Oh boy, here we go again! Mary and Red are the proud parents of 8 new puppies. More pics to come.

The puppies are growing up.

One day we were on our way home from Church coming up the driveway and we spotted a flock of about 30 wild turkeys just moseying through the pasture. We went real slow and got up close to them before they took off running and finally to the air. I was glad I had my camera with me and was able to snap these pics of a few flying over the driveway.

We see turkeys fairly frequently on walks and such, but they are very alert and any noise makes them take off. They are exceedingly difficult to catch on film or on a memory card.

Grandma Johnson on her way over to the Dome to do some SteakBurger shipping. In the short time they’ve been here, she’s made friends with the chickens by throwing out corn to them. Now they follow her around!

You may have heard that it has been super dry in this part of the country. I can tell you that the rumors are in fact true. We’ve been here 7 years and that’s nothing compared to many of our neighbors. They all agree, it’s never been this bad. Supposedly (this is third-hand now) an old-timer who lives in Milford has been keeping detailed weather records since 1955 and it’s never been drier. We have only one of our ponds that is still holding out. Our well is still going strong but it’s 700 feet deep.

So, with it being so dry, it’s the perfect time to build new ponds in what would otherwise be fairly soggy places much of they year. Right now all soggy places are bone dry.

That’s Noah up there standing by the side of the second pond we built.

The real experts on pond/tank building are San Davis and Lee Harris. They brought their laser levels and their big bulldozers and a load of experience and built these tanks in no time at all. It was amazing how much dirt they moved in a short time.

It’s a big job requiring big equipment. We ended up building and/or redigging 6 ponds.

With Diane and Noah standing in you get some perspective.

Here’s Noah atop the dam on the new pond.

It’s hard to portray how deep a hole is by pictures, but with the boys and dogs running through it, you get an idea at least.

That loud bulldozer and pile of dirt has Noah a little concerned. Of course, he’s far out of danger, so if you’re inclined to worry, don’t.

Like my Dad always says: “I’m fascinated by work; I could watch it for hours at a time!”

If it ever starts raining, these ponds will be a blessing for this place. If they do a good job holding water, then we’ll need to fence around them and siphon off water to water the cattle. That’s the idea — protect the area around the pond so it doesn’t get ruined by tromping cattle.

We recently figured out our Par 3 golf course back in back 40. It’s a nine hole course with white and blue tees. The holes are a mixture of hay rings and leaky water troughs. It’s somewhat challenging. Here is Russell teeing off on No. 1 (White).

As you can see, the ball didn’t go very far.

Jordan didn’t fare much better, firing one off into the woods on the right.

Here’s what I mean by a Hay Ring for a hole. Ryan’s trying to chip in for a par.

Rebecca was experimenting with Lacy on whether she’d actually stand up on this rock. She used her horse whispering technique and some other methods.

Here she is showing her secret method of persuasion. It’s a cup of oats. Food is a great motivator for horses, (and certain people).

This is Noah out doing some morning chores with Diane. Every morning they head out to feed and water the horses and the goats. It’s been in the high 30’s here the last couple of mornings so Noah is all bundled up in his “life jacket” and “blubs”.

Once chores are done, then it’s time for some special projects.

Here’s Diane and Noah getting the flower beds prettied up for the winter.

I’ve heard someone say that anytime you spend with your kids is worth it no matter what things you accomplish. In this case, you’d have to say this is priceless.

Eric is No. 73 and plays for the Italy Tigers’ 7th grade team. He’s the Nose Guard on Defense and the Left Tackle on Offense. He’s had a great time playing football and has had the benefit of some excellent coaches. Running so much in practice has been a shock to his system but I’ve been proud of him for hanging in there.

We grow ’em a little bigger here in SteakBurger country :-)

Ryan was asked to get this community center in downtown Italy, TX repainted. The city manager thought the existing paint job made it look too much like a pizza parlor. But it is Italy, right?

About 12 people volunteered their time and a local merchant, donated the paint. In about 36 man-hours of time, we were done. Not too bad.

And here’s the finished product. Some of the earlier volunteers had moved on to other projects. We thought it looked a lot better at the end. People who happened by while we worked seemed to agree.

It had been 5 weeks since Hurricane Katrina caused such destruction to Louisiana and Mississippi, but help was still needed. The call came to us through Church channels and we were asked to pack some tents, sleeping bags and some chainsaws and other tools and go help the people in Louisiana. About 150 men from our Stake went and we joined about 3500 men down there from who had come from as far away as Dallas and Orlando, FL and probably beyond. Things had dried out a lot, but what was left in the wake of the Hurricane is staggering in its scope. It took us about 10 hours to get there, so we didn’t arrive on the scene until 11:30PM Friday night. We set up our tent on the Church lawn along with hundreds of other tents and bedded down. Up at 6:30AM and on our way to assigned houses and apartments in crews of 10 by 7:30AM. We worked all day (what a beautiful day it was weather-wise too) up to 6:00PM. We had some Supper and took a shower in the makeshift (but so nice, considering) outdoor showers and hit the sack again. A quick church service was held the next morning at 7:30AM and we set out to work again. Finishing at about Noon on Sunday, we packed up and headed back home arriving at about 10:30PM. We were exhausted but couldn’t have felt any better knowing we were able to contribute at least a small part to helping those who have suffered so much loss.

At lunchtime on Saturday, we took a ride through downtown New Orleans. It really is coming back to life and isn’t as bad as it seems just watching it on TV.

Here’s a picture of a car that was smashed and sitting on a main street in downtown New Orleans.

Part of this apartment building had collapsed. This was not an unusual site to see where we were.

Here is the Superdome in the background across the street. Notice the water line created by the flood waters near the Dome.

It’s amazing that these large trees that were snapped by the hurricane force winds fell only in the backyard of this house and not right onto it like happened to many other houses in that neighborhood. In a few hours we had this place cleaned up real nice.

Above is the result of a cleanup job done on a different (but just one) house that got flooded and was heavily damaged by wind.