Good thing the snow was feeble...

Stephen's expression says it all--few things in life are sweeter than getting to lick the beaters after Mom makes cookies... The kids got their hopes up the other week--we had a forecast for accumulating snow in southern Arkansas. To date, all the heavier snows had passed through central and northern Arkansas, with us getting only more rain. Not this time--snow was a comin'!! Much to their chagrin, the 1.5 inches of snow that fell didn't even coat the road:

The University of Arkansas at Monticello, obviously anticipating more than what fell, canceled classes the night before. Kenny and Beth still had school, and this little tease of snow vanished before noon the next day!! As disappointed as the kids were, I was glad we didn't get a lot of snow--we had plenty of things to do. On Presidents' Day (the federal holiday), I accompanied the station archeological assistant in revisiting some sites in southern Drew County, including a new (to the Survey) site along a pretty lil' cypress pond:

Okay, so in this case, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but even on this gray day, the small stand of cypress in this old oxbow lake was impressive. We also went out and acquired a new French door for the back part of our house, to replace the former one:

While this picture doesn't look too bad, there was considerable decay in the door frame along the base, and the old door lacked some key features we wanted to have. So, after purchasing the door at the nearest Lowes and hauling it back in my truck (ask Hope about that experience sometime), we awaited the arrival of Hope's parents. Rich Pruden graciously "volunteered" to help on this little project...

Which, as you may have guessed, ballooned into a much bigger project... After removing the siding (which we planned to replace), we found further water damage and mildew that we had to remove. It also turned out that the eves above the door had sustained considerable water damage over the years, and needed replacing, too (that is what we're doing in the photo above). We spent the better part of two days repairing and replacing damaged wood and installing and leveling the new doors. During this time, I also had to help out by giving a forestry program to our local Cub Scout pack:

I like the picture below because it epitomizes the day--notice how the parents are looking into the tops of the trees, which I was talking about, whereas the Cub Scouts are fascinated with some pine cones or something else lying on the ground:

It really worked into a good day--the weather cooperated, the boys were pretty good, the parents seemed to enjoy the material, and we had a cook-out on the UAM campus:

Well, at least Hope, Kenny, and I did... Ann and Stephen spent a good part of the day catching some zzzzzzs...

While they snoozed, Rich got the boat out and ready for use. So we then spent the afternoon out on the Saline River:

The water was too high to look for petrified wood, but it was a nice cruise anyhow. Well, except for Kenny and Beth, who thought it would be cool to wear shorts that day... "Cool" was how they felt, for sure--especially with the cold water flowing down that stream! Rich and Ann left on Sunday, just sneaking back to their house before a significant snowfall there.

Well, we wished we could have made Mom and Dad Bragg's surprise birthday party at Lisa's last weekend, but it was not to be... We really appreciate the blogs that some of y'all maintain, with their pictures and entertaining narratives. Not nearly as good as being there, but far better than nothing!!