50 Years!

50  The celebration was teeny-tiny, but the love and gratitude are great.

Ma'am, I so happy

Brunnehüsli Stories

Steven and Cristie and the children are now living outside of Zurich, Switzerland for three months. They are over in St. Gallen and in the Appenzellerland as much as possible! 

They have taken the cable car from Brülisau up to the Hoher Kasten and hiked down, with Chris and Amy's family. It's a tradition. Steven said as they got to the area, he recognized every house and every bend in the road. He could not believe how gorgeous it all is, and exactly the same as it used to be.

He said he has told the children at least seventy-five stories from his childhood, and they still want to hear more! He calls them "Brunnehüsli stories".
 Makes my heart happy.

Yes, he really did ride down from Hoher Kasten on the manure wagon that one time when Grandma's knees were bothering her and she couldn't walk anymore.
                   

                            

"Oh happy day!" (week)

The boys came.

                               The first thing we did was go to the woods, as in summers past.

                                             

                       We cooked, and ate yummy food. The boys made their specialties for us.

                         

                                               We went to the farm and worked.

                                                   

                                   

                                                           We went to church.

                                We watched movies. My favorite was "Paddington 2".

  And mainly we enjoyed every day with these two dear, big, wonderful boys. 

First Day of May

I love the month of May especially. I think it may be my favorite of all.

This year, May got off to a wild start. We bought a farm! And a (used) little tractor.  - Crazy.

A young Amish family - Ruth and Willard with their four sweet little children - has been renting the house, barn and land since Christmas.

The purity, simplicity and love in Ruth and Willard's life and family are a good beginning for us in this house. As I said to Ruth, I hope we can keep this ambiance and feeling going, at least in part.


PICTURE

New Place

It's been quite the time around here. Lots of struggles and work and effort, and it's been good. We have worked well together, and supported each other when one or the other lost courage.

Here's an email I sent to my two sisters last week:

HI guys,

I already mentioned this house to Michaela, but just wanted to let you both know -

We have found a house for us, and are in the process of buying it.

Termite inspection was yesterday, all clear. Later this week, we meet with plumber, electrician and builder on site.

It’s been a long and at times scary road, but we feel comfortable that we have made a good choice and hopefully the right choice.

We made two other offers on other houses in past months, but they were not accepted. Now we are SO glad!

We had hoped to stay in our county and branch, but prices have risen so much here, that we had to look further out.

This house is an Amish house and little farm. Like other Amish houses, it is sturdy and well-built, but has no plumbing or heating or electricity.

So all that will have to be added. It will take work and time, and we plan to do what we can (like painting) ourselves.

It has a small, cute grandparent house on the property, as if often the custom, and hopefully we can sell that and move it to another Amish location.

My favorite piece on the property is the barn. It smells really good of hay and animals, and has very nice wood inside. They have their goats, two horses and chickens in there now. But I know I can’t get caught up in “Bauernromantik” at the moment. There is too much work to be done, and too much at stake.

We’re looking at this project as a ‘fix and flip’ in two years. But of course we may stay longer.

The Amish owners, the Schwartz family, came way down from their original price, so we think it is a good deal, which is of course part of our “real estate plan”.

Eventually we would like to be in Utah part of the year, closer to the family since those who don’t already live there seem to come there regularly, but real estate prices are too high for us at the moment.

And here are their responses:

(Mich)  Wow. Je suis stupéfaite! Amazed. Bravo! Congratulations! You all are brave! Jake mentioned casually "my parents bought a house," and I jumped all over him, which house? the Amish house? tell me all about it!!! I wasn't quite sure if it was really so. Wow. Fabulous and scary at the same time. So many changes. A grand new adventure!!! We all want to come see it!!!  

And the house needs to go up on the geese!!!! wowza!

(Urs)  That's incredible news, congratulations, mazel tov!!!

It sounds like a really good decision (aside from the fact that the place sounds extremely romantic and cute).

I'm happy for you, and would love to see it one day!  

And here's what David had to say:

thanks mom for the updates.  good luck with the house stuff. maybe skip adding electricity and list the place on AirBnB as "the ultimate getaway for tech-dependent families"? digital detox is all the rage right now. put in a meditation room and the coastal elites will love it. 

And here's what Ursula said to that idea:

 Hey, put me number one on the list!!!

And Michaela:

and a room with yoga mats :) build it and they will come ...

And Dad:

Ask David if we should leave the two outhouses. To give a really authentic experience.

And I responded later: 

Yes, so many changes, that is true.

Sometimes at night I turn to John and say, Are we really doing this? Are we crazy?

Before we actually decided to do it, we both took turns being sleepless a night or two, and feeling scared.

But honestly, I have felt really good about this place, and actually pushed it a little from time to time.

We have to take the plunge sometime.

And we do both feel really good about it. Of course we did the numbers over and over again, and talked to people with experience and expertise, too.   [plus over a year of real estate inv. classes]

Abey's Castle

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Cousin Julee

Julee Blair (John's cousin) has been going through her deceased mother's photos and mementos. Her parents, June and Lee, were enthusiastic travelers, and they went on many wonderful trips. Lee was an absolute expert at carefully documenting all the photos in their numerous albums, not only with names and dates, but also with descriptions and commentary.
Looking through these albums of memories was a great joy to June in all the years when she was a widow after Lee died. One album is all about the trip they took to Europe with Jean and Delpha in 1987. They came to see us in Eichberg for several days, and stayed at the Hölzlisberg Hotel above our house.
A week or two ago, Julee sent us this album, saying that we will enjoy it. We do!
I want to remember her dad's generous commentary here. Naturally it feels good to read Lee's over-the-top compliments from that time so long ago, and that he believed in me. And yes, the children were impressive...

Around our table - Jean, Aunt June, Adam, Jamis, Chris, Jakey and John

Hello!

Good-bye to the old year, and Hello to the new!

I have some dreams and plans and goals for this new year. I hope there'll be some trips and adventures and celebrations. But none of that is really important. The only thing really important to me is - may our grandchildren and daughters-in-law and sons and daughter be blessed with health and strength and happiness, and may they be able to overcome any challenges that come their way.