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e-Quarterly Newsletter
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- Issue Spring 2008 -
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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
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Jeff & Renee's Home News
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Prelude
Many of you may remember our news letters "Jeff's Home News" or "From the Desk
of: Jeff & Renee", and others the "Our Chronicles" Winger family e-newsletter.
For several reasons we are now moving to this electronic format. Feel free to
"forward" this to anyone you know would enjoy it or use the "Refer-A-Friend"
link
in the menu bars.
Some of you haven't heard from us for a long time. No post card, newsletter,
birthday card, Christmas card - nothing. So we won't try to fabricate excuses
to fit all the reasons and occasions. Our hope is to enjoy those practices of
the past when we did all those things and shared stories and experiences with
everyone.
Harley & Scout's Trip to Wisconsin for Christmas 2007
This past December Jeff, Renee, Harley & Scout drove to Wisconsin to have
Christmas with Jeff's folks in snow and cold. It was an adventure in many
ways for each of us.
Utah
On Sunday, we witnessed a five or six Utah State Patrol cars apprehending a
single young man in an older model car with a snowboard lashed to the travel
rack. While in Utah, the only place we saw any Utah patrol cars was at this
road side arrest. After we passed the scene, Harley said he could smell
"pot" in the car, but he didn't see any other dogs as we drove by. Scout said
it was the young man's long hair, sun glasses and California license
plates that tipped-off the police.
Colorado
While walking on a sidewalk at a rest stop in Colorado, Scout looked longingly
at a nearby tree with expectation. Between him and the tree was snow. He'd
been in snow 3" deep in Tehachapi, but this was a challenge. Needing the tree,
he jumped onto the snow thinking he could walk on top and get to the tree. For
a short time, all we saw was an indentation in the snow where he entered.
Eventually he returned to the sidewalk without meeting his expectation.
Jim & Velma's
We stopped for a few days to visit our friends Jim and Velma who live in a
Colorado golfing community on the golf course. This golf course has the usual
greens, sand traps, and ponds with water and ducks. One morning Renee took
Harley and Scout for a walk - Harley on a leash, as he has a tendency to run,
and Scout off leash. As they all saw the ducks on the other side of the pond,
only Scout could run across the pond to engage them. Renee said she could see
the look in his eyes change to terror as he sunk through a thin coating of ice
and snow covering the pond. Renee too felt terror as she had Harley on a
leash lunging toward the ducks and realized she really needed to attend to
Scouts delema. But Scout, being a distant relative and avid
follower of "Wishbone", a courageous PBS-TV hero, summoned his natural
instincts and swam to shore where Renee reached out and pulled him to safety.
All this time Harley was still lunging toward the ducks.
Renee, tugging and pulling, managed to move them into the house and with Velmas'
help, proceeded to give Scout a nice warm bath. We could all see he was very
appreciative and really wanted to stay in the warm water. That night Jim held
Scout on his lap while they both watched a movie about taming the wild west.
Because Harley and Scout know the exact place where Jim and Velma store dog
treats in the garage, they are looking forward to their next visit.
Nebraska
As the road trip was a great time for the boys to sleep in the back seat of the
car, several things became apparent about their travel curiosities. Harley
likes Carl's Jr's chicken fingers - alot! while Scout likes them, but without
the breading. And even though chicken finger's are good, the best is "The
Great American Steak House" in Kearney, NB - all you can eat steak, even Scout
thinks it's a "must stop" when traveling through Nebraska. They are very good
travel dogs.
Wisconsin
It had to be 1981 or 1982 since the last time Jeff had Christmas in Wisconsin
with his folks. This year there was snow, snow, and more snow. Around the
driveway at the farm the snow was pushed into piles four to five feet high.
After one or two warmer days, the melted snow would drain onto the driveway
and freeze at night. You could walk on the ice if there was a light dusting of
snow to keep your feet from slipping. It was not good in the driveway. But
mostly the temperature was below 10 degrees at night and not higher than 30
during the day. Cold!
Christmas
Christmas Eve was special. Jeff's father had been rehearsing with a festival
choir for a performance at the
Middleton Community Church
. Jeff, Renee, Tim
- Jeffs brother, and Roz - Jeff's mom, all attended to hear David sing in the
choir. The service had a wonderful uplifting message complete with group
singing of carols, special music by the choir, and the traditional lighting of
the candles. A very memorable, spiritual and uplifting experience.
