I am making a walnut coffee table. Two years ago in Decorah, Iowa, at a Seed Savers benefit concert, my old friend Gino pulled up in his pickup and said, “I bought you a gift in Illinois a few months ago, and brought it to Iowa all the way from Philadelphia.” He flipped back […]

Bill Johnson’s horse came back alone. Marjory Johnson was sitting on the back porch, under a fleece lap blanket, watching the evening storm clouds stumble across the prairie sky and wondering when her grumbling husband would get back from town. Jinny, Bill’s quarter horse, trotted right past Marjory and into the open barn, full saddle. […]

Am I a creature of habit or a man of adventure? Sometimes I wonder. I write a lot of stories of travel and exploration, but there’s often an underlying sameness to the events. Take eating for example. When I moved from rural PA to metropolitan CA and landed a phone company job in downtown Oakland […]

I’m sitting on the back deck of our little Tahoe cabin with my laptop sitting on my lap where it belongs. In front of me, beyond the scraggly natural-terrain yard and fence, is the Eldorado National Forest. On my left the bike trail disappears into the trees as it winds its way to Pope Beach […]