I've always had an affinity with the natural world. One of my first jobs was working at a small herb garden in Brookings, Oregon where I kneaded soil in my hands and harvested lavender and hydrangea for wreaths, tincture and floral arrangements.

Next, I’d try my time at landscaping. Digging in the coastal rain, laying stone and planting cypress trees for ocean side homes. Soaked and muddy with gulls calling above and waves breaking in the distance, I felt right about what I was doing.

Even my time off was spent along the banks of the Chetco River under spicy myrtle trees and skirting along peaks in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Over the next couple decades I’d get employed in a fire lookout. Alone in the wilderness for weeks at a time, my conversation with that of insects and cumulus clouds. 

Later, I led crews on exhausting reforestation projects where the will to work seemed to evaporate with the morning fog. 

I fell timber In Grants Pass, Or. and cut logging roads where the ground was so steep one project was called Hole In The Ground. Then one day I found out I could get paid to climb trees and that it was dangerous.