Catching up!

A REAL BLACK ANGUS DINNER...
We had the luxury the past two nights of attending the Arkansas-Oklahoma Angus cattle auction and dinner. On Friday night we went to, what I thought was a dinner - and later found out was an appetizer meal... yeah right.. this photo is of the 24" wide prime rib that they cut into LARGE slabs for us to consume... my gosh. If you know how I am - you know I LOVE ME SOME RED MEAT... and I was in shangri-la-baby!

On Saturday night we returned for dinner and dancing. The dinner again... prime rib. This time it was individual Grade A - Angus prime rib slabs. My gosh, these cattleman can cook some red meat. The only person I think I know that can cook meat this well is my friend Rick Mysse!


And Cattlemen are very friendly. These were some very nice people to be around. Dawn & I danced like crazy both nights. The first night we visited the local senior center - so I can now officially say that I have fulfilled my "dare" by spending over 2 hours with a whole grip load of seniors.



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SETUP AND TEAR DOWN, ARKANSAS STYLE

Last night we went with my mother-in-law to set up church for Sunday morning.







Set up for their church is considerably less than at Revolution... it involved copying the bulletin and placing two in each row. Church today was packed with 45 people in attendance. I was VERY impressed with this little country church. These folks are genuine... they love each person that attends the church - it seemed like EVERY person at the church welcomed us, gave us a healthy handshake or a hug and we didn't even know these folks. They even welcomed the new comers from the pulpit and said, "we aren't welcoming you because it is the right thing to do, we are welcoming you because we are truly glad you are here" (and they meant it). The best part is that we received numerous invitations to lunch. Now THAT is community. Granted the service is not what I am accustomed to - all acapella hymns - no hi-tech lighting, no instruments, no video - just God's word, straight from His text. No topical discussion, just scripture.

Ashley was bummed, no REVO...


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A WALK IN THE COUNTRY....

Before dinner and after a long 2 hour nap (after lunch), Dawn & I went on a walk along the 1.78 mile dirt road that leads to the family property. It was very nice as we walked along with Desmond and his new friend "milo". A stray that just appeared at the property this morning - he looks like the dog in the movie Mask, so we named him Milo.



As we were walking, it began to rain and a beautiful rainbow appeared - a double rainbow, over the family property. It was really beautiful - what a great way for God to close this beautiful day.

Along our walk Dawn & I talked about the possibility of buying some land and putting a few chicken houses and cattle on it - 'guaranteed income' is what I called it. There is a small property just down the road for sale; 18 acres of pasture land with a small 1500sf home on it, $100,000 is the asking price. Can you imagine that being offered for sale in California... it would easily be over $1mil. Anyways, it is a dream, but with the uncertainty of the Real Estate market (my employment) and the possibility of having a 'foreman' live in the house and run the ranch, it could be a guaranty of income should the market crash miserably... Just a dream... Oh, Heck no - I would never move here, but it would be nice to own something out here. We wouldn't have to bring our 5'er with us, we could just travel to our 'summer home' ha-ha!

Well, that is the update so far...