Orchard is down to two trees

When Keith and I were eating lots of fruits and vegetables and growing very fast, I think that Dad had sixteen dwarf fruit trees including pears, cherries, and all sorts of apples.

This year, as Dad approaches his 84th birthday, he only has two trees in his orchard. While I was back in Indiana for my high school class reunion, Goshen's First Friday, and Mom and Dad's 51st wedding anniversary, I got the rare chance to take a photograph of the tree before Dad picked from the top of a 13 foot step ladder.

This one was loaded down with more apples than I've ever seen on such a small tree.

I talked with Dad a few weeks after the picture and he told me that he was able to pick 13 bushel from this tree.

I was able to take three monster onions, a bunch of green tomatoes for Jackie to fry, a box of fresh snappy potatoes, and a second box of ripe red tomatoes.

We ate well in Kentucky the following week, but we missed the chance for fresh apples.

Adam heads to Washington

Adam left Thursday night on a school field trip to Washington, DC. They drove all night and had a tour of the White House on Friday morning to start out a three day weekend. Adam's Uncle Keith planned on walking down to see him on Friday but it was raining.

The two of them hooked up on Saturday: Adam in DC

As I read Keith's blog about him buying Adam an Oreo McFlurry, my mind raced back to the evening that we spent with Keith's friends during 2001. That evening, Adam made chocolate milk shakes for about 10 people and climbed all over everyone. I think he thought he had about four extra Uncles.

In 2001, Carmen was tougher than Adam as she demonstrated by wearing shorts on a cold day.
In 2001, Adam's hair was the same length as his Uncle's.
2001 was only seven years ago....

Digital Memories for Keith's Birthday

My little brother will be turning 40 next month and he asked me to go through mom and dad's slides and get them converted to digital for his birthday.

It has been a lot of fun looking at these pictures that have only been projected faintly on a silver screen. With color correction, these memories have come alive.



Happy Birthday Keith!

Early Bird Extravaganza ( Day 2 )

Our second day in Columbus started out with a late lunch with Keith at Buca Di Beppo Italian Restaurant.

I rode 20 miles on an exercise bike to try to overcome the sluggishness hanging over from Day 1, but I easily recreated that sluggish feeling with single order of fresh salmon with pesto from the lunch menu.

We ate at this restaurant with the team last year but the staff at Keith's hotel encouraged him to go there for lunch today so we went again. The food was fair, like last year. The restaurant's best features are its Front Street location and the variety of entertaining Italian artwork, statues and photographs.

A light lunch of pasta is also good for athletes planning on a long day. It's really too bad that only one of us would be participating in the tournament.

Carmen's first match was at 4:00 and her team played very well again. Her second match at 5:00 was the most difficult of the weekend. After watching them play at 3:00, we really thought that might have been our first win of the weekend. We were wrong. This team won our pool and we lost our pool, so it was very disappointing.

The net of two days of pool play puts us in the Ruby tournament. While we were driving home, Carmen wondered if Ruby was the third level: Gold, Silver, then Ruby. Jackie explained that there were a few more between Silver and Ruby: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Diamond,Emerald, Sapphire, and then Ruby.

We've also been enjoying my brother Keith's observations and commentary on the weekend. Keith is a retired consultant with an open mind, a frank speaker and a great writer. His research on our family was definitely widened this weekend.

Early Bird Extravaganza ( Day 1 )

The BAVA 16-2 girls played well today at the Early Bird Extravaganza in Columbus, but they came up short on all the matches. The second game of the first match was probably the best game that they have ever played.

There were 28 courts of volleyball and most were busy all day long.

I could really see the improvement in Carmen's play since she has been working at the HIT center. She is playing with more confidence.

Keith was excited about the variety of people at the conference center: Volleyball, Cheerleaders, United Nations and 4H.

He spent most of his time dealing with Becca's energy. She doesn't pay much attention to the volleyball game.

We enjoyed a surprisingly good meal at really reasonable prices from the Thai restaurant at the food court for dinner.

Christmas in Wakarusa ( with Uncle Keith )

I write about the Etsinger traditions more often than the Eby traditions but after reading some of my brother's blogs about the Eby Family, I think that it is important to document some of my perspectives as well.

I wonder what Keith, Mom and Dad all think when every gift opening is followed by intense game playing.

Every year, at every age, the kids have amazed me at how intensely they compete with each other and with Uncle Keith. They normally are competitive, but somehow or the other, their view of Keith being the ultimate game player and their ability to win with him on their team is like adrenaline to their competitive spirit.

This year, Jackie got Cranium for Uncle Keith and we all dove into the game that afternoon. ( OK, Keith has an effect on me, too. And Jackie never needs a reason to play a game to its finish no matter who wins )

Keith only has a short time each year to influence the kids but he is very effective in that short period of time. I was really impressed this year at how he responded to Adam's comment to Carmen about getting a new and better iPod because he destroyed last year's model. Keith quickly pointed out that Carmen now had the chance to have an iPod AND a new gift.

Opening that new gift brought a smile to Carmen's face and provided yet another life lesson to Adam. Adam likes to collect life lessons from many sources....

Adam then proceeded to teach Uncle Keith how to shoot paintball guns at objects that would have grounded Keith for several weeks if he were Adam's age.

