Layla and I wish everyone a wonderful, Merry Christmas!

May each of you receive the gifts of good cheer, good health and many blessings from our Lord!

From experience and talking with families of cancer patients I knew, and Layla and I had discussed, the inevitable ups and downs to be encountered with Brad’s cancer challenge. In my life, I thought I had experienced the ultimate in highs and lows, but the past 5 days with Brad’s contracting pneumonia along with a lung infection and pleurisy dropped me to the bottom.

The doctors were very concerned, one, because of the severity of his condition, and, two, because his special trial chemo program at M.D.Anderson was scheduled to begin yesterday and they believed that speed was most important in attacking his cancer! Besides these concerns, Brad’s fever had been over 100 for 10 days, he was continuously coughing, and couldn’t take a deep breath.

His condition was bad, but in the face of this adversity his faith, strength and courage remained unshaken! Our family, our Churches, friends and even folks that had never met Brad continued their fervent, believer’s prayers, and yesterday afternoon I saw our Lord at work!

Brad looked good, his fever was gone, he was up and walking around and best, his doctors said they could beat the infection in 7 to 10 days instead of the original estimate of 2 + weeks, and chemo treatments could begin immediately after that.

Brad told me that he was certainly blessed by our Lord and that his struggle is his testimony for the Lord’s work!

Praise the Lord!

Everyone keep praying for Brad.

I have added two great new links to my list and both are not really outdoorsy, but I have enjoyed stopping by each.

The first blog is Stop The Ride,http://stoptheride.net/ by Stephanie Appleton, that is mostly money saving ideas, recipes and useful tips. Stephanie has posted several of her articles on my past Blog Carnivals, and all of her writing is most enjoyable!

The second blog is Life & Faith In Caneyhead, http://journals.aol.com/bhbner2him/LifeFaithinCaneyhead/ by Barbara. It is full of what I call, “Good ‘ole east Texas common sense” and it is also a great witness to our Lord! I am happy to have this one on my list!

Stop by and check them both out.

Last night I posted my 4 reasons for joining the Outdoor Bloggers Summit and you can read them by clicking on the link. It will be neat for me to once again be part of a “start up” organization and to have the opportunity to make a difference. I love our Country! Isn’t it a great place!

During my life I have met many people, and recently, after a several hour visit with a WW II American flyer that was shot down and spent 18 months in a German prison camp, I started thinking back to some of the people that really stand out in my memory.

I have met a former President of The United States, a past Secretary of State, numerous other politicians, a Medal Of Honor winner, a Jewish man who was held in Dachau by the Germans who had his prisoner number tattooed on his right forearm, a victim of the Batan Death March who was a Japanese POW for three years and not met, but watched, numerous German Afrika Corps Troopers behind the wire at an American POW camp in Temple, Texas.

When I was four years old going on five, my Dad made sure that I spent a lot of time with his family on their farm outside of Marlin, Falls County, Texas. At that time, prior to WW II, rural farmers and ranchers in Texas did not have electricity, propane or butane. The Rural Electrification Agency didn’t arrive in Falls County until after the war.

Looking back I remember helping my Dad, draw water from the hand dug well and haul it the 200 yards to the house and chop fire wood for Grandma Bryan’s cook stove. If the pieces were too big Grandma would send us both back out to re-split the wood. “John H. and Jon, you know that those pieces are too big. Get yourselves back outside and do it right”, she would order! But, the cobblers, fresh bread and rolls couldn’t be duplicated now. She was a magician with her wood stove!

I remember filling the lanterns with coal oil. I remember the outside toilet, a two holer and the Sears catalog, and checking for Black Widows before you sat down. When you finished you had to drop a hand shovel full of lime through the hole on to the “pile”. A thankless job was cleaning out the outhouse!

What really sticks out now in my memory was meeting two very remarkable people. Uncle Tom and Aunt Betty, Tom and Betty Norwood, who owned a farm across Rock Dam road from my Grandma Bryan. Both had graduated from college, both were retired teachers. Uncle Tom was in his 90’s, tall, straight as a ramrod, silver hair and still farming. His watermelon patch is another story for later. Aunt Betty, short and smiling,a master quilt maker and helped my Grandma around her house. When I was visiting, Aunt Betty immediately took me over. She made sure I had plenty of cookies and lemonade, guarded over me like a mother Hen and made me feel that I was “special”.

