KANAKUK KAMPS CHAPEL

Daughter-in-law, LeaAnn, with the praise team at Kanakuk Kamps where she works in the office. Daily chapel services provide a time of spiritual refreshing for employees and campers.
To learn more about Kanakuk, see www.kanakuk.com

DAKOTA'S FIRST TURKEY

My sister Christie's grandson, Dakota Bilyeu, with his first turkey.
The big gobbler weighed 22 lbs, had a 10 1/2" beard and spurs were 1 1/2"
A Turkey to be proud of! Uncle Sean Tilley was his hunting guide.

Meadows Cemetery Clean-up 04/18/09

MEADOWS CEMETERY IN THE SPRING

Burning the brushpile near the fence

Kathy Pierce Riggan takes a well-deserved break.While sitting on the roots of the big oak tree that recently blew down, she contemplates what she will plant in the hollow root that remains.

Walt Riggan pushing the fire together

Jim Bilyeu cleaning leaves out of the fence

Kasie Bilyeu Fisher cutting brush

Justin Fisher is handy with a rake!

DOGWOOD ACRES WEEKLY 04/20/09

DOGWOOD ACRES, 04/20/09, ELANE CRUM

Hello friends. With a bag or two of fresh white bass in the freezer, three morels in a bowl of saltwater, and a big dose of morning sun, it appears that spring may be here to stay. Rick worked very hard in the yard for several days, cutting those dead trees and burning brush. At one point his back hurt so bad he could hardly roll off the couch. I tried to make an appointment for him to see a chiropractor but he would have none of that; said he would work it out. Well, he did and when the yard work was done, he put in a long day at the fishing hole. Rick only fishes short days if the fish bite quickly. With a catch rate of one per hour, it took a long time to catch fourteen white bass. He came dragging in well after dark looking like a cooked lobster with a farmer’s tan.

Rick and I were privileged to attend Friday services of the annual meeting of the White River Association of General Baptists. These services held over a three day period were a special time of fellowship among the sixteen area churches of the White River Association. I think it is interesting to note that the first annual meeting of the White River Association of General Baptists was held 126 years ago at Sardis Church in September, 1883.

We sat with our Sandy Church Family during the morning service and then, in the afternoon I sat with my New Haven Church Family and relatives, Ruby Frazier Brafford and Iva Cummings Folck. Some of my earliest childhood memories of church attendance was at New Haven. Eldon and Ruby often gave Mother and us kids a ride to church. Christie and Mother would ride in the cab of the pickup with Eldon and Ruby, while Jim and I sat in the back with Danny and Joyce. We kids had a lot of fun in those days, I guess one could say "the good old days”, but Yikes!! Surely we are not old enough to use that term.

Jeff Dalton called this morning to see if Rick heard any turkeys and was surprised when I told him Rick is not hunting this first day of turkey season. He went to Neal’s early this morning to help load a set of cabinets to take to Conway. Just over a year ago our friends there were hit by a tornado that just about destroyed their house and now Neal is putting cabinets in their new house. Another of his buddies, Matt Engel, now a Springfield fire fighter, is also going to spend the week with them. It will be almost like the good old days as they laugh and work together.

Brother Jim and I had a good time burning brush at Meadows Cemetery and School Saturday morning. Walt and Kathy Riggan, Justin and Kasie Fisher were our work buddies and made it a lot of fun. When we finally relaxed in front of the fire with roasted hotdogs, we could hear the gobble gobble of an old turkey near Bull Creek. It is so quite down there and a pleasant place to think about our loved ones.

LeaAnn and I attended John Lee Comer's book signing on Sunday afternoon. I had purchased the book, "Life Through the Seasons" several weeks ago and have almost finished reading it. LeaAnn got copies for herself and Martin; they will enjoy the many stories that John has written about Grandpa Bert and Grandma Bessie Hodges. Those of you who were not able to be there Sunday may purchase a copy at Epps Chiropractic in Forsyth or through the internet at www.Iuniverse.com or www.amazon.com Bye for now.

ELANE CRUM
RE/MAX Associated Brokers, Inc.
Branson, MO

Cell: 417-239-4059
Office: 417-336-7987

www.elanecrum.net
www.elanecrum.com

John L Comer

Comer book available @ IUniverse.com or Amazon.com; may also be purchased at Epps Chiropractic in Forsyth, MO.

http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000115691

FISH ARE BITIN'

ALMOST...A Limit of White Bass

DOGWOOD ACRES WEEKLY 04/13/2009

DOGWOOD ACRES, 04/13/09, ELANE CRUM

Hello friends. While we shiver through these hopscotch like spring days, the bears have left their winter hidey-holes. Apparently, their natural instincts tell them that winter is over, so we must not give up. The bear report comes from our deep woods neighbors who live just across the county line. As for me, I will keep my eyes open, but not be disappointed if the bears are not regular visitors here.

