Here Are some pictures from this summer! Hope all of you are well! The children got to see their Great-Nanny,which was a treat as she lives up north. Family is so wonderful! Esther is growing and Bret and Ron have become good buddies.

Catherine Esther Smith

Esther was born to the Smith family by the grace of God,
and first saw the light of day,May 17th 2009. She weighed 9lb 8oz.
She has been a great joy to us and we thank the Lord for this precious gift.
She has brown eyes like her Papa
and a sweet little mouth for kissing
And chubby little hands to wrap around his finger...
Granddaddy holding his little Esther...

She is a daddy's girl. She listens to his voice

when he speaks and falls asleep on his shoulder...

Grandmama and Esther...May they be sweet friends

A happy mama...thank you Lord...

Brotherly love...

First meeting...

Andy Vawser & Brittany Antonion

Hooray for Andy & Brittany! We were blessed to witness their betrothal ceremony yesterday morning.

Congratulations, guys, we are very happy for you, and we are looking forward to seeing the Vawser clan again this evening at a shower hosted here in Griffin.

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They exchange rings
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Andy reads to her

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and sings to her...
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Congratulations, guys, we love you two and look forward to our children playing together (whenever we manage to get out to Idaho, that is. :D LOL...)

Snow, in GA!

The Vawsers thought they were getting away from the blizzard up in the northwest, but it followed them down. I guess the Lord decided to give Brittney a wee taste of life in Idaho. LOL... Naturally, after the betrothal ceremony most of us ended up out in the Antonion's yard flinging snowballs at each other. A rare pleasure around here!

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One of the Antonion's rose bushes

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Andy & Brittany
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Beth
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Madara
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It was a fun drive home -- I had not driven in snow since we visited ID back in 2005...
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Michael and Wallace, back at our house
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Michael and I tossing some more snow... :D
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Michael Beverage Morton III

Kate & the boys

After the betrothal, lunch is almost ready...
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Katie and Bretski back at Mom & Dad's house

The Perfect Pack, revisited

Eberlestock G4

A long time ago I was looking at rucksacks, and posted a note about the SPEAR ELCS rig. That is, indeed, a very fine system, but it weighs a ton. (Well, ~17lbs, anyway)

I recently was discussing packs with Danny Lane, and was looking for Kifaru (couldn't remember their name at the time) but found these guys in the process. They have two packs that I really like -- the G4, and the Halftrack. The G4 (pictured above) is a nice, med-large full size ruck. It is not the largest pack, but these days I am a family man who only maintains the barest minimum of physical conditioning. Add a little boy or two, and I would have a difficult time carrying much more weight than this pack can hold.

I had never really thought about having a pack specifically designed to carry a rifle and was not initially favourably disposed towards the concept, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. Again, when I hike these days I am usually carrying a little boy or two/holding their hands, etc. It would be nice to have a pack I can shove my rifle into and then be able to retrieve it without opening the main compartment. Looks like the flaps fold and buckle out of the way when they are not needed.

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It has both top and front load access, which is wonderful for ease of accessing and organizing gear. The only thing I don't really like about it is the rather sketchy track record of zippers' durability in field gear. I like my Camelbak's zipper, but even it has its limits, and I don't know that it will be nearly as durable over the long run as a conventional pullcord/buckle style hatch.

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Eberlestock Halftrack

Ok, first a little background info: I bought Kate a Camelbak Talon for our last caving trip. It turned out to be a good pack, but the size is a little off. She isn't used to carrying a load on her back, and it is a little too big for her to carry comfortably for a long time. (She is a very strong girl, so I suspect that the weight wouldn't be a problem for her in a pack with a good frame and belt, but that will have to wait for next trip.) The Talon is, on the other hand, a little too small for what I like to carry around on a regular basis. I use it now for a general purpose carry bag. It goes with us pretty much everywhere, and usually contains some combination of a medikit, diapers/wipes, change of clothes for a little one or two, 2D maglight, headlamp, extra batteries, another medikit, a Goretex parka or poncho, 3L of water, a Gerber folding saw, Cold Steel knife, ear plugs, a bit based screwdriver kit w/ ~30 bits, more miscellaneous medical supplies, 1L of Gatorade, and sometimes an extra 2L canteen of water. It usually weighs around 25-30lbs. depending on the exact loadout.

