Merry Christmas

December 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas from our corner of the Ozarks. Excitement is building at our house because we are expecting ALL of our kids and grandkids to be here for Christmas. The stockings are hung by the faux chimney with care …

This will be Emily’s first visit to Missouri. She was born to Lance and Grace on May 16. Linda was able to be in Maryland to help out in May. Emily’s big sisters, Karis (7) and Olivia (5), are good helpers and teachers.

We haven’t seen Matthew and Elizabeth since meeting them at a Cardinal game in St. Louis in August. In March they will add a little David to the family. Matt will need to stop and let Liz stretch and walk around the car several times on the drive to and from Mtn. View.

We haven’t seen Brad since August 2008. His work has kept him in Africa. He has been living in Nairobi, Kenya, which is much nicer than where he lived in Sudan. Nairobi is a modern city and its elevation reduces malaria risk.

After 5 ½ years we are settled (or re-settled) in Mtn. View. We enjoy our family, old friends, and new friends here. Linda stays busy with Community Bible Study and is currently filling in as temporary choir director at church. Linda has also taken up golf this year. Larry stays busy as financial secretary at church and teaching adult Sunday School, along with golf and turkey hunting. In addition, he is an alderman on the City Council.

In July Larry’s mom and dad traveled to Maryland with us to see Emily’s family. They also got to see Lance’s new office opened just this year. His practice is called Annapolis Counseling Center.

In addition to traveling to Maryland and to ball games in St. Louis, this year we spent 10 days in California. Larry attended a meeting of The Wildlife Society Certification Review Board in Monterey, so we also took in Yosemite N. P., Carmel, Pebble Beach, and Big Sur. Larry has now completed his term of six years on the Certification Board, so no more travel to meetings twice a year.

We enjoy hosting guests and showing them the local sites (e.g. Alley Spring, Rocky Falls). We even have a “Hall of Fame” for Illinois friends who have made it to Mtn. View. If you are not yet in the “Hall”, or even if you are, you are invited to visit.

As we have our old-fashioned family Christmas, we pray that your celebration of Christ’s birth will also be joyous. May the Creator God, who left heaven in the form of a human baby, be alive in your heart and life today.

Merry Christmas,

Larry and Linda

Deer Season Holiday

It was a holiday! Students at Mountain View - Birch Tree schools are back in class today after having the first Monday of the firearm deer season off. We didn't have that holiday when I was in school. Summersville got two days off. Winona students get the whole week off. But that's nothing. At Eminence school will resume after Thanksgiving. That's 7 days for deer season and 3 more for Thanksgiving. If recent history holds true, over 200,000 deer will be harvested by Missouri firearm hunters during Nov. 14-24. Another 40,000+ will be taken by archer hunters during a 4-month season. Various other specialty deer hunting seasons will add to the total.



All across North America abundant deer numbers will bring out a multitude of hunters this fall. But it hasn't always been so. The estimated Missouri deer population in the mid-1800s was 700,000. But by 1925 the estimate fell to 395 deer in 23 counties.

According to Dean Murphy (1970), "The decline of the deer herd prior to 1925 was caused by year-round hunting for market, food or sport: deer of either sex and all ages were killed. Traps, snares, nets and dogs were used in additions to guns."

In the general election on November 3, 1936, the Missouri Conservation Commission was established and modern wildlife management came to Missouri. Deer hunting was closed in 1938-1944. Bennitt and Nagel (1937) "believed that the illegal kill equaled or exceeded the legal kill and was the chief limiting factor on growth of the deer herd."

Restoration of the deer herd was accomplished by careful studies of deer life history, habitat requirements, and land use factors. That was followed by strict law enforcement and transplanting wild deer from refuges (Peck Ranch, Knob Noster, Drury, Caney Mountain) to areas of suitable habitat. From 1937 to 1957 2,343 deer were moved to 70 release sites in 54 counties. Bucks-only hunting resumed in 1945 and the first any-deer season was in 1951.


Today's deer hunters probably don't realize how good they have it. My Grandpa David was a squirrel hunter and a woodsman who lived in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri in 1882-1976. But he did not see a live deer until he was 75 years old in 1957.

My Grandpa LeBaron was a deer hunter. He was one of the lucky few (about 100) who shot a deer in 1937, the last open season before closure. He shot a nice buck. That mounted head adorned the wall at Grandpa and Grandma's house when I was a kid. I loved to admire it and ask Grandpa about it. He shot it in Carter County with a rifle borrowed from Grandma's family, the Partneys. The rifle had 70 notches in the stock which served as a record of deer shot for the market. Seeing a deer was so rare that the carcass hung all day at the ice plant at Mountain View. The butcher couldn't cut it up because there was a crowd around it all day.

So... Go get 'em, you deer hunters. I don't want to hit any more deer with the car.

Aunt Eileen's 90th

On Monday November 16 Aunt Eileen will be 90 years old. On Saturday November 14 her birthday was celebrated at Saxony Village in Cape Girardeau, MO.

In attendance were three brothers, Gene, Wayne, and Lloyd, and one sister, Evelyn. Also in attendance were sisters-in-law, Thelma and Jeannie, and brother-in-law Darrell. Also attending were nieces and nephews: Dan, Deb, Chris, Pat, Janet, Dwight, Nina, Marla, Linda, and Larry. Many other family members longed to attend and sent birthday greetings.

Eileen had coffee and bear claws waiting for the early arrivals. We all enjoyed a fine catered lunch followed by musical entertainment, reminiscing (story telling), and a sing-along.

The family gave Eileen a digital picture frame pre-loaded with over 400 family photos including shots from all the family reunions since 1980. Also on the frame were several photos of previous generations scanned from our old photo albums.

Here are some scenes from Eileen's party:

















Be sure to play the video below.

Four Generations Together in Maryland

Larry, Linda, Gene, and Thelma visited Lance, Grace, Karis, Olivia, and Emily in Maryland.

Three little David girls provided all the entertainment.

David Family Reunion 2009

Every other year the descendants of Ed and Nina David (earlier Davied) descend on Mountain View, Missouri, where Ed and Nina settled in 1915.

They had nine children, four of whom are deceased: Robert, Imogene, Erma, and Mildred. Five are still living and four of those live in Mountain View.


Our reunion was held June 26-27 this year.
These are the "children" of Ed and Nina.


Seated, left to right, are Evelyn and Eileen. Standing are Lloyd, Wayne, and Gene.

There were 57 Davids in attendance at this year' reunion. We will meet again in 2011 on June 10-11.

Here are some random photos from this year.

Emily Nicole David

Emily Nicole was born May 16, 2009, in Annapolis, MD, to Lance and Grace David. She has big sisters Karis and Olivia.






Karis holding Emily.












Olivia holding Emily.







Mimi, the grandmother, with Emily.










Three of Lance's girls.




Photos taken by Lance, the Daddy.
Posted by Larry, the PaPa, the grandfather.

May 8th Tornado

Missouri doesn't seem to be in "tornado alley" as much as Oklahoma and Kansas, but we still get hit sometimes. In recent years, the worst storm damage has been northwest of Springfield. Last week, May 8, about 15 tornadoes hit the Ozarks. There were three fatalities statewide. Again, the area northwest of Springfield was hit hard. But a severe tornado damaged homes near Pomona in Howell County, only 15 miles southwest of Mountain View. And a smaller, but still powerful, tornado damaged homes and timber in Texas County about 8 miles north of Mountain View. Buildings in Mountain View were spared, but many trees and tree limbs came down, and much of the town was without electricity for about 10 hours.

Yesterday I toured some of the damage to the north and brought back some photos.



The elderly couple inside this home were both injured when the tornado moved the house 15 feet off the foundation. Neighbors had to clear a path with chain saws so the ambulance could get to them.






These trees, in the storm path just beyond the house, were twisted and snapped off.




Thousands of acres of timber were damaged. Salvage harvest operations are already underway. Logging it is dangerous because of many trees partially down and hanging in the overstory. The value of the logs will be greatly reduced.


Isaiah 45

⁶so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

⁷I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

By faith we understand that God is in control. God allows suffering for a season, but ultimately His supremacy will be revealed.