Wilkommen im Schwedelbach

We have grown to love our little village in the short three months that we've now lived in Germany.  It is pituresque, quaint, and small compared to a lot of other villages.  Its close to base (the East Gate which is not the main one), only about a 7 minute drive.  Jared however works on Landstuhl at the big hospital which is closer to 20-25 minutes away.  The Base here only has a small clinic. 

I've been wanting to make a post about our village before it turns cold and the sky is overcast and dreary....which people keep warning me about.  And that it gets dark around 4:30 pm.  This grave stone store is right as you enter town on your left.  It has the weird bear in the front which were not sure has any significance. 

Connected to our village is a little village called Porrbach.  It is tiny, but so beautiful.  We like to go on family bike rides to Porrbach. 

We are surrounded by corn fields, pastures, and just plain fields. 

This is the one bakery in our village.  It is right across the street from the main part of town and the bus stop.  The crazy poofy white stick is called a spirit stick. 

This is an ancient torturing device used to make kids behave.  This is what I tell my children despite the tall tales that Jared tries to convince them of....that it is used in farming. 

We love all the unique old houses.  No two houses are the same.  They face lots of different directions which makes for a very haphazard, but fun village. 

This is right by the bus stop where my kids used to go all summer to catch frogs.  There is a little creek hidden down there. 

Schwedelbach is big on farming.  We have a rabbit farm and chickens, mini horses, ducks, geese, and big horses in coups and pastures, intermixed in all the houses. 

Germans love flowers.  Everyone has flowers.....almost! 

The main street in Schwedelbach

As I was taking pictures of different things, this tractor drove by.  This is very common so I grabbed a quick picture.  We often share the road with tractors.

Everyone has a wood stove and thus needs a wood pile

Hanna just loves how this ivy grows on the side of this house.  Its starts green and changes to red.

If you check out the sky you can see that the weather is constantly changing in Germany.  It had rained this morning, but since the sun came out I decided to take picutres....but half way through the session it started getting grumpy skied over Schwedelbach again. 

This is a typical German village street.  The houses are so close to the street!  And the streets are narrow.  If anyone parks on the street, then the drivers have to take turns going by one at a time. 

A lot of Germans line dry their clothes.  And don't like when you take a picture of it..... I learned this valuable lesson the day I took this 

Every Village has at least one church.  This is ours:

Every village also has a little cemetary

15 years ago....I visited this house over Christmas Break from BYU.  My sister was living in it at the time as her family was stationed in Germany while also serving in the Air Force.  Who woulda known at the time that one day I too would move to Schwedelbach and live in Germany!!  These ones are for you HAMM FAMILY!!

Don't really know what this building is, but its really pretty.  I love all the flowers!  It says Biergarten on the sign....so it might be a restaraunt or small bar. 

This house we dead end into every day before turning on to the main road out of our street.  There are usually two large overweight women sitting on White plastic patio chairs with a table right by the door on the yellow part of the house.  We always wave.  They sit for hours there. 

All of our German neighbors have some agreement that the wood here is for all of them.  This man stores it and I 'm sure they pay him.  Its a lot!  We are curious to see how much they get through this winter.