Wedding Day!

Jessica and I got married today! We had a beautiful ceremony filled with friends, family and love. It really was a perfect day. We'd like to extend our thanks to all those that helped make this day perfectfor us. We appreciate and love you all!



Special thanks to Timothy Young for officiating, Staci Drouillard for the incredible cake and our friend Paul for taking beautiful photos throughout the day! And a very special thanks to Carah Thomas, Rod Dockan and Al Oikari of Cook County's Most Wanted for providing the awesome music for our ceremony. You guys were incredible and we totally loved the "Joy of My Life" song... you guys are the best! Thank You :-)

Phend-Fisher Family Reunion Ledger (1917-1918-1919)

There were no records kept of the reunions held in the years of 1917 & 1918.



The 10th annual reunion of the Phend-Fisher families was held on Sept 28, 1919 at the home of Christ. Phend at Nappanee. The morning was spent in a social way and, at noon a basket dinner was served after which a short business meeting was held and the following officers elected for the ensuing year.

Jacob Phend. Pres.
Fred Ernest. Sec.
Christ Phend. Tres.

It was decided by vote that the 11th annual reunion be held at the home of Harry Phend at Milford Ind. on the last Saturday of Sept. 1920

The meeting was then adjourned and an enjoyable time was reported by all.
Fred Ernest, Sec.

The Goose Lake Farm

In 1871 William Brubaker purchased one hundred and thirty acres of native forest land bordering Goose Lake in Troy Township, Whitley County, Indiana. I don't know if the house was built before or after the purchase of the property. When Hale Brubaker died on December 14, 1910, my great grandparents Maude and Charles Brubaker were living in Traverse City, Michigan. They moved back to Columbia City and lived for a short time with William and Malissa. William Brubaker died on January 26, 1912 and the property was sold to Charles a year or so later. The family lived at the farm until about 1918 when the house and land was sold.

Home on the Farm at Goose Lake ~ about 1914 ~ Thornton Brubaker (sitting on the stump, half-brother of William Brubaker), Jane, Orville Day (a hired man), Maud, Billy, Hazlette, Spot, and Charles Romain Brubaker.

The house as it is was on August 16, ... A garage has been added to the right, a roof extension put over the porch, the chimney was removed, and they have put in new windows and siding. All of the out-buildings described by my grandmother have been torn down and replaced with a very large pole barn.

There is a partial basement under the left portion of the house, which leads me to believe that the left side was the original house. The current owners have a living room and master bedroom on the lower floor and two bedrooms upstairs. The kitchen is in the right side of the house. It now has all of the modern conveniences.

My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend, describes the house in her autobiography:

From the wood shed to the door and into the summer dining room we have been walking on a brick walk. And the small yard in front of the dining room and around the windmill was brick. This brick must have been there for years because even in 1909 it was green with moss.

I think that summer dining room was quite unique. There was an iron water tank in one corner that was enclosed by a modern cabinet with a lid on it; the tank held about forty gallons of water. This room was screened in on the north and south with a storage room to the east and the kitchen to the west. There were wooden doors that enclosed it all in the wintertime. There was as large cupboard that had been built years before and Grandma always had the room looking cool and nice.

The next room was the kitchen. I guess I can hardly tell you anything good about it, yet I learned to cook there on an old wood-burning stove. The entrance to the cellar was a trap door in the floor, you opened it and went down the ladder and hoped no one would fall into the opening while you were down below. The cellar was where the potatoes and onions were stored along with the canned fruits and vegetables; a hanging shelf was our refrigerator. The kitchen table was in the space beside this trap door and many was the time that we would have to open the door for milk or cream after we were all seated at the table. The ones that sat on the side near the door, usually Jane and Me, had to stand guard till the trip for cream was made.

On the other side was the buttery and pantry; it was just a big dark place to put everything. There were shelves and a table or sink. It was always dark as night, there were no windows and no kerosene lamp could take the awful dark away - or at least that is the way it seemed to me! There was a plastered room for meat and anything else eatable that freezing wouldn't hurt. This room was always locked.

There had been an addition to this kitchen and in the space between the pantry and the back door was a cistern pump with an iron sink. In 1909 this was quite a modern improvement. The stove was opposite the sink with the wood box and a cupboard.

It really seems very primitive but there were many delicious meals prepared and eaten in that kitchen. There was a screen door between the kitchen and the dining room, which was used as a dining room only on very rare occasions. But the screen door had been put up when we were very small so that Mama could keep an eye on us while working about the kitchen.

