met the Gunther family back in 1971.  Acquaintances were renewed years later when they took my children hunting for trilobytes.  The Gunthers are world class finders and collectors of trilobytes and also have many other fossils in their collections.

Some of the Gunther kids got together and  built this wonderful little museum in their backyard as a  gift for their father's birthday.  It is amazing that so many of these things could be in a private collection like this. They told us the things in their museum are not the best pieces.  Those have all gone to colleges, universities and other similar institutions.

The things that are on display are only a small part of the collections.  Shelves full of neatly labeled boxes line several aisles, and the cabinets hold drawers full of even more specimens.

 It is an amazing family museum and collection.