Now, Back To Fishing

I've been concentrating on finishing the gutter project. Wednesday I put the final piece in place. The entire house is guttered. Me, I'm beat to shit. Up and down the ladder (that is up to the 3rd rung from the top of a 12' ladder and back down again) to measure, cut, measure again, cut, attach, rivet, caulk, and finally paint. For someone who has arthritis, that is a killer.

Yuki and I were supposed to go fishing today, but our wires got crossed, so we'll make it sometime next week.

Got a couple updates.

This picture was on the news this morning. Sonora Pass is Highway 108 out of Sonora (obviously) and over the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Sonora Pass

This was also on the news this morning. this is Ebbitts Pass on Highway 4 out of Angels Camp. Still a bunch of snow up there.

Ebbitts Pass

OK, how about a little Ancestry update. You know I've been digging around in my family's past, but I got knocked off my chair, not once but twice this past week. Great-Grandfather Gottlieb Kautz had a son named Christof (born about 1865). Now if you've done any Ancestry research, you know that Christof could be spelled any of 20 different ways. My cousin mentioned a Christoph (born 1785) that she found in an 1814 census. So I went back and researched him. Ya never know.

Right around the time he was born, two brothers and a niece popped up and they were on my DNA profile. If that doesn't knock one off the chair, I don't know what will until the next hit.

Following back about 9 generations, there is a point to this, I came across another hit from my DNA profile. All the same family. Here is where it gets good. Agnes Kautz (dob 1610) was grand-daughter of, you ready for this? Sir Jacob Kautz (1530), daughter of Sir Clas Kautz (1580), Brother of Sir Peter Kautz (1639)(wife was Lady Walpurgi), who's son was Sir Jacob Kautz (1658), who's son was Sir Christian Kautz (1691), who's son was Sir Dieterich Kautz (1727). If that ain't royalty, I don't know what is.

Here is where it gets even better. This part of the family lived in a town called Hanau. They are from the House of Hesse. Do Hessian Soldiers ring a bell? No, England hired 30,000 of them to come to America to fight in the Revolutionary War. I won't go into the part where George Washington kicked their collective German asses at the battle of Trenton, but hey, they were celebrating Christmas the night before and you know how those Germans like their spirits. I can say this because this is about my family. I still have to connect this family line, and two more I'm following to my family, but it's only a matter of time.

So being descended from German Royalty, does that make me a Royal Geezer???

I think I'll run up to Cat Creek tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned.