A Sunday Thought

A Sunday Thought
I continue to struggle with the matter of communicating with the family. My initial thinking was to use this Blog as a way to keep the family abreast with famil;y history. Also, I have published on the Internet a PhpGedView site that shows how we are all related and connected both presently and in the past. I have tried to keep up with the family
information at least from my perspective and I hope it has been of some interest. However, it seems to me, that most of you either do not understand that family communication is a two way process or you do not want to communicate. Or, perhaps some do not understand the power of this particular method of communicating which makes it relatively easy. This Blog has been set up with a restricted list of readers and authors (which can be expanded without limits). An author means that you can prepare a Blog page with photos and text communicating to others on the list family historical events. Yet, during the time that this Blog has existed, no one has contributed an event of any kind. Finally, you simply may not have time to communicate with the family. The day has long past when letters were written to family members. It seems we are caught up in the gadgetry of cell phones, email, and Ipods or pads for personal communication. Or, we use it as an excuse. Of course, this communication is one of them, but with two way power.

This past month, a new event has been the birth of a new great grandchild, Natasha Ruh, the first child of the Terance Ruh and Jennifer Brooks marriage. I mentioned the event earlier via the PhpGedView email list.

Kathleen had a party last night to see the baby and to get better acquainted. As you know, Natasha has coal black hair and lots of it. I mentioned earlier, also, that she reminds us of our first daughter, Vivian Rae, when she was born nearly 60 years ago. I presented at the party to Natasha a Seth Thomas Mantel Clock exactly like the one that my grandpa Brooks presented to his wife when he got married 110 years ago. That clock was presented to Shawn Brooks a number of years ago and who will eventualy pass it along to one of his descendants. The clock I presented to Natasha has a time capsule in it that should not be opened until Natasha is married. The parents have been given custody of the clock until
that event occurs.

Earlier on Friday, we visited the cemetery in Eugene and took flowers to the grave sites. Anita is shown standing at the grave of Vivian Rae. It is a beautiful area and we were grateful to be there.

RHB

Newport Oregon Experience

July 24, 2010 we received a call from Matt Loe indicating that he would be in NewPort, Oregon over the week end with his family. He is a Bishop in one of the Delta Wards in Delta, Utah. Actually their were two families traveling together. The other family was Wendy's brother and his family, plus Brandon and his wife, the son and daughter-in-law of Matt and Wendy.


Matt's family had grown so much since we last saw them that they were unreconizable.
After church on Sunday, we drove to Newport and registered in the same motel in which they were staying, We arrived about 5:30 and went to Moos for dinner. Matt and his group were out on an excursion when we arrived, but after dinner we met and became requainted with everone.
The reason I am including this visit to Newport to see Matt and his family in this Blog is that we eventully got onto the subject of family history and the question of how far back does the family know of their ancestors. If any of you who are reading this Blog are related to the Lee's and Loe's, you may be interested in the internet site that Matt referred us to as we visited about that subject. If you'll go to the following address http://genforum.genealogy.com/loe/messages/100.html you'll find some interesting information concerning Willis Loe and Keziah Lee and Benjamin Lee Loe. Abtracts of Wills and estates and other interesting bits of information. Another internet page that Matt referred to http://lewis187.home.mchsi.com/Campbell/Lee-98.htm was the will of Jesse Lee Sr. 1816 along with other interesting facts. The reading of these wills and estates were interesting to me and perhaps they will be to you. In conclusion we had a wonderful visit with the Matt Loe family including their new daughter -in-law, Brandon's new wife.

