Thanks to the Ray’s, Charles and Valencia, for hosting a gaggle of Country Place children at their new home and pool on Saturday. It was great to see the neighborhood children get together for a planned play date.

Over the past 16 years, Andrea and I have had the pleasure of helping many folks move to Country Place (and others leave it). Some of these neighbors have served on the board, while others have contributed in other ways.

Back in September of 2015, not long after we helped Gary & Melissa Strickland move here (from a zero-lot line home in town), while they were still updating their Jo-Bar home, Melissa called asking for help in a deer rescue. They had heard thrashing in the private lake behind their new home and had discovered a big doe mired in the clay bottom and sunk up to her head. Gary jumped into his bass-buster and managed to get the now-exhausted doe onboard. I helped him pull the deer up onshore and we tried to resuscitate her. She was in the prime of life, fat and sleek, but she had been in the water a long time. Since our presence seemed to agitate her, we left here there. Sadly, she expired during the night. But that episode helped to reassure me that we’d gained some fine new neighbors. These days we rely on Melissa to keep us posted on the best new grandkid pool toys, but I’ll never forget our deer rescue attempt.