I had the chance to go to the Purdue-ND game this afternoon with Susan's Dad, Don Ratcliffe. It was a perfect fall afternoon for a football game, even though the football was less than perfect. Purdue dominated the first half, but the Irish came back Fighting in the second half and made a game of it. Alas, it's just a long year for the Irish.
I called Karen and Dave from the stadium but only got their answering machines. I did reach Brian in person though, so that was nice to connect.
Ever expermenting with technology, Don helped me make a brief 39 second video during halftime. Hope you enjoy it.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
September Birthdays
September is the most diverse birthday month for those on EFB as each family and each classification (child, grandchild, greatgrandchild, and spouse) is represented with Allison (9/4), John the younger (9/18), Nathan the older (9/21), Anne (9/25), T.J. (9/27), and Frank (9/29). I was trying to come up with the best way to "give" everyone a virtual birthday cake appropriate for EFB. So here it is, baked by our dear Mother/Grandmother/Greatgrandmother (from scratch) in Auburn. Of course, the music is correct, so you can sing to yourself.... and the rest of us will sing from afar! Happy Birthday to all!
The link for other birthday cakes is http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~eichstad/albums/Nov23B.html
Karen
Friday, September 21, 2007
Happy Birthday, Nathan!
Just sending a big Happy Birthday to the most charming and handsome fellow in Portland, Oregon! Have a great day, Nathan!!!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Virginia Tech Football
We traveled to Blacksburg over Labor Day to attend Virginia Tech's home openning football game against East Carolinia. Abbey sported her pink VT cheerleader outfit and had her soft VT football in tow. Scott and I sported our Hokies United shirts in memory of the students who died in April. ESPN game day was there and when we returned home and watched it on TV, we were able to easily pickout Scott in the crowd..his 3 sec of fame, just like Matt waving to the camera at a Cubs baseball game some 10 years ago. Scott enjoyed the game, while Abbey and I tailgated with a friend and we all had a wonderful time! Since traveling with Abbey was so easy, we are now tempted to go to another game this year!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A view into David's World
Here are the latest 3 pictures from David. One is right before the mission, with his gear on the truck behind him, then two while he is directing the truck activities around him. This is one of his responsibilities as being part of a security detail. They are providing security for these trucks. You may not see it, but every time he is out there, he has his rifle, his pistol and serveral knives, with the guns loaded and a round in the chamber. In a strange way, that makes me feel better. Weather has been nicer lately. As you see all his gear on, keep in mind that it is 120 degrees out there.
September 11, 2001 did influence David's decision to join the Army quite a bit, as we watched the second tower fall from on top of our car, sitting parked on the New Jersey Turnpike. September 11, 2006, David landed in Iraq for his second tour of duty. Today I pray for all the families whose lives were forever changed because of that day. God's blessing on them all.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Nebraska Farm Sale
All of us feel a strong connection to the Ely family farm, so we wanted to update you on some important developments.
After Mom died in 2001, Marge, Karen, Anne and I had a series of extended, honest conversations about what we wanted to do with our farmland in Auburn. These conversations extended over several years. During our talks, we tried to balance our deep feelings for that property with the practical understandings of the farm economy, managing and owning land at a distance and the interests of our kids and their growing families.
During 2006, the four of us came to the decision to sell the land. Central to this decision was the fact that neither the four of us nor any of our children had an aptitude for or an interest in farming as a business. And, as Dad always modeled, farming was a business, one in which he excelled. Succeeding in farming is getting more and more difficult and it just didn’t seem to make sense to keep owning the land, despite the emotional tugs that land has on all of us.
Having made that decision, we set out to figure a way to accomplish this. We own 400 acres of land there. Most of it is now crop ground, which we rent to Joe Moody. We are currently in the middle of a 5 year rental agreement with Joe and we intend to honor that agreement. Indeed, our land is central to Joe’s farming operation of over 1,500 acres.
For those of you who don't know of Joe Moody, he's a guy who I went to school with all through the Auburn school system. Joe's father, Harold Moody, was a lifelong friend of Dad's. In the mid 80s, Dad decided to rent out the crop ground to Harold who, by then, had begun farming in partnership with his son Joe. The business relationship between Dad and the Moodys was based on a handshake, as all men were honorable and knowledgeable. As Joe took over more and more of Harold's work, this all transferred to Dad working with Joe. Since Dad died, we've been working with Joe and he has taken very good care of our land. Thus, we have a long-term relationship with Joe and will honor our agreements with him, just as we have for decades. On a humorous note, Joe's Social Security and mine are only two digits apart. Why?? We both applied for them on the same day in Jim Klien's 7th grade history class. Yeah, Auburn really is a small town.
The crop ground needed to stay with Joe for the time being. But what to do with the noncrop ground? We had a bit of an epiphany last year when we realized we could partition it and look to sell it separately. And so we did.
