I headed for Dale Cemetery yesterday, armed with a Google map and the map from the Decatur Co. website. I swear maps don't mean a durned thing when you're map challenged as I am... It says to go Hwy 69, however, I take I-35 . So, in Leon, turn left at W 1st St.; turn right at SE Vine St.; Continue onto SE 6th St.; Continue onto 253rd Ave.; Continue onto 230th St.; Turn left at Co. Rd. R46; Turn left..........Destination will be on the left. Reading my odomoter might be helpful too.. Well, I've not spent much time in this part of Leon and Decatur County, so another first for me. As usual, I drove and drove and realized I'd gone too far on Pleasanton Road, so I turned around and headed back.. There was no traffic and so nobody to flag down to ask for directions -- but then, I saw a guy with a dog sitting on the bank of a field next to the road, so I pulled over and hollered at him, to get directions... He very calmly told me where to go... (Well, where to find the cemetery).. I do believe in Angels. His directions were perfect. There is no sign for this cemetery and it is in the saddest condition of all the cemeteries I've visited in the past couple of months.. It appears to have been vandalized, and most of the stones have been knocked over.. I went through 1 full box and half of another box of white chalk, trying to find the inscriptions so they would be readable. The lichen is pretty thick on the marble stones. I took 121 pictures which I'll put on the Iowa Gravestone Photos. Stacey has approved the Lillie Cemetery pictures and you can see them on that site now. I go to the Decatur Co. website (which is at the bottom of every email you receive) and then go to the Gravestone Project from there... When I'm posting these pictures, I use a split screen so I have the cemetery transcription and the Gravestone Project both at the same time... I have to refer to the transcriptions a lot, to make sure the info. is correct.. I know I haven't said it enough, but we need to all thank those folks who walked and transcribed these cemeteries for us, while they were in better condition and readable. What a tremendous amount of time it must have taken; I am grateful for all their work!! With the condition of some of these older cemeteries that I'm seeing, these transcriptions and photos are going to be the only memories of them.. While I was chalking and working on the headstone pics, I heard an owl that kept calling -- so I called back -- "hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo - who cooks for you?" We were having a great time and suddenly it stopped dead still.. Probably came close enough to see that I was the wrong species.. smile... My Best, Nancee

I'm new to this but wonder how this chalking works. Are you holding the chalk sideways and rubbing on the flat part of the stone, which makes the untouched part more readable? pat > Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:34:50 -0600 > From: iggy29@grm.net > To: IADECATU@rootsweb.com > Subject: [IADECATU] DALE CEMETERY - HAMILTON TOWNSHIP. > > I headed for Dale Cemetery yesterday, armed with a Google map and the map > from the Decatur Co. website. I swear maps don't mean a durned thing when > you're map challenged as I am... It says to go Hwy 69, however, I take I-35 > . So, in Leon, turn left at W 1st St.; turn right at SE Vine St.; Continue > onto SE 6th St.; Continue onto 253rd Ave.; Continue onto 230th St.; Turn > left at Co. Rd. R46; Turn left..........Destination will be on the left. > Reading my odomoter might be helpful too.. > > Well, I've not spent much time in this part of Leon and Decatur County, so > another first for me. As usual, I drove and drove and realized I'd gone too > far on Pleasanton Road, so I turned around and headed back.. There was no > traffic and so nobody to flag down to ask for directions -- but then, I saw > a guy with a dog sitting on the bank of a field next to the road, so I > pulled over and hollered at him, to get directions... He very calmly told me > where to go... (Well, where to find the cemetery).. I do believe in Angels. > > > His directions were perfect. There is no sign for this cemetery and it is > in the saddest condition of all the cemeteries I've visited in the past > couple of months.. It appears to have been vandalized, and most of the > stones have been knocked over.. I went through 1 full box and half of > another box of white chalk, trying to find the inscriptions so they would be > readable. The lichen is pretty thick on the marble stones. > > I took 121 pictures which I'll put on the Iowa Gravestone Photos. Stacey > has approved the Lillie Cemetery pictures and you can see them on that site > now. I