Bryce_of_Big_Sky's Xanga

Courtship Visit!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:23:57 GMT

I received a very special visitor from Texas in March. Sarah Simpson and I have been courting for several months, and I was utterly delighted and privileged to have her visit Montana for a week! (more here on my real blog--click over to leave a comment)

My WCWC readers may remember Sarah and I from 2005. We met each other for the first time at WCWC 2005!! Hooray for WCWC!!!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:32:37 GMT

We have photos from our Plymouth/Boston history tour posted at www.faithandfreedomtour.blogspot.com! Go check them out!

...and don't forget my real blog at www.blogofbryce.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:03:42 GMT

Wahoo! I get to see the San Jose WCWC folks today!

Wedding Photos!

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:17:50 GMT

Photos of Philip's wedding are available at www.blogofbryce.blogspot.com.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 20:41:55 GMT

Philip is getting married! (Click over there.)

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:35:42 GMT

After much consideration, I plan to switch to blogspot as my blogging venue. I will link to it for a while from my xanga site. Some of the reasons for my decision are that I like the format better, it allows for broader comments (i.e. not exclusively members), and it is advertisement free without a membership fee. I plan to start posting on the new site when I have it set up in a proper fashion.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:18:52 GMT

Today was spent at a class on a necessary, but distasteful subject. The subject was federal income tax structures and how to legally minimize taxes in my industry.

As I was sitting in the room with 5o other folks, I was thinking that the 1,000,000+ words of IRS code create an entirely unnecessary and wasteful industry of tax accountants. In addition millions of wasted hours are spent by IRS employees, as well as by business owners, individuals, and private employees. Our country’s economy is greatly burdened by the very system which is supposed to fund the creation of some view of “utopia” in society. Our income tax system is a terribly large "job-creator". The material we covered today made it conspicuously apparent that it would be very difficult to make the IRS code more complicated.

A pleasant reprieve was eating dinner at restaurant set on the top of a hill overlooking the large city. The restaurant patio had palm trees rising below, and a fireplace throwing off a warm ambiance. What a pleasant, peaceful evening to be overlooking the lights of the city, yet to feel isolated from the noise and cacophony. The desert air is warm, so the meals at the conference are all outside on one of the resort’s many terraces. What a contrast to the 12 degrees which my mother just reported will be the low tonight back home.

The hotel lobby is an interesting place to blog from. You get to see and listen to everyone checking into the hotel for the conference, some of whom you know. Nobody notices me in the background, but I get to watch the world go by. I can see a unsuspecting guest being given incomplete directions to some destination by the front desk. I can listen to a humor-loving guest joking with a hotel employee that they gave them wrong directions and they ended up totally on the other end of the expanive resort...only to have the employee say they didn't remember and the guest start chuckling...

Goodnight.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 07:59:26 GMT

Dear, Oh Deer:

On Saturday I had the pleasure of serving as my sister’s guide as she was hunting a buck mule deer. The creek bottom held groves of cottonwood trees with a few remaining brown leaves on them. The grass was frosty with the crispness of a November morning.

We had gone out before breakfast intending to approach a herd of 30 deer which were on the upper fringe of our hay field. The only buck in the group was distracted by the 30 does, so that he didn’t seem to be too bothered by our presence or by the mass of orange bailing twine tangled in his antlers. But before we got to a place we could shoot from..…

She tapped me on the shoulder – so my eyes followed the line started by her pointing arm. An antlered deer head was watching us from on the creek bank. We crouched and walked toward him, then crawled a few yards to the crest of a slight rise. As we lay down and she slid the safety off with a metallic click, he bounded down across the creek and back up the other bank, where he fatally paused for a moment too long. She used one of her habitually dead-on shots to fill her deer tag.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:53:54 GMT

How not to Farm

Dear Mr. Ag Secretary:

My friend Mort Wilson received a check for $1,000 from the government for not raising hogs. So I want to get into the "not raising hogs" business next year. What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the best type of farm to not raise hogs on, and what is the best breed of hogs not to raise?

If I get $1,000 for not raising 50 hogs, will I get $2,000 for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 "not raised" hogs, which will give me $80,000 income the first year. Then I can afford an airplane.

Now, another thing: These hogs I will not raise will not eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also pay farmers for not raising corn and wheat. Will I qualify for payments for not raising wheat and corn not to feed the 4,000 hogs I am not going to raise?

I am also considering not milking cows, so please send me information on that, too.

In view of these circumstances, I understand that the government will consider me totally unemployed, so I plan to file for unemployment and food stamps.

Sincerely, Farmer Jones

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:53:49 GMT

SAICFF-- San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival

We were blessed with the opportunity to attend the second annual festival. The festival’s vision is to promote a distinctively Christian film industry as an alternative and replacement for Hollywood. There is some incredible talent in the filmmakers who participated. As the huge creative streak among Christians and home-educators become mature and organized, there is a potential to greatly impact the culture through film.

During Friday and Saturday there were film showings and workshops going all day in different rooms. Friday night was the premier of the League of Grateful Sons. Saturday night was the award ceremony.

We toured the Alamo, walked along the must-see River Walk. At the Arneson River Theater, we listened to live folk ballads from Charlie Zahm and dramatizations of bible passages by George Sarris. The stone amphitheater seating is on one side of the river, and the stage is on the other side.

We met old and new friends, and had a refreshing time of fellowship. On Sunday a church service was held which many people from the festival attended. R.C. Sproul Jr. gave an excellent sermon on the relationship between husbands and wives and comparing it to the church/Christ relationship.

Eating on the River Walk...at Casa Rio. (picture from different trip, same spot)

The Alamo. Need I say more?

Band playing classic WWII music.

The river theater at night...sitting in the amphitheater seats looking across the river to the stage.

That same restaurant from across the river.

Who are those people?

River view again...

If you want a large sampling of pictures from inside the festival, please visit www.rebelution.blogspot.com.