Bragg Family South

Hope has just been diagnosed with gall bladder dyskinesia, which basically means her gall bladder is not properly functioning--so much so that she has been scheduled for surgery next week to get her gall bladder removed. It will be a laproscopic procedure, and minimally invasive, but she'll stay overnight at the Pine Bluff hospital just to be sure everything's OK. While this does not sound pleasant, it should provide her considerable relief from the frequent gall bladder "attacks" she has been having. We know several people who have had this done recently, and they say there well-being has improved considerably since the surgery. Hope is expected to recover quickly, and we will still plan on making our big trip to the northeast in the latter half of October.

The picture to the right was taken a couple days ago by yours truly as we were measuring this large tree in the White River National Wildlife Refuge about an hour and a half from Monticello near St. Charles, AR. This unique species is a water tupelo (also called a "tupelo gum") and grows in some of the wettest sites possible (the large swollen base is one physiological response to growing in standing water most of the year). The drought we've had this year has lowered the water level in the old oxbow lake this tree is found in, making it possible for us to access it. The gentleman standing near this tree for scale is Kirby Sneed, a forestry technician from our unit. As an aside, I will frequently use my darling wife Hope as a "scale bar" in these kind of pictures, as it helps people appreciate the size of these trees. This water tupelo is just over 33 feet in circumference at chest height, and although not particularly tall, it shows all the signs of being quit...

Some of you may have heard about this already, but we had a very unpleasant surprise awaiting us when we got back to Monticello on Tuesday, September 12. Apparently, the Monticello area had a storm pass through a week before, which blew over a dead snag in our neighbor's yard. When it fell, this snag hit his powerlines, which were connected to the same pole as our powerlines. Hence, when it struck, it jerked the pole sharply, causing the lines to yank hard on our meter box, breaking some components. The power company disconnected the lines to avoid further damage, but being unable to get a hold of us, did not give us any kind of warning that we were without power. Sooooo...we arrived to a dark, smelly house. We had to dispose of the refridgerator and all of the spoiled food inside, and we had to get an electrician out as soon as we could to get the power back on. We ended up spending a night in a hotel in Monticello, but power was restored the next day, and by the end of th...

Another fantastic canoeing and camping weekend at Sylvania!! After a quick visit with sister Laurie and her husband Mark, we got to Rhinelander on the last day of August. We stocked up on food and other supplies, and the next morning traveled to the Sylvania Wilderness Area in the Ottawa National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Brother Bob joined us that morning, and brother John and Jim joined us a little later. We set up camp, and soon Hope's parents (Rick and Ann) also joined us. Later that afternoon, Bob, Rick, John, Jim and I enjoyed a brisk hike down one of the local hiking trails. Later that evening, we were joined by others, including sister Lisa and her family (Jon, Michael, and Emma), our friends Brian and Michelle Bennett and their son David, mom and dad (who just stopped by to visit, not camp), and eventually Bob's girlfriend Lisa made it in. The next day, John and Jim had to return to Madison so John could get ready to fly back to Turkey. We finally got...