There are about 27 acres of land on the north side of the road which include the house, the shop and several out buildings, the famous “riding ring” where Dad put all of his grandkids on horseback, and small pastures to the north and west of the house. We currently rent the house to a fellow who has been there since 1991 and rent a couple of the buildings to nearby farmers for implement storage. From a business point of view, these 27 acres were not very productive as the rents really did not offset repairs to the house, taxes and hassles.
Therefore, we had these 27 acres surveyed and legally separated from the rest of the land. During the summer, we listed this parcel with a local realtor. To our surprise, we had a number of people express interest. We received a serious offer, worked through price and terms via our Realtor and agreed. So, on Thursday night, August 30, 2007, we had an agreement to sell the 27 acres. With Marge as our able spokesperson, the four of us agreed fully with the arrangement and it was done.
The buyers are a 29 year-old couple who are from the area, growing up near Peru. They are thrilled to have a house of their own on some acerage. They want to settle down and live there and remain part of the community. This really captures the spirit of the place, in ways we couldn’t have really planned out.
Right now we are working out when the closing will take place. We expect it to happen around the first of October.
Our plan is to sell the rest of the ground at the conclusion of our current contract with Joe Moody. We are not selling this big green barn now. It is on the south side of the road. Along with the land that was formerly the big feedlot, this barn is part of the farm land which we will sell as a unit in the future.
The farm means a lot and those memories will never fade. Marge, Karen, Anne and I have had a wonderful appreciation for the principles of integrity and community that we learned from Mom and Dad. We sense they would be quite pleased with the rationale and manner in which we’ve handled it. Those principles are priceless. And we’re pleased to pass this to the next generation as well.
After Mom died in 2001, Marge, Karen, Anne and I had a series of extended, honest conversations about what we wanted to do with our farmland in Auburn. These conversations extended over several years. During our talks, we tried to balance our deep feelings for that property with the practical understandings of the farm economy, managing and owning land at a distance and the interests of our kids and their growing families.
During 2006, the four of us came to the decision to sell the land. Central to this decision was the fact that neither the four of us nor any of our children had an aptitude for or an interest in farming as a business. And, as Dad always modeled, farming was a business, one in which he excelled. Succeeding in farming is getting more and more difficult and it just didn’t seem to make sense to keep owning the land, despite the emotional tugs that land has on all of us.
Having made that decision, we set out to figure a way to accomplish this. We own 400 acres of land there. Most of it is now crop ground, which we rent to Joe Moody. We are currently in the middle of a 5 year rental agreement with Joe and we intend to honor that agreement. Indeed, our land is central to Joe’s farming operation of over 1,500 acres.For those of you who don't know of Joe Moody, he's a guy who I went to school with all through the Auburn school system. Joe's father, Harold Moody, was a lifelong friend of Dad's. In the mid 80s, Dad decided to rent out the crop ground to Harold who, by then, had begun farming in partnership with his son Joe. The business relationship between Dad and the Moodys was based on a handshake, as all men were honorable and knowledgeable. As Joe took over more and more of Harold's work, this all transferred to Dad working with Joe. Since Dad died, we've been working with Joe and he has taken very good care of our land. Thus, we have a long-term relationship with Joe and will honor our agreements with him, just as we have for decades. On a humorous note, Joe's Social Security and mine are only two digits apart. Why?? We both applied for them on the same day in Jim Klien's 7th grade history class. Yeah, Auburn really is a small town.
The crop ground needed to stay with Joe for the time being. But what to do with the noncrop ground? We had a bit of an epiphany last year when we realized we could partition it and look to sell it separately. And so we did.
There are about 27 acres of land on the north side of the road which include the house, the shop and several out buildings, the famous “riding ring” where Dad put all of his grandkids on horseback, and small pastures to the north and west of the house. We currently rent the house to a fellow who has been there since 1991 and rent a couple of the buildings to nearby farmers for implement storage. From a business point of view, these 27 acres were not very productive as the rents really did not offset repairs to the house, taxes and hassles.
Therefore, we had these 27 acres surveyed and legally separated from the rest of the land. During the summer, we listed this parcel with a local realtor. To our surprise, we had a number of people express interest. We received a serious offer, worked through price and terms via our Realtor and agreed. So, on Thursday night, August 30, 2007, we had an agreement to sell the 27 acres. With Marge as our able spokesperson, the four of us agreed fully with the arrangement and it was done.
The buyers are a 29 year-old couple who are from the area, growing up near Peru. They are thrilled to have a house of their own on some acerage. They want to settle down and live there and remain part of the community. This really captures the spirit of the place, in ways we couldn’t have really planned out.
Right now we are working out when the closing will take place. We expect it to happen around the first of October.