Christmas Day was fun for all of us. Everyone got gifts, even Harley and
Scout. Jeff's brother Tim got a hotdog & bun toaster and a special cap. Tim
loves caps, watches or anything that runs on batteries. He has a huge
collection of caps. Renee found one in the Sears Auto catalog with four lights
in the front and a three-way on/off press switch on the side of the brim. Tim
couldn't wait to show his fellow co-workers the next day. Its not the type of
hat you would wear in cold weather, but Tim does. I think he's still wearing
it today -- while he sleeps.
For Harley and Scout, Santa brought a greeting card with dogs barking the song
"Jingle Bells", two stuffed squeaky toys and beef jerky strips. Harley figured
out that every time he opened the card the dogs start to bark. To find what made
the sound coming from the card, he began to attack the card, eventually leaving
only pieces of metal and paper shreds. It was a good time.
The Farm
Cold and snow kept us inside so we looked for things to do. On a previous visit
Renee learnded to make Divinity candys with Donna Buchner. All the ingredients
were there in the cupboards including the mixmasters. We made the first batch,
but they turned out too soft and wouldn't setup hard. Renee said the weather
was too damp, that's why they wouldn't set. After three batches with no
success, we gave up. Later we learned that we burned out the motors on both
mixmasters too. Candy making was something to do.
When we did have the need to take Harley and Scout outside for some exercise,
Harley had to wear his new coat that Renee hand made for him. Scout had a new
sweater that Santa brought and we all crossed the ice in the driveway on our
way to the horse exercise barn. This became a favorite activity as the boys
soon realized that cats slept in the barn haymow. Eventually we had to stop
them from hunting and buroughing between and under the hay bales to roust the
cats from their warm nesting holes as the cats really needed to stay warm too.
But it was exciting while it lasted.
The Trip Home
The trip home to Tehachapi took three days. It was fairly uneventful and
weather the only obsticle. At one point Interstate 80 was closed because of
poor visibility from blowing snow and while in Evanston, WY it was 20 degrees
below zero. We were very happy to be in California with no snow and 45
degree temperatures.
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Our Family
"an excerpt from writings"
By Lillian Schneider O'Connor
The Emigration of Jakob and Elisabeth Schneider to America, form what I have
learned, was not a particularly traumatic undertaking of "tearing away". For
one thing, my mother had spent a few years during her 'teens in the United
States. Her mother's death had left my grandfather, Peter Schneider, with a
young girl to rear. The older siblings, 2 brothers and 2 sisters were married
and busily rearing their own young families. Grandfather's sister, Susanna
Schneider Knauber had emigrated to Omaha. Her youngest child, Susanna was very
near mother's age: hence the decision was made for mother to travel to Omaha in
the company of an older cousin who was headed for the same destination. While
in Omaha, mother did the usual thing for young "greenhorns" - to get work as a
maid in the home of a local family where she learned American cooking and
reading and writing in English. From her reminiscence about those years, it
was a reasonably happy time except for occasional bouts of homesickness. She
found other relatives there and numerous friends of her own age with whom she
maintained a keeping-in-touch kind of correspondence for most of her life.
Both during and after her stay in Omaha she also maintained correspondence with
other Altrip
[Altrip, Germany]
(and Neuhoffen) emigrants to the United States: They were the
Marx, Stier, and Hornig families in Sussex (then called Templeton).
Homesickness for her family in Germany was probably reciprocated by them. At
any rate she returned to Altrip. My cousin "Bienchen" Zobel remembered her as
a very pretty young lady . . . . . my father Jakob also found her much to his
liking. Returning to Beinchen's story, when the young people announced their
marriage intentions, all the "old" people conferred over family bibles to check
on whether the relationship was at a safe distance. After all, again according
to Bienchen, "We didn't want any stupid children in the family."
After their marriage, father and mother owned and operated an inn, "Die
Hoffnung" (The Hope) in Altrip up to the time that they emigrated to Wisconsin,
The family left Germany on July 29, 1906. One of the stories Henry use to
tell was that at departure from Bremerhaven, the ship's band played
Musz 'i den, musz i' denn, zum Stattle 'naus
(Must I then depart from my village, while you, my sweetheart stays here?) . .
. . . nary a dry eye, either on the ship or on the dock. At the time of their
departure Henry was about 7 and Elisabeth about 3. The other child born in
Germany, Ludwig had died in infancy. One of the probable reasons that father
was willing to leave Germany was the fact of no compulsory military service in
the United States as was the case in Germany. Father wanted no army life for
his son.
