The Treadway's

Michelle and the girls now live in Vilseck, Germany, since her husband Joe is stationed there. She was recently given the opportunity to plant a tree there in Daddy’s name near the Dagestein Castle which is located behind her apartment complex. The castle was first built in about 800-900 A.D. but was damaged several times during the 30-year war and by a fire that nearly destroyed it. As she walks Toria and Aleya to school each day, she often passes a farmer named Herr Hammer (best spelling she can come up with) who lives down the street. Michelle said, “I was talking to him about planting a tree in honor of grandpa. I told him grandpa’s mom was named Buzzard. He told me Buzzard was a very old and honorable name in Germany. A couple of days later the farmer told me his brothers keep the castle and castle grounds and they were planting a row of trees in the reclaimed land that used to be a moat around the castle. He sent me to his brothers who were just planting this row of trees in the picture. When they got to the last tree, they asked me to plant it (the conifer on the far end of the line). So grandpa has a tree planted in his honor in Germany and we will get to watch it grow while we are here. I could not get back in to get a closer picture. It had been raining, and since that land is reclaimed from the old moat, it is quite boggy when it rains a lot. That is the reason they were planting the trees, so they will soak up a lot of the water.” Pretty neat that Daddy has a tree planted in his honor in a foreign country from which some of his relatives came to America.

This is one view of Dagestein Castle and the tree is planted out of sight just to the left.