A wedding and a furlough

Well, the clouds of uncertainty have at least temporarily blown away from Bragg Family South...we weathered the 2+week furlough of the federal government as well as could be expected, and though it was highly disruptive, we are catching up and moving on...  Not all of the last month since my last blog post have been as troubling as the last two weeks...  I was able to get out for a couple days during this period to volunteer on a couple digs, including the one below in a pine plantation in central Arkansas:

We were also blessed to be able to join our former neighbor Liz (the state trooper who lived across the street from us for a couple years) and her fiance at their wedding west of Little Rock.  Prior to the afternoon ceremony, we spent a little time visiting nearby sites on the Ouachita National Forest, including the restored buildings of a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) site:

We also visited a park at a nearby reservoir, and as you can see, it was just a gorgeous day:

Below is a bathroom structure, also built by the CCC in the 1930s.  The CCC constructed many beautiful stone buildings here in Arkansas, and many other locations:

That neat green roof is actually a carpet of moss that has accumulated in the shady, more humid part of this building:

Liz and her fiance Cody were married on a ranch property owned by her mother, and the ceremony was in the middle of one of their pastures:

The actual wedding was held under the spreading branches of a willow oak:

The bride and her bridesmaids were driven to the ceremony on the back of one of the ranch's big trucks:

Waiting on the bride:

Here she comes!

It was a small, close knit group of family and friends, and we were honored to be amongst them:

Notice the face on the oak tree?  Look close...  The weather worked out to be perfect, and the "western" or ranch them really worked at the wedding:

The reception was also nestled into a corner of the pasture, and continued the ranch theme:

Here is where some of the supplies and the cake were kept:

They provided costumes and masks for people to pose goofily in, such as you see with Beth and our neighbor Jessica:

The first dance of the newly wedded couple:

More dancing (that's Beth in the purple striped shirt):

Liz getting ready to throw the bouquet:

Stephen's sour face was because I had just *mistakenly* finished his previous piece of cake before he was truly done with it...oops...

We've also gone tailgating and attended a few UAM football games this fall:

Today was another day of tailgating and football (the game above is from several weeks ago).  Hopefully, fall continues to be as beautiful as it has been to date...