Bragg Family South

Well, I decided to do another blog posting before we depart for our Christmas visits--that way I can concentrate on the Christmas trip when I post next in January.  The early weeks of December are filled with holiday-related cheer, including Beth's school art (above).  Usually, we have several Christmas parties to attend, including one for our local archeological society chapter.  This year, we changed the plans to make this feast "Jeter-palooza", in honor of the retiring UAM station archeologist Dr. Marvin Jeter.  Dr. Jeter, or "Bubba" as he prefers to be called, you may recall, is the person most singly responsible for getting Bragg Family South involved in archeology.  He is a wonderful (sometimes quirky) person with an almost inexcusable passion for the University of Alabama football program, and never hesitates at a chance to be goofy, as you can see with the hammed-up picture he took with our kids: Hope and our neighbor/station assistant archeologi...

On Friday, our little martial artist Kenny turned 11...Hard to believe!  It is also hard to believe I haven't posted a blog in over a month.  Between my work/travel schedule, moving back to the UAM campus, and all of the other activities (including deer hunting), there hasn't been much time for anything else.  Here's a quick wrap-up since our last post...  We spent some time watching the UAM football team struggle through their season.  The Fightin' Boll Weevils only won one game, but we really enjoyed tailgating most of the home games this year, and the UAM band did a fine job during this cool but clear fall game: Kenny (dark green coat, in middle) played a pick-up game of football with some of his friends and some UAM students: We also had fun carving pumpkins right before Halloween--the jack-o-lantern in the middle has other gourds for hair and a nose, and pecans for eyes: Stephen's preschool also do a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" in w...

First, a little pretty before the blog storm...The beautiful fruits on the shrub above are those of the aptly named American beautyberry, a native plant very common in our area. It has been a while since my last blog post...I blame my busy travel schedule!  This is largely true--I will be "in the office" less that a week total this month (October), but more on that later.  Before September ended, we enjoyed watching the UAM forestry club at a demonstration of some competitive "forestry" events, such as two-man log bucking: And the every popular burling: While this event was going on, Hope and Beth spent some time watching the infant daughter of some friends of ours: October 1 I started on one of my epic business trips, this time to Ohio and Pennsylvania.  On the way to my first meeting in Columbus, Ohio, I stopped in Cincinnati to visit our friend, Father Chet.  Some of you have met Father Chet--he was the priest in Monticello when we first ...