It has a hard time holding it all, and sticks way out if fully loaded -- especially with the baby stuff and parka. I would really like something just a little bigger, but I don't know whether I really want it to have a frame or not. The things I don't like about the T. are A. the main compartment access is too small; B. it isn't big enough; etc. Other than those two issues, I love the thing. It is very comfortable, rides fairly well for a pack without a frame, and has 3 external pockets that are particularly well laid out.

The Eberlestock Halftrack (pictuered above) is an interesting little framed rig. At ~2300 CI, it is about ~500CI bigger than the Talon (1820 CI), and it looks like the layout is also a little better. Full frontal access to the main compartment, full size side pockets (although it doesn't look like the zippers run all the way down on the sides -- that is not good), a top pocket, PALS webbing all over everywhere, compression straps to keep things nice and tight, and the shape looks designed to keep your center of gravity very close. The straps and back padding all look very similar to my VERY comfortable little REI internal frame pack(which Beth usually carries -- that's why I don't have Kate use it as her primary). This might be a little too big to use as my everyday run-around pack, but it looks like it would be perfect for Kate as a primary ruck.

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These pictures are from a website I ran across called Hardcore Outdoors. The author looks like an interesting guy. He does a lot of equipment reviews, and I like some of his opinions. His language is occasionally slightly off-colour, so I only recommend his website with caution.
Nevertheless, as I am using his photographs, I will include a link to their source:
http://hardcoreoutdoor.com/2008/09/08/eberlestock-halftrackhunting-backpacksmilitary-backpacks.aspx

On a side note, (no pun intended) I also like his choice of additional side pouches for specific extra items: camera, radio, sunglasses, binoculars, etc. I would add a medikit to the front, as well (I always do. LOL...)

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As with the G4, one additional weakness with this ruck is its heavy reliance on zippers. For this size pack, though, I would note that Camelbak, Bug-out gear and most other patrol packs including the MOLLE rig also use zippers.

Alan shifting gears in the big truck! We rode with him last summer as a family,and had a wonderful memory making time! I loved it!

Bret playing us a tune on his Great-grandfather's harmonica at a truckstop.

One of the warehouses we delivered a load to! Love that name...

A cotton warehouse way out west.

Alan enjoying a walk with Ron.We enjoyed doing things like this when the rig was being unloaded at the different warehouses.

¿Planning a Cave trip?

As some of you may already know, Kate and I have a tradition of taking our children caving before they are born. Well, I guess it's time to start planning another trip! Hopefully we can get one together for late January or early February.

Here comes 3

Good Afternoon friends!

It's been a while, but hopefully Kate & I will slowly get back into the habit of keeping our online journal. LOL... ;)

Anyone checking on my blog has already been the the rest of the family's blogs, so you already know that Kressant and Michael have 2 boys, Wesley and Rachel have a fine strapping (large) son, and you probably have already heard that Katie and I are going to be having another one by the middle of next year.

Our midwife, (the redoubtable Mrs. Jobe) says she suspects 1st week of July; little bit has a fine, strong, healthy heart beat -- maybe a wee smidgen fast (~158bpm, girl maybe?) , and so far Kate has experienced no morning sickness. Hooray!!! :D

We spent the last several months hauling peanuts down in south GA. That went very well. This year saw one of the largest peanut crops in history -- the price of peanut butter may come down a little next year. LOL... We are currently between jobs and may do some contract work with Schneider over the next few months, but who knows?

I will try to put a photo of the truck up sometime soon.

Well, God Bless you all, I'll write again later...

Alan

It's a Boy!

The Lord has given us another precious little boy! He was born January 9th 2008. He was born at home before the midwife arrived, delivered by his brave and able Papa! He weighed 8lbs 8oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. He is such a joy to Alan and I and is greatly loved by his big brother. He was named Ronald Michael Smith in honour of his much beloved great-grandfather, Ronald Smith, and my own dear father, Michael Morton. May the Lord bless this little man and cause him to be a faithful servant of His.