The wind whipped across the basin with a pesky cheek-stinging flurry of horizontal snow. It was just a week ago, in mid-April. Caryl, border collie Clyde and I were on a quest: to find a sort of black gold, deep beneath the rolling hills of sage and grassland. We were in Bear Basin, and it is …
A Rat’s Tail
Dear Friends, The faint but rhythmic thumping was unmistakable. I laid awake in bed on my back, eyes open and unfocused on the ceiling in the faint light from a setting crescent moon, Caryl breathing the deep respiration of sound sleep. It had to be around 2AM. I halted my own breathing to …
Of Bison and Beavers
Let's roll back the clock 34 years, and I'm still me. Instead of my 2021 gray, my hair is the dirty blonde that goes with my blue eyes of Dutch ancestry. I'm working in the forests in the steep and rocky mountains of Central Idaho. I'm in great shape from hiking up and down at elevations of up to …
Sheep in the Deep
Fresh out of the showroom, and on the way home from church, the 1972 red Pontiac Bonneville with a faux rag top cut a path through the early spring whiteout conditions on the high plains of Colorado. Sheepman Dave Jolly was behind the wheel, and his wife, Albertine, rode shotgun. She alone was …
A Christmas Quest
Dear Friends The bright daylight of the brilliant winter sun in crystal clear skies was starting to fade as the horizon of rugged mountains gained the sun. And that meant it was already getting palpably colder. The other problem was that we were still a long way from the truck, and even that bus …
When King Quits Crown
Dear Friends "Push me up!" Susan scowled from her perch, halfway up the ladder to the high seat on the hay wagon. She was fairly heavy, and her skin-tight oversize western jeans created a fairly intimidating view of her backside, hanging precariously in mid-air. She was stuck there and couldn't …