January 13, 2017 we lost our youngest daughter, Phyllis Jo Gregory due to a stroke. She was a beautiful person, a wonderful daughter and a excellent nurse. She worked in a nursing home last and loved working with the older people developing a loving and caring disposition for them all. And she was devoted to her son and grand children….We miss Phyllis so much, every day…..

I can’t remember exactly when we came to know each other but now it’s time to part ways. We have slept together all this time but lately the sleeping is becoming a thing of the past. …..Oh, I’m speaking of my old mattress. I have been waking up with a back that is killing me and feeling that I need to go back to bed to get some rest. I broke down he other day and decided to part ways with the old girl….so I found me another one at the mattress store. I’m pretty sure that I paid a few hundred more for this one than I did my old one, but it had to be. Reckon I can sleep on this one another twenty-five years?….Let me see, that would make me, oh gosh, no….I don’t think that will happen. I can’t even count that high…..But I’m still looking forward to several good years together with my new sleeping partner…

From my Cpanel:

Visitors this month are going to exceed 3000, for the second time this year.

Hits this year to date: 2.25 million….I ain’t lying folks…that’s what it says.

Visitors for the year: 89,229…yep, that’s right, almost 90 thousand folks…unbelievable.

Visits from over 100 countries this month….including visits from Brunel Darussalam, Seychelles, and Dominica….(one each from them…almost 30,000 from USA, 5000 from Romania my number one and two)

Top download story…Coalfire Story Number 5 (Sawmill Days)

Folks don’t talk via comments very much and that’s ok…But thank you so much for visiting and reading…..and I got one day left this year…. Again, thank you so much folks. I appreciate it….And you all know I don’t sell anything anymore…You read for free…

Our postman must be working lots and lots of overtime.  Lately I have been going out to check my mail with a flashlight. Yeah, I know dark has been coming early the last few weeks, but you would think in fairness to all on his route that he would change up his direction every once in a while….start at the end of his route this week and change the next week to starting at the other end. But, what do I know, there may be a good reason not to do that. In the meantime, I will keep my flashlight handy so that if I drop some of my mail, I can see it or if there is some mail in the back of the box I can see that also……  Maybe there is just so much mail and limited number of carriers to handle it. I don’t know….But surely there are people available to work for the postal service.

I first posted this on Aug. 12, 2012….My cousin Alan Bonner wrote it while in prison for murder done while drinking and drugged heavily. He admitted his actions….He accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and wrote from his heart. I have saved all his letters to me during his incarceration and posted several articles he wrote for this web site. This is one of my favorites and is still read by many of our readers.   I think it is worth sharing with you folks again as this article is just as applicable today as it was then. Alan passed away Dec. 22, 2014….I posted this article again on Aug. 12, 2016. And today, Dec. 6, 2019 I feel led to repost it again. Thank you for reading words from the heart of a Christian man.

A Life of Peace by Alan Bonne

First, I would like to thank Cousin Pete for inviting me back for another posting on his web site and secondly, I would like to thank those of you who will take the time to read this posting. Pete gave me the green light to write on the subject of my choice as long as it had nothing to do with politics. I feel the same way that he does about that. We have had enough politics this election year. What I am going to write about is, however, somewhat the results of politics, men’s policies and how they coincide with God’s policies.

Jesus the Messiah said that He would be coming back to earth someday and His disciples asked Him what would be a sign of His second coming. Jesus told them that many would come and claim to be the Messiah. In doing so, they would deceive many. He said that there would be wars and rumors of war, pestilence, famine, and earthquakes in various places. He said that many people would betray and hate one another.

Jesus spoke of a “tribulation period”. The prophets Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Joel, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah and John also wrote about this period as God gave them the words to write. All of these prophets, except for John, were given these prophecies by the Lord God prior to Jesus’ birth.

The world stage is currently moving toward a setting that will soon begin the seven year tribulation period. The Books of Matthew, Luke and Revelation go into detail about the signs. In the Book of Revelation it tells of these things taking place just before and soon after the second coming of the Lord.

As we all know, the world is in a mess. There have been wars, conflicts and rumors of war for hundred of years. Countries in the past have fallen apart as a result of disobeying God, and depending on man rather than God, to solve their problems. It seems that history has not taught us a thing about living an abundant life. History repeats itself because, we do not learn from it and make the necessary changes to avoid it happening again.

We have always had earthquakes, foul weather, famine and pestilence throughout years past, but not in the large quantity and intensity as we are having today. Every year there are floods in places, droughts in other places, wildfires, disasters  from earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and other natural and man made catastrophes, that cause death, food shortages, injuries to people and wildlife and food prices to rise. The loss of personal and real property causes insurance companies to pay out million of dollars for repairs and replacement of such property forcing the price of insurances to increase and so on. It seems to have a domino effect as it causes insurance companies, banks, households and families to fail. People have to relocate, find jobs and bury their loved ones. When things of this nature happens, like Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, etc, on a large scale and in intensive proportions, many people are effected in an extremely bad way and many never recover. All of these things result in more government spending, more expenditures that we and other governments around the world, do not have to spend.

These “birth pains” that Jesus called them are coming more and more regular, closer together and much more intense. This tells me that we are getting close to the tribulation period, or the 70 weeks of Daniel.

Every country in the world, with some exceptions, hates Israel and the United States. Iran has threatened Israel more than once with nuclear war. The parts and the uranium for these weapons are supplied by Russia and China, communist countries that hate Christianity. The Muslin countries that are devoted to Islam border Israel on every side. Israel has a large supply of oil it owns, as well as a sea full of minerals and elements that the rest of the world is running out of. I am speaking of the Dead Sea as the source of those elements and minerals.

The only ally that Israel has is the US and a portion of Europe. Australia and some others are hardly worth mentioning due to their geographic location, the size and strength of their military and money to spend in helping a country or countries win a war. Israel has one other ally, the most powerful force of all, Jesus Christ. At the very end Jesus will be there along with his angels and saints to destroy those attempting to take Israel over.

Between now and then, however, there are going to be some very hard times. Consider the time of Jacob’s (Israel) troubles; the world is moving very quickly toward that time now. In those times, in the latter days, the Day of the Lord, as God the Father and His Son describe the end time with these phrases throughout the Bible. Jesus said at that time, and then the end time is near, even at the door.

The anti-Christ will be coming on the scene, along with the false prophet in  short time, I believe. I also believe that the anti-Christ  and false prophet are alive today. They have not yet received their power from Satan, but they are probably already known and prosperous people. One man, whose book I read believes that the Anti-Christ is Prince Charles of Wales. He has the money and is well known. He is a politician and has pushed for a New World Order. It does not matter who the man turns out to be because his power to do miracles and wonders will come from Satan himself.

He will take the world that is in economic turmoil, war torn and beaten by natural disasters and immediately bring about peace, repair the damage, feed the famine victims, heal the sick, and mislead many people into following him and worshiping him. He will say that he is the Messiah and deceive many. He will cause large numbers of people to take on the “mark of the beast”. Then he will turn on them and kill and destroy.

Please do not worry about the world and let all these things put you in fear. There is a way out of all this. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the only way out of this mess. I believe that I will be alive at the beginning of the seven years. If not, I am sure that the next generation, our children, will be.

I have no fear of this. I have no fear of dying. I used to fear these things, especially eternal hell, but not anymore. I gave my life to the Lord Jesus. I confessed that He is Lord, that He died on the cross and that He arose from the dead, He is here and He is alive and well sitting on His throne at the right hand of His Father, God. See Romans Chapter 10.

You can also put aside your fear of death and dying. You can accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life. Your fears will leave you and you can have peace of mind as I do. Dump that load of bricks off your back and walk around peaceful and fear nothing.

Jesus won a victory over death, hell and the grave. The victory is ours as a free gift from God.

I have included the scripture where that which I have written of can be found in the Bible so that you can read about these things. The truth shall set you free.

Matthew, Chapter 24, Luke, Chapter 21, Mark, Chapter 13, The Book of Revelation, Isaiah, Chapter 24 and Chapter 26, verses 19 – 21, Chapter 40, verses 15 – 17, Chapter 46, verses 8 – 13, Chapter 53, Chapter 55, verses 6 – 13, Chapter 66, verses 22 – 24, Jeremiah, Chapter 7, Chapter 10, Chapter 15, Chapter 25,, verses 12 – 16 and 30 – 38, The Book of Daniel, 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, verses 14 – 18 and Chapter 5, 2^nd Thessalonians, Romans, Chapter 10.

Note from Pete. Alan’s letter to me was hand written and while I tried my very best to write the article exactly as he had send it to me, there were times when I had to guess about what was said. So you can mark any errors up to my reading and not to Alan’s writing. (Any comments you leave at the end of the posting will be forwarded to Alan…. (No longer applicable but we will appreciate them.)

We are grateful to Alan for his contribution of this article and I hope you will let us know about your thoughts.

