At Eureka Springs, AK near the site of the Passion Play stands this statue of The Christ of the Ozarks. If you have never been there, maybe you should make plans to visit there. There are many things to see and visit while there. We enjoyed the Ozark Mountain Jamboree. The Pine Mountain Jamboree is also located there….We will go back to visit Eureka Springs again..I think you would enyoy it also…Pete

Well, yesterday was bake day. The boss made several pies for our Thanksgiving meal. For the household staff (me) to have a piece before the allotted time,  the pie almost has to be a failure of some type, but it can  still be very much edible. We had one less than perfect yesterday, so the boss stated that the household staff (me) could partake of a piece of it. I woke up this morning at 1:52 am worrying about the state of the nation and that pecan pie and I thought I would just worry about the nation while eating a piece and having a glass of milk. My bible was lying there, marked to where I had gotten to on my quest to read it cover to cover. I am in 2 Corinthians 4. I began to read: Chapter 4, verse 8: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  These verses were written to the Corinthians who are very similar to us Americans in attitude, at least the way I read it. Anyway, to my point, there are many of us who still pray for America, read our Bibles and try to live in obedience to God’s word, He is not going to forsake us just yet. So, have a Happy Thanksgiving, keep praying and worshiping Him and may GOD BLESS AMERICA…..

What is it with the people who are trying to change our holidays? What has changed in America the last few years to bring this on? Is it the NEW Americans who come to our shores trying to change and conquer us from within? No one in my family wants any of the Holidays changed. Does anyone in your family? Who are these people? Do they have a reason other than not wanting us to enjoy our Holidays….We were celebrating them before we let these NEW people in and I don’t see any reason to be changing them now….So Happy Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings, Merry Christmas for the birth of our Saviour, Happy Easter for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Saviour…These have always been our Holidays…Always will be our Holidays…..You are not going to change them…You might can get them changed by law, but never, ever, in the hearts of the American people….It ain’t gonna happen….IN GOD WE TRUST….Amen and Amen…

In the heart of Van Winkle Hollow sits the very quaint, War Eagle Mill…It has been rebuilt several times, three I think, but I am pretty sure the foundation is the same as the original. Up on the third flood, The Bean Palace, you will see mention of Peter Van Winkle, my boss’s great-grandfather…He owned a sawmill just down the hollow from the grist mill. The water that powers this mill runs under the blades and not over. The mill was down while we were there this year, waiting on a drive belt to come in. However, they still had plenty of flour on hand for sale…Also, we are still eating on the jams and jellies that are available from there. You will find this mill between Rogers and Eureka Springs, just off  Highway 12. Also, you will want to tour Van Winkle Hollow and Hobbs State Park Visitors Center…You will enjoy the time spent there…Pete Hester

Sports hero’s can be a turn off, can’t they. But, every now and then one come along and just kind of makes the play on the field secondary to what they, as an individual, are all about. Kurt Warner, Arizona Cardinal’s quarterback,  is one of my hero’s. He is a lot of folks hero. He presents himself well on the field of play, but in life he is a real stand out. USA WEEKEND named him 2009 Most Caring Athlete and they donated $5000.00 to his First Things First foundation. The article states that the foundation is into many things, some of which are: Raised more than 675,000 for victims of last year’s Midwest floods, 15,000 coats for the winter coat drive in St. Louis, shipped hundreds of care packages to our troops overseas, gifts to the needy children in Phoenix (Sunshine Acres) and baskets of hope to critically ill kids at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix filled with prayer books, games and toys….the list goes on…What a guy….God has greatly blessed him with a sport abilities, but He has blessed him even more with a warm and giving heart…So, I now pull for the Arizona Cardinals….well, except when they play the Cowboys, but I will always want Kurt Warner to play well….May God continue blessing him and his family….

