Introduction I set about to clean out Mother’s house. In the spare bedroom, I opened the antique cabinet and drew out a stack of memorabilia. Halfway down the pile of old newspapers, I discovered a speckled brown ledger book with ragged edges. It crackled as I opened the yellowed pages. Each line contained a date and a comment on life in the 1880's. It was my great-grandfather Sanford’s diary. The more I read, the more I wanted to share Sanford’s story, rather than bury it in some safe place for another 119 years. The basic story line is true and the hi ...continued...

We generally spend 10 hours (give or take a few hours) on the move each day. This means we spend the rest of the day in camp. Now when I say this I don't mean that we are sitting around a warm fire having drinks and kicking our feet up. We are generally unpacking the sled, taking the dogs off the lead, setting up tents, setting up the stove, or making water while huddled around a tiny blue flame that makes a shred of warmth that ekes around the edges of the tea kettle full of melting snow. We do have some downtime, such as now, where the tent is reasonably warm, meaning we can take our ...continued...

The entire team is catching a couple hours of sleep before we make our final push to the pole. I, on the other hand, stupidly volunteered to stay awake so that someone could watch the stove for heat and so someone could wake everyone else up at 4am (it is 3am now). Our goal is to make it to the pole before 12 noon so we can catch a ride back to Barneo with another team on the helicopter. While it is not a major thing if we miss the ride, as we can camp at the pole until we can arrange another ride, but we have made such good time over the last 150+ miles that it is now a point of pride to h ...continued...

Today we woke up to more of the same. A howling wind and violently flapping tent walls. We discovered that the wind, which is from the north, is rapidly pushing us back to our start location from yesterday. We call it a hamster wheel when the ice beneath our feet moves as quickly south as we move north. Since we are tent bound I have felt a survival mode kick in with both of us. I found myself hoarding the last of my Pop-Tarts as I secretly tried to eat them inside my sleeping bag, denying their very existence when questioned by Mike over the noisy wrappers giving me up. From the crunching ...continued...

At Last, A Girl Chicago, 1964 Priscilla H Wilson It is 1962 and Rodney and I are watching the news. We have two sons but yearn for a daughter. I long for another female in our family. The news highlights Chinese refugees streaming into Hong Kong. We suddenly express the same thought, “Why not adopt a little girl who has no family?” As I turn the news off, I stammer, “I hadn’t thought about adoption before. I think that is the only way we can have a daughter.” Rodney laughs. “Let’s find out what we need to do.” The State of Ill ...continued...

The Korean family has the highest annual income of any race in the United States. Why? A better question is How? How can someone who comes from across the ocean, does not speak the English language become financially successful? Is it Intelligence? Is it Talent?…Is it Luck? Americans are born into the richest country with opportunities over any other country in the world. From the time we are born, we become used to the Abundant water and food supply, 2 to 3 cars within our homes, a roof over our heads, and the government t ...continued...

One of the most vivid memories I can remember is a time when my mom, brother and I were sitting in the living room of our one bedroom house, in Salinas Caifornia. I'm not exactly sure what we were doing at the exact moment when we all heard the very loud knocking at the door. Followed by a very loud voice that said "this is the police, we have a search warrant open the door ". My mom was in shock and wasn't sure what to do. MY dad had told her not to open the door. My dad was quick in his actions and had come running in the house 5 minutes before the loud banging on the door. He had ran to the ...continued...

I had a best friend while we were living in Gold Hill. Her name was Gail Stevens. We were really close. She's part Native American. She told she was part Cherokee. One day while we were at recess, we decided to sneak off and go across the road over to the cemetary. To this day I'm stillnot sure why we did it, I guess we were just curios. Well we were walking around and came up to a shed. All of a sudden we heard a noise, it sounded like a ghost, being only 6 years old you would think that we were scared, well we weren't. Next thing we know the grounds keeper jumped out ...continued...

I'm in the woods a lot during summer. Yes, I know it's hot and sweaty. There's ticks, snakes and poison ivy to contend with. Still, summer is the best time to look for great ginseng habitat and since I'm all about restoring this wonderful herb to our property, I hike the woods in summer. As of this writing it’s mid-June. Here in the Ozarks, the ginseng plants have green fruit and some still have flowers and no fruit, some have very small fruit and are finished with flowers. The older plants have more berries than the younger ones. All of the berries at this point ...continued...

Chicken or Dare I have a history with chickens. Not a good history either. As a matter of fact, the appearance of a leg of chicken on my plate brings me flashbacks of a long ago visit to my great grandmother’s farm during one of our frequent trips to Smithville to visit. We called our great grandmother Ganny. Her real name was Zelma Lizzie Christine Franz Kunkel. My older cousin inspired the name Ganny since he was the oldest of our generation. There wasn’t anything magical abo ...continued...

I was born in London in 1952 to Irish born parents. They both came from Monkstown, a pretty village on Cork harbour about eight miles from Cork city. It was here that I spent my first twenty summers. This wonderful experience caused me to view Ireland through rose-tinted glasses for ever more. Before the opening of Cork airport, in 1961, our annual pilgrimage started on a train from Paddington Station, in London. It took us to Fishguard, a port on the Welsh coast. Then we boarded the Innisfallen ferry, which passed Monkstown on its way up the river Lee to the docks in Cork city. The first p ...continued...

I was born on November 14, 1933 at 1307 Rhomberg Avenue at around 6 AM during the middle of the depression. As most of the birth's at that time, it was not at a hospital. Dr. Bacon was our family doctor and he was present at my birth. Dr. Palen, who was related to Pop, was just coming up the stairs when I left out my first cry. Paul was downstairs and Dr. Palen told Paul that he had the baby in his bag. I think Paul believed that for decades. Mom says she always wanted a black haired baby and she got one in me as I had a lot of it. ...continued...

Breaking Wild Horses By Cindy Gray Sometimes my dreams, even the ones I don’t really remember, leave me with a strange feeling of exhilaration. It&rsqu ...continued...

THIS IS MY LIFE STORY <p ...continued...

Climate change is real. It is the most urgent threat affecting our species. We need to work together and stop procrastinating. (Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar winner for best actor, The Revenant, 2016) Indians and wolves are both beasts of prey, though they differ in shape. (George Washington) To the Great Plains Indians, nature was the center of our way of life. To whites, nature was the enemy to be conquered. (Dr. Leo Killsback, citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation) It ultimately matters a hell of a lot, regardless of whether or not you live in Fe ...continued...