The Last Blooms

Posted on January 24, 2021 by vanbraman

Today I brought some of the last rose blooms of the season inside.

rose bushes, last roses, pruning timeSince Monday was a Holiday I had some time to work in the yard. However, I still could not convince myself to pruned the rose bushes that still had very nice blooms.

rose bushes, pruning, yellow roses, flower arrangementI was also thinking of pruning them yesterday, but the neighbors were having a party and I didn’t want to disturb them. Especially as my yard work plan included trimming a tree that was hanging over where the party was.

pruning rose bushes, last bloomsThis morning between church services I went and salvaged the last rose blooms and trimmed back the longer canes of the two roses bushes shown above. I had planned on cleaning up all the cuttings in the afternoon.

However, wind, rain and football games got in the way of more yard work. I will have to clean up the cuttings when I put out the yard waste container tomorrow evening.

yellow rose buds, will they open, rosesI also saved a bunch of rose buds and will see if they will open up.

roses, arrangement, pruning roses, leftover rosesIt will be nice to have some roses in my office this week. It will be interesting to see how long they will last.

I don’t often bring roses into the house. I like for them to have a natural life on the bushes. However, the end of season pruning is an exception.

Steven

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Map of Amish Counties 2020

Posted on January 23, 2021 by vanbraman

Each year I look forward to the release of new statistics on Amish Population from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

This year they included a document that showed Amish settlements by county in each state. Back in November I started to create a map of the counties to better visualize where Amish settlements are in the US.

I started with Iowa since it is where I was born and my great grandparents had lived in the Amish settlement in Kalona.

amish settlements, iowa, iowa amishHere is the map I created of the counties in Iowa where the Amish have settlements.

Note: Washington County is not in the data set, but is the center of the Kalona settlement and has been included.

Amish counties, iowa, kansas, nebraska, South DakotaI also included Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota at that time.

Late last year I worked on filling in the rest of the map and I also looked for a good base map to use.

amish counties, amish settlements, US Map, Where do the Amish live

For updated maps see: Map of Amish Counties 2022 and Map of Amish Counties 2023

I believe that this map gives a great visual of where the Amish currently live.

It is interesting to see the patterns of where the settlements are.

I have some ideas for some other maps, as maps from different time periods would be beneficial for Genealogy research.

Steven

Posted in Culture, Family History, Genealogy, History | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments