Howdy, I'm Ed Born-Long.

Jew's harp music has long been one of my special interests. I learned to play jew's harp from an Austrian young man I met in Spain’s Balearic Islands in 1971. The instrument goes well with so many folk music styles, like bluegrass and Celtic, for example.

Click on the button to hear a sample of my playing.

Since arriving in Austin, Texas, in the spring of 1978, I spent many years in the roofing business. As I worked my way up from the field, I was foreman, superintendent, general manager, estimator, and salesman. However, believe it or not, over the years roofing has lost its charm. Imagine that.

In the spring of 2001, I found my perfect career and went to work full time at SafePlace, Austin's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Survival Center. I began volunteering at SafePlace not long after my daughter Annie was killed by her former boyfriend in 1997. This fine organization embraced me with warmth, caring, and love, and literally saved my life through that trying time.

I spent 2 years on the SafePlace staff, working with those wonderful people every day of the week. Most of that time I was in charge of vehicle donations, a very successful program that brings lots of much-needed money to SafePlace.

In this picture I'm wearing my 2001 Annie's Team T-shirt. In spring of 1998 we formed Annie's Team for SafePlace's annual "Walk for Safe Families and Safe Streets." Each year the Walk is SafePlace's biggest fund raiser. Thousands of walkers collect donations and walk together in an awesome display of love and caring. At its acme, 100 members of Annie's Team were giving their time and efforts to this wonderful cause in honor of my daughter's memory, and I couldn't be more grateful. 

My beautiful daughter Emilie, her husband Clay, my four grandchildren, and my great-grandson live hundreds of miles away in Colorado, but we stay close through phone and email. They are all very precious to me and to Chris, an unexpected and amazing addition to our lives only a few years ago. (Read all about it.)

I'm enjoying retirement now, spending my time here at Cactus Hill. There's no shortage of projects to keep me busy. I also work a couple of mornings each week as a golf course marshall, and in trade I get to play for free, and so does Chris. We're not very good, but we sure have fun.