Early October in the Magnolia State

Recent headlines in the Halsey community include toothless grins,

hula hoops, bluegrass music, medical triumphs, and more...

We begin with the ongoing saga of dental revisionism.

Clara has been losing teeth like politicians loose trust. This picture is the current smile but we expect a much wider "window" on top soon since her top middle teeth are nice and wiggly. Fortunately she's made quick work of replacing what she's lost thus far.

Next, the medical community is stunned as Gramma Halsey is not only back on her feet, but has made an appearance in Dixie!

After a week in a coma, a month in ICU, three weeks of physical therapy, two months wearing an external defibrillator vest and one week after getting an internal pacemaker/defibrillator Andy's mom came to visit for a few days (with Denny, of course). She is very much back to her old self and is now really ready to enjoy retirement.

The weekend after their visit, we went to French Camp, Mississippi to the annual Harvest Festival at French Camp Academy (a boarding school for children from troubled homes).

The festivities included some bluegrass music

(And, yes, that's an actual washtub made into an upright bass.)

'Tis the season for making molasses...

A day-old calf who was only too ready to flop down and let children pet him to sleep.

The McKenzie family--friends of ours from Bloomington and Jackson days

(Andy and John went to seminary together.)

Finally, we leave you with some unscripted footage of a typical afternoon in our front lawn.

We think this may have been partly inspired by the harvest festival (Benji is advertising "hayrides" in his wagon...not sure where the hula hoop inspiration came from!)