We finished off the month of July with only .4 of an inch of rain. In the first 6 months of 2008 we have registered just a little over 10 inches of rain, as opposed to 2007, when we received 37.7 inches in the first half of the year. It is hard to imagine such a difference in rainfall.

As we begin another new month, the first big thing to talk about is the upcoming rodeo this weekend. It begins Thursday night at 8:00 PM and runs through Saturday night. The barbecue will be served at 5:30 Saturday. More details will be available elsewhere in the paper. We will look for you at the rodeo!

The 42 tournament will be on the 9th at Winchell. Check with some of the regulars, this may be changed due to the rodeo. The Busy Bee quilters will meet on the 12th. The community meeting will be on the 16th with Bonnie Evans, Kitty Cummings and Wilma Lee serving as hostesses. Be sure and mark your calendars for the gospel singing on October 18th.

We were very pleasantly surprised to have John and Sam Perry visit us at Holt Baptist Church last Sunday. John has been through a long ordeal with a number of health problems but he is doing well now. The Drs. had given up on him several times and he proved them wrong. As Sam said, it just shows what prayer can do!

Edith Gossett celebrated her birthday on the 5th. She was surprised recently with a birthday party in conjunction with the Smith family reunion. It was held at the community center at Mercury and among a host of friends and other family members, Edith’s daughter, Virginia from Roanoke Virginia, was there.

We had a nice telephone visit with Valerie Gossett and she reports that their 8 year old grandson, Shawn Skaggs, recently competed at the National Junior Beefmaster Livestock Show in West Monroe, Louisiana. He won first place and then took home Reserve Grand Champion honors.

This past Sunday, Shawn competed at Winters and again won first place. This young man is really doing great! Shawn is the son of Rayna and Will Skaggs, grandson of Wayne and Valerie Gossett and great grandson of Rusty and June McPherson and Edith Gossett. I know they are all very proud of him.

We also heard that the Gossett family was well represented at the Richland Springs Youth Sports fundraiser softball tournament last Saturday when their team won second place. It sounded like they all had a lot of fun in spite of the heat.

G.H. Suber from Odessa came and spent the weekend here with Michael and the rest of us. He and Michael attended the bird sale in Lampasas on Sunday.

We had a call from Jill Fritz over in London, Texas. She joins us in sending Happy Birthday wishes to Juanita Beard on the 4th. Juanita is now a resident in a nursing home in Terrell, Texas.

Jill visited with Clara Wash a couple of weeks ago and found her doing well. She visited with her Uncle Mode and Aunt Emily Mask on Monday and said they were doing well also. Mode recently spent some time in the hospital after taking a bad fall but he is well enough to be home and getting around pretty good.

Mode and Emily shared some exciting news about their granddaughter, Kirsten Reichenau. It seems Kirsten recently entered in the National Gymnastics competition and won 6th place in her age bracket. She placed 10th last year and so she has really improved. To be number 6 in the nation is something to be proud of! Kirsten is the daughter of Kari Reichenau and big sister of Mason.

Jill ran into Jerlene Smith, formerly of Richland, and had a nice visit in Walmart. The Supercenter is a good place to encounter friends and neighbors.

I want both Jill and Valerie to know how much I appreciate their calls with their news items. I feel that people who have moved away enjoy reading about the home folks. Whether the news is good or bad, they say it is like getting a letter from home and that is why we keep on making the effort.

The weatherman is telling there might be a little relief from the heat and just maybe some rain from the hurricane. We will see you at the rodeo if it is not rained out!