Family History Experience Revisited

Sconce Family Reunion and Research

A Blog regarding a family history experience was posted on May 24th 2010. It concerned some volunteer research that I conducted and reported upon for the Sconce family, some descendants of which are still living in the area where we live. Several weeks ago, I received a phone message from Elynda Winter Stevenson, to whom I had given my report earlier at the cemetery. She indicated that my report had inspired her to hold a family reunion for descendants of Robert H. Sconce that lived in the Northwest. She invited me and Anita to come and meet the family and say a few words concerning my research. We graciously accepted the invitation as the reunion was to be held at her home in Tualatin a few miles from our home in Wilsonville. At the designated time we drove to the Stevenson home and became reacquainted with some of the family that had visited the Rock Creek Cemetery as reported in the earlier blog as well as others that we had not met previously. A wonderful lunch was served and we were shown some family pictures that I had not seen earlier. I visited with various family members regarding how I got involved and told them about some new findings that I discovered after the report was written. I mentioned that as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of which I was a member have an obligation to learn of our ancestors. One of the Sconce descendants, who is a fisherman, had just returned from Alaska where he successfully fished for salmon. He mentioned they were returning for another trip and a person that I might know would be joining them. His name was Dale Murphy, of the baseball hall of fame. He was well acquainted with Dale and knew of his Mormon standards and he said his standards were the same. It was a wonderful afternoon and we came away feeling blessed for what ever impact we had on the family
The data was published in Ancestry.com and very often I receive word from persons that are connected to the family that they have added some of my research to theirs. In all, this was a great experience and we have been blessed by it.

The two top pictures are Tom Sconce and his wife Kate Wyland and the Odekirk Family. The relationship can be seen from the pedigree chart also shown above. The photo dated May 22 are Elynda Winter Stevenson and her husband with Robert (Skip) Sconce, her cousin (The fisherman). The other photos were taken at the reunion at the Stevenson home.

RHB

A Discovery Story

A recent experience was posted concerning a community service project on the Rock Creek Cemetery, near Needy Oregon. The project included doing some family history work for some selected families in the cemetery. I choose to develop a history of the Sconce family some of whom were buried there. In a recent conversation with my son, Randy, I related to him the experience I had in doing this work as he does not have access to the internet where the experience was published.

Headstone for Nancy E. Jones (1846-1880)

He said that my experience was interesting and related to that he told me

about a private family cemetery plot in the area where he usually walks his dog. He lives on Central Road on the outskirts of Veneta, Oregon. The area is very rural with a few farm houses along the country roads. He remarked that I should come down sometime and take a look at this family cemetery which was about 10 feet square and maybe I could find out something about the people buried there. I took the invitation seriously.

