Life's Unexpected Events

Greetings and salutations:
One never knows what may be around the next bend in life. My stepfather, Bill McNeely, recently learned that he has to have cancer surgery. We are headed to the hospital today to support him and my mom as he undergoes this surgery. We pray that everything will go well and would appreciate your prayers for him as well.
Our friends Gene and Sherry Cunningham are in their 10th week now of dealing with the serious brain trauma and surgery of their son Rich. He is improving, but it is a journey of small steps. They are feeling the physical and emotional strain of the ordeal and your prayers for them would be appreciated as well.
We have a trip planned out west for three weeks (last week of July and two weeks in August). Gene and Sherry are planning to join us for the last two weeks we are there and we are excited that Rich is improving and look forward to them getting some well needed "R & R".
Our daughter Andrea, her husband Elliott and the children ( Ross, Alex and Claire) will be with us the first week. We are excited to spend some quality time with the family in one of God's beautiful places on earth.
We'll be in Utah, Wyoming and Montana and hope to enjoy the beautiful scenery, animals and some good fly fishing for trout. It will be a first fly fishing adventure for Elliott and the boys and I hope they will learn to love it as much as I do.
Montana is like home to us. We have spent a lot of time there and it is always good to get back. We love to go other places like Canada and Alaska, but it just doesn't seem the same when we miss going to Montana in the late summer or early fall.
I am currently working on an article to submit to some fly fishing magazines and am mulling over some more projects.
My wife Margaret spotted a gray fox in our back yard last evening about 7:00. It was beautiful as it glided gracefully along in front of the bamboo that grows near the little stream. I grabbed a camera, but he was gone too quickly. We are in a residential area, but it is amazing the wildlife that we see. Raccoons, foxes, turkeys, squirrels, doves, hawks, crows and an amazing number of songbirds are regularly seen. We keep bird feeders in the front and back yards filled with black oil sunflower seeds and keep suet available. Magaret maintains about a half dozen hummingbird feeders and we enjoy the antics of those gorgeous jewels of nature daily.
If you like birds and are new to feeding, try black oil sunflower seeds. They are probably the single best food that you can supply. It is readily available and priced reasonably.
We maintain about a dozen feeders and really have a good selection of species to enjoy.
That's enough rambling for now.
Don't forget the requests above.
Have a great day and remainder of the week.
L. Woodrow Ross