There were apparently no untoward incidents aboard ship. Mother told how Henry
and father spent most of their waking hours on deck. One of the times they
took Elisabeth along, she was bouncing a rubber ball which slid into some crack,
where it remained visible but no one was able to retrieve it. One of the ship
personnel tried to comfort her by offering to give her another ball. She
turned it down, saying, tearfully, that she wanted her "own ball" to which she
could point. She grew up to be a strong minded lady.
In due time they arrived in Sussex where they rented a house for a brief
period. After completing purchase of the farm from the Hornig family, they
took the first steps to establish American citizenship. By the time Woodrow
Wilson was serving his first presidential term my father had to appear before
the naturalization board. There were enough people to vouch for his
worthiness, including Mamerows, Viergutzes, Birkholz, and however many it
took. When asked some questions about his political leaning, father replied,
"If I had been a citizen when Woodrow Wilson ran for president, I would have
voted for him." Thus ended that chapter . . . . no further questions.
As far as being immigrants was concerned, I believe that the family had a
relatively smooth time being accepted. The farm neighbors has also come from
Europe. A few from Altrip (Hornigs, Stiers, Marxes) plus a scattering from
Mecklenburg, Prussia, and Poland. The "German" church had as members families
who lived in Templeton, Sussex, and Lannon. There was also a large English and
Scotch group who attended either the Episcopalian, Methodist, or Presbyterian
churches, The small Catholic contingent had to travel by horse and buggy to
the Catholic Church at Willow Springs. . . . . . otherwise known as Whisky
Corner. The entire layout consisted of the church, its adjacent cemetery and a
rather busy tavern. . . . handy to either Sussex or Lannon.
I grew up speaking, reading, and writing both German and English. There was an
annual six weeks summer school which I attended (reluctantly) until I was
confirmed. Our teacher was usually a seminarian from Elmhurst who would listen
to us only when we addressed him in German. I was most relieved on my first day
there that numbers were the same as at the public school. . . . true they had
different names, but easy to remember.
I am sure that there may have been problems of which I was unaware. I grew up
with the knowledge that we were respected, and that my playmates came from
every background which the village had to offer. I must add that the rest of
the family had the same kind of acceptance.
The land on the farm had been under cultivation since the mid-19th century.
When threshing or haymaking time rolled around, all the farmers in the
neighborhood pitched in and helped each other. The women and girls helped the
hostess prepare a bountiful meal for the men. Washbasins, pails of water and
the oldest towels were set up under a tree so the men could clean up before
eating. Neighborhood kids, of course, showed up with their mothers and we
children had little parties on what men had left.
How did father and a growing son manage over a hundred acres? We always had a
hired man, one a lad on prole from the Waukesha county jail, but the bes one
(my favorite) was John Mamerow. . . . . he would lift me high and swing me
over his head. Whenever I saw him until I was about six years old, my greeting
was "Ving High, Dondee". Until electricity came to our area, we all pitched in
hoeing thistles out of the corn and potato, patches . . . . even picked potato
bugs off of the potato plants. My favorite task was to ride old Pete (an aging
horse) when he was hitched to the hay fork which lifted the hay (no bales in
those days) into the hay mow.
We were plentifully blessed (?) with rocks of all sizes. One of the men in the
village had a stone crusher, and when large enough heaps of stone were
gathered, he would come with his rig and reduce them to crushed rock and
gravel, enough to cover our wickedly steep lane to the house from what is now
Hwy 164. Earlier owners had used many of the medium to large stones to build
foundations of the machinery shed, the large barn which accommodated cows on
the lower level, horses and some gear on the mid-level, and hay and oats on the
top level. There was also a sheep barn. Mother's flock of pigeons lived at
the top of the latter structure. Her squab dinners were popular with the
family, and also many friends and neighbors. When mother got a certain look in
her eyes after inspecting the dove cote, I would hide. I couldn't bear to see
her kill them, but was always on time for the ensuing meal.
There was one episode which affected the entire community in its collective
funny bone. The two hamlets, Templeton and Sussex, each had its own post
office, situated about half a mile apart. The Lingelbach farm was located on
the road between the two settlements. When the merger was made, it was
determined by the survey that the barn location was such that the cows were fed
in Sussex, but gave their milk in Templeton. Anyone with any kind of
imagination can fill in the caliber of jokes which that state of affairs
created.
