Dahlhauser Machine Shop - Timeline

It all started in 1940 with Grandpa Henry pumping gas; doing all of his own repairs as needed. As more people learned of his repair expertise, his business led to a machine shop which has prospered for the past 73 years.

The shop was just a single small building at first with their family home built to the south of it. (#1 in photo below)

The initial building eventually became the steel room. Before the sale in the above photo.

The empty steel room above after the sale. The people in the background are standing in an addition.

The first addition was put on in about 1948. (#2 in the above aerial photo). At times this room holds the race car that Dad helps with...and that's about as wide as it is.

The second addition was put on in the early 1960s. (#3 in above aerial photo). It held two hay racks before the sale.

The same room almost empty and from the other end.

Grandpa and his brother, Paul, ran Dahlhauser Bros. until about 1962-1963 when they parted ways. Grandpa continued the machine shop business with the help of his sons.

An old West Bend Elevator office building was originally bought to be moved onto a foundation and made into a home for my Mom and Dad. But after closer inspection it was decided it wasn't in good enough condition for a home, so it was used as another addition to the shop around 1968 – 1970. It was used to store inventory and for much needed office space. (#4 in above aerial photo)

The final and largest addition was put on in 1975, and an open house was held to celebrate. At the time it seemed like such a large space and would fit the biggest of equipment, but just a handful of years later, it was getting full and customers' equipment was getting bigger. (#5 in above aerial photo)

Starting to get ready for the sale on May 31 in the 1975 addition.

Getting ready for the sale on June 14.

West Bend's Quasquicentennial was in 1981, and Dahlhauser Machine Shop had an entry in the parade.  Mike, Grandpa, and Dad were on the float with the old coal forge.

Uncle Gene, Uncle Tim, Grandpa, and Dad at West Bend's Quasquicentennial in 1981.

Dad doesn't remember when, but when he was doing some remodeling, he found an old flag in one of the walls. It only had 48 stars. He donated it to the American Legion.

 

Published in Fort Dodge Messenger in the late 1980s-early 1990s.




Dad and Gene sometime between 1992 and 2001.

 
Grandpa Henry and his four sons worked there for several years. When he retired in 1978, Dad bought and operated the business until May 31, 2013. Charlie worked with him until 1985, Tim until 1992, and Gene until June 2001.


Charlie, Tim, Gene, Max

 The Shop will be missed by many in West Bend and surrounding towns. It holds many memories for me and my family. The end of an era.

Dad's Retirement

Last February, Dad called to say that he had decided to sell the shop. He had already cut back on the hours he was working over the past few years, but it was time to officially retire. Grandpa Henry started the shop in 1940, and Dad grew up and worked there his entire life.



The beginning. The picture didn't have a date on it, but I'm guessing it's about 1942-43.





Working hard on his official last day.



  Many hours have been spent in the past few months going thru the stuff that accumulates in a building after 73 years.

The shop is a part of family history and holds many memories.

Happy Retirement, Dad!

Spring....and then Winter's last hurrah

It's been while since I posted so here are some pictures of some of my spring flowers and then the late, quick blast of winter we had.

 

We ended up with about 6 inches of wet, heavy snow on May 2-3.

-3

Everything survived the snow. The tulips just closed up during the cold weather and then opened up again and lasted for a bit longer than they would have.

Finished Projects

I wanted to complete some UFOs (unfinished objects) this winter. Last week I finished up the 4th one...two flannel baby blankets, a crocheted afghan, and a baby quilt.

I found a quilt store in the area that is a drop off site for Project Linus. They accept all sizes and styles of blankets for children in need. All donations stay local.

One of the other projects on my list is a full size quilt. I've been out shopping for backing twice and just haven't been able to find what I want. But as soon as I do, it's off to the machine quilter.

Time for Spring Flowers?

We have a few inches of snow on the ground, so I hadn't even thought about checking the gardens for the inital sprouts of flowers until I got a gardening newsletter yesterday.

Things are coming up a bit later than in the past two years.

Mar. 12, 2011

Feb. 17, 2012

Mar. 11, 2012

 

Mar. 8, 2013

 After looking at photos, they're about a month behind 2012. I heard on the news yesterday that a year ago, it was 74 degrees. No wonder things were sprouting in February that year.

Mar. 11, 2012

 

Mar. 8, 2013

I think it will be a while before the main garden out in the middle of the yard sees much growth. But with the rain we're supposed to get the next couple of days, most of it will melt and things will just take off.

House Organizing - Kitchen

One of the projects I'm working on in 2013 is organizing my house. I don't have a lot of stuff (at least I don't think I do), and for the most part, things are were they belong. But I found a website that I'm hoping will help me re-organize/declutter some areas of the house. 

Each day there is an assignment that you're supposed to spend up to 15 minutes on. Sometimes I can do the day's task in just a couple minutes and others it might take me more than 15. Also, if I don't have enough time on a particular day, I'll do another day's task and come back to that one, most often on a weekend.

 

I like having the list at a glance, so I printed the monthly calendar and put it on the frig. You can see there were a few days last month that I skipped. Those were days that I either hadn't gotten to yet or didn't need to do because I don't have that area in my house...like a pantry or organizing toys. 

 

The kitchen was a huge area last month. I had a junk drawer that had accumulated way too much stuff. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

 This is what it looks like now. I had actually organized it once and then decided a few days later that I still wasn't happy with it so I cleaned it again.

Another day it was time for cookbooks so that's when I tackled that and the other half of the drawer that had become full of junk. 

Much better. I moved the container from the drawer mentioned earlier into this one. 

Ever since I moved into this house, I haven't been happy with the drawer space in the kitchen. I just put stuff where it fit and never got around to moving it. The silverware and cooking utensils were all in one drawer. So on the day that the task was to organize the cookbooks, I was able to clear a drawer out by moving them elsewhere. I'm not a big cookbook user so all the extras didn't need to be taking up prime real estate in a drawer.

I bought a few organization dividers to help keep things looking neat.

And then last but not least, I moved the towels/dishcloths into the old cookbook drawer which was bigger and was finally able to separate the cooking utensils into two drawers.

 

After a couple weeks, I'm now used to where I moved things and don't open the wrong drawer first.

New Storage Bench

I had an old desk in my sunroom that was just the right size for my laptop. But lately it seems to have found a new home on the coffee table in another room, so I decided to free up some space for a new storage bench. I had quite the time finding what I wanted. I visited furniture stores around town, but they didn't have anything. I finally found what I was looking for at Home Depot. It's very sturdy and the cushion came with it.

I guess I only got one picture of "before." It took a bit longer to put together than I had hoped. The back piece had tracks that it needed to slide into and it wasn't fitting so I had to go back a couple of steps and do some adjusting. 

 

I found a couple of pretty boxes for one side and two cloth bins for the other. I moved the desk to the basement with the rest of my office stuff. Right now I only have one of the storage boxes filled, but I'm working on organizing and moving things around in the house so I'm sure it won't take long to fill them. The extra seating is nice too since it's right inside the back door.