Jim and Pat Ebacher

Monday, March 31, 2008

We had a great time on the rest of our Spring Break vacation in the Olympics. After Lake Quinault Lodge we went to Kalaloch Lodge and all the great beaches, each very different, looking for the elusive beach glass. Madeleine was the only one to find any, and only one piece to boot. We finished with a great experience of one night at the Sol Doc Hot Springs Resort, catching the opening day at the hot springs. We cut things short because Brian and Laura, and girls were meeting us on their way down to Sacramento. So we cut things short and headed to Dom and Kelsie's to get the dogs. Dom had made a great stew and they were nice enough to put us up for the night. We headed home the next morning, early, and had a nice visit with Brian and Laura. On the way home our SMART car salesman called us to tell us the car was in (after waiting for a year). So, you can see pictures of the car too. Whoooho! Mom is so excited.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lake Quinault Lodge

Started our spring vacation with Kelsie and Dom in Belfair, WA, where, after driving for 3 hours with the dogs on their laps, Miesha and Madeleine were happy to leave them. Kelsie and Dom will be doggie sitting for the week, so nice of them. We then proceeded to Lake Quinault Lodge where we stayed two nights. It was a good transition and wind-down into a slower pace. We had a great dinner at the lodge the first evening, and breakfasts were awesome. I wish we had pictures. The food presentation was outstanding.

We also had a nice hike the next day. Since the December, 2007 storm there was tremendous damage to the trees around here, and the Mercantile was also damaged, now repaired. I busied myself with cataloging the silly little stencils in the main lodge. Lots of board games and ping-pong. Only Madeleine brought her swimsuit. Anyway, having a good start. Oh, this lodge had wireless internet. I don't expect it at Kalaloch!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Step Weekend at WWU with Miesha

We had a great time this weekend with Miesha up at WWU. Here's the link to her team's Step performance, now up on YouTube. Click Here

Or go to YouTube and search on Step WWU.

On the way home we visited with Dom and Kelsie in Belfair. A great weekend, but the old farts are barely hanging in there, still with coughs from the flu. Yuck.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Rain Barrels Done

We had a trace of rain this morning, and we already have 3" in the barrel! Yeah. Notice the plumbing and reinforcements made to the structure to hold the 2 tons of weight when the barrels are full.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Rainbarrels, Seriously Installed on the Back Deck

So, Mom left me home with nothing to do. Naturally, I decided to install a series of rain barrels. The idea is to collect rain from the house gutters, throughout the spring, then deliver the water to the blueberries and back yard plants throughout the dry summer, saving on our water utilization.

I wanted the installation to be a high on the property as possible, and as it worked out, it couldn't be much higher unless it was up on the roof itself. The barrels were purchased from the feed store in Camas, who gets these 55 gal white food grade plastic barrels, and sells them for $15 each. I used cedar and outdoor wood, and built a cantaliver out from the deck. Not yet completely convinced it's strong enough to hold full barrels. 5 barrels full of water, at 460 pounds each, is 2,300 pounds. That's over a ton. I may need to consult Farouk about the stresses, and I suspect before filling with water I'll need to pour at least two new footings and pillars.

So, what do you all think??

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hill Street House Sold! Yeah.

Hill Street House is Sold!We are happy to announce that the Hill Street house is rented, and soon to be sold to a great family, that of Doug and Kim Anderson. They have a middle school son, and a couple of small dogs, and are very excited about the house. They've started moving in. The Anderson's will rent for a couple of months while they put the final touches on their financing to buy the house we have sweated over for the past year and a half. So the "For Sale" sign has come down! The final price was $230,000. There's a bank and a couple of credit cards that will be very happy about this. Me too. It was a successful end, although not as profitable as we had hoped, because it all took so long to remodel and sell, and we made a little money, and a chapter soon closed. And, done without a Realtor.

Fr. Roger's Eulogy

Roger Joseph Ebacher, OCSO
May 19, 1919 – April 15, 2008

Eulogy

My name is Jim Ebacher, and I am Fr. Jerome’s nephew. My father was Fr. Jerome’s kid brother. They called him Bill, and we call Fr. Jerome, “Roger”, and his Medicare card calls him Joseph. It’s all kind of confusing. But, had my father lived into his old age, I’m sure he would have been here today at this lectern, also finding a way to make you laugh a little bit. So, I guess I’ll speak to you in his place.

Roger was born on May 19th, 1919, to French Canadian immigrants on May 19th, 1919, and grew up in Amesbury, Massachusetts. We trace our ancestry to one lone mercenary, a Frenchman, recruited by the Braunschweigers to fight the American colonial rebels in the war of Independence. The Braunschweigers lost that fight, but like many of those who were defeated, Jean-Baptiste Ebacher and his descendents the Ebacher and Baker families, settled in and around Quebec, Canada. At the turn of the last century many French Canadians we enticed to immigrate to Amesbury, Massachusetts to work on the new carriage factories, making the early horseless carriages. They needed skilled carpenters. Roger grew up as a boy in the Amesbury neighborhood called the “brickyard”, and as you might guess, this area was not known for its stunning views or fine homes. He was one of a family of four brothers and five sisters. Their mother died when Roger was in the 6th grade, naturally a traumatic experience which scarred Roger throughout his life and lead to his frail disposition. He has three surviving siblings; Beatrice, Margaret and Therese, all religious sisters in the order of St. Critienne in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Please keep them in your prayers.

