Married

Earned a B.S. (Agriculture major; Biology & English minors) and an ROTC Commission at West Texas A&M University. Made a career of the Army and went on to a second career with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management. Worked 7 more years with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium as a salaried Emergency Management Consultant before retiring on 30 June 2011.

Of all my high school friends, none were closer than the Cramers; Joanne, John and DeWayne. I had to scratch my head a while to remember my Mountain Home address, but theirs was 212 Baker Street. I knew it without thinking. I may have spent more time there than I did at home.
John, DeWayne and I were Explorer Scouts. John and I decided we would impress the Scoutmasters at one Summer Camp by engaging in some Indian handicraft. We built Willow bough cots! We trimmed thin Willows about 3' long and interlaced them with two rows of sisal twine to form beds, each about 7' long by 3' wide. These beds or cots were then to be suspended above the ground by laying them the length of two 7' poles. The thin boughs would ostensibly provide a springy foundation akin to a mattress. The trouble with our plan was timing. We made our cots too far in advance of Summer Camp. The boughs dried out and were not "springy" at all when we tried to sleep on them. Never-the-less, we persisted for a few nights trying to impress the Scoutmasters. When we were sure the judging was over though, we quickly went back to air mattresses!

Over fifty years after attaining my Agriculture degree, I've finally become a farmer raising rhodiola rosea (though Sandy is the "green thumb" and I'm just the tractor operator/oiler/maintainer). Rhodiola rosea is in high demand by the supplemental pharmacy industry. Google it or better yet visit akroseroot.com. It was first discovered by Russian soldiers as a "tea" that helped them recover faster from strenuous activity. It is now known as an adaptogen. Look around in the organic/health foods section of your local food store. if they stock it, you'll be surprised by the price they ask.
As a native plant to Siberia, it grows well in Alaska's climate, is particularly suited to nutritionally-poor soils, requires only weeding to thrive and needs no winter care at all. About 8 years ago, the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service told us Alaska had 500,000 acres under cultivation in barley, 50,000 acres in peonies, 5,000 acres in marijuana and only 5 acres in rhodiola. They estimated if they could get farmers interested enough in growing rhodiola to boost that to 500 acres, by the time the first plants matured in 5 years, the cash value of that one crop would eclipse the value of the other three crops combined! Imagine! Five hundred acres earning more than 555,000 acres! We only have about 15 tillable acres. We aim to plant about 3 acres every year, eventually in continuous rotation; but we can't wait until our first harvest to see how it works out.