Alabama is not number 1 in the football polls……Alabama got beat by Auburn….Ohio State is number 1….players beat other players over the head with helmets….betting is allowed on college sports…Stephen F. Austin beat Duke in basketball….Eli is not QB of the NY Giants …..Peyton is getting more TV time than when he played….New Mexico Lobos are looking for a football coach…..whoa, wait, what?….New Mexico is looking for a football coach? Now, who would want to take on that job? The football coach gets about as much respect as Trump, well, maybe a little more but not much…. Recruiting good players is very difficult, the fan base is lousy….last weekend it was reported 2000 or so turned out for the game. (well, the stadium only holds 40,000 about, so it was hard to tell. lol) Rocky Long was smart…He left while he was ahead and made some comments about the fans, but I’m not going into that…..I’m popping off a little bit, I know and I should not. It is really a shame that we have such a nice university, many, many, students getting high quality educations,  but we cannot get  good football players. I think, and I mean, really think that if we can have a few winning seasons, “THEY WILL COME’. If not, maybe we should drop down to the next level for football. What we need here is fans with a Chicago Cubs mentality. Once a Cubs fan, you are a fan for life, or so it seems to me….Not so here and the newspaper is afraid to tell it like it is because those same few fans buy the papers or pay for advertising…..I’m 84 and stopped going because of my age, parking and crowds….2000 folks, well, I could park just about anywhere, huh? Can’t use that excuse, but it wasn’t because of the football coach, he was a pretty good one…never should have left the triple option….God Bless you Coach Davies….Good luck on finding a good coach, good players and some good fans…..GO LOBOS

Published in hesterbooks.com, May 8, 2012:

The Western River Cooter is one of the least known turtles in North America. It lives in the Pecos River drainage system in southeastern New Mexico and portions of West Texas. It’s upper shell is olive to brown with whorls , circles and long furrows of yellowish or light Add Media brown on each of the plates. The head, neck, legs and tail are greenish with yellow lines and scrawls. Broad yellow blotch behind each eye. It can reach up to 16 inches in size. It is listed as threatened with the primary threats being recreationists and anglers who use them for target practice. Also they are used as bait for other species. The habitat for the Western River Cooter is streams with deep pools, clear water and rocky or sandy bottoms. It feeds on plants and aquatic insects. The Western River Cooter lays between 7 and 19 eggs in sandy soil that hatch out in August and September. Under favorable conditions the Western River Cooter can live up to 40 years.

New Mexico Wildlife,  winter 2018, Tale of the Cooter by Virginia “Ginny’ Seamster, Ph.D

She reported that based on data from the past two years, this turtle is relatively abundant at two survey areas. There are many hatchlings, which is potentially good news in terms of the sustainability of the population on the Black River. …..She reports that multiple years of data is needed to determine real success in the real growth of the species.

Exciting news from the 2018 survey performed by Dr. Ivana Mali and students from Eastern New Mexico University, funded by Share With Wildlife program, determined that not only was the Western River Cooters doing well, but that the cooters had been sighted as far north as Chaves County north of Brantley Dam on the Pecos River  and had confirmed the sighting.

The Western Cooter is currently undergoing review by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife to determine whether it should be listed as threatened or endangered at the federal level reports Ginny Seamster.

Share With Wildlife is a New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish program initiated in 1981 that depends on donations from the public. It’s mission is to help those species that do not receive funding from any other source. To learn more, visit: www.wildlife.state.nm.us/conservation/share-with-wildlife/

Visit New Mexico….

It has already snowed in Northern New Mexico’s higher elevations and tonight the weatherman states that this weekend snow could come on down to us folks in the 5000 foot rangeland of the state….That’s pretty early for this old soul. I like it warm. It was freezing here this morning. If I heard the weatherman correctly this was a record for an early freeze, but I was doing other things and just caught the tail end of the report so be careful in telling folks, “Pete Hester says”……But back to the snow, that’s keep me in where its warm. We have milk, eggs, bacon and bread and a pantry full of veggies, meat in the freezer, so as long as it is not to deep or long lasting I’ll be ok snuggled inside my place. I hope…..

Our balloon festival kicked off last weekend and of course it is time to stay pretty close to home. It will last all week. I’m glad that so many folks come to visit during this period, however, after having company and taking them to see all the balloons several years, I now try to stay home. I mean it’s fun being down there, you enjoy being close to the balloons being filled up with air, mingling with all he people, sampling all the food and taking hundreds of pictures and watching as the referees keep the take offs orderly, while all the time trying to keep from stumbling, falling and bumping into folks while looking up and walking. And it all works. They refs do a good job and if you are a first time visitor I almost guarantee that you will enjoy it and probably will not stumble and fall….And you will probably enjoy it the second time….And you are excited for your third time visitors…..but after that you wish them well, tell them you will try and serve lunch at a certain time and visit the stores away from the balloon fiesta field to gathering food stuff for you visitors meal….But that may be just me. There probably are those people who go year after year and enjoy every minute of it. I’m happy for them….One note…this year, even with over five hundred balloons flying daily, only one or two has flown over our house this year…See my earlier posting on the birds not coming around any more…..Maybe it’s the wind currents….Reckon?

No small birds are coming to my bird bath or feeders anymore….No sparrows, no jays, no house wrens, no robins….matter of fact, you remember me talking about the bird that kept calling “c’mere” last year…..He’s not calling for me anymore. No songbirds…even my hummers have left but it was about time for them to leave I guess. My old hawk still comes by ever so often for his bath and a few doves come by but other than that, none, nil, zilch….where could they have gone? I hope they will return by next spring anyway.   I miss them.