Lillian Schneider O'Connor is deceased. (a grand aunt of Jeffrey Haswell)
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"Your Home News"
Update
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New standards for home appraisers
"2009 changes to require greater independence"
By Roger Showley
San Diego Union Tribune
STAFF WRITER
March 4, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed yesterday to require greater independence for
real estate appraisers, whose practices during the real estate boom have been
criticized for leading to bad loans and the current subprime mortgage meltdown
and credit crunch.
The two government-chartered agencies, which purchase nearly 80 percent of all
home loans originated in the country, made the agreement to settle an
investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He had subpoenaed the
agencies in November over questionable loans purchased from banks, including
Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan.
Mortgage bankers and brokers were divided on whether the changes, effective
Jan. 1 2009, will eliminate conflicts of interest among lenders, appraisers,
real estate agents, and title and insurance companies that operate appraisal
subsidiaries. They also disagreed on whether the changes will increase costs to
home buyers and sellers.
Cuomo had challenged banks to “clean up appraisal fraud.”
“Today's agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac begins to set right
what had gone so horribly wrong in the mortgage industry – rampant
appraisal fraud,” Cuomo said in a statement. “The integrity of our
mortgage system depends on independent appraisals.”
Industry leaders expect the changes to apply nationally. The agreement will:
Ban mortgage brokers from selecting appraisers.
Prohibit lenders from using staff appraisers or appraisers working for
appraisal companies they own or control. Wells Fargo and Countrywide Financial,
two of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, operate appraisal units. They
declined to comment on the effect of the agreement.
Institute an 11-part “Home Valuation Code of Conduct,” which all
lenders dealing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have to follow, to
eliminate “coercion, extortion, collusion” and other means for
influencing appraisals.
Establish the “Independent Valuation Protection Institute,” funded
from $24 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to monitor appraisal
practices.
Set up a consumer hotline to handle complaints about questionable appraisals.
The federal Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight will host the
institute and maintain the hotline.
David Berenbaum, an executive with the National Community Reinvestment
Coalition, praised the agreement, as did Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp.
Bill Garber, government relations director for the 23,000-member Appraisal
Institute in Washington, D.C., said his organization supports the reforms as a
way to reduce the pressures exerted on appraisers to come up with values that
justify a home loan.
“There are times when that type of pressure boils over into and could be
considered acts of coercion,” Garber said. “The good appraisers
will say no to those pressures and hang up the phone.”
Tony Majewski, acting director of the California Office of Real Estate
Appraisers, said a state law effective in October prohibited some of the
tactics banned in the Cuomo agreement. The law “prohibits anyone with an
interest in an appraisal from exerting or attempting to exert influence on an
appraisal to affect a value,” he said.
Mortgage bankers and brokers differed on what the agreement will mean to them
and their clients.
Mike Dillon of TCS Mortgage, a San Diego mortgage banker and brokerage that
closed about 25 loans last month, said banks might become overly conservative
if they alone select appraisers.
“I don't think it solves anybody's problems,” he said.
Steve Hops, a mortgage banker at Guild Mortgage, called the agreement “a
nonevent” for bankers, because they will still control who does the
appraising, but a “headache for brokers,” who will have no role in
the selection process.
But Hops added, “It's the integrity of the individual appraiser that's at
stake, whether he works for an in-house company or an independent
company.”
Jim Park, a Denver appraiser working with Joseph Caffaro in Coronado to launch
the Valuation Works network of independent appraisers, said, “This is
going to be a good thing for borrowers, very good for consumers,” because
they can presumably rely on appraisals to be accurate.
Park and other appraisers predicted that costs of an appraisal, typically $350
to $450 for a home, would not change. On the other hand, Roy DeLoach, executive
director of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, said the agreement
will remove “thousands of small-business competitors from the
marketplace” and thereby increase consumer costs.
Some observers thought the time it takes to obtain an appraisal might increase,
especially if an appraisal sought from one lender is not accepted as valid by a
second lender.
But David Eshelman, who operates an appraisal company in Carlsbad, said lenders
are already being more prudent in how they review loan applications and
appraisals.
“The real estate industry goes thorough these cycles of fattening up and
skinnying down – it's bingeing and purging,” Eshelman said.
“And right now, we're in a purge.”
The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters contributed to this report.
Roger M. Showley: (619) 293-1286;
roger.showley@uniontrib.com
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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080304/news_1b4appraise.html
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© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. A Copley Newspaper Site
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Economic Slowdown:
What Is—and Is Not—Different This Time
By Robert Folsom
No one believes that it’s good news, but if nothing else, it finally
seems safe to say that the
U.S.
economy has “slid into recession.” Such was the consensus among 70
percent of leading economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting
survey, conducted March 7-11.
