Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Be Wary, Wary, Wary

Last week I attended four public meetings in three days. It would have been three in one day if I hadn't taken time out to castrate a bull calf here at the ranch. Who knows…

Threshing Day in Anderson Valley

As far back as the mid 1800s, wheat has been raised in Anderson Valley. In 1864, John Gschwend converted his water powered sawmill on Mill Creek to mill flour. In 1881, a flour mill with…

Partners In Crime

Prison is a young man's game. Or woman's; I don't want to take a sexist position here, but I will take an ageist one in that it absolutely requires the vigor and resilience of youth…

There Went The Judge

Just north of Hopland on the west side of Highway 101 is a nice White House. It has always been known as The Manning House. As I was growing up in the 1950s it was…

February

You discover the best things when you’re takin a leak in the country. I’m heading out of Fort Bragg, going to the off track betting parlor in Santa Rosa. By the time I get over…

Hollywood Salads

From 1978 until 1985 I was entangled in the movie business as a novelist and screenwriter hoping to get my creations made into movies. I was not greatly successful, but I made a few chunks…

Cap & Trade: Selling Pollution

Across the last 160 years, the timber industry has leveled the largest trees in California's north coast counties in a burst of wealth that would be impossible to replicate for hundreds of years, even if…

Believers

Don’t try to get religion out of politics. Politics IS religion. Hillary believers, bah humbug. They’re having fun putting Bernie on the rack. I have a facebook “friend” – well, son of a friend really…

-