From Alderspring to Orcas
Dear Friends As we sat on a massive driftwood fir log while dining on our light lunch of summer sausage and sheep cheese, Caryl and I watched the V-shaped ripple of disturbance in the quiet bay waters manifest a harbor seal. He cautiously raised his head above water, his eyes…
When Beauty’s Poison Kills
“Dang it.”, I thought. I could hear the squawk of magpies over the continuous rustle of aspens turning golden in the mountain breeze. The striking contrast of white and black iridescent beauty in their plumage was quickly eclipsed by their grisly reputation: dead animal eaters. Hearing the cacophony of chattering…
Forbidden Fruit on the High Ranges
It was in early summer of 1988 that we stepped out of the Dodge 4-wheel drive pickup high up on the shoulder of Ramsey Mountain in Idaho’s Lemhi Valley. I was an aspiring forester, working for the US Department of the Interior, and I had two line officer/supervisors in tow for a tour of our…
Trial By Fire
After sculpting a perfectly designed-in-the-dirt ergonomic chair under a thicket of Douglas-fir regrowth, I reached into my saddlebags for a quick bite to eat. The living green conifer shade I had found to enjoy my lunch under somehow escaped the fate of most of the blackened skeleton forest around me. The majority of the coal-black…
Knapping that Weed in the Bud
Through the insufferable boil of rolling dust I looked up and spotted daughter Melanie. She had showed up in our badly warped game of leapfrogging our way on foot down remote forested roads and had mustered all the strength she had to continue the struggle about 20 feet down the steep slope. She knew enough…