The target on the right side is a fungus that is growing on one of Dad's trees. This is a target that is marginally appropriate because it will be a constant reminder to Grandma and Grandpa that "Adam was here" ( Good ) but will also be a concern that it will damage the tree.

The target on the left side is one I never would have attempted as a child. Keith wisely claimed that he was not good enough to hit the post and that Adam was the only one who could.

All and all, it was a great Christmas for the Eby family.

I'm not sure why Carmen and I get a reputation of "not smiling", but I'll accept that it is true. Many people think that I look disappointed when I am just thinking and many people think that Carmen is deep in thought when she is just listening or observing. Carmen perfected the "furrowed brow" look at a very young age.

A Tale of Two iPods

Last year, Adam and Carmen both asked for iPods for Christmas.

Uncle Keith came out of retirement and cancelled a tropical vacation in order to trade Steve Jobs some money for two engraved iPods for his neice and nephew. Carmen's white iPod is still in mint condition, but Adam's black iPod has finally given up the ghost. I've not recorded all the stress tests that Adam has applied, but I wanted to share just a few:

1. Left it in his pocket for Grandma to wash ( and tumble dry )
2. Drop it
3. Drop it on concrete
4. Run through crowded restaurants with cord swinging until it catches a chair which slingshots the iPod from his pocket into a neighboring chair
5. Football players punch him in the chest while he has it in his pocket
6. Football players smack it out of his hands while he is listening to it
7. Slam the Jeep door on it.

In 6 of the 7 listed trials, returning the iPod to its charging station has amazingly restored it's ability to function. In the last trial, it failed.... nothing is perfect, but this device is well engineered.

Grandma Eby is 70 Today!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

My mom was busy all day long getting things done on her birthday. Three people at the doctor's office sang Happy Birthday to her. One of the people was the wife of a boy that went to school with Keith.

She has enjoyed the day.

Grandpa would be 108 today

My Grandpa, Charles Victor Eby, was born on May 1, 1898. His parents erased part of the 8 on his birth certificate so that he could work on the farm an extra year. I loved spending time with my Grandpa, he was a lot of fun. He had fun working. He and his brother, Ellis, got into trouble from time to time having fun. Stuff like floating wash tubs down the creek and stealing pies from window sills reminds me of my brother Keith and my son, Adam Charles.

Before I could talk I would stand at the picture window of our house and watch the tractors and farm equipment roll by. My first word was "combine" and "tractor" was one of the next words to follow.

In 1915, Grandpa drove horses between his father's farms and waved at a younger girl along the way. On August 25, 1917 he married her and raised a family of three moving from farm to farm around Wakarusa.


I was able to attend their 50th wedding anniversary at Eby's Pines in 1967 and Jackie and Keith were able to attend their 70th wedding anniversary at Miller's Merry Manor in 1987.

My Grandma and Grandpa had a great life together.

Christmas Card 2005 - Becca

Becca loves American Girl dolls and thanks to her Uncle Keith and a very publicized desire to collect more, she has enough stuff to keep her busy. The whole gang frequently watches Disney with her on the couch. Buster even wears the horse saddle occasionally.

Becca is doing very well in 4th grade and has a great teacher who makes learning fun. (Kentucky teacher of the year a few years ago)

She continues to participate in the Girl Scouts and adores horses (and all other animals). This summer she was able to go to a horse camp with another girl from her troop.

Her Uncle Bill is convinced that we need to move to a horse farm somewhere, but that option hasn’t presented itself to us yet.

Becca is now in her second year of Upward Basketball. She loves the exercise, competition and fellowship associated with basketball.

The most significant thing to happen in Becca's entire life on this planet occured in February during Upward Basketball season when she brought her Upward Bible down to me on Sunday night to tell me that she wanted to accept Christ's gift of salvation to her.

After we prayed together, the whole family "interviewed" her to make sure that she understood the change that had occurred from the old to the new.

In September, Jackie's mom and dad were able to travel down to Kentucky to see Becca get baptized.

How tall is this Christmas Tree?

If you make a trip to downtown Wakarusa this season, you can see the top part of the tree on the left.

I've included a handy "Carmen Scale" so that you can figure out how tall this 40 year old tree is as long as you know that Carmen is 5'3" and her picture here is about 5'6" including the grass beneath her feet.

It really is amazing that this tree survived its early years while Keith was learning how to mow the yard with a lawn tractor nearly 30 years ago.

Here's an Elkhart Truth interview of Mom and Dad that I'm sure you will enjoy.
A Christmas tree for free

Christmas Card 2001

Spring Mills Camping Trip

We didn't take very many vacations when I was a little boy, but camping is the only way we did it. Our family purchased a Star Craft pop up camper that was used once a year at various Indiana State Parks. In 1972, we went to Spring Mill
Most of the pictures that mom and dad took of us were not really pictures of us as much as they were pictures of trails, trees, hills, signs and caves with us in there for perspective. This one picture featured us and I like the detail. For instance, you can see the "iron-on" patches that we used to get some more life out of boys pants.

I remember those things were stiff, but evidently they didn't stop us from crawling on our hands and knees.

Here's a picture with mom in the creek. I have a terrible memory but I do remember playing in this creek and everybody making a big deal about Keith not being cold. I have never liked being wet and it looks like I didn't like it in this picture either.