Ok. We know there are going to be times that it seems that nothing is getting done on the house, so to keep the website updated, I decided to write up some of the interesting stories we have experienced relating to the house.

Since the house is located in kind of a remote area of Oklahoma and in the woods, Jan had decided to give it a little bit of a theme. She had seen a picture of Dancing Bears by William H. Beard and thought that might just fit. The picture was a little hard to find. Usually, when you see the picture, it is really just an enlargement of one small section of the entire picture.

We finally found the full picture, purchased it and had it framed.

 Soon, one of the catalogues Jan gets regularly was offering a carved wooden version of the Dancing Bears which just fit over the sink in Chris and Stephen's bathroom. We got it as well.

Then, low and behold, on E-Bay, there were some small wooden carved bears that I bought and gave Jan to go into the bathroom. We also found a cute bear carving of a bear climbing in a honey tree while vacationing in Gatlinburg with Stephen. Then as you might recall, our Valentine's day was spent on the property. When we went back up to check on it after Valentine's day, I noticed the small store down the hill from the job site was selling a bear sitting in a boat and fishing. So, I got that one as a belated Valentine's day present. (Hopefully I'm out of the doghouse now.)

Looking around gift shops, Jan started to notice an artist by the name of Don Provota who carved bears and sold them under the name of Big Sky Carvers. Most shops carry the small bears that are about 4" or 5" tall. Just before Christmas, I found a shop while on a Salt Lake City layover that sold the larger versions of Don Provota's bears. I had been shopping for a Christmas gift for Jan and thought this was perfect. Unfortunately, it was too close to Christmas to be delivered on time, so I took it with me. I had taken the trolley to the shopping center and thought I could manage to get it back to the hotel the same way. What I found out is that the trolley only runs one way on a particular route, so I got off at what I thought was the closest stop to my hotel. There I was.....Salt Lake City.....mid winter.....standing about 2 miles from my hotel holding this wooden bear that now seemed to weigh a ton. I carried the bear back to the hotel and he went on the rest of my trip with me. Talk about hard to get through security. Every time, they wanted to open the box and see what was in it that was such a strange shape. So the bear and I went on to Mexico, South America, and back through Newark before getting back home in Houston.

Now the point of the story. Jan thinks it would be fun to give the house a name. I mean, sure, in Gone with the Wind, there was "Tara". The Vanderbilts built "The Breakers" in Newport Beach. Elvis had "Graceland". The Cartwrights had "The Ponderosa". You get the idea. We tossed the names around a bit and I came up with what I thought would be good. With the bear theme, and it being located on a private airport what I came up with was........

are you ready?.......................

are you sure?...........................

Drumroll..........................................................................................................

   THE BEARPORT

so, what do you think? Jan doesn't particularly like it. She is afraid it sounds like The BAREport and it will attract a bunch of naked pilots.