The first part of our year was punctuated by medical concerns. Bruce's "gastric reflux" January 5 evolved into

a flight to Hays for balloon angioplasty of a 90% blocked ramus artery with stent installation. His other

arteries were clear and we were home 30 hours later. Now at 190 lbs vs 235, with 20 minutes' aerobic exercise a day and low-fat diet (with good chol. numbers), Bruce is at his best form in many years. Karlyn started having problems in spring with a nasty hernia. Caution over an at-birth transient heart condition and long-standing vacation plans conspired to lengthen the interval before surgery. He's fine now although the other side may need to be done in future.

We drove to the January ARRL meeting in Dallas and enjoyed an evening with nephew Jean's family at a Taiwanese hot-pot restaurant. From there we flew to Grand Cayman where highlights were time spent with two radio friends' families, playing with a salad plate-sized red land crab, and Karlyn's first trip to Stingray City. A spring break timeshare to Table Rock Lake was especially enjoyable when Jon came from KSU and met us. Great meals including Lambert's Throwed Rolls, shows at Branson and exploring the fish hatchery are in our Ozark memory banks. Niece Kendra Baughman's h.s. graduation in Milford NE was followed by visits to the Pony Express station in Haddam KS and a family reunion of Bruce's great-grandmother Schmarje's sister's descendants in Grand Island NE. The summer ARRL meeting in Hartford was followed by a timeshare week in the Poconos along the Delaware River. A day trip rafting the river was our big splash here; speaking of which Karlyn tumbled in "accidentally" after Jon and Bruce went in for a dip. We repeated last year's Labor Day visit to the Vail valley area of Colorado with Sharon and Paul. This time no bears attacked…..

Nephew Lon's ag student this season has been Jane Smith of Ireland. We watched her compete in the antique tractor pull at the county fair; her first love is "ploughing" competitions. Good friend and ex-Colbyite Ken Mitchell spent a month painting the huge Education in Thomas County mural at CCC. We enjoyed time with him and the week wife Vicki spent here. Nottingham friend Barrie Blount was here for an extended 2-month stay in autumn, during which he got involved with innumerable honey-dos, preaching, homebuilt plane construction and flights with Paul to Albuquerque and Topeka.

Unlike last year's tough luck, we had good ag production in 2001. The wheat was surprisingly ok after low expectations due to winter-spring drought. Prospects for corn looked super and were fully met; we've now had 4 of 5 years in the excellent range. Of course we can always complain about commodity prices…. The New Mexico tortilla flour closed cooperative we're in bought an Amarillo mill. We have brisk sales of quality wheat flour & will expand to corn grinding. Oh, we added 20 chicks to our aging chicken "herd".