The dining room had wainscoting about three feet high all around and this room was my favorite. It had the heating stove beside which we kids would always get dressed on cold mornings. There was a table upon which we played games and got our lessons, Grandma had a nice cupboard here and a couple of rocking chairs. There was a wall desk that I just adored - the front came down revealing pigeonholes with lots of things in it that us kids were not to touch! The telephone was in this room, which was the heart of the house.

And it was in this room that I recall my first Christmas tree. It was just before Billy was born. I had kept saying that I wanted a yellow doll (a doll dressed in yellow) and after all the gifts were removed and opened from beneath what I thought was an enormous tree, Papa lifted me up and there in the tree was a beautiful doll dressed in yellow!

Off this room was the parlor. When Grandma lived here it was very cold and formal. In fact I don't believe we ever went into this room except for Uncle Hale's funeral. But when we moved into this house in 1911 all that was changed and we used it always whenever we had company. Later Papa bought us a piano and we took music lessons and I guess this room just came alive.

Off this room was the great bedroom, which became Jane's and mine when we grew older. There was another bedroom off the dining room, which was the master bedroom. Mama would let me stay in that room sometimes when I was sick; I remember the pink roses in the wallpaper. This room was at the back of the house but you could see the orchard from the window. It was really lovely in the spring.

There were two large rooms upstairs and an enormously interesting attic. The large room in front had a closet that ran the full length of the room, this was Hale's room and it was sacred to Grandma and was kept locked. But after Uncle Hale died and we moved into the house this is where we kids slept. It was papered with a white rose paper that was lovely. The crab apple tree, which even now stands west of the house, would then touch the windows of this room and the perfume from the blossoms was so lovely, I can still remember spring mornings in that room.

The other room was never papered, the stair well was here and the entrance to the attic. And oh, what an attic! We were allowed to play here on rainy days and it was delightful. Grandpa had a civil war gun with musket and his knapsack. There were candle molds and the butchering equipment was kept here - sausage stuffer and lard renderer, the great big meat grinder attached to a bench. There were trunks of old clothes and books that I would give a lot to see now. This room had just one window but the chimney came up through here and it was always cozy. It also had mice and wasps, which nearly scared me to death - but I loved to go there anyway.

Lewis & Clark Bridge

Going south from Washington state to Oregon state.

Chil Pepper Ristra

Chili Pepper Ristras where hanging a lot of places in Old Town. A ristra is a string of dryed chili peppers. New Mexico is known for lot of different kinds of chili peppers. It was and still is tradition to hang the strings of chili ristras on your house to finish drying and then over the winter you could take down a string and use it in what ever you were cooking. I don't use enough chilis or chili power to buy the ristras (and most people don't). Most of what I use is already ground into a fine powder ready to put into my beans, or chili stew. Hatch, New Mexico raises more chilis than any other place in the United States. I can't seem to raise them at all.

"Do No Harm"

"In 1991, facing declining sales, Yvon Chouinard applied the Buddhist principle ahimsa, or "do no harm," and commissioned an eco-audit of the company's operations. Following the audit, Chouinard made the risky decision to use only organic fibers in Patagonia's cotton products. Sales and profits rebounded. "Every time we've done the right thing, it's ended up making us more money," Chouinard says."



Here in the USA we are about to elect a new President. No matter what your choice take the time to educate your self on the issues and then VOTE. You only get one so make it count!



I find politics interesting and seldom in a uplifting or enlightening way. But what it does do for me on occasion (this election being one) is remind me of what is really important. Like all my writing always remember my views may not be your views. My concerns may not be your concerns.



But here are a few thoughts on how we as a (climbing) culture influence the world.The ideas should be important to all of us.



"Do No Harm." Chounard's mantra for Patagonia and sustainable business model.



I don't often consider myself a business although in early Feb. every year I start doing my business taxes before doing my personal income tax. When I look at the products I produce my intent is that the end result will last several generations. Goods produced by hand and passed from father to son, many times over. I am lucky to work in a niche industry that my products will hopefully see such a long useful life span.



There was a first time I regretted producing an item from steel. Not because it would last a 100 years or more. And not becausein the wrong hands it could easilycause great harm. I regretted it because the steel I used that could have easily lasted 100 years would only last a few days....may be even only hours for its intended use.



I felt as if I was wasting a precious resource. Which of couse I was, several in fact. The resources were the energy, human and physical, that it took to producethe finished product and the actual steel involved. Thatproduct wasa ice tool pick.













Instead of a tool pick that would last a short time in the grand scale whilemixed climbing why not a custom knife that would last several decades so easily? Same amount of labor, steel and energy involved. But one was a throw away when done. The other a simple tool and potential heirloom. There ceased to a choice for me once I realised where my energies were really going. No matter how much I like ice climbing...I don't like wasting our limited resources or my limited time on thisearth.











That was the first time I had asked myself, "Do No Harm?", as a business.



I have asked myself that same question any number of times while traveling throughenvironments that I knew were so very fragile. Now I ask it more often in lesseasily identified environments at may be even greaterrisk. "What do I want to do with my energy and time. And what do I really want to dowith an expensive piece of steel?"



Don't get me wrong. The blog is as much a shill for the outdoor industry and rampant consumerism as anything on the net...maybe more with the number of world wide page reads @ 1.25 million and counting.



I own 3 cars and seldom drive the one that gets the best gas mileage. (@ 30 mpg) I currently own more climbing shells than two dozen guys could wear at one time. So I am no Angel here that thinks they willsave the world. And believe me, I am aware of that fact.



But I look at theincrease in the climbing population and can still live with it. Hopefully giving something back now for what I have gotten by being involved.Glad that I was able to climb when and where I wanted to for the previous decades. And lucky enough to get on rock and ice that had never been touched. It is harder to find now.



New climbers have more to over come. They will have to look harder and go farther to find the adventure I have. But the adventure and the new stone is still out there. They will need to look closer at who they choose to emulate. Lance for example. It was soeasy to be a apart of the excitment short term.



But Lance didn't climb. Dave Lama does. Remember the bolt fiasco on Cerro Torre? Thankfully over shadowed now by a free ascent.



But weren't you at all curious and just a little annoyed at Red Bull for the sponsorship? Red Bull has been in our community for a long time now. And they have sponsored some amazing athletes and projects. The debacle on Cerro Torre was not one of them. ButI am not playing the blame game here. Red Bull didn't add the bolts to Cerro Torre.Dave Lama's crew did. Saying other wise is like saying, "it isn't the people killing people" "It is the guns killing people!



It is not the guns and it is not Red Bull. It is people in both those instances.



But here is the rub. And for me personally it is becoming a saddle sore. We all know that there are things in the world that are poison to the human body. Child obesity is rampant in every developed country in the world. Alcoholism is another disease we bring about ourselves. The cost of tobacco use is astronomical in the US alone. The USA is the largest supplier of sugar in the world. Red Bull is only a tiny part of that production line.



But Red Bull sells millions by show casing our sports and our professionals.



To the detriment of the kids that follow the exploits of guys like Will,Dave Lama or mostrecently

Felix Baumgartner's jump.



Been awhile since JIm Bridwell did ads for Camel.

It might be the time to rethink "do no harm" and see what we can improve along the way.



Right after my morning coffee ;-)

Changing Seasons

So if you haven't already heard, summer is fully upon us here on the Mountain. Since the beginning of this month we have had thousands of climbers and skiers coming out to play on Rainier. Looking around the mountain last week from the side window of a Chinook helicopter we saw evidence of people climbing and skiing almost everything around. There were ski tracks down all the standard routes, plus a good many down some more technical non-standard routes. This was pretty amazing considering all of it was happening in mid to late July, a time of year people usually put away their skis and stop attempting routes like Mowich Face and Liberty Ridge.

With all of the beautiful weather we have been blessed with over the past few weeks our large snowpack is starting to morph into its usual mid-summer condition. This means that while most routes on the mountain are still in very good shape and holding lots of snow, climbers may start to encounter some ice poking through the snow in steeper areas, and some crevasses opening up forcing climbers to do a little more routefinding and endrunning of large cracks.

Over the past week Climbing Rangers have been out climbing Mowich Face and Ptarmigan Ridge along with all the standards like the Emmons and DC. Reports have been of excellent conditions in all places. Want to get an early August ascent of some steeper west side routes? Now is the time! With great snow-free trail conditions making for fast approaches and snow still clinging to most everything above 10,000' the stage is set for some great climbing. Just be aware that with warm days rockfall and icefall hazard increases, so climb at night when it's cool and be aware of what and who is above you at all times. Ya know, like when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to climb and when to run. Speaking of running check out the fracture on Lib ridge below Thumb Rock! Although not normal at all for this time of year it is a testament to how much snow we have received and how warm the days have been.


Check out the new route updates and photos from the past week of climbing, training (always), and flying. Come on up and enjoy this seasonal transition with us here on Rainier!