"If It Ain't Broke..."

There is a young man at the top of that tree. Our best intelligence indicates that his name is Alan Hartsell, Shayne's brother. Alan has always entertained us a great deal. His sense of humor is wonderful, his love of adventure, infective. He and a friend named Larry Larracou used to hunt wild boars -- with knives!

We all know the old saying which begins with the words in tonight's title. I had so much positive response, both by blog and by email, to my last post, that I decided I'd throw out a few more of the scanned photos. This time I think I'll add captions, just in case there are very young or uninformed folks out there who are kind enough to read this blog.

Nauvoo Monument to Women, backlit, 1978.

Mary Hedrick. Shayne & I helped bring her and her husband into the Church in Victorville.

Roy Hedrick. I was privileged to baptize both of them.

Chris Hartsell's wife, Patty, with Shayne, about 1991.

Joseph with cheeks full of Easter candy, 1979.

Tlhe F4 Phantom, "proof positive," people used to say, "that, given enough propulsion, a brick will fly." We had 110 of them at George AFB, CA.

Rebecca Lords, Sheryl's glamorous #1 child. I vignetted this portrait from a much larger picture.

Our stillborn brother. We look forward to making his acquaintance.

The harpsichord room at the Smithsonian, 1985.

Mino-Man models new backpack.

"The Mansion," as seen from the Natchez Trace, 1990.

Shayne and her brothers did grade school here.

Shayne at the 1984 dedication of the Boise Temple.

Robbie narrowly misses milk jug.

Two of Shayne's greatest works.

A Rexburg sunset, about 1985.

Hum-the-Chum with his dad's Contender Carbine in .223.

Ethan Allen .36 caliber side-by-side black powder pistol with smooth bores. It was a lovely reproduction of a true gentleman's pistol of the period shortly before "the unpleasantness" of 1861-65.

Baby Aubs on Emerald Road, Victorville, CA.

Bucky Crowell's parents' place, 1990.

Autumn crashes after a hard day of charming everyone.

One of Autumn's earliest visits to Grandpa Hartsell's place in Redding, CA.

I honestly don't recall where I took this. It might have been the Robinson Creek fishing trip that Len and an old friend of his took me on in about 1985.

Our first family portrait. Kind of silly, but we were doing the best we could. It was the bicentennial year, 1976, and a flag so decorated is behind us. No one need fear that Joseph is stoned. It's actually just extreme youth that makes him look that way. :)