Sprucing up the flower beds

With some new yard art from Pam Alexander of Mountain View, we decided we needed to spruce up the flower beds. About 30 bags of mulch later, we are pleased with the way it turned out.

Pumpkin Patch 2015

We kept Tucker and Charlie for a couple of days while Ben and Myka vacationed in San Francisco. We had a great time with the buddies. We met his class at the Pumpkin Patch for their annual visit. Farm animals, hay rides, picking pumpkins, etc. made for a fun time. We had an active few days with many fun activities and the twins were very well behaved and quite entertaining. We love those little fellas so much!

 Little Punkin' farmers

 Classmates and Ms Betsy

 Ms Betsy explaining Halloween charms on her bracelet

CiCi acting silly

Ponca o the Buffalo River

We haven't been over to the Upper Buffalo in some time, so we took a day to travel to Ponca/Boxley Valley area to hopefully view the elk herd. We woke early, but not early enough - we arrived too late to see the large numbers, but did see a few from a distance. Also got to have lunch at the Low Gap Cafe and spent a couple of hours in Jasper. A really nice day.

Steel Creek area

The iconic bluffs of the Buffalo

No bull

Don't know what this interesting structure is

Elk butt in the cane

White River Valley Estates Street Party

The First (and Last) Annual WRV Street Party to celebrate the paving of Fletcher Drive. Greg and Judy Hnedak know how to put on a party. Caterer, live music, etc. on top of Fletcher Mountain, with a view of the White River flowing through the valley below. Fantastic view on a perfect fall autumn evening. The event was to celebrate the new pavement paid for by the street's residents - They tired of waiting for the County to make much needed repairs. We have many fine neighbors!

Great view to watch the sunset over the river

 



North Fork of the White River, Missouri

The shoulder is finally able to handle fly-casting! Friends Daryl Ward and Bill Barksdale invited me and Monte Shore to go up the road about an hour away to fish the North Fork of the White River in Missouri. Had fished there before but didn't know the river well and had not been too productive. This time was a different story - a perfect fall day, river clear and at optimum flow for wade fishing, in a beautiful Ozark forest setting, and the fish were cooperative for a good part of the day. My first casting in months and the shoulder did fine, and many fish were caught, including several quality rainbows.

On the trail

Fantastic Ozarks stream

Bill working his magic

A sucker caught on a fly - gave a pretty good tussle

My catch of the day - stout, colorful, and 18"

Crystal Bridges Art Museum

Traveled to NW Arkansas to again visit Crystal Bridges, specifically to see the Jamie Wyeth and Andy Warhol exhibits. We were very impressed with the Wyeth works. Didn't take pics in their exhibit, but took one shot of one of my favorite areas of the museum. We look forward to many more return visits to this amazing resource in Arkansas.

Ft. Smith Murals

The downtown of my home town, Ft. Smith, AR, is looking up these days. Old buildings are being restored and repurposed into restaurants, shops, offices, etc. and they are doing a fine job. Recently, artists were invited to town to paint murals on some of the downtown structures. We took my Dad on a tour of the downtown area to see the results. We were all impressed with the quality of the art.

 My favorite: Image is "carved" into a stucco coating

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Labor Day 2015: Table Rock Lake, Missouri

With the difficulties inherent in trying to get the entire family together over the holidays, Tami and Charlcie decided on a family week-end at another time. Labor Day worked out for everyone this year and we met at a resort near Branson. It worked out great and we had a fine time. It was the first time for cousins Liam, Charlie, and Tucker to see each other. The only regrets were that Grandpa Charley was not able to travel and be with us, and it was sooooo hot! I think everyone would like to do it again next year!

What a fine group!

Tami, Liam, Tucker, Charlie, Charlcie

Ryan, Liam, Kalen

Safety around the water

Feeding the ducks, geese, turtles, fish

Lots of time at the pool - a great pool for kids

Trip Out West 2015: On the Way Home via Cochetapa Canyon

To see some new sights out of Gunnison on our way home, we took Highway 114 south through Cochetopa Canyon. The Cochetopa River, a typical western meandering stream, parallels the highway for a long distance and then out into the prairie away from the highway. I had read about this small stream in some of my flyfishing reference books, so was interested in seeing it. I hope that I am able to get back and fish this remote and beautiful stream some day. We saw only a couple other vehicles for most of the trip through this area.

Trip Out West 2015: Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Charlcie and I have been to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park a few times and find it to be a stunning natural wonder. In all their travels, Mark and Burnis had not ever visited this amazing place, so we took a day trip over from Gunnison. We did the rim trail in the park and viewed the canyon from the many vantage points provided. We also went down the switchback road down the East Portal of the Canyon to show them where we had camped on a previous visit and also to familiarize Mark with the flyfishing opportunity at the bottom of this beautiful canyon. One of the most impressive places we're ever camped and fished.

 Charlcie on the edge

 Mark and Burnis playing tourist

 This place is amazing

 More tourists!

Checking out the surroundings for a future flyfishing expedition

Trip Out West 2015: Fly Fishing Float on the Gunnison River

Three weeks out west around some of the most iconic flyfishing locales, and the inability for me to flyfish due to my shoulder surgery. UNTIL....we met up with the Koehlers in Gunnison, where they were RV camping. We spent a few days with them and had a great time. Mark hired a guide to take us on a full-day raft float on the Gunnison River. Charlcie and Burnis went shopping. A good time was had by all. A great day on the river for the guys -  nice water, nice weather, nice fish, and nice company. I was able to participate since I could make short casts left-handed, which was doable from the raft, especially since the guide did all the hard work, including netting the fish. The only glitch of the day was a capsized drift boat ahead of us - the folks made it to shore OK, and the swift water rescue team completed the very difficult and dangerous task up righting the boat and freeing up the channel so we could continue the float after about an hour. We had a fantastic ending to the day with dinner at the Blackstock Bistro in town, where our guide Cameron was the cook for the night - everything about the place was super and the food was the best we had on the entire trip - we will return again and again.

 Getting ready to board

 Mark is set to go

 Cameron the guide is set to launch

 20" Rainbow - my best fish to end the day!

Swift water rescue team try to free a capsized drift boat