Sometimes an old wool garment can save a life. There’s something about real 100% wool that I’ve always loved. Because it’s a natural animal fiber, it often retains a little lanolin with it. Lanolin is the oil of sheep. It’s the thing that repels moisture and keeps sheep alive, thriving …
Sweet on Sixteen
“Just kill that one,†Tom Smithers said. He skillfully and intentionally spat some tobacco juice in the manure dust, just to the right of my feet. “Yep. Just kill ‘im. He ain’t got a chance, Glenn.†His eyes drifted up to the barn rafters, sunlit by holes in the roof as he eyed the …
Passing the Baton at the Change of Seasons
The quiet breeze meandering over Alderspring carries with it the thick fragrance of fall. The dense clouds that formed an opaque sky and sporadically spit rain this morning now stretch into broken ropes of mist that wrapped in and out of the vertical walls of the canyons at the base of the peaks. …
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People as Part of the Wild Landscape
The cowboy apparition I had been watching for several weeks became human flesh one day as I cruised down an old logging road on a dirt bike after a long day of putting trees in the ground. My trusty Honda was by far the best conveyance in and back out of the high elevation forest on the 25 mile two …
In Hat Creek Before Columbus
The year: 1492. The trio of Spanish caravels continued their pitch and roll across the bleak expanse of virgin Atlantic waters. It had been 68 days of blindly sailing west on a featureless sea. Onboard the tiny ships we now call the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (not the actual names of the ships), …
Where Corn is King
As I commence to write this, I'm seated in a sardine-packed Boeing 737 parked on the heat-shimmering broad tarmac of O'Hare International. The flight attendant just got off the PA. "We apologize for the heat in the aircraft. Our ground support team is having mechanical difficulties, and has failed …