Traipsing Thru Tall Timber

Life for most people is a stiff challenge. Seldom indeed are good jobs handed to one on a platter. You typically, train, study, and learn to pursue a path to perfection. When tackling the job of a Montana timber faller, I jumped in with both feet on the first day. This was truly a situation of live and learn as you go. I was blessed beyond belief to make it through each and every week. By keeping my nose to the grindstone and my eyes ever vigilant on my surroundings, I was able to survive countless encounters that were destined to cripple my career. In the end, I am still alive and smiling. Someone is surely watching over me.

No one ever said that life would be easy. Challenges will invariably confront anyone who dares to step out in faith, even those who believe that they can eventually solve the many mysteries of life. The author was confident enough to attempt many new work opportunities that presented themselves. Stepping out of ones comfort zone is typically a secret recipe for adventure, usually cloaked in success, especially when committed to using a bit of common sense. From logging to construction to wheat farming to cattle ranching to driving huge grain trucks to communication cable installations to avoiding rattlers to even walking in the presence of grizzlies and rams, the author was privileged to taste a touch of what life has to offer. He wasnt disappointed!

As a young girl in Kenya, Wangari was taught to respect nature. She grew up loving the land, plants, and animals that surrounded her--from the giant mugumo trees her people, the Kikuyu, revered to the tiny tadpoles that swam in the river. Although most Kenyan girls were not educated, Wangari, curious and hardworking, was allowed to go to school. There, her mind sprouted like a seed. She excelled at science and went on to study in the United States. After returning home, Wangari blazed a trail across Kenya, using her knowledge and compassion to promote the rights of her countrywomen and to help save the land, one tree at a time.

In the USA Today bestselling Ralph Compton series, sometimes a man has to leave his mark... Willis Lander was once the T-Bar ranch’s best bronc buster. Then came the day when a stallion as black as pitch and as mean as a rattler shattered his knee. Unable to perform the duties required of a cowboy, Willis took the only job he felt capable of handling—minding the line shack forty miles from the ranch—and secluded himself from the pity of his peers in the Wyoming wilderness. Now, the T-Bar is being sold, leaving Willis to wonder whether the new owner will want to keep a broken bronc buster on the payroll. Laurella Hendershot is a Texan rancher grateful for the opportunity to leave the Lone Star State behind and build a new life for herself. And she just may be Willis’ last chance… More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!

Finalist, Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Finalist, Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist, BC Book Prize Globe and Mail best books of 2018 CBC best Canadian non-fiction of 2018 In the tradition of John Vaillant’s modern classic The Golden Spruce comes a story of the unlikely survival of one of the largest and oldest trees in Canada. On a cool morning in the winter of 2011, a logger named Dennis Cronin was walking through a stand of old-growth forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. He came across a massive Douglas fir the height of a twenty-storey building. Instead of allowing the tree to be felled, he tied a ribbon around the trunk, bearing the words “Leave Tree.” The forest was cut but the tree was saved. The solitary Douglas fir, soon known as Big Lonely Doug, controversially became the symbol of environmental activists and their fight to protect the region’s dwindling old-growth forests. Originally featured as a long-form article in The Walrus that garnered a National Magazine Award (Silver), Big Lonely Doug weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast’s big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and resource rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees.

Back from the war in Afghanistan that included a stay at Walter Reed hospital, Daniel Newcomb is hitchhiking across the United States on his way home to Alaska when he takes a detour in mountainous Oregon in search for work. After he is dropped off at Multnomah Falls, Dan has no idea of the challenges that lie ahead for him in the coming months. After he agrees to what he thinks will be a mundane housesitting job at a remote cabin for the winter, it is not long before unexpected events transform the nature of his job. Even as he battles foul weather, a persistent family of dogs, and two-legged intruders, Dan finds time to learn to fly a small plane. Months later as his stint in Oregon ends and Daniel finally returns to Alaska with an adopted puppy in tow, he begins a new chapter that includes long-awaited reunions, love, and fulfilling his dream of becoming a bush pilot. Detour in Oregon is the compelling tale of an Afghanistan War veterans journey home from the battlefields to Alaska as unlikely encounters and powerful emotions play an important part in shaping his future.