I've been playing with the Tankerhoosen website since 2010. Although I’ve lived in the Tankerhoosen Valley for over 50 years it was at that time that I began to recognize the watershed as its own entity and became curious about its unique geography and history. The website is my way of organizing what I’ve learned and easily updated as new information is found. As long as its online I may as well share it with the community.
For the first two years I published a fairly regular and lengthy e-newsletter highlighting various sections of the website as they were completed. As I tend to be a perfectionist I didn’t want to show a page until I felt it was complete and as accurate as I could make it at the time. Since this is a hobby and not a business I also worked on whatever grabbed my interest at the time. This led to page after page that were 75% complete, many online but hidden. I would start a newsletter, then be off on some tangent and never seem to get back to it.
I recently read a book called “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon that advocates letting people know what you are working on and excited about. This blog will, hopefully, get people interested and bring in other viewpoints, knowledge and experience. Many of your families have been here for generations and know far more than I do.
So I’ll back burner my need to be perfect and aim to share something weekly. I could do this on the Tankerhoosen Facebook Page but this is a project not everyone will be interested in so will try using the blog I started and abandoned long ago.
I encourage you to jump in and straighten me out when I’m wrong and add your and your family’s experience.