Later, I made an appointment for an interview with a 91 year old lady from Albany, that descends from the Warren family in Brownsville. We decided to contact Randy after the meeting and to have dinner with him and then return home. During the dinner, Randy reminded me of the grave site and so we decided to go to the site after dinner as it was only a short distance to where he lives on Central Road. The graves were all contained in an area about 10 feet square with a rickety fence around it. Most of that area was covered with a concrete slab with a few headstones laid in the concrete. Only two were legible, but there were several that appeared to be small stones broken off above the slab. We suspected that they were markers for children. The names on the stones were for a Jones family. I had my camera and took pictures of the legible stones. The stone most legible was for: “Nancy E. , wife of Richard Jones, born Oct 12, 1846, died Oct 30 1880, aged 34 years , 18 days”
I inquired about a possible family connection with the land owner where these graves are located, but according to Randy, the land owner had no idea who these people were nor had he any connection with them. The area surrounding the grave site is covered with dense fir tree growth with only a few open areas. We returned home with a commitment to investigate the family that is buried there.
Within a few days after returning home, I began to look at the census records for Lane county beginning with the 1870 census. The 1870 census shows Richard and a wife by the name of Aley Ann, age 24 and with 3 children of ages 6, 4 and 1, all born in Oregon. This indicates that Richard came to Oregon after 1860 and perhaps before. However, the 1880 census records a Richard Jones with a wife Nancy E. and the same children as in 1870, but now there are two more children, ages 2 and one year, all born in Oregon. The census was for Spencer Creek Precinct in Lane County. The children of the family at that time consisted of three sons and two daughters. The first three children had the mother Aley Ann while the last two children had the mother Nancy E. Richard’s first wife, Aley Ann, probably died before 1875 and then he married Nancy about 1877. In 1880, the youngest daughter, Clara had just been born a few months before the census was taken and her mother died a few months later. Richard, age 47, was a cook, probably for an adjacent saw mill. The loss of his wife at that time left him with five children to care for. However, the oldest daughter, Mary was fifteen and probably able to fill in for her step mother. The oldest son, William, was 14 years old and he would have been helpful to his father in supporting the family. A follow up on the son, Arthur Jones, that had been born prior to the 1870 census, resulted in finding him in the 1900 census in the Elmira Precinct within a few miles of where the above mentioned cemetery is located. He had married about 1897 to Mary Etta. She was 19 years old while he was 30 years old in 1900. They had a daughter, Eva, that was a year old. By 1910, Arthur and his wife Etta were living in the Cheshire Precinct with their daughter Pearl Eva, age 11. In 1920, Arthur is 50 years old and they have another daughter, named Buela, age 7 and they owned their own home. All of these above mentioned census records were obtained through “Heritage Quest”. Since Heritage Quest does not have an indexed 1930 census, I went to Ancestry. Com to determine if Arthur was still living and had children at home.
The result was that Arthur Jones was still living at the same location as in 1920 with his wife Mary E. and his daughter Buelah, age 18. In addition to this information from Ancestry, there was information that a person had a private family tree which included the Jones pedigree. At that time, I communicated with the owner of the tree that I had found information about the death of Nancy E., the wife of Richard Jones. Hopefully, that will be of interest to their family along with a photo of the headstone of Nancy E. Gatchell ( the name given on the family tree which belongs to “Walker Family”).
RHB

An Experience in Family History

Rock Creek Cemetery; Sconce graestones in foreground and Chapel in background

Pedigree of Ralph Sconce II

old Sconce farm Home on Kaufman Road

An Experience in Family History
A message and Experience
For
My Children and Grandchildren