Our plan is to sell the rest of the ground at the conclusion of our current contract with Joe Moody. We are not selling this big green barn now. It is on the south side of the road. Along with the land that was formerly the big feedlot, this barn is part of the farm land which we will sell as a unit in the future.
The farm means a lot and those memories will never fade. Marge, Karen, Anne and I have had a wonderful appreciation for the principles of integrity and community that we learned from Mom and Dad. We sense they would be quite pleased with the rationale and manner in which we’ve handled it. Those principles are priceless. And we’re pleased to pass this to the next generation as well.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Mommy - take Bunny and go home!
Well, the only teary-eyed Ely at preschool today was me! After our stop for a quick picture in front of the school, (greeted with "Mommy, can we go in yet?") we rushed in to class to their very first day of Pre-school. As this has been the primary motivation for potty-training, it feels like this moment has been a long time coming. Of course, this morning, getting 3 children out the door and to school by 8:10am, there wasn't a lot of time to sit around and reflect. We did start our day in prayer, being thankful that we could go to school and Drew ended it with "And please no accidents!" Unfortunately, in his rush to get inside, Drew fell down in the parking lot and scraped his knee. This actually turned out to be a good thing, because he became the very first pre-schooler to get a coveted band-aide. While others watched Mrs. Stephans put Drew's band-aide on his leg, a line of small children formed, all claiming to have various injuries requiring some form of first aid.
He was also the only child attacked by the dinosaur, but I think his brother was in cahoots with the T-rex there.After the book bags were hung on the wall, Drew told me to take Bunny and go home! Of course, we couldn't leave without stopping by Granny Kathi's 1st grade class down the hall. Her class has heard lots about the boys and Bunny and greeted us warmly.
So, the boys scholastic journey has begun. Amazing to see how far these little preemies have come in such a short time!Monday, September 3, 2007
Mo, Up Over!
So now that I am finally un-jet lagged, I'm posting a little something about my trip to Australia!
I had a fantastic time, full of bumps in the road and breaks in my foot, but loved the landscape and people down under. I know it seems far away but if anyone is thinking of doing some traveling, I can highly recommend it.
I started off in Cairns in the north of the country and enjoyed lovely tropical weather for the first few days of my trip, despite it being winter in the southern hemisphere. I went out on a boat one day and spent my time completely in the water, snorkeling and scuba diving to my heart's content. The diving was incredible, the water was so clear and the variety of fish was staggering. My favorite moment actually came during snorkeling, I was looking straight down at the bottom of the reef and when I looked up ahead of me I was surrounded by a school of HUNDREDS of teeny tiny blue and silvery fish. They were just hanging out, going about their fish business but I was internally freaking out, saying to myself, "Two days ago, you were in BROOKLYN and now you are SNORKELING on the GREAT BARRIER REEF in AUSTRALIA." Totally blew my mind.
Other highlights of Australia include, but are not limited to: holding a koala and feeding a kangaroo right out of my hand (at a Koala sanctuary outside of Brisbane), hiking through the rain up to an old lighthouse in Byron Bay only to get the most perfect sunset ever (with a rainbow!) once I reached the top, and tromping around Melbourne.
And, yes, I said something earlier about broken bones.....In Sydney (did you know they have a goofy looking opera house there?! Who knew?) I was walking ALL over the place in poorly supported shoes and sprained the muscles around some of the bones in my left foot. Because of the sprain, two bones rubbed together and the smaller one, my fifth metatarsal, gave way and fractured. It was mighty painful, especially since I walked around on it for two days before going to a doctor, but all is well now. No cast required, just medical tape and a lot of aspirin plus a fair amount of finger wagging from the doctor. My footsies are fine now.
And the break didn't stop me from enjoying myself on the next leg (ha) of my trip: New Zealand. I cannot express to you in words how breathtakingly beautiful this country is. Even flying over it, my mind was spinning and my first incredible photographs came sitting in the plane at the airport. Every square inch is magically gorgeous.
I was on the South Island for most of my time in En Zed. Massive glassy lakes surrounded by pristine snow-capped mountains? Yes, please. The water is also a surreal shade of blue from crushed glacial rock that is in all the lakes and rivers. It is called "rock-flour" and the sediment reflects the sun and color of the sky so that the bodies of water end up looking like something out of a Disney movie. I did a fantastic hike up to the base of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in all of Australia and New Zealand, and saw a mini-avalanche across the ravine! I sipped wine from the Marlborough region and took in the most beautiful scenery I have ever witnessed.
I know this is just a nutshell but I wanted to let you all know that I am safe and sound, no digits missing due to crocs or anything. I had a great time and would suggest it to anyone!!
Love you all, some more pictures follow
Maureen.
Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House in Background
Opera House sunset.
Another sunset.
Rope bridge Mo, hiking at Mt. Cook.
The tall one in the back is Mt. Cook. Very high!
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