Dear Friends I’m often taken aback at how informed our patrons are. In the last few weeks, we’ve received many inquiries about mRNA vaccines being manufactured for livestock. Information surfaces regarding mRNA veterinary vaccine use on a daily basis, as the mRNA tech surrounding vaccine is relatively new. Although the idea has been around a […]
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 and clamoring magpie was not […]
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 […]
Hail and Hearty
Dear Friends It was the unsettling low roar that got my attention. When first perceived, my mind simply put it in the folder marked ‘wind in trees.’ But then the rational mind took over with a nagging thought: there were no trees on this part of the range. The nearest forest or creek-side aspen grove […]