Fishing River
Our local Wards have been involved in community service projects for several years helping the community as neighbors. It is called "Neighbor to Neighbor" and it usually is a project in which community buildings, parks, or other facilities are made better or improved. The entire community is invited to participate in completing the goals of the project. For this particular year, 2010, the Rock Creek Cemetery, a rural cemetery in Clackamas County, was selected with the goals of: (1) restoring parts of the old Methodist church building (new siding was needed on parts of the building, along with the repair of the flooring in the chapel), (2) cleaning up of the grounds (removal of weeds and moss from around the graves and cleaning the head stones, (3) Gathering genealogy and family histories on some of the old prominent families that have been laid to rest from the early beginnings of the cemetery. Those in the Wards unable to contribute physically to the project ere asked to contribute to the family history aspects of the project. I felt like I fit into this category so with the list of all those who have been buried there we were asked to select family or families that we would like to gather histories for. It was suggested that I look at one or two groups of grave stones and begin. For reasons unexplainable, I was drawn to a group of headstones marked by the name "Sconce". As I began this research into the Sconce family, I began to see how easily it seemed to fit together and how elated I became in learning about this pioneer family that arrived in Oregon in 1853.
Robert H. Sconce arrived in Clackamas County to file on a Donation Land Claim for 320 acres. He arrived with one daughter and his wife Darthulia Noblitt. The daughter, Margaret, was four years old. This small family came with other family members from Missouri in Ray County. I learned that Robert volunteered as a teamster for duty in the Mexican American War of 1848, the same war where the Mormon Battalion was recruited as they traveled to the Salt Lake Valley. Robert married Darthulia in Missouri after the war and they may have been living in the Fishing River Township of Ray County, the county seat of which is Richmond. A phenomenal event occurred fifteen years earlier in the adjacent Clay County, when the Fishing River , a tributary to the Missouri, became a barrier to mobster that were trying to drive the Saints from Missouri. Zion’s Camp was formed in Ohio to assist the Saints in Missouri. As they traveled to Missouri and were camped near Fishing River, a severe storm caused the shallow river to rapidly rise to a depth of more than 30 feet, which protected Zion's Camp from an attack by mobbers.
Zion's Camp consisted of about 200 volunteers asked to assist Church members in Jackson County, who had been driven from their homes by mobs. They walked about 1,000 miles from the east to Missouri.
Due to the disobedience of some camp members, Joseph prophesied a scourge would occur. Cholera broke out near the end of the journey. 70 people were stricken, and 14 died.
Zion's Camp was disbanded several days after arriving here in late June 1834. They were unable to provide the assistance they anticipated. Some complained, but Joseph received a revelation explaining God's perspective. Whether the Sconce family realized it or not, Fishing River would be an important event and it would have an impact upon them from descendants unknown.
As I dug into the records for Robert Sconce, I decided to see if he was connected to the new.familysearch. Much to my surprise, I found that all the temple ordinance work had been done for both he and his wife in 1989. However, only one child was connected to the family, Margaret, their first born but whose temple ordinance work had been done also in 1989. As my research continued, I found that 6 other children were born into the family after Robert and his wife arrived in Oregon. Here in the records of the Saints was an incomplete family, children who were unknown to the contributor of the Robert Sconce family in new.familysearch. Was this a reason why I was drawn to this family? In retrospect, five generations of descendants were put together for Robert, perhaps not all complete, but for the most part they were.
It is difficult for many of us to understand the situation of the spirits of men, women and children in the spirit world after they leave this life. I suspect that we do not realize the predicament that these spirits of men find themselves in without the ordinances of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures indicate that they are in prison, which to me, indicates that they are restricted in what they can do and in the advances that they could make. Those that do not partake of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
The Rock Creek Cemetery; Sconce gravestones in foreground and Chapel in background
Christ while living must wait in the spirit world until some kindly relative who has received these ordinances while living and who has turned his heart to them and saved them by performing, vicariously, sacred ordinances which free them from prison. Strangers to the family cannot perform these ordinances. They must be a descendant relative. How anxious do these spirits become because they had no chance to receive these ordinances in life and must wait for subsequent generations to save them? All of course due to the priesthood restored to the earth through the love and mercy of our Savior. Communication between the spirit world and this mortal world is far greater than we may realize. I believe this illustrates how very important it is to receive these saving ordinances while living so that not only blessing come to us in mortality but also continue as we pass into the next life. Thus, missionary work must go forward with the same vigor as family history work for the dead.

I had the opportunity to meet the 5th generation descendants from Robert H. Sconce and presented them with a history of a second great grandfather that they knew little of. I had invited them to the picnic lunch which was prepared for those doing the physical labor at the cemetery, youth and adult. It was a cold blustery day, but without rain. After the guests arrived we went into the old non functioning Methodist chapel to discus their family and to see where they fit into the descendant picture. There was a wonderful spirit there and they were most appreciative. I presented each with a prepared and bound history of their grandfathers and a large decendency chart. We visited the graves and viewed the extent of the number of their family that were buried there.
In conclusion, I feel so very grateful for the blessing and privilege I had of having researched this family and to have met descendants. I have a great testimony of this holy and sacred work and I know it is part of His plan to save his children. I hope all of you will take advantage of the time you have left in this world; to prioritize your lives and become worthy to receive the blessings that are available to you.
Your loving father