This was a “precipitous shift toward pessimism from the previous
survey” taken in late January. The negative shift followed the second
consecutive month of job losses (Jan.-Feb.). While most of the economists
surveyed expect the economy to recover in the second half of 2008, nearly half
also said “a recession this year could be worse than the 2001 and 1990-91
downturns.”
Such comparisons raise interesting questions. All slowdowns have a few things
in common, such as negative GDP, rising unemployment and falling consumer
spending. Even so, it's the differences between one slowdown vs. another that
are memorable. What could make this one memorable in a negative sense or,
indeed, more memorably positive than people currently expect?
Bad Times are Brief
If the 2001 economic recession is the measure, then that’s the one to
emulate if a downturn is “necessary.” It was so mild that it
didn’t even register two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, the usual
definition of recession. Unemployment remained relatively stable and consumer
spending barely slowed. Of course, the
U.S.
stock market was another matter: The bursting of the dot-com bubble led to a
three-year bear market in which the S&P 500 lost half its value.
The economic troubles in 1990-91 were triggered by
Iraq
’s invasion of
Kuwait
and the subsequent spike in oil prices. War in
Iraq
and rising oil prices may sound familiar, but any comparison to our problems
now is a stretch at best. The current Gulf War is entering its fifth year,
during which time oil prices have climbed relentlessly—yet the economy grew
handsomely right through the end of 2007.
In fact, the invasion of
Kuwait
was the first of several lesser “shocks” in the 1990s that roiled
markets and threatened economies. Others included the Asian currency crisis
(1997), the Russian bond default (1998) and the implosion of Long-Term Capital
Management. These episodes were hair-raising but ultimately contained; all
offered lessons that central bankers and policymakers appeared to learn from.
A Return to “Stagflation”?
Some news stories suggest that today’s slowing economy and rising prices
amounts to “an echo—faintly but distinctly audible—of the stagflation of
the 1970s” (New York Times, Feb. 21).This comparison may prove more
accurate than parallels with other slowdowns in recent decades. Prices have
indeed been rising (especially oil), and a psychological malaise seems to have
descended on the first quarter of 2008.
Yet even this comparison invites a contrast that can’t go unmentioned:
Real estate was the one asset that held its value and kept pace with the worst
of the double-digit inflation of the 1970s. No need to elaborate on how things
are different with real estate right now.
What's Different This Time?
While the effects from one recession to the next may be debatably similar, the
causes are the true distinguishing mark of every real recession. And this time
around the cause could not be clearer: bad debt. In particular, pieces of bad
debt were packaged with good debt in the form of securities, and those
securities were distributed to every corner of a financial network that has
become more global than ever. No person or institution has full knowledge of
how much of the debt is bad or the extent of its spread.
If any comparison to economic difficulties of an earlier time applies, it is to
the 1930s—but not because this downturn will remotely rival that one (it
won’t). Instead, the truth is that the 1930s was the last time banks and
financial institutions faced a true systemic crisis. The reforms and safeguards
that followed that experience served the economy well for two full generations.
Alas, those 80+ years of success are now beyond the living memory of any
borrower, lender or policy maker alive today.
In turn, the most common methods and models of risk valuation today have been
shaped far more by economic prosperity than by financial failure. The
possibility of a system-wide crisis simply didn’t fit anyone’s risk
model, much as “rogue waves” on the oceans did not fit the
probability theory of skeptical scientists. It took several years of research
and satellite photographs to confirm what mariners knew for centuries; namely,
that rogue waves were all too real.
Risk Valuation: Back to the Drawing Board
And now, hard experience will demand sober revisions in the risk valuation
practiced by every financial professional, from quantitative analysts with PhDs
to loan officers at small local banks. This is a good thing. Since the end of
WWII the “average” recession in the
U.S.
has lasted 11 months, and over time the trend has been toward shorter
recessions and longer expansions.
That is to say, we seem to be learning how to limit the length and severity of
the down part of the economic cycle. If that learning process continues with
risk valuation, today’s dark economic clouds will have their silver
lining.
Robert Folsom is a writer and editor who has covered politics, popular culture,
economics and the financial markets. His columns have appeared on Dow Jones
Marketwatch and FOXNews.com. Reach him at
robertfolsom@charter.net
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