{My Hunting Buddies} is a new blog on my list and it has good hunting stories, tips and pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed my ‘trip’ around it!

This Christmas I’ve had some wonderful presents, Brad’s progress being right at the top, but my greatest present is having our Lord’s presence in my life! Praise Him! My wish for everyone is to have the merriest Christmas possible and as you’re opening your presents, stop and ask our Lord to come into your life and make His presence in it!

Our family received a wonderful Christmas present last Friday. Brad, on his way to Georgia, to visit friends and to go hunting, called to let me know that his Oncologist had called to tell him that again this month, his X-rays, CT scan and MRI showed no cancer spread or growth. Earlier in December Brad had a bronchoscopy of both lungs and the Doctor was thrilled at his progress. December of ‘07, when Brad was so sick with pneumonia, this same Doc had given Brad less than a month to live.

Brad told me then, “Dad, don’t worry about my condition, because I will either see one of two miracles. One miracle will be that I’ll be cured, or the other miracle will be that I’ll see Jesus!” From that minute on Brad’s condition has improved!

Thanks to everyone for praying for Brad and please keep him in your prayers and on your Church’s prayer lists.

God’s will, will be done with Brad!

Merry Christmas, Jon and Layla

On Monday, 20 October, Brad visited his Oncologist in San Antonio and received more encouraging news! The antibody treatment that he began in May is still showing results. The treatment has caused a rash that the Doctor is treating, but still, in most cases, the worse the rash, the better the success!
Two weeks ago Brad had a bone scan and CT scan. His Doctor told him on Monday that the bone scan was clear and the CT scan showed that the tumors had shrink or remained the same size! Brad looks great, he weighs 195 and this past Saturday we worked getting the place ready for deer season opener on 1 November.

Here’s Brad sighting in his M-14.
His next visit to his Doctor will be in late November and I’ll update his status then.
Thank you for your prayers and keep praying and keep expecting a miracle!

Yesterday, Brad and I visited his oncologist in San Antonio. The doc was pleased with Brad’s progress! More specifically, Brad’s treatment was changed the first of May to include an antibody that blocks the growth of cancer cells. This procedure can be quite effective against Brad’s type of cancer, but it can also cause tiredness, joint pain and a bothersome rash.

Brad has experienced slight joint pain and was tired after this past week’s treatment, but does have a rash on his face. The doc is treating the rash and told us that it would get better over time. He did tell us that in most cases, the worst the rash is, the better the treatment is!

Brad’s weight is over 180, he has plenty of energy and his faith is STRONG and he still expects a miracle!

Please keep praying for Brad!

Praise the Lord, spring starts today!
Heavy rains on Tuesday put a big crimp in my planning for this coming summer. For my garden, it was a black eye pea and spinach, planting day, and got washed out with over an inch of rain. Next “best” planting days are April 4 and 5. Tilling the garden and plowing and fertilizing my spring food plots are out for several more days.

Next project in line is to start cutting and splitting wood for next winter and I’ve got plenty of mesquite and shin oak. Oak burns longer, but I like mesquite best, since it burns hot and clean with very little ash (and I’ve got acres of it). Mesquite is also easier to cut and split.
Other projects awaiting me are to complete the 300 hour scheduled maintenance on my tractor; change the oil and grease my Jeep; perform the spring maintenance check up on my John Deere, lawn mower; service my 2 four-wheelers; sight in the new scope on my .270; practice for my May pigeon shoot; spray along the fence lines, and finish our combat pistol range.

The ranch equipment is lined up awaiting its spring service!

Somehow I have to patch these “must dos” into nurturing my garden and fruit trees; working them into my monthly Senior Softball tournaments and practice schedule along with both salt and fresh water fishing trips, and of course, my blogging.

Thank goodness I don’t have a real job, and thank goodness it’s spring!

Over the past year, I have posted several stories written by my Great Uncle, Lee Wallace. I believe this is one of his best!

One Eyes Sextet, By Lee Wallace

“Lee, I’ll give you a thousand years to guess who I overtuck ‘tween Grand Saline and Edgewood, Friday. I mean I’ll give you a thousand guesses. Don’t you ‘member that Eli Moss? That pidgin-toed feller with one eye out, that tangled-headed feller with unmatched jaws, that bowlegged chap, you used to go cotton-pickin with every fall?”

“Yes” I said, “very distinctly do I remember Eli.”
“Out into Ellis County every fall. Saddle up your old grass bellied fan tails, each of you with his fiddle in a flour sack hung to the horn of your saddles, and light out. Great days: Always a big dance the night before you left and a bigger one the night after you got back.” (Here I dragged him back on his subject.)

“Oh yes, Eli. He’s got a show, a good one at that. ‘Texas Museum’ he calls it, built like a wagon, cages on wheels; a one eyed nigger without salary for a driver, which adds to it. The go from place to place “Exhibiting”. The nigger drives, and Eli with a one-eyed dog hunts on first one side then tuther on the road. He’s got an old capped and balled rifle. He furnishes plenty of meat for them and the meat eating part of the show. Yes, and his two mules they just got one eye each. Says he got ‘em cheap for that. He’s got hawks, owls, and badgers and woofs, and snakes and spiders, and just one Vinegarroon, that bites you just one time and after that you just got seven minutes for prayer.

The day I over tuck him, I stayed all night with him and his show at Edgewood. After supper and the show, and we had talked, he got his fiddle, (same one he had when he was a boy) and jerked off a few paragraphs of them Van Zandt melodies. I then called for his specialty, “The Dying Cowboy”, the one he always sings while he plays. I joined in, the nigger joined in, the dog, too and the woofs and the rattle snakes and even the mules, and it shore nuff seemed to me like the doxology to a “Wild West” show.”

“He makes no charges, he says it’s like salvation free. His style is hung out: ‘If the show helps you, you may help the show. If you are going to give anything, wait ‘till you go out and then you’ll know what it’s all about’.”

“Great fellow, that Eli. You always said he’d amount to something. He makes money, too, ‘cause his nigger is slick, his mules and show-folks are fat, he’s got red topped boots, he’s got wire strings on his fiddle and shaves himself, and listen, Lee, for this is in confidence, he’s going to get married, and his coming wife has got two good eyes.”

Author’s note: Exactly true, this was and is strange, strange story especially as to a one-eyed aggregation of unfortunate creatures.

Now I’m adding another fact in line with the facts above recited. Alf Reed, the boy who told me this story and who was the best shot in Van Zandt County, at the time, had only one eye himself.

Blogger’s Note: Several times I remember my Mother talking about when she was a girl and her mentioning Alf Reed.