There will be a book signing party for John Lee Comer next Sunday, April 19, 3 to 6 p.m. at The Taney Center. In his book, “Life through the Seasons”, the reader can expect to see life through the eyes of this farm boy from his earliest recollections until he left home soon after high school. I have read several chapters and thoroughly enjoy the early childhood stories of the Comer family.

Justin and Kasie finally struck a match to the tee-pee shaped bonfire that has been curing by the pond for many months. While most of us are happy to throw brush into a pile, Justin has taken a more planned approach to the building of a bonfire. This spectacular creation blazed for thirty-five minutes before toppling over. Mike Stenger had a small cook fire going where he roasted deer steaks and the Gifford children burnt marshmallows.

We were thrilled to have Frank and Marge Layson at the bonfire. It had been a month since the Lifeline Helicopter picked Frank up there in that same field and transported him to the hospital for a month-long stay. Frank said he does not remember that night, but is so thankful to be home again. He and Marge celebrated their 45^th wedding anniversary while he was in the hospital. We wish them many more happy years together.

Jim Bilyeu was home a few days last week with a bad case of bronchitis. Dawn and Melissa took good care of him and he was able to be at the bonfire Saturday night. Glad he is feeling better.

Rick Crum cut and piled twenty-two dead dogwood trees Saturday afternoon. The trees died in a little controlled burn that the fellows did here a couple of years ago. We waited a year or two to see if they might have some life, but finally accepted the fact they are dead. He must have pinched a nerve because he was in a lot of pain and missed the bonfire.

Bill Biggs was on vacation last week and spent quite a bit of time fishing. He and Sean Tilley brought home some big ones.

I stopped to see Joyce Chambers Saturday afternoon and found her having fun with grandkids, Carissa and Hunter. They were making memories by catching bugs and worms.

Easter Sunday was sure a wet and soggy day, but that did not affect the miracle of The Resurrection and what it means to us. The drama team at Sandy Church gave a meaningful presentation of the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. Pastor Neal followed through with a powerful sermon followed by a time of prayer at the altar.

Bye for now.

ELANE CRUM
Cell: 417-239-4059
Website: www.elanecrum.net
Website: www.elanecrum.com

Blog: www.dogwoodacresOnline.blogspot.com

JOHN LEE COMER~BOOK SIGNING

"Life Through the Seasons" is John Comer's newly released book which chronicles the story of his life growing up on a farm in Douglas Co., MO. John's home church was Sandy General Baptist, where Rick and I attend and our son is the pastor.
Book signing is Sunday, April 19, 3-6 p.m. @ The Taney Center between Forsyth and Taneyville.

Easter @ Dogwood Acres, 1963

Our first Easter @ Dogwood Acres

Christie, age 6, Jimmie, age 9, Elane, age 13

DOGWOOD ACRES, 04/06/09

DOGWOOD ACRES, 04/06/09, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Rick and I have been married for 41 years. Our anniversary was April 4, we were careful not to get married on April 1. To celebrate we went to Springfield planning to eat out and go to a movie. We did eat, but, because of a time change, missed seeing the movie we wanted to, so just came on home. I popped corn, added lots of butter, and we watched movies on TV.
On our way to Springfield we stopped at Chadwick to visit with Rex Bilyeu. He had given Danny Frazier some old pictures for the Bilyeu Family website and I needed help in putting some names in the right places. Rex and Mardi have some cute little dogs, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous passerby.
Rick visited the pups down at Glen Kenyon's again and keeps talking about how cute they are. When I passed their house on Sunday, the pen looked empty, so maybe they have already gone to a good home.
Paul Sprecher visited Rick and me on Saturday morning, checking on the mowing season at Meadows Cemetery. We had a good visit and talked about the "Olden Days" when we worked at the Brown Hotel in Rockaway.
The March winds finally blew down a big oak tree in the cemetery last week. The tree separated the graves of Bone and Mint Terry, but fortunately no stones were damaged by the fall. Some fencing was damaged, but that can be replaced.
Walt and Kathy Riggan cut up the tree and then, Jim, Dawn and I helped Kathy clean up the rest of the smaller limbs Saturday afternoon. There is now a huge pile of brush to burn, but we have a plan for that too. Jayne Meadows has some helpers coming on April 18 to cut brush near the old school house, so we may burn brush and roast hot dogs that day.
The circus was in Ava Sunday afternoon and, of course, our grandkids wanted to go. We had a picnic after church and then drove on into Ava. It was so cold outside and no warmer inside the circus tent, but we all survived. I think we older ones had as much fun or more than the kids.
I visited Kim Layson one afternoon and they are all so thankful and looking forward to having Frank come home soon, perhaps one day this week. Kim's little cabin is so cozy. There was a fire in the wood stove and a skillet of chicken breasts frying on the cook stove. I heard the "peep peep" of little chicks and Ashley proudly showed me the cage of little ones they were keeping indoors.
Scotty VanAllen called after reading about Rick's dad in last week's paper. She was thrilled to know of someone else local that had been a part of Exercise Tiger in WWII. Her husband, Doug, was in the Navy and also participated in that operation. I always enjoy talking to Scotty and am glad she called.
Sean Tilley was our Dogwood Acres birthday boy on Sunday. When I stopped to figure out just how old mine and Christie's three older boys, Marty, Sean and Neal, will be this year, it seems impossible!
I saw Uncle Bill Smith at the grocery store Saturday afternoon. He said Aunt Roma was at home cooking for the church dinner Sunday. I also heard Christie say something about coconut pie and Debbie Block was making lasagna. Church dinners are always so good. Bye for now.

