Welcome to April, April weather, and daylight savings time! Let me bring you up to speed on what’s been happening with this branch of the Keidels.

This is actually Phase 1 of a project which will encompass probably as many as 15 or 16 phases, eventually mostly encircling the house. It’s a slow, deliberate AND expensive process. I was already sidelined for most of one week by a "back attack" apparently brought on by overexertion.

Skaba is totally enjoying being able to go outside again! Here he stretches and wiggles while letting the sun beat on his tummy!

As long as we were making almost daily trips to the Belleview Builder’s Supply in Sidney, we also picked up the makings of home designed outdoor grill. Willy puts the finishing touches on it and it seems to work fine. Of course I understand that cinder blocks aren’t really fireproof, but our next-door neighbor has volunteered the use of some left over firebricks from HIS grill project.

Son Willy and I are making plans to attend a four-day camp-out put on by some of my cyber friends from the now defunct Gun Forum on Switchboard.com. Without as much as a warning, they suddenly pulled the Gun Forum listing from the message board index. Looks like a socialist-inspired move to me! This event will take place over the 4th of July in Indiana! This will be a real adventure, as my 1986 rust-bucket may not be up to that long a journey. We put out our new tent to test for weather proofing.

Neither rain nor snow shall stay us from our appointed rounds! No wait, that’s the post office! Still, we keep a pretty secure perimeter. Two Christmases ago, some miscreants actually stole one of those fine fir trees from in front of the house! There is a big gap right in my Christmas tree barrier from the road. And that’s another project - I will do some planting of fir and other trees to give us even more privacy here. I have basically decided against keeping goats and other such barn yard denizens. In the future I will have to start referring to my pasture as the orchard! We shall plant some fruit trees. Meanwhile, Willy has already started his Spring planting with his rose bush project.

He misses the GREAT rosebush he planted in Leominster when he was a little kid. Here, he planted three different kinds of roses with a little help from neighbor Steve.

Neither rain nor snow shall stay us from……..etc., etc. Willy is looking forward to mowing our several acres. Even though my darling Ha-Yo sold our push mower when we moved into the apartment, it would not have done us much good here. Our little spread is large enough to require a riding machine. Undaunted by the falling snow, Willy practices the mowing run in his T-shirt!

Meanwhile, back in Massaeffingchusetts, Armin was named the captain of the wrestling team, a fact which will probably have a negative impact on his desire to move upstate New York with us! That would be too bad; he could give his little brother some much needed wrestling tips. Here, Willy does his Superboy impression, wearing the big S on his Sidney, New York, team singlet, even though he lost both of his matches that evening.

The Keidel Family site at MyFamily.com is doing very well. Even though it seems dominated by the D-Branch in Michigan, some of the other Keidel branches are starting to come aboard. Murl J. Keidel R1121 in Indiana just found us and is starting to visit. In the N-Branch, some of the members who don’t live near one another and hadn’t spoken to each other in ages, have started to make contact again. That, of course, is one of the purposes for having a forum such as this.

Coming up this month is Easter and my Granddaughter Rachel’s fourth birthday. NOT coming up is my wife Ha-Yo’s birthday. I think I have explained several times that she was born on the third day of the fourth month in 1956 in the LUNAR calendar and that in that year, that was May 12! Ergo, her real birthday isn’t until next month. I should have some pictures of the Easter egg hunt and get-together at Grandpa’s (me!) place in The Keidel Update 500! "See" you then!`

 ------Grumpy