A few years ago I had just completed a book about a little white mouse. I was excited about this story. While visiting no. 1 son and no. 2 son they were asking me about my new project and I told them about my English speaking white mouse, “Bernie”, and they said, “Dad, have you heard of Stuart Little?” “No,of course not, I have been to busy writing.” So, because Stuart Little beat me coming out,  I have done nothing with my story, not even a good edit, yet. So, I am going to put Chapter One of Bernie, Also Starring Ralph and Carlos in the downloads and let you tell me if you want more. Ralph is a carrier pigeon that speaks English also and has been trained by the CIA for work in third world countries. Upon hearing they eat pigeons in the third world countries, he went AWOL. He becomes the personal pilot for Bernie and flies him from Washington down  to Laredo, TX  to spend the winter. Bernie has upset a hit man forthe mobsters and they follow him there. While in Laredo they meet Carlos, an American Crow employed by the Border Patrol who speaks English and Spanish and patrols the area over Lake Amstad. The mob finally catch up with them and….Bernie,_Chapter_one     well, I need to let you see if it is something you would like to read….so, let me know, ok? just click on the link

Ok, America…It’s time for a song, written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss and made famous by Louie Armstrong..Armstong’s recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Also sung by my number 2 son at my number 3 son’s wedding in Madison, WS a few years ago. It’s one of my favorite, and to me, it’s very uplifting…Sing it with me this morning….I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom, for me and you, And I think to myself….what a wonderful world………I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, and I think to myself…What a wonderful world…..The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, also the faces of people going by. I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do? They’re really saying, I love you…I hear babies crying, I watch them grow, They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know, And I think to myself…what a wonderful world……….Yes, I think to myself…….what a wonderful world.    May God Bless you in a special way this day..Thanks for coming by…..Pete Hester

To our football team, The New Mexico Lobos:

Guys, sometimes you just can’t win…I don’t know why you did not win Saturday against the Cougars of BYU. In my eyes, you beat them everywhere except on the scoreboard. Any other Saturday, our kicker would have made all five of those kicks. Never  have I seen four kicks hit the goal post like that. How strange..And all of you played your heart out…I could see it..I could feel it…Somewhere buried deep in the recesses of this season is a story, a reason, a lifelong lesson for you to have been right here and to have gone through all the heartaches of this season…I hope I am alive to hear your story to be told several years from now, about this season and how it affected your life…..for the good..I know there is reason that you are here today…all of you are just to good for it not to have a wonderful ending…Life is not about winning, it’s about living…Go Lobos

 Really, what does “devout Muslim” mean exactly? Does it mean that you are dedicated enough that you will strap a bomb around your body and blow yourself up because that is what Allah wants you to do? Or take a gun among your comrades and start shooting them? Seems like every time I hear the term, devout Muslin, it’s about an individual  killing people. Is the goal of Muslims to force all to worship the same one they worship or they will shoot you or blow you up? Someone, high up in the Muslim chain of command needs to start a PR campaign to enlighten all us non-believers as to what they are all about. Right now, they are pretty low on my chain of folks to root for and I don’t think it is an unjust assessment. At some point in time, how about doing something good, huh? Did you folks ever think about that or am I just unlearned, uneducated and sitting here in the dark? Right now considering all the events that are going on, I don’t like your religion very much, especially the “devout ones”……

Well, I told you we had not heard the last of that little news item. The Feds have come down on the State of New Mexico for the closure and for not having a by-pass of some type to allow traffic to move through. They asked the question, “if the movie company had not stopped filming, would they have continued to block traffic?” As it was, traffic was backed up for ten miles. Once the New Mexico State Police was filming a “safety film” near the Double Eagle Airport one morning at work time, blocking traffic for a time. I wrote the Governor and he had the Captain of the State Police write me to inform me the closure was no longer than 10 minutes, which I dispute, it was more like 30 minutes, but the point is the film crews and the state have a disregard about shutting the roads down. It seems like they are thinking, “if we deem it to be good, then it is good”. And we still may not have heard the last of it…..You cannot impede the flow of interstate commerce, can you? A trucker with a load of strawberries going from California to New York is not concerned with a movie when he is responsible for that load making its destination on time and not spoiling….That’s his living and he is just one of many that have the time function concerns….Keep on and Larry Barker may get involved and you don’t want that guy after you…..