Thanksgiving and a few Thoughts

I haven’t spent much time on my Blog of late, but this season of the year brings thought to my mind and I’ll try to share some of these with you as well as some family activities.
Grandchildren seem to have fond memories of Thanksgiving diners at Grandma’s house. And so it was, that we gathered at our home on Thanksgiving day to partake of the bounties and blessings that the Lord gave us. The turkey was baked in the oven up-side down this year and it proved to be a winner. It was a 28 pound bird, but the breast came out as juicy as I’ve ever seen it. Grandma’s cornbread dressing was as good as it has ever been, but only because Randy got into it with both hands and arms. The bread was good, but the rolls were a little short on the “taste” side. I used my outside mud oven for the bread bake, but I’m still learning how to schedule its use with the proof of the bread dough. We all came away stiffed like the bird in the oven and enjoyed the pies afterward. Some how or another the turkey and dressing all disappeared and we didn’t have to worry about left overs. Here are a few pictures taken at the gathering.
Thanksgiving seems to usher in the Christmas season. In the olden days, we didn’t worry much about Christmas or decorations until a week or so before Christmas, but nowdays, it starts at Thanksgiving. However, our decorations will be minimal, but enough to show that we love and honor the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is a minority in our country that would like us to forget about Him and that He is the God of this land, but they will fail in those efforts. This choice land of ours, was reserved as a place for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to come forth after it was removed from the earth in the meridian of time after they crucified Him and to begin a last dispensation for the fulfillment of our Father in Heavens great work. It is a “Type” of things to come. This land is a means whereby the Gospel goes forth to all nations. It is the only place on the face of the earth where that would be and is possible. It will be preserved to continue in that purpose, but not without Him who preserves us and our freedoms. The Lord’s kingdom is being built and his purposes are being fulfilled so long as we repent and stay faithful to Him. We have covenanted with Him to do so and my prayer is that you will remember Him and do your part in building His kingdom. You are doing your part by keeping His commandments, strengthening your family, doing your missionary work, and assisting in the redemption of the dead. If you are not engaged in these areas of building, you have great need for repentance.
My son-in-law, your brother, is seriously ill with life threatening consequences. He has been inactive in the church and is unable to do what he would like to do. He has asked me to assist in bringing together is kindred dead so his son’s will know who they are and from whence they came. I have been successful in doing that and it has brought great joy into his life and the lives of his family. Each of us should be engaged in some type of family history work. The evening is upon us and the day will soon be over after which no work can be accomplished. Do your best, schedule time for important matters. As I approach the evening hours of my life, I speak from experience. Don’t let life pass you by, do something each day to build the kingdom of God on earth.
The family will be getting together for a family Christmas party soon and we’ll have some more activities to show and report upon in this Blog.
RHB

Wild life at Sacramento

Apparently all of my photos that I downloaded into my previous blog did not make it, so here are the missing ones.
RHB

Family History Conference at Sacramento

An Opportunity to attend a family history conference in Sacramento and visit cousins, Wanda and Pat Wright, that live in Folsom, California came last week resulting in a car trip to their home. We learned lots of new techniques to further our family history work and we came away happy after this one day conference on Saturday. On our way down to Folsom, we stopped in Redding at the factory outlet store and I purchased four english muffin rings thinking that I would treat our hosts to a homemade culinary treat sometime during our stay. After church on Sunday I whipped up the batter for some muffins for Monday morning. The trick is to let the batter ferment overnite in the frig. The pictures you see on the left are Wanda and Pat with Anita partaking of my treat. Pat and Anita seem to be quite intent upon the subject and later exclaimed of the excellent quality and flavor. Later that day we were taken on a trip to see the Sacramento Temple. We had no time to visit the interior as we planned to leave for home the next morning.

As we drove on to the grounds of the temple we noted some wildlife closeby and so here are a few shots of some wild turkeys and deer. The temple grounds a re fenced, but some how the deer seem to get into the area anyway. Well, to make a long story short we arose early Tuesday morning and began our journey homeward at 7:30. The weather was wonderful and warm as we drove up the Sacramento Valley toward Oregon. However upon reaching the Williamette Valley we began to see our traditional rain and the rainbow reminded us of the covenant our Father-in-Heaven made to his children that the earth would never again be covered with water. We arrived at Charbonneau at 5:30 pm and found that all was well at home. The next day, Wednesday, meant returning to duty at the family histroy Center and Temple Duty on Thursday morning at the Portland temple.

