Only in a small rural community could we ever have such an Independence Day celebration as we had yesterday. We live in the Sequoia National Forest about fifteen minutes from the southern-most stand of Giant Sequoia trees, the largest trees on Earth. Our mountain community houses about 1,000 people, if you cast a wide net,…

“Dad, get the yellow frisbee. Throw it up in the tree to try to get the pink frisbee down.” “Yes, do that Sander. I want to see it,” she laughs. “Frederick, what we need is a really long pole.”

At the encouragement from my mother, Frederick plans to sell daffodils and narcissus at local farmers markets in a few years to help pay for college. She plans to help him develop the business. In the meantime, I’ll spend free time in the summer and fall moving bulbs, digging, bending, and otherwise moving my body…

These are the famous feet, at about four weeks. A friend saw the feet at a gathering and, after everyone said, “Those aren’t bad at all, they will straighten right up,” one friend added lovingly, “We are a lot like monkeys, aren’t we?” I laugh at this comment because I expect he wouldn’t have said…