Our first hosts – Familie Scholz

We met Marget and Burkhard Scholz while Burkhard was working for Hoerbiger in Auburn. They were here with their sons – Dominik and Jakob – for three years. Penny met Marget through the school that Finn was attending. She invited them for dinner just before they left to return to Germany. They came back again later for one year and we got to know them better. We had dinner with them several times. The kids played together. We went hiking and also camping with them. They are a very wonderful family and fun to be with. The boys overlap in ages now – Dominik (9) – 4th grade, Finn(8) – 2nd grade, Jakob(6) – 1st grade, Keane(5) - Kindergarten.




Burkhard still works for Hoerbiger in a town called Schongau in southern Bavaria (south Germany). This is only a few miles from the village where they live – Burggen (roughly pronounced Borggin – roll the “r”). They live on property with Burkhard’s parents – Paula and Hans. It is a very old farm that has been expanded and renovated several times by Burkhard and Hans. Hans said that he first got the farm in 1954. It is a HUGE timber frame barn with a 3-story timber frame house attached to the side at one end. Later, they added another, separate house, then added a duplex on to that house with an additional apartment on top of the addition. They expanded the barn and renovated the original 3 story house to have three separate apartments. They rent the apartments to visitors. When we arrived, all the apartments were occupied, but someone was leaving the top floor apartment on that day.





The farm was originally a milk farm. Right now, they have 3 horses (belonging to Burkhard’s sister – Eva Maria), chickens, goats and rabbits. Hans has a very nice woodworking shop (a HUGE planer) and he built a lot of the furniture in the houses – especially the beds, cabinets and tables. The family also has some woods on the edge of town that they keep for firewood, woodworking and also for selling.

The whole place is very lovely. The craftsmanship is incredible too. We immediately admired the details – doors, door handles, wonderful windows and fixtures. The boys were amazed that the toilet had two buttons for flushing….one small one and one large one….you can figure it out.

Marget and Burkhard have recently completed a renovation of their own house where they installed radiant heating in the floors in the kitchen, dining room and living room. They also re-arranged some of the walls and enclosed their patio to make a sun porch. They added a new patio on to that too. We saw pictures of the before and also pictures of the construction. They did all the work themselves.