Tom Norwood was a former slave! Betty Norwood was a child of former slaves! They were great people and had risen from nothing to property owners and respected members of the community. Some of my most cherished memories are of those two special people!

I got tagged by a Meme that looks like it started in Mississippi, went to Canada and now finds itself in central Texas. I was told to tag 8 other bloggers and we are supposed to adhere to the following rules.

Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should tag eight other people and notify them that they have been tagged. If you can’t tag 8 do as many as you can.

I can provide 8 things about me. Before I get into them, I know many will find it hard to believe that someone from Texas, has difficulty bragging, or talking about, himself. I do!

1. I am a Christian and a Southern Baptist!
2. I love my Wife! I love my Children and my Grand Children. They are the reason that I started writing down all of my outdoor adventures.
3. I am a Texan. I am a fifth generation Texan. I love my state! My kids are sixth generation Texans. I have been all over the world and people, anywhere, always seem to know about Texas.
4. I am very conservative. I am not very politically correct. I think it is a sign of weakness. I enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh.
5. I have played baseball and softball all of my life and currently play Senior Softball. My team has won two national championships and I am in the Texas Senior Softball Hall of Fame and the Softball Players Association Hall of Fame.
6. I love hunting, fishing, shooting and writing about these passions.
7. I am a member of the Sons Of Confederate Veterans. All 4 of my Great Grandfathers fought for the South during the War of Northern Agression. I see no problem with the Confederate Battle Flag. In fact, the first song I ever learned was “Bonnie Blue Flag”, the Southern anthem. My family traces its roots back to the 1600’s in the U.S. and we have served our country in all of its wars, including the Revolutionary War.
8. My ranch is in Mills County, Texas, just outside of Goldthwaite, almost “smack dab” in the middle of our fine state. It could be “Any Small Town, USA” and is a great place to live and raise kids. This Sunday, in honor of Memorial Day, the Churches in town are sponsoring a picnic in the City Park and most of the town will be there.

Now, my secrets are out, I should tag some folks, but almost all I share links with have been taken, so I shall just “Pass”.

My wife is kinda shy. She was afraid I would post this story on my blog, but I assured her that I wouldn’t.

But as I sat here tonight, I thought why not? She is really an excellent cook and that Sunday dinner was past good!

Sometimes something real simple turns out to be something great or a real memorable event. I had one occur to me on Sunday, April 22, 2007. The following is a tribute to some real good cooking!

Our son, Brad, had come over to our ranch on Saturday to help me with some chores and get some practice in for a 3 gun target shoot he was participating in the following Saturday. Layla and I thought he would spend the night, as he does many times, and that we would all go out to eat after Church on Sunday, so, for supper, from the freezer, she took out some Venison round steak and black eye peas I had put up the past summer. Supper would be great.

But, Brad told us he would have to decline spending the night since he needed to be at his Church on Sunday morning, so we all decided to go eat at Peabody’s Restaurant in Goldthwaite. After a very good meal Brad headed back to Copperas Cove and as Layla and I drove home, she said, “I’ll fix the peas and Venison tomorrow after we get back from Church. I think I’ll fix some cornbread too.”

After Church, as she was fixing dinner, I was thinking that cornbread and gravy doesn’t sound too good. Now greens and cornbread or a glass of milk with cornbread crumbled up in it would be real tasty, but gravy? She mentioned that she had heard once, long ago, of her relatives talking about cornbread and gravy and I told of hearing about cornbread and tomato gravy, but not cream gravy.

We Blessed the food and helped ourselves. After spooning out a nice portion of black eyes and getting several pieces of fried Venison, I sliced a medium piece of cornbread in half, covered it liberally with a portion of cream gravy and added plenty of black pepper and was about to be surprised. It seems that cornbread and cream gravy were meant for each other and fit in perfectly with the peas and Venison.

After seconds, I excused myself and told Layla what a good choice she made with the cornbread and gravy, how good it was and how I enjoyed myself, but wouldn’t some Peach cobbler just top it all off? She replied, “Count to ten when thinking about desert.”

Dieting and staying in playing shape just became harder. And just think, one more month and we will have fresh, home grown, peaches for our cobbler (to top off our cornbread and gravy).