Hulls in Germany

It's been quite some time since I visited this site and just want to make a comment. It's the 31st of May (unreal how fast this year has gone by) and we're still enjoying Germany. Our work is keeping us very busy so we're not able to travel as much as we'd like. We're going to Crete in June/July for two weeks. Then back to the States in August. We only have 8 months until we return home. Hope all is well for everyone. Keep in touch.

Love,
Shauna and Skip

letters and Family History

Since returning from a vacation trip to Utah and Nevada noted in earlier Bolgs, I began assembling a series of letters written by my children to us as parents. Those are being preserved in document holders for reading at some future time by our children. I have also preserved letters written to my Mother regarding our activities and life at the time of the letter.

The above is an extraction from a collection of letters written to my Mother on November 28, 1977, an example of some factual details of my life at that particular time. I’m bringing this to the attention of my readers because this is part of a letter from antiquity. Your children or your parents will never have the blessing of reading about the details of ones life, unless, of course one keeps a faithful journal. That is so, because our society no longer writes letters. My grandson, Blake Brooks, who is a freshman in high school, has been reading a book for an English class called ” Fahrenheit 451 “. The author, Ray Bradbury, wrote the book some time ago where in he describes a future society of people that do not communicate with each other. They are entertained by TV, emails, video games and other methods of electronic communications. Verbal skills of communication and points of view are lost as every thing is done alone by the individual.
I suspect the author was a little prophetic as I believe that we find ourselves in similar circumstances today. So I say that letters preserved from the past are antique. They reveal the past to future generations that ,perhaps , cannot be obtained from other sources except journals. Few have the discipline to make daily, weekly, or annual entries and so future generations will know little about us.
I joined an internet site some time ago which allows one to keep a journal at their site with pictures. Interestingly, I was reminded a few days ago by the site to make some entries into my journal as I had not accessed it for some time. My journal entries, when I make them, are usually fact oriented and very little is given regarding impressions, testimony, or other esoterically oriented items. This is illustrated by the facts given in the letter above.
Since letter writing is a thing of the past, journal keeping should continue to be a priority in our lives. I know that sons and daughters who have gone on missions for the church have wonderful records of their missionary work through letter writing and they have been preserved for their posterity which is a great treasure. But after returning home, letter writing is a thing of the past. How about a thought provoking letter to a family member? Even though society doesn’t engage in letter writing any more, give it a try and buy a postage stamp. We have one good example to look to, Taunya Brooks.
P.S. Here is Blake’s commentary on the book mentioned above.:
“Let me put it this way, conflict makes people unhappy. Why have two sides to a story, that only makes people argue to make sure that their side wins. Why not just simple take one side away, every one agrees with each other. Better yet take both sides away so people don't feel stupid about not knowing much about their side. fill their heads with useless information, fill them up so they know all about it. Now they think that they are geniuses, now they can walk around happy because they know every thing about nothing. And with this sense of happiness, give them items of entertainment, e.g. Radios, TV’s, video games, cars that go 200 miles an hour. What about books? They have deferential opinions; they are conveyers of memories and things to come. A book about slavery comes out. Its an inspirational tale. It showed what slavery was like. It gives the black community a reason to feel thankful again, but what about the white people. They feel bad about the whole slavery issue. They try to denounce facts and loose the guilt. What will happen now? They are unhappy. That must not happen, it must be shut up, it must be locked away, it must burnt. They must be set ablaze, all of the books, they all have some controversy. If people ask questions, give them a new TV show and they all forget. If they try and stop us, they are criminals in our law. This is the easy way.” (Blake Brooks)

Fishing at Overton with Loren Brooks

This may not be about Family History, but it is about family and friends and so please excuse this slight deviation.

