May 17, 2025 - a great day!  I spent the entire day "digging in the dirt" for 73 million year old, invertebrate marine fossils, and I loved it.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  I was shaded at the dig site (a long winding 4-5 foot deep creek bed) by overhanging trees on each side of the creek.

Upon our arrival ( I invited granddaddy to go with me 😇 ), we were met by Mr. Josh who is the resident paleontologist.  Mr. Josh made us feel very welcome and gave us lodging in the Intern's cabin.  We had the cabin to ourselves because no interns were working during this time.

My first dig of the day was from about 9 AM to Noon when we took a break for lunch.  During lunch Mr. Josh talked about the journey to become a paleontologist and shared some stories of his past experience in South Dakota.  Sophia and I discussed possible sites we would dig after lunch. 

The Coon Creek dig site is a long, winding,  four to five feet deep creek.  Most all of the fossils are embedded in the dirt bank on each side of the creek. 

I dug at several placed along the creek bank and found a number of fossils intact and a few very interesting partial fossils.  Most of the fossils are very fragile and great care (and lots of patience) is required to remove them intact.  

It was both a fun day and an educational day.  I learned so much from the stories told throughout the day by all involved and I am looking forward to my next trip - where I won't forget my pillow 💤 next time.

Digging at Coon Creek

 January 17, 2025 - a great day.  I spent the day “digging in the past” at Coon Creek Science Center in Adamsville, Tennessee.

This was my second visit to the dig site and Mr. Josh, the all around good guy and resident paleontologist, really made my granddaddy and I feel welcome.  He let us stay in the Intern Cabin which was air conditioned and we each had our own private area.

The Intern's Cabin

                                                                                                                                            My Bed Area

After the first dig in the morning Sophia and I discussed, over lunch, where we would dig later that afternoon and what we hoped we would find. After returning to the same spot along the creek bed, we ended up not finding anything interesting in that spot (insert dig pic 1 off to side) ; however, further down the creek bed we ended up finding several intact clams. After the excavation of said clams we sifted through the gravel and found 5-8 shrimp fossils, as well as another intact clam laying on the bank.

After we had dug enough for the day, we walked about the creek talking about nothing in particular, and Sophia showed me a small section of the creek where water had eroded the creek bed and formed a small cove-like formation where small fragments of shells littered the ground.

I look forward to my next visit - where again I will - “dig in the past!”

We Moved The Cabin

Wow, an awful lot has happened in our lives since my last post in January of this year.

Jill and I have moved into our little cabin and almost completed the addition.  We enjoy the space and really find it accommodates our needs very well.  Ethan and Evan spend nights with us and they are also comfortable.  There are two more things we would like to add to our little "homestead" and those are a water well and a geothermal heat source.

2014, a new year with new challenges and opportunities. Jill and I look forward to the adventures that await us in 2014.

The grandchildren are a constant joy. The make us laugh daily and teach us so many of the important lessons that time will erase if we aren't careful.

We have added goats to our growing little farm. I think we'll name it “Green Acres” from the 1960's television show of the same name.  

The goats are sharing their pen with the chickens and so far no problems - other than - the goats want to live in the chicken coop which really upsets the ladies.  We are going to raise the goats (meat goats) for their meat.

Christmas went well and the kids really enjoyed the family time and the presents.  There was lots of family present this year because we celebrated Jill's daddy's 80th birthday early this year because he was going to be out of town in January on the day of his birth.

Jill baked the case with a western theme and it was enjoyed by Eddie and all those present.  Jill is a very talented lady.  She put an eatable wanted poster on the case which had him wanted by the Mississippi Fish and Game Commission for all the illegal fishing he did as a boy.

Ethan got a tablet computer, very safe and kid friendly, which he will us as he continues with his home-school lessons.

The adventure continues.  We hope to sell our home this year and move into our cabin.  Like many others we need to downsize and we are adding an addition onto the cabin to enable us to be comfortable as we go about our day to day activities.  Included are some photos of the cabin addition under construction"

As you can see, I had some really great help.  I could not have, or would not wanted to have, done it without them.

The siding on this is old (70 year old) telephone poles.  Neither the bugs or the weather is pose a problem for this new addition.  The wood will eventually (about 2 years) turn gray as it weathers.  When it has changed it's color we will apply a stain to match the front of the cabin and it will all blend in nicely with its new surroundings.  We have planted lots of dogwoods to replace the ones we cut down in order to make a place for the cabin.

We will post additional photos as our progress continues.

Be Thankful for your Liberty!

As we reflect on the many things we as Americans have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season, surely at the top of that list is our individual and collective liberty.  Sadly, each day brings evidence that our liberty is under attack and at risk of being irreparably eroded.

