Pheasant Hunt

The hunt was great this year. Dad and Uncle John came up and my Houston folks came as well. My hat is off to Julie for braving the less than comfortable conditions in my far from finished house. We easily shot our limit the 1st 2 days and shot 6 on Saturday. It would not have been a problem getting a limit that day either if we weren't so cold and tired.

My good friend Harold Kuhn died Saturday from West Nile. His funeral is tomorrow and Selina asked John to sing in it. She said Harlod always liked his singing. We will miss him.

Patrick and rachel are both playing Baskeball this year which fills up 3 or 4 nights a week. I'm real proud of both of them. Everyones grades are good right now - hope they stay up...

Well enough for now - Merry Christmas everyone (no - I didn't say Happy Holidays).

New Weather Station

I got it hooked up and it works great! Take a look by going to my links page at www.haralson.net... The instruments are wireless and in the field south of the house so the trees don't interfere. The base unit is in the kitchen and connected to my computer. Updates the website every 20 minutes. I know - I need to get a life.

Football has been a lot of fun this year. Matthew and Patrick lined up together on the kick-off last game. Matt made 2 good tackles pretty deep and Patty made 2 or 3 himself. Games and results are on the Football link along with some newspaper articles. I'll get the other articles scanned and uploaded soon. We play our last regular game on Friday against Beaver - then on to the play-offs.

Rachel & McKenna spent the night on Halloween. They wanted to "sleep in a haunted house and watch scarry movies". My ghost didn't show up (as far as I know), butthey fell asleep during the movie so it must not have been too scarry.

The house is coming along nicely. I am in now and am getting the kitchen re-done. Should be finished in about a week. Got an estimate on my porch windows/screens yesterday. They should be in before the weather gets too bad (I hope).

John is doing good in school and working 2 jobs (Applebys and JC Pennys). He's talking about taking next semester off to save money so call him and talk him out of it if you get a chance. It is sure hard to go back when you lay out like that!

Thats all for now - stay tuned...

Homecoming King

OK - this isn't just "Patrick News", you other kids start doing something... Patty was paired with Stephanie Hamrick on Friday for Homecoming and she won homecoming queen... Doesn't that make him the homecoming king? After the ceremony, he dominated the defense with at least 6 solo tackles and many more assists. I couldn't count them all but his name dominated the PA system. The first play on defense he sacked their QB with an huge blow, knocking the guy 5 yards through the air. He made several great blocks on offense too. It was an exciting game that Turpin finally won 16 to 12.

Patty's ACT Scores

He is going to kill me for doing this, but I'm pretty proud of Patrick's ACT results. We just got them today. He scored a composite of 28 (top 7% in the nation). English was 30 (top 5%); Math - 28 (top 8%); Reading - 25 (top 25%) and Science - 28 (top 5%).

He isn't sure where he wants to go to college yet - looking at West Point and Oklahoma State right now.

Doves are still flying

I was headed out to work this morning but couldn't resist going back in for my shotgun. There were hundreds of dove flying over the new pond. Shot my limit in less than 10 minutes; cleaned the birds and was off to work 30 minutes late... Oh well. Gotta love it. It won't last too long - they will clear out pretty fast when the first cold front moves through so am shooting while I can.

I rented a floor sander, but after seeing how much work was involved made a bee line to the carpet store. I like the old hardwood floors, but the carpet will make the old house much warmer and easier to take care of. At least that is what I am telling myself. The electricians will be finished today. Concrete guys will be there in the morning to pour the porches and the carpet goes in next Wednesday. I see light at the end of the tunnel!

Back to work... M

More News

I have added a couple of new links to the wesite for the kid's school and football results. Just go to the links page at Haralson.net. Here is a picture of my little pond. It is small, but you would not believe the birds coming in to it! It is awsome hunting now but will change with the 1st cold front. I am taking advantage of it almost daily. The pheasants are coming in on a regular basis as well.

The boys won their 3rd straight game. They look better every week. House is not progressing as fast as I would like, but getting there. I rented a floor sander and will try to knock that out this week. Well, back to the salt mine...

Whats New?

My IS advisor (Mom) said this would be the easiest way to keep everyone current on my gang... I suppose I would have to agree. The kids are doing great.

John is taking 20 hours this semester at Seward County Community College. He also has a job at Penny's and Appleby's. Busy guy! He is living with Cassie, a friend of his and seems to really be enjoying himself.

Patty (what Patrick goes by these days) is also doing real well. He is taking 2 college courses as part of his final year in High School and has straight A's. He is also doing very well in football. He plays Guard on Offense and Lineman on Defense. They have won their 1st 2 games so far this season. We just got Patty a 2002 Grand Am. It gets good mileage and he is taking good care of it.

Matthew is also doing very well in school with straight A's. He and I just got back from San Diego to watch the Cowboys stomp the Chargers - was a lot of fun! We wnet to Mexico after the game and he wouldn't eat at the restaurant so I had to take him to Burger King. He is on the Junior Varsity Team as Tight End. Matthew will have his license in March but we already got him a little Buick sportscar. He seems to like it pretty much.

Rachel is growing prettier every day! She decided not to cheerlead this year but will probably go out next year when she gets in High School. She is going to fill in for John as my new "Janitor" at the office. All I have to do is get here up here to start (been 2 weeks). She has a lot of friends and seems really happy.

As you may or may not know, I bought an old house on 20 acres just south of Liberal (in Oklahoma) and have been consumed with re-modeling it. The pictures on the website are what it looked like before I started. It looks like a war zone now. The electricians are almost finished; The new central air and heat are in; The front porch has been torn out and a concrete one is going in sometime this week; I have 2 person hot tub to go on the porch when it is done and splurged on a 50" TV. I don't think I have ever owned one 1/2 that size. Will be nice for football season though! The electricians put my surround sound speakers in the ceiling - should sound real good.

A few weeks before dove season opened, I dug a pond near the house and filled it to hunt over. Uncle John came and stayed a few weeks with me and we have had some really good hunting. He has headed back to Mississippi now to survey the hurricane damage at his place. I was supposed to go fishing off of Bilouxi again this year, but Katrina nixed that plan! I guess I should be thankful for my good fortune instead of whining about haveing to cancel a fishing trip.

That is about all I have for now... Until next time.