Bragg Family South

Why does Beth have such a "weird" expression on her face, much to Kenny's amusement?  Is it because of our weirdly warm weather?  The mystery will be answered shortly... Since the last Bragg Family South blog post in mid-August, the kids have gone back to school (weirdly early to those of you up north, but commonplace down here), Hope and I have had various business-related tasks that kept us busy (and me on the road; nothing too weird there), and we had another send-off party for a friend (Fiona) with the Arkansas Archeological Survey.  Okay, so some of you may find the cake pictured below to be rather weird: But those of us around field archeologists are used to seeing excavation units dug into sheet cakes (that's a likeness of Fiona on the right, digging rather large bones for an archeological site, and the screen on the left for sifting out the artifacts). Nope, our primary weirdness in the month of September can be summed up in two words:  WEIRD AL!...

We returned on Sunday from a week and a half of vacation in northern Wisconsin--and the beautiful weather there--to 99 degrees and humid back in Arkansas...just in time for our kids to go back to school!  As I type this, Hope and Stephen are going through his required school supplies, while Kenny and Beth prepare for their first day...Kenny of his senior year in high school, and Beth of her freshman year. We had a really good time visiting my parents in Rhinelander.  We helped around their house some, and spent plenty of time lounging around as well. This included a trip to Buck Lake for an afternoon of swimming--the water was very calm and quite comfortable (once you got used to it).  We also went for ice cream, and walked in the woods many times.  Oh, and we dined out in classic Northwoods sense--including a trip to one of our favorite supper clubs, the Al-Gen, for a Friday fish fry! The first weekend of our visit also coincided with Michigan Tech...

As the rains from former Hurricane Barry fall upon us in southeastern Arkansas, I'm taking advantage of the wet weather to catch up on the adventures of Bragg Family South over the past month.  The picture above is one of several I took to be sure I've got a current photo of my crew in my cell phone to share with friends and family...the kids grow so fast that an image from even 6 months ago isn't very relevant! The pictures below are from an exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (https://www.mosaictemplarscenter.com/) in Little Rock on African-Americans in the Arkansas timber industry that I helped advise them on the development of, and contributed historical pictures and other materials: The top picture is a display of the Crossett Lumber Company's operations in the 1920s, with a small working scale train and a number of associated images.  The picture below is of an old (1950s?) vintage 2-man chainsaw with a very long bar that was used to cut th...