Bragg Family South

Wow!  Hard to believe how fast fall of 2022 has gone by!  Seems like we only just started the summer, and then school was upon us...and now the Thanksgiving holiday week has come and gone and December's knocking on the door!  As always, a lot has happened this fall, much of which revolved around band for Stephen (marching band during the football season), as well as some marching in local parades: Stephen was also involved in a number of archeology-related activities, including practicing with his friends using an atlatl (spear thrower): This practice was a prelude to a competition he and his friends participated in...which I'll get to later.  Stephen and I also took advantage of having the Columbus Day federal holiday off to climb to the top of a peak called Pinnacle Mountain just outside of Little Rock: A tiring hike, for sure, but a spectacular view!  (And some pretty cool looking shortleaf pine, like the one growing out of the rocks by Stephen).  Stephe...

So what does the title of this blog post refer to?  The fact that Hope and I now have been blissfully wed for 26 years?  Or the wonderful bread pudding we indulged in when celebrating this event?  Both, really!  Hope and I took an evening off, let the kids get their fast food dinners, and then drove out to a local steakhouse named Taylors, in the middle of the boonies near Dumas, Arkansas, for some "dead cow" (as Hope so elegantly puts it!) and their renowned bread pudding...You can't imagine from this kinda blurry picture how good that dessert was!!! This fall has included some archeology, including some rather warm time manning a booth at a local fair to help promote our local archeological society chapter, to a later lab day or two, such as the one pictured below: to some site survey work on a historical cemetery and then the state-level Arkansas Archeological Society meeting...but more on that later!  Stephen has been heavily involved in marching band this f...

The image above is of an A-10 ground support jet, suspended on a post in England Air Force Base Memorial Park (https://www.alexandria-louisiana.com/england-air-force-base.htm) in Alexandria, Louisiana.  I was in this city in central Louisiana in early August visiting with a number of my research unit staffers, and this display of military aircraft (there were others at this memorial) was impressive to see... The picture below of Beth is following her giving some of our outdoor cat Pusseidon some attention... As a long-haired outside cat in a warm climate, he sheds an awful lot!  (You can see him sitting at the base of the column next to Beth).  Our carport area is covered with his shed fur! We just got back from a visit with family "up north".  I spent the better part of two weeks visiting my parents in northern Wisconsin, for which I hit upon my tried and true activities...including photographing the woods, wetlands, and trees of our property, including a favorite v...

Yes, this is Beth "throwing me some shade" at dinner one night while we were in southwestern Washington!  One little comment on the delicious seafood fettuccini alfredo they served us... We spent one of our days in the Portland area exploring the Columbia River valley down to where it meets the Pacific Ocean...This, of course, became famous for where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent a long, miserable, rainy winter at the farthest extent of their famous expedition.  We visited this site (on the Oregon side of the river) and a reconstruction of their Fort Clatsop, part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park: While the original fort had long since rotted away, the new-ish interpretive location presented a lot of great material, and really helped give a sense for the challenging conditions this expedition faced.  Below is a picture of the inner area of Ft. Clatsop: Below, the kids seemed to really sympathize with the cramped quarters of all involved, especially the...