My Grandfather (Fred) and my Great-Uncle Albert were inspirations to many people in and around Green County and even beyond. Grandpa with his endless wood crafts made with love and sold to benefit his church and Albert with his passion for cheese-making, wood-working, and timber management. Fred had his wood shop near his home and worked there until he could no longer work alone safely. Albert owned many acres of hardwood timbers that he used to supply wood to Grandpa and our entire family as well as to the Deppeler Wood Shop and sawmill he owned and operated near Monroe.
Grandpa inspired me to love wood-working and make things that friends and family could enjoy. Though, I doubt that I'll ever have the time and vision that he had, I do enjoy working in his shop as much as I can.
Albert inspired me to go to school for Forestry and learn about how wonderful trees and timbers are as the ultimate renewable resource. To Albert, trees were were one of the most renewable and useful resources known. He was slightly disappointed when we built our deck out of TREX (a product made from partially recycled wood products - but not wood). However, with how fast most wood deteriorates outdoors and how redwood and red cedar are not exactly a renewable resource in our area, we decided the TREX would be best for us and he understood.
Lynne and I visited Grandma and Grandpa and Albert and Marion several times each year and enjoyed talking about trees, flowers, mushrooms, birds, cheese-making, wood-working, traveling, and Switzerland. We visited several timbers to see especially large or otherwise interesting trees and an occasional hunt for wildflowers or morels. Albert showed us old cheese-factories that he knew of and even offered to sell us a cheese factory that he owned again when a land-contract fell through. If only we knew how to make cheese! I've since started my Orange Deb Cheese blog to save those efforts.
Sadly, Grandpa passed away in Aug 2005 and Albert in July 2007. Grandma (Helen) and Aunt Marion are no longer able to care for themselves and are living in a nursing home. Fred and Helen and Albert and Marion were always generous with their time and knowledge and we miss our times with all of them immensely. Lynne and I will forever be grateful for their many gifts to us. We bought Grandpa's shop and thanks to Albert we now own a nearby timber which we visit as often as we can find the time. This blog reminds me of the great times we have there.
This blog will record those visits. Unfortunately, I have not written about the earlier visits. We visited a couple of times in fall 2007, hiking and fishing with Tony and Tajenay. Lynne, Tajenay and I met Steve to cruise the timber back in March for a harvest of several dead large White Oaks. My cousin Bill and I cruised his timber and ours in early April 2009. Friends Shirley and Diane joined us on May 3rd, 2008 to hunt for morels and take pictures of wild-flowers.
