Bragg Family South

Life is slowly getting back to normal after a hectic Thanksgiving week. We had an enjoyable visit from Bob, Lisa, Mikey, and Emma from Tuesday until Friday. They ended up heading north a day earlier than planned because snow was forecast for the Madison area, and Bob needed to be available for snow removal work. Bob and I got out and canoed the Saline River on Wednesday, which was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, low river levels kept us from canoeing as long as we had planned. We had a fanatastic Thanksgiving day feast, courtesy of Hope, and I think all enjoyed the balmy weather and company. The only thing we didn't do as we had planned to was we forgot to draw names for the Christmas gift exchange, but Lisa and Laurie can handle that... Kenny had a birthday party on Friday for his upcoming 4th birthday. Six of his little friends came over (Mikey and Emma had already left for Wisconsin), and they played games, opened presents, and ate cake for a couple hours during the afternoon. K...

For whatever reason, I have had problems uploading the Hurricane Katrina photos, so I will try to get them online later.

I just returned from a short trip to southern Mississippi with my boss. We were asked to use our experience with storm damaged and otherwise understocked forests to help local foresters make better decisions about recovering their timberlands from the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. We drove to Jackson, Mississippi by Tuesday evening (Jackson is in the center of the state, about 2 hours from where we gave the workshop, but it was as close as we could find decent hotels). We arrived in Jackson during a fierce thunderstorm (I believe it was the same system that gave you that snow in Wisconsin). The following morning we drove south and toured portions of the hurricane damaged region, including parts of the DeSoto National Forest, which provided the picture given above. The forest damage in the areas we saw was more scattered and patchy than we expected, but the losses were still quite extensive. I think a preliminary estimate of timber lost to Katrina alone was over 5 billion cub...

First, the good news. Beth has really decided to take the next step (pun intended) towards being a big kid over the last couple weeks. She has started walking on her own with some skill, although she doesn't last too long before she loses her balance and falls. While we are very proud of her progress, this means we now have to re-childproof the house up to her new capabilities, and have to watch her like a hawk when we go elsewhere. Now, if she'd only cut that first tooth... The bad news is that we heard earlier this week that Howard Linskey, husband of my cousin and godmother Irma (Dolly) Linskey, passed away after suffering a massive stroke at his home in Osage, Iowa. A funeral will be held in Osage this Sunday, though I think Howard is to be buried in Wisconsin at a later date (I don't have many details). We extend our heartfelt condolences to Dolly and the rest of the Linskey family. We have started redoing some of the landscaping around the house, which has got me ...

The Packers keep finding new and exciting ways to lose games. I haven't really been able to decide if they are as competitive in these contests as the scoreboard sometimes indicates, or that if the other teams are simply playing down to their level. Before I get too bummed out on this, however, I have to keep things in perspective. When I opened this morning's paper, the lead story slapped me back to the reality of life--a twister struck the Evansville, IN area and killed 22 people early Sunday morning. With all the suffering in this world, the ups and downs of the Green Bay Packers pale in comparison. On a cheery note, I spoke to both brother Bob and sister Lisa this weekend to plan out their Thanksgiving visit to Monticello. They'll be in town for several days, so we're planning the turkey day feast and when to schedule Kenny's 4th birthday party (he actually turns 4 on November 30, but we'll try to have it when Mikey and Emma are in town). Things will p...