The Jones Family Chart

Back in the mid-1980s I did some research on my Jones ancestors...those of you who've researched family roots can appreciate that when I hit my great-grandfather, John Leonard Jones, Jr, I was done. The problem is not finding John Jones, it's that there are so many John Joneses that you don't know which one is the right one!
Anyway, I recently did an update of the family chart. I don't have it complete by any means, since some of my cousins now have great-grandchildren. But I'm working on it. If I can figure out how to post a multi-page pdf on my blog, I'll put up my results.
In the meantime, there are at least 114 direct descendants of my grandfather M.D. Jones, of whom an even 100 are still living. My Dad is the only one of his generation still living, and one brother-in-law, Wade Martin, plus my Mom, are the only spouses of his generation still living.
I know that there are more family members for whom I don't have names, birthdates, etc. so watch for an update!

April Fool's roof

Some of you know that I'm trying to finish building a combination woodworking shop/storage building down in the woods behind my house. It all started about a year ago when I got a real deal on some 3/4" plywood from Matthew's neighbor.
After quite a bit of work, I now have the four walls completed all but the plywood on the framing over the door openings, and some other minor small plywood 'patches' where walls join, so I'm hoping to get some help from some friends and get the roof trusses that are now stacked in the yard installed, the roof decking bought and installed, and shingles in place. My target date is to get the trusses up by April Fools' Day and the decking/shingles in by the next weekend.
The building is 12'x20' with 10' high walls inside, so it's going to give me a good bit of room. Hopefully enough storage that I can dispense with one of the storage units I have rented right now. That saved monthly rent will pay for the cost of my materials for the building in a year or so!
I've been trying to download pix from my new phone, but haven't managed to do so yet. When I do, I'll have an album of pictures of the building to show everyone.

Haven't stopped blogging, I've just had...

ISSUES!
Namely, my home computer and blogspot have been having an ongoing feud, and I can only post from work. I don't have time at work to blog, so there you go...since January.
One thing I'm trying to finally get done is to finish the combo storage building/shop out behind my house. The floor was done last fall, and over the winter, the walls have gone up. To be done with the outside walls, I have only 2 more 8-foot wall panels to nail in place (they're odd widths, or they'd have gone up with the framing like the complete 4'x8' panels. Then there are a couple of areas over doorways to finish, and a couple of narrow strips where walls join.
Then of course, we have to raise and place the 11 roof trusses I built (and the 2 end ones have to get their 'skins' of plywood. After that, just getting 4'x8' panels of roof decking up in place, nailed on, covered with tarpaper, and the shingles done...not much left to do, right?
So later I'll post photos of the process. Listen out for hammering!

2,547 miles

We went to Texas immediately after Christmas, and drove because we had so many presents to take.
Friday, Dec. 26th, we (Deb, BJ and I) left home at 6:15 EST, stopped briefly in Alabama at Debbie's Mom's, and continued on toward Texas, arriving north of Houston at about 10:30 PM CST. LOOONG day! We stayed that night with Dave & Sharon Collins, parents of our daughter-in-law Kayla.
On Saturday, we went on to Karnes City to Nathan and Kayla's (they were also traveling back from Houston that day). That evening was almost another Christmas as Brenna opened a lot of gifts not only from us, but from Uncles, great-grandparents, etc. Sunday morning, I preached at FBC there, which is across the street and three doors down from Nathan's. In the evening, we did a concert for them, with Debbie playing (a Steinway!--if a bit out of tune), Nathan and I both singing and playing our horns, and some congregational singing, too.
Monday was mostly a day to rest, enjoy Brenna, and help with some upkeep around Nathan/Kayla's house. We also went to pick up a TV Nathan bought from Craig's list--$50 for a JVC 42" screen!--because their TV had 'died' on Saturday. Tuesday we went to San Antonio, since BJ had never visited the Alamo. We went there in the morning, then walked through the Riverwalk, got an early lunch at Casa Rio (great Mexican place on the river) and went for a 30-minute boat tour, all before Brenna's nap time!
Wednesday BJ, Debbie and I went to Goliad, TX, because of its connections with James Walker Fannin, for whom our county here in GA is named. When I get pix downloaded, I may try to post about this. More Texans died for independence at Goliad than at the Alamo and battle of San Jacinto combined, but it's little-known today.
Thursday we watched the UGA game with Nathan (I think for him this was the whole point of the trip--to have other ardent Georgia fans with him to watch the game!) After the game, we drove to Houston to Kayla's grandmother's house where we spent the night.
Friday was another long driving day, leaving about 6 AM and driving until about 7 PM to Opelika, where we spent the night with Debbie's Mom (and most of the next day.) Deb's Mom had a diabetic episode at lunch and almost had to go to the ER, but then got OK. We drove back to Georgia in the evening, dropping BJ off in Woodstock, going by Matt & Tasha's to deliver gifts from Nathan/Kayla, and got in about 10:30 PM.
Sunday at church was a good but full day, and Monday/Tuesday this week were full of catching up at work, so now you can understand why I haven't blogged in so long!
Pictures soon, I hope!

Great Games

Don't know how many of you out there are football fans, but this ESPN magazine story brought tears to my eyes...http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3789373&type=story

Long time no blog

It's certainly unhandy to have to blog from work, which is the case lately. Something about the cookie settings on my home computer. But lots has been happening--

Thanksgiving was great at Matt and Tasha's. I think we had about as many people as possible at that dinner! Of course I forgot to bring the dressing that was in the oven, so we have lots and lots of it left over!

Matt's birthday celebration and TubaChristmas were a lot of fun. Both were on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The only bad thing that day was Tech breaking the streak.

Of course, more recently we've been busy with Advent and other things at the church. Debbie did a great job (as did Matt) at Christmas in Black and White last Sunday. We're getting ready to go to Texas right after Christmas, so that will be fun, seeing Brenna, Nathan, and Kayla. I've been hard at work making some Christmas presents for Brenna and Kayla.

Maybe I can blog a little more consistently between now and Christmas.

I'm baaaaaack

Well, it's been interesting fighting about cookies. Not cookies you eat, cookies that intrusive companies want to put on your computer. I had 'turned off' cookies on my home computer, since I've almost completely filled up my hard drive (see below.) Then I found that Google won't let me sign into my blog without cookies. Why this should be, I don't know, but even when I turn on cookies now on my computer, I'm locked out of my blog. I can only access it from my work computer.

So for now, there will be no great pix from the snow in Asheville a couple of weeks ago, etc.

By the way, does it seem amazing to anyone else that a 30-gigabyte hard drive could get filled up so quickly? I can remember thinking "I'll never fill up this thing..." and that was with the very first hard drive I ever owned...a whopping 40 megabytes! I now have small folders in "my pictures" on my computer that are larger than that. Technology marches on!

I temporarily solved some of my problem by getting a really massive 500-gig external drive. It works fine, but still doesn't solve my basic dilemma, which is whether to upgrade my hard drive or just bite the bullet and get a new computer. If I can limp on past Christmas with the present set-up I probably will.