ELANE CRUM

RE/MAX Associated Brokers, Inc.Branson, MO

Cell: 417-239-4059 Office: 417-336-7987

http://www.elanecrum.net/

http://www.elanecrum.com/

DOGWOOD ACRES, 03/30/09

DOGWOOD ACRES, 03/30/09, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. I guess one should not complain about a record-making snowstorm that was immeasurable. Huge flakes, the size of silver dollars, began dropping from the sky before dark on Saturday evening and continued to fall for several hours. Every time either of us woke up during the night, we were peering out windows to see how much snow we had, but it never accumulated.
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful spring day and dry enough to move LeaAnn’s piano from the barn over to their home. It is one of those beautiful old uprights, but Rick said it was not hard to move. This will make it a lot easier for the girls to practice their piano lessons.
Rick’s mom had a birthday last week and celebrated with a lot of phone calls and visits from her kids. Kenny put her old Chuckwagon Gang 33’s over on to CD’s, which pleased her very much. Rick remembers as a kid, that they went to sleep every night with a stack of Chuckwagon Gang albums on the record player.
While waiting to be snowed in on Saturday, I worked on taxes and helped Rick with scrapbooks about his dad’s experience in WWII. Neal had called to tell us what he had found in online research about “Exercise Tiger”. We all remembered hearing Grandpa Lloyd Crum talk about being on a ship that was torpedoed and sunk during WWII, but never knew any details of the actual operation. Grandpa said the oil-covered ocean was in flames all around him as he found something to hang on to until being rescued.
Now we know that “Exercise Tiger” was a top-secret Naval operation to prepare US Army and Naval forces for D-Day. It went terribly wrong, with 749 confirmed dead. Of that number, 201 of the servicemen lost were from the 3206th Quartermaster Company from the state of Missouri. On April 28, it will be sixty-five years since that attack.
As for our scrapbook, I printed information from the internet and enlarged pictures of Dad in his uniform. We made two, one for Rick and one for Neal.
Donald Ray Walker called to see if I had any old pictures of Pine Ridge Church. Of course I do, as I began taking pictures as soon as I could hold a Kodak Brownie still. I had fun going through the old albums and pulling out pictures to make copies of. I found one picture taken in 1964 of a group in front of the church, but only the left side of the group. Elmer Walker and Grandpa Clarence Bilyeu were standing in the door behind the others. While going through Rick’s albums looking for pictures of Grandpa Lloyd, we found the right side. That side had Lloyd and Betty Jo, and me and Rick. There was a big crowd that Sunday. Rick took the copies down Bilyeu Creek Road to Don and had a good visit.
Leon Hammond had a close encounter with a deer last week. As deer have a way of doing, it just jumped out of nowhere and collided with the left front of Connie’s little Toyota. While Connie is certainly grateful that Leon was not hurt, she is sad that her little car was bumped and the deer ran away, so there are no fresh steaks in the freezer.
Grandma Christie said that Vanessa Bilyeu had to spend her calf money on a prom dress. Now, she is thinking of feeding her Momma cow vitamins so it will start having multiple births.
Rick stopped to visit with Glen and Patsy Kenyon last week. Glen had some heart stents put in recently and seems to be feeling better now. They had a litter of pups and almost talked Rick into bringing one home. I told Rick, no matter how cute they are, he better not even think of such a thing! After all, we are expecting two litters right here in our own back yard. Bye for now.