We, the American people, are at a cross-road in our ongoing struggle to maintain our liberty and equality of opportunity so enshrined in our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and the United States Bill of Rights.

Once before in our history we stood at just such a cross-road.  The ideals of liberty and equality were threatened. The nation was in danger of being torn apart.  The nexus of that threat, to our new republican democracy, was slavery.  The union was divided then - just as it is today.  The moral issue of that day was slavery. Slaves were considered property and were essential to the economic future of the southern states.  Lincoln held that all men were entitled to the protections of the founding documents and were entitled to enjoy their liberty and equality of opportunity and that this basic natural right was denied to slaves.  President Lincoln position was that slavery was wrong and must be abolished in all states of the new union.  It took a war to decide the question, of that day.

Today, we struggle with an epic conflict of incompatible ideologies.  We find the ideologies of progressivism on the one side, and the liberty and equality enshrined in the founding documents, on the other side.  These two ideologies are diametrically opposed, and we, like those before us, must make a decision concerning the direction our ongoing experiment in representative democracy will take.  Do we want a welfare state where half of our society is dependent on the other half for their sustenance and quality of life, or do we wish to support and encourage individual responsibility where all are free to exercise their natural right to enjoy liberty and opportunity.  Welfare enslaves the spirit and creative ability of all human beings.  Individual responsibility frees the human spirit to thrive and take advantage of that “opportunity for all” so enshrined in our constitution.  Today 47.1 million people are on food stamps.  That is 1 out of every 6 people and 1 out of every 5 families on food stamps.  (USDA - August Food Stamp Report)

Pierre Samuel DuPont, a supporter of the French Revolution, observed: "Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he cannot achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity."  James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, frequently, in his contributing essays to the Federalist Papers, talked about unity of purpose and resolve of principals, if we were to accomplish the goal set out for our new nation in our founding documents.

In 1931, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French politicl thinker and historian said: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

Today we are compelled to make an honest and informed decision about the direction we are to take as a nation, and we must do that in concert with others who seek to restore liberty and equality for all.  We must by intellectual arguments, not with guns and bullets, persuade those who would embrace progressivism as the way we are to go that their position is self-destructive.  We must resolve to be guided by the ideals and principles found in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights to propel us forward into the 21^st Century as free men and women - enjoying the blessing of liberty that is the birthright of every American citizen.

Our liberty is being stripped from us daily by executive orders, judicial decisions, and administrative rules and regulations.  Our blotted federal government seeks to perpetuate itself by shackling our citizens, not with chains, but with a multitude of entitlements designed to keep the recipients dependent and voting into office those who will keep handing out the “free stuff.”

Today Congress has made that discovery.  I encourage you to act today.  Write, call, or visit your elected representatives and let them know you will be making an informed vote.  Let them know you will vote for those who support limited government and the principal of liberty and equality for all.  Together we can restore that for which we are most thankful – our liberty.

Much has happened since our last post.  For starters Jill and I are hosting two exchange students for the school year.  Youngtoe Choi (left) is from Soul, Korea and Fang Yan (right) is from Xiamen, China.  Both are in the 11^th grade and both are doing very well in the academic and social life of the school.

 

We also began home-schooling Ethan using the curriculum of the K12 program.  The curriculum is very well designed and digital tools are very well (and appropriately) integrated into the course work.  Thus far, Ethan is doing very well and is eager to begin his studies each day.  The schedule is very flexible which allows us to fit the instruction to our time and Ethan's eagerness at the moment for a particular subject.  Some days he just needs for fun time before he begins his studies and some days he just is in no mood for spelling, and we can accommodate those things.

Then there is "T-Bone."  Like all the rest "T-Bone" was a throw away who found his way to our front door and instantly found a new home.  He and Jill were immediately attracted to each other and still are.  His personality will come very close to that of our dog "Bubba-D" who reciently died.

 

It's time to begin the day of studies so that's all folks until the next time.

 

Meet Thor

It was 6 A.M., very quiet outside, beautiful day when all of a sudden we heard someone pulling at the screen door and making a sound that was at first hard to identify.  Maybe it was two cats getting ready to fight, maybe a flock of geese flying just overhead?  We do have lots of geese that fly directly overhead, circling and joining up with other groups all headed to who knows where.  Whatever it was, we did not immediately recognize the sound.

Jill opened the door and there stood Thor ready to be held and spoiled.  Thor will forever be a mystery.  He is 6 week old Siberian Husky and when he arrived he had a full belly.  What makes his appearance a mystery is that we live 800 feet off an "out-of-the-way" county road. It just seems unlikely he would have found his way up our dive-way even if someone had let him out on the road, and it is even more unlikely that anyone would have brought him up our driveway.  Folks around here don't just walk or drive up someone's drive at 6 in the morning.  So, we will ponder the mystery while enjoying the puppy.