Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013 Bob

2012

We had busy a year —

Nancy took a trip to Albuquerque, NM in September to celebrate her dad’s birthday. She attended the International Balloon Festival while there, in addition to spending time with her dad, brother, sister-in-law and sister. I was invited, and traveled, to Beijing, China to attend the 60th anniversary of the

founding of Beijing Forestry University. It was a great celebration. The trip included technical visits with several of our cooperators and a wonderful visit to the Chinese Academy of Forestry. Our hosts were great, and the experience was outstanding! Spent some time before and after the anniversary celebration touring Beijing, in particular the Summer Palace and several historic sites. Took a boat cruise through Beijing—the river was so clean that many were swimming in it!

Cappy, our red haired Daschund, and Georgie (our Brittany) had a great year---with many walks and stays at doggy day camp! They are a lot of fun. Georgie is a great hunter, with trips to hunt pheasants（野鸡）, chukar（石鸡）, and bobwhite（美洲鹑） quail（鹌鹑） this year. It is a treat to see her work in the field. She is steady on point, and retrieves birds to hand. She did great at this fall’s quail hunt—we harvested several dozen birds, all due to her great pointing and retrieving work. On one retrieve, she delivered two birds to hand!

The year began with a trip to Door County, WI with Nancy, followed by a trip to Missouri（密苏里） chasing snow geese（雪雁）, fishing on Lake Nipigon (Canada), salmon fishing on Lake Michigan, and the harvesting of a large turkey on a friend’s farm in Verona (where I finally learned, the hard way, to identify poison ivy!). We had fun times at our hunting and fishing camp in Upper Michigan （上密西根）with great friends—we did some remodeling work （重建、重构）and now have a state-of-the-art outhouse (Douglas花旗松 fir siding, steel roofing, windows with curtains—very upscale高层次消费者!)! Lots of great times fishing and hunting. Harvested several deer this fall, including a nice, young doe with a cross bow on a friend’s farm in Houghton County, MI and a beautiful doe (4-1/2 years old) from the Camp. Had a great time deer hunting in Wisconsin, too, with adventures to Galesville and Verona.

Every year when I write this short note I realize how blessed and lucky we are to have great friends, fun times, and the opportunity to work at excellent jobs.

I hope that this note finds you, your friends, and your families to be in good health and happiness. Have a wonderful 2013!