Roger began his religious life at the minor seminary of Our Lady of LaSalette, in Enfield, New Hampshire. There, he was schooled in High School subject matter and in the languages of Greek, Latin, French and English. After LaSalette he explored his vocation with the LaSalette fathers, and I believe was quite close to ordination with them, when he felt called to the Trappist community at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass, which he then joined. While at this Abbey, he lost all his collected poems as the result of a fire, something he quietly grieved his entire life. He was part of the original foundation to Pecos, New Mexico, and he studied at the Vatican for a short time. He was with the community when they moved to this location in 1955. My apologies if I have any of this wrong.

In his final days, Roger told me quite often that he felt on the whole quite blessed in this life. He also expressed regret that he did not have a stronger prayer life and that he wasn’t a very good monk. The rule of St. Benedict has the motto Prayer and Work. Roger’s work was teaching, which he did as novice master for many years, painting, and his duties as Mass Secretary, and finally keeping everything tidy in the Sacristy. He believed all priests should be grounded in the classical philosophical thoughts of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, as well as the 20th century writings particularly of Whitehead. During the 1970’s Roger embarked on a systematic study of modern science, reading Biology, Physics, Anatomy, Psychology, and finishing with what he came to believe was the basis of all understand of matter, Quantum Physics. Naturally, there were few he could knowledgeably discuss these pursuits with. At the same time he began a study of painting with a teacher in McMinnville, a pursuit he dedicated a number of years to. Roger didn’t think he would live to see the new church, but he did, and he liked it very much, although he has his doubts when it was being planned. He expressed his appreciation for the love and support of Abbot Peter often to me, and enjoyed a warm fraternal relationship with Dom Bernard.

Roger was nervous and frail for much of his life. He was very conscious of his weak voice. He had a touchy constitution and generally kept only a few close friends in the Abbey. He had a number of secular contacts; men and women who came to him for confession and who enjoyed discussions of philosophy. These visits were uplifting to his spirits. I don’t know anything about most of these relationships, but I’m sure their stories will be told and we will learn new things about Fr. Jerome.

He was a philosopher. His writings represent a body of concise thought about the nature of existence. And, in his later years he felt that it was quite complete, that he has said all he wanted to say, even if it sadly may never be read and understood by another human being. In his final years, he often spoke of how he felt a peace with the completeness of his writings. The only spiritual connection he ever spoke of to me was with ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, a doctor of the church, known as the little flower. He had an old black and white photograph of her in his room, and he often spoke of feeling her personal presence with him.

Roger was a beloved uncle to me, and like a grandfather to my children. Maybe this is an odd thing for a monk. I don’t know. It seems quite natural to us. My relationship began the year before my father died, when I spend January term here, having come by Greyhound bus from Minnesota. Some of you here today remember this. Roger returned my visit by officiating at our wedding in Minnesota just 4 years later. He gave First Communion to our four children, and no matter how noisy and rambunctious they were, always received them with love and joy. Like us, he rejoiced in their achievements and growth. Over the past few years he often spoke of his longing to be with God in eternal life. He was impatient with his existence and not at all sure why he was still hanging around. Roger was my father surrogate, and although I miss my father very deeply, I have always felt he was actually still with me, not at all gone. And now, I grieve the loss to me of both of these gentle men who have given me so much.

His last coherent words to me were that when it gets down to it, it’s really all about the Father Almighty. Just the Father, at the center of it all. And I will leave you with that mystery. It might be an unwritten coda to the symphony of this one monk’s life of seeking an understanding of existence. Roger felt he had come to some measure of Truth in his thoughts and writings, and also felt the presence of the devil who was trying to shut him up. I believe Roger has finally won his struggle; his struggle with life and Truth.

When we come into the world we proclaim our arrival with loud cries and complaints. When we go, life just sneaks out of us. Somewhere between, if we are lucky and we put for the effort to find it, one can find a measure of revelation. This is what I’ve learned from my dear uncle.

I want to thank you all for coming today and letting me speak briefly with you. I want to express to all of you the gratitude for the prayers that made Jerome’s passing a smooth journey, and supported us throughout the vigil and his illness these past many months.

I want to close with a poem Roger wrote a long time ago. It’s called “Imaculata”.

IMMACULATA

She rests in the clean dawn, my white-
winged Dove, in the clefted reef, cooing,
wooing the Rising-Sun.

Mine is the Morning-Glory, bright
in twilit brittleness,
lipping,
lapping the soonest Ray.

She is a Forest-Virgin, awed
to tremor and hush, yet
dancing,
clapping her atom-hands.

Mine, this clearest fountain, with
trembling sparks in glee,
leaping,
telling of full-day’s Flame.

James Joseph Ebacher
Read at Roger's Funeral Reception
4-19-08

Jim and Pat Ebacher - Our Life

Monday, March 31, 2008

The New SMART Passion ForTwo

Rest of Our Spring Vacation

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lake Quinault Lodge

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Step Weekend at WWU with Miesha

Monday, February 25, 2008

Rain Barrels Done

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Rainbarrels, Seriously Installed on the Back Deck

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hill Street House Sold! Yeah.

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