Ted's place before the restoration.

We've had a lot of people asking about "Ted's place," featured in the "about ted's" section, so we thought we'd give you a little back story:

Dubbed "Devil's Elbow," after the bend in the Blue River in Southern Indiana that Ted's place fronts, Ted's place is a hide-away, cottage, vacation home, and world headquarters all wrapped up in one. When Ted stumbled upon the old property little did he know that it would become a two-year labor of love. The people in the area all seemed to know about Devil's Elbow and had used the property for swimming, fishing, and picnicking. When the farm went up for auction, Ted was right there in the middle of things. "They turned the auction into a social event," he said, "There were even people selling pies."

Shortly after acquiring the property Ted decided to undertake a historic restoration of the former dairy farm by using a dedicated team of craftsmen and carpenters. While the finished building looks new, the basic structure was retained, including the original massive weight-bearing timbers and beams. Poplar boards were milled expressly to replace the worn siding.

Ted laughs about telling his close friends that if they planned to sit in front of the fireplace and smoke his cigars at Devil's Elbow, they were going to have to help him gather the stones to build it. So they all pitched in on the project. "These were huge stones-we wrestled probably about 30-40 tons of rock."

What the casual passerby might have envisioned as a rickety old barn, Ted envisioned as the perfect spot to spend a quiet evening or entertain friends and party hearty whenever the spirit so moved. He fondly quotes James Taylor, "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time."