Loren Brooks, my younger brother, lives in Overton Nevada during the winter months (November – April) and on numerous occasions have invited Anita and I to join them there for a few days of fishing in the Virgin – Muddy reach of Lake Mead. On occasions, Anita’s cousin, Wanda and her husband, Pat Wright, have been invited to join us there. At this particular time, Feb 2 – Feb 6, Wanda and Pat Wright joined us at Overton for fishing with their friends from Loomis, California, Wayne and Thelma Minton. We stayed with Loren and his wife Juliana in their permanent home at the Fun in the Sun Park in Overton, while Pat and Wanda and Wayne and Thelma met us there with their motor home and travel trailer. Anita and I ,due to a family gathering in Ogden, Utah on Sunday, did not arrive until Monday afternoon. Loren was gracious to take Wayne and Pat out on the lake for a first day of fishing as we traveled from Odgen to Overton on February 2nd. Loren provided all the fishing gear and as he often says he is the outfitter, guide and instructor. By instruction, he means that his guests should obey the suggestions of the “outfitter”, i.e. when to stand up when you have a fish on, or when to take off your coat and get serious about fishing.

After our arrival at Loren’s and Julie’s, home we learned that Loren and his guest had caught 16 strippers and that a fish fry was in preparation. What a treat to join them and partake of a delicious meal.

The next morning preparations were made to return to the Overton Marina for another day of fishing. Such preparations included, gassing up the diesel pickup of Loren's, gassing up his boat, filling the fuel tank for the trolling motor and purchasing Anchovies. These preparations were made each and every day that we went to fish. The water level at the Marina is so low that all facilities that were there on our previous visits a year ago, have been abandoned. The boat ramp for launching only extends into the bay about 20 feet from the waters edge even though it more than an eighth of a mile long.

This situation caused Loren to put an extension on his boat trailer so that a sufficient water depth could be reached to launch the boat. Under such circumstances only one person could be in the boat for launching. The boat had to be motored to deeper depth along the bank so that others could board as shown in the photos above.

My first day with Loren, Pat and Wayne was great. We caught lots of fish and to have a stripper on the end of your line is a thrill. They really resist being landed in the boat. Most of the fish were of medium size, 1 – 2 pounds.

A beautiful clear day with rod holders in place and basking in the warm sun and meeting Loren’s friends on the water who caught more fish than we did was indeed pleasant and relaxing. After deciding to quit fishing, we placed the fish on the stern of the boat for filleting and packaging. Loren ran the electric filleting knife, while Wayne and I preformed the deluding of the fillet and Pat rinsed and package the fillets. To delux the fillet, means that the rib bones were removed so that the fillet is truly boneless.

After a good day of fishing there is nothing like taking our wives to a good Mexican restaurant in Mesquite, the name of which is on the menu noted in the picture above.

As we returned to the boat launching ramp each day, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we encountered another friend of Loren, Larry Hull, who was a fly fisherman and used a one man pontoon boat with only oars to get out onto the lake. After passing our friend Larry and heading the boat to the “Meadows” area, nothing would do but for Pat to get a fish on the very first thing as our lines went into the water. When he complained that the line was going while he was reeling in, we knew he had a lunker. Sure enough, the fish weighed in at four pounds. The fish that Roy and Wayne caught could be swallowed easily by the big stripper that Pat caught. Well, it was a great day, perfect weather and as the sun set we headed for the Overton Marina.

The final day of fishing was on Thursday. The weather began to change and Friday was the day to say our farewells to a great “Outfitter” and host, Loren and Juliana Brooks. The tally for the three or four days of fishing was seventy two fish. Nor a record for the “outfitter” or the boat, but a record for three guests and for Pat who grins about his record 4 pounder and a very successful final day. Thanks, Loren, we had a great time and one that may not ever be repeated.

RHB