On July 2, 1750 Joh Michael Hoffman (widower) was married to Engel Schedlerin in New Hanover township in what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The marriage was recorded in the records of the Augustus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania.
If my theory is correct, Michael and Engel would be my 6th great grandparents. Regardless whether they are or not, one of the places I wanted to visit while in Pennsylvania was the Old Trappe Church. It is reportedly the oldest unchanged Lutheran church still in use in the United States.
According to information posted on the bulletin board outside the church, the congregation was organized about 1730 by John Caspar Stoever, Jr. (who happens to be one of my 5th great grandparents). Worship services were held in a barn loaned by one of the deacons. At that time Stoever was not a regularly ordained pastor but in 1732 he was ordained in the presence of the Trappe congregation. He remained there for a few years before moving on to Lancaster.
Stoever's departure left the spiritual care of the congregation in the hands of a series of self-styled itinerant pastors until late in 1742 with the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. In January 1743, members of the congregation began hauling stones to the site and the structure was erected through the spring and summer months. The first service was held in the unfurnished interior on September 12, 1743. The building was completed and dedicated on October 6, 1745. The congregation organized formally, adopting the name "Augustus Lutheran Church." By 1752, the interior of the church building was completed as it appears today.
In 1814, the exterior stone walls were stuccoed and painted to help preserve the building. A woodstove and wooden floor was also added to the interior. In 1860, a severe storm destroyed half of the roof of the Old Church and there was discussion of razing the building but funds were raised to pay for the repairs. In the late 1920s the interior was restored to the colonial appearance with the removal of the stove and the addition of a concrete and flagstone floor. It is now listed as a National Historic site.
In 1852 a new brick church was built a short distance away. The new building is the current church building used by the Augustus Lutheran Church.
The walkway leading to the Old Trappe Church is embedded with plaques from other Lutheran churches around the world. All photographs were taken on October 9, ...
I was fascinated by the shape of the church building.
The raised graves/crypts next to the church building are for members of the Muhlenburg family.
Burials in the cemetery reportedly date from 1729. The oldest legible stone, which I did not find, is dated 1736.
Some of the windows still have the old wavy glass, though I doubt that the panes are from the early 1700s.
Detail of the braces used to keep the shutters open.
I had not pre-arranged for a tour, so was unable to go inside. Shots of the interior were taken by carefully holding the camera up against the window panes. The pulpit on the left side is the only piece of furniture that was not handcrafted by local craftsmen using native woods. It was made of European red walnut and imported at the time the church was dedicated. The top piece over the pulpit is a 'sound board' that amplifies the preachers voice. The offering bags on the far wall were used in the 18th century.
A portion of the concrete and flagstone floor is visible as is the staircase leading to the second floor balcony.
I am always amazed by the craftsmanship and engineering skills of the early builders. Even if this is not The Church of my Hoffman ancestors, it was an incredible feeling to walk around it and to be able to see this magnificent Old Church.
On this day we decided to go to a place we hadn't been to for about five years, Porkypine Canyon, or that is what we call it as the first time we went there we saw a porkypine. This was about 25 years ago. Porkypine was wattling along down the road but when it saw us it went up into the rocks. I don't think it was the rocks I took so many photos of this day but a simular bunch that I didn't get a photo of. I really like this jumble of rocks with an almost square rock sticking up like a giant childs lego block. It was squared off so well it looked like it had been done by a giant machine. We didn't find any porkpines this day but did see a lot of fresh deer and elk tracks. 
One of the larger boats in the harbor.
Two early risers getting in some fishing time.
The sun makes it up over the top of the mountains.
The fishing boats were heading out. A light breeze was blowing and the seas were fairly calm.
After these boats hooked up together they turned around and headed for open waters. The wave in front of them was caused by another passing boat.
We saw this really big nice looking thunderhead cloud on our way home from the Jemez
2007 has become a dangerous year at Mount Rainier, even with the roads closed. Since mid-February, there have been three fatalities within the park boundary, a terrible trend as the park prepares to reopen this spring. 
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The Sandhill cranes are big birds about 3 feet tall, gray with the bright red spot on top of their head. Cranes, as well as the geese, migrate down from their nesting areas in Alaska and Canada in the fall to winter along the Rio Grande River, mostly at the Bosque del Apache Refuge which is about 2 hour drive south of us. There are a lot of these birds that go to Texas to winter, too. They usually start arriving here in November. In late winter, about now, they start their migration back north to the nesting grounds. There used to be so many of these unique birds that it was unbeleivable. My grandmother told me of watching them in the fields especially of doing the stange dance they do when mating. I have seen this at other times but none were doing it on this day. The sandhills almost were gone at one time but they came under the protection of many bird groups and now there are lots of them again. If you are lucky and I mean very lucky you might see one of the extreamly rare hooping cranes in with the sandhills. The hoopers are almost white and taller. I did get to see one at a distance in the Bosque del Apache Refuge a long time ago. We had planned to go there but decided it was to far on this day. Link to the Bosque del Apache http://http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/Friendsindex.html#whatsnew
This state park of New Mexico is set on the edge of the Rio Grande River in an older section of the city of Albuquerque about 20 miles from my home. The nature center is home to many native plants and animals and lots of birds. There are many people who enjoy birding that come here to see the birds that live here and the ones that are just passing through as were the geese and cranes that we saw yesterday when we went there. It has been about 10 years since I have been here but not much had changed except then it cost $1 to get in and now it is $3 per car. We didn't see any of the sandhill cranes in the park but did in a field as we were leaving. One of the most interesting birds we saw was way off at a distance and I didn't get a close shot of him. It was a Kingfisher bird which I had never seen before.
