Bragg Family South

The picture to the right is of an old-growth white pine on the shores of one of the many lakes in Sylvania. We are planning another canoeing/camping trip for Sylvania this fall. Earlier, we mentioned to people we were thinking about coordinating this trip with a trip to Michigan for a wedding of a cousin of Hope's, but we have modified our travel plans and now we are looking at another Labor Day expedition. Even though Labor Day is too early to catch good fall color, it does give people the opportunity to take advantage of a long weekend. Our thoughts are: we would get to the Sylvania campground on Friday, September 1, and set up camp (trying to get a number of sites adjacent to each other). Saturday would be the main day for canoeing, and Sunday possibly as well (don't worry Packer fans--opening weekend isn't until the next Sunday). One of my personal goals during this trip is to try to use my laser height measuring device to measure the national champion red pine, which i...

You'd think we would have learned at some point, but as you can tell from this picture, we haven't...we have recently started remodeling Beth's bedroom. Initially, our idea was to put up drywall (it currently is only painted-over paneling) and install a new window, but after digging into it a bit, we ended up replacing a bad stud or two, rebuilding the support structure around the window, adding an outlet, and, as you can see, we will be adding a new door to replace the current one, which was in noticeably poorer condition than we thought. Kenny and Beth are currently sharing Kenny's room, which has worked out pretty well (so far). They're crowded, but not unacceptably so. We expect this remodel to be done by the end of August, if not sooner. Part of the slow progress is the fact that I have a fair amount of business travel over the next few weeks, but we also are buying sheetrock and boards and doors etc. piecemeal as we can afford them (we've vowed not to hit ...

After another long drive following an all-too-short visit, we returned safely to Arkansas yesterday afternoon. We always thoroughly enjoy our trips up north, but it seems like we spend as much time driving as we do visiting...goes with living so far away, I guess. After a nice visit with Laurie and Mark in Madison, we arrived in Rhinelander Friday evening and spent some quality time with Mom and Dad and John and Jim. On Sunday we met up with our friends the Bennetts and traveled to the Antigo area to participate in a "breakfast on the farm" event that had a pancake breakfast, horse wagon rides, tours of their barns, and other displays of equipment. The kids enjoyed the morning, even with a cool wind blowing and the threat of rain. Kenny tried his hand at fishing for the first time (both he and I need more patience to make that work...). Dad and I went out the next day and measured some tall white pines near Woodruff (after Dad had ordered their new kitchen cabinets) while Hop...