go to the Decatur Co. website (which is at the bottom of every email > you receive) and then go to the Gravestone Project from there... When I'm > posting these pictures, I use a split screen so I have the cemetery > transcription and the Gravestone Project both at the same time... I have to > refer to the transcriptions a lot, to make sure the info. is correct.. > > I know I haven't said it enough, but we need to all thank those folks who > walked and transcribed these cemeteries for us, while they were in better > condition and readable. What a tremendous amount of time it must have taken; > I am grateful for all their work!! With the condition of some of these > older cemeteries that I'm seeing, these transcriptions and photos are going > to be the only memories of them.. > > While I was chalking and working on the headstone pics, I heard an owl that kept calling -- so I called back -- "hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo - who cooks for you?" We were having a great time and suddenly it stopped dead still.. Probably came close enough to see that I was the wrong species.. smile... My Best, Nancee > > www.iagenweb.org/decatur > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IADECATU-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5

Hootie Hoo Day, Nancee!    You mentioned you wanted a copy of the thesis for the Grange paper of Decatur county.  Do you want the entire thing, or just the parts that mention Decatur County (there are several other counties included).   Tracie :) TRACIE McBROOM Newton, IA  http://www.pamperedchef.biz/traciemcbroom --- On Tue, 4/27/10, Nancee Seifert <iggy29@grm.net> wrote: From: Nancee Seifert <iggy29@grm.net> Subject: [IADECATU] DALE CEMETERY - HAMILTON TOWNSHIP. To: IADECATU@rootsweb.com Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 10:34 AM I headed for Dale Cemetery yesterday, armed with a Google map and the map from the Decatur Co. website.  I swear maps don't mean a durned thing when you're map challenged as I am...  It says to go Hwy 69, however, I take I-35 . So, in Leon, turn left at W 1st St.; turn right at SE Vine St.;  Continue onto SE 6th St.; Continue onto 253rd Ave.; Continue onto 230th St.; Turn left at Co. Rd. R46; Turn left..........Destination will be on the left. Reading my odomoter might be helpful too.. Well, I've not spent much time in this part of Leon and Decatur County, so another first for me.  As usual, I drove and drove and realized I'd gone too far on Pleasanton Road, so I turned around and headed back.. There was no traffic and so nobody to flag down to ask for directions -- but then, I saw a guy with a dog sitting on the bank of a field next to the road, so I pulled over and hollered at him, to get directions... He very calmly told me where to go... (Well, where to find the cemetery)..  I do believe in Angels.   His directions were perfect.  There is no sign for this cemetery and it is in the saddest condition of all the cemeteries I've visited in the past couple of months.. It appears to have been vandalized, and most of the stones have been knocked over.. I went through 1 full box and half of another box of white chalk, trying to find the inscriptions so they would be readable. The lichen is pretty thick on the marble stones. I took 121 pictures which I'll put on the Iowa Gravestone Photos.  Stacey has approved the Lillie Cemetery pictures and you can see them on that site now.  I go to the Decatur Co. website (which is at the bottom of every email you receive) and then go to the Gravestone Project from there... When I'm posting these pictures, I use a split screen so I have the cemetery transcription and the Gravestone Project both at the same time... I have to refer to the transcriptions a lot, to make sure the info. is correct.. I know I haven't said it enough, but we need to all thank those folks who walked and transcribed these cemeteries for us, while they were in better condition and readable. What a tremendous amount of time it must have taken; I am grateful for all their work!!  With the condition of some of these older cemeteries that I'm seeing, these transcriptions and photos are going to be the only memories of them.. While I was chalking and working on the headstone pics, I heard an owl that kept calling -- so I called back -- "hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo - who cooks for you?"  We were having a great time and suddenly it stopped dead still..  Probably came close enough to see that I was the wrong species.. smile...     My Best, Nancee www.iagenweb.org/decatur ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IADECATU-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message