DocAndersen
There is a valuable lesson I’ve gotten from the family history project, that is the stories that go with the pictures are critical. In the case today there is a story with two of the pictures, the rest are pictures my father took. All of these are pictures my father took; I recognize the locations of two for sure. I am sure, I know where the other pictures were taken, but I know two for sure. The lesson is that the stories are critical. Capture the stories of the pictures you have and share those stories. You never know when someone won’t be with us anymore. All the stories they haven’t told, are lost forever when they are gone. So take the time to capture the stories with the pictures and memories!
The two pictures I know are of my father’s apple orchard in Kirksville Indiana. Yesterday I shared images of the Wadding my wife and me celebrated 27 years ago. We had our wadding on the lawn of my parent’s farm in June of 1991. The lawn where the reception tent was, and the deck where the ceremony was held at just down the hill (reception) and at the end of (ceremony) my father’s Apple Orchard. To quote my mother from this past weekend, “we started the farm with five acres, then bought more.” The Orchard itself and the wadding were on the original five acres. The first building on the property was a shed that was built by Ai and myself with dad supervising and helping as well. Ai was a family friend from Thailand who came to the US for college.
Over the years people have asked me why I don’t garden. One of the reasons why I don’t garden is that Apple Orchard. It was 130 plus trees planted by hand. That meant digging a whole, putting the tree in, filling in around the tree and then watering the said tree. 135 or more times. When trees died, they had to be dug out and replaced. As the laborer for many of those tree plantings, I don’t like gardening anymore. At some point digging 135 plus holes makes one realize that digging isn’t all that fun. Eating apples is fun. Making Apple Cider is fun. Digging holes and watering trees every single day until the sky opens up and pours water and you don’t have to water, isn’t fun. I don’t like gardening. I am also said that out of all he pictures shared today, the only memory I have is why I don’t garden. I wish I had a story for the rest of the pictures.
Great views in these photos. I can only imagine the work involved in an apple orchard and it is completely understandable why you do not have a garden now.
It was a huge undertaking. But we had apples for many years when we were done!
I am sure you did and lots of mixed memories.
The memories are good, spending time with my dad. Crisp fall afternoons. Those are good. The work, not so much.
What a gorgeous place, a little steep there. The orchard is awesome too.
The orchard was a labor of love (for my father). For me it was painful. But thanks Kim!
Painful maybe, but what you learned is priceless. Bet you learned a lot about work ethic from an early age.
Ergo, many years later, I don’t have a garden!
All these places just told a great beautiful story.
Thanks! I just wish I had my dad’s story of the pictures. I suspect it would be very different than mine!