Bragg Family South

Well, it's official!  We have a new MTU Husky in the household!  But more on that later...  This summer had a few rainbows: We also had an extended stay by a different kind of family--some birds nested in an old Packer helmet toy of the kids, and it appears that these 4 chicks were successfully raised by their hard working parents: (you can just barely see the beak of one of these nestlings in the picture above).  One other project we worked on was a new fireplace mantle for our living room...The one that had been there since we bought our house was showing its age and breaking down, so after some consideration and shopping around, we decided it would be best to build our own out of a number of oak boards...and we're pretty happy with the results: By now, summer 2020 has now largely wound down...After a brief delay to better prep for COVID, the Monticello school system is now open for classes, so Beth and Stephen have gone back to classes this past week.  The de...

Look at what Stephen found! Not a dinosaur tooth...something even older--a quartz crystal with three points!  More on this discovery later... Hard to believe it's been almost a couple months since my last blog post.  Lots has happened...and less than usual, thanks to these unusual days...  Hope and I have been consumed with work, as has Kenny, who is working nearly full-time at the city swimming pool (as a lifeguard).  Beth and I made a quick trip to visit my folks, who enjoyed a visit from 2/5 of Bragg Family South: We had some gorgeous weather, and got to see several of my siblings, including my youngest brother Bill, pictured below enjoying a campfire with mom and Beth: We spent time cooking out, and working on the house and trails on our property: We took Mom on a day trip out of the house to visit Bond Falls: We also took mom and dad to one of their favorite places in the world, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help ( https://championshrine.org/ ) near Ch...

Looking at my last post, it has been a month and a half since I've updated the adventures of Bragg Family South...can't say too much has happened over the past weeks.  We've been staying largely home-bound due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  But, home-bound adventures are still something... One of our first efforts has been trying to stay dry...We've gotten quite a lot of rain this year, especially into early May (things have started to dry out a bit).  Below is a picture of one side of our house, and you can see the "bog"/lake that was our backyard: On the other side of the house, years ago we had dug a drainage ditch, to which we added some larger stones to make a small waterfall...you can see how much this one mid-April rainfall got the water flowing! Here's another view of the backyard lake... And ours wasn't the worst of the water flow--here is a block or so from our house, with a larger stream flowing over these people's driveway: Unfortunately, i...

Well, I am pleased to say that to date, Bragg Family South has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic as well as can be expected.  Hope has used her "craftiness" to fashion some washable cloth masks from some fabric she had on hand--my choice of pattern was obvious!--and she has adapted our front office space to fit her needs for telework: I am fortunate enough to still be able to work at my office on the UAM campus, which is virtually deserted of students, staff, and faculty.  I have worked some at home, but am usually in my quiet office every day.  I have taken advantage of my lack of work and personal travel to get some cleaning done around the home place...While the picture below may not seem like it, my shed is MUCH cleaner and more organized now than it was just weeks ago: The kids have been doing their schoolwork at home, as best they can.  Kenny was actually graduated part-way through the term, as he only had about 6 weeks of courses left.  Beth...