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Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Agent Orange Returns   The haunting memories of the Viet Nam War come back in short flashes on some days and in long dreams on some nights.  Many mysteries abound about how and why some things came to pass...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Hawaiian Talk Story When a Quora.com question presumably submitted by a grammar school student was posed about how we could determine the texture of a soil, the Footloose Forester decided to answer the question with a little “talk story”, an old...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   He Was Not Forgotten   As the guest speaker at church was announcing the upcoming hunting event sponsored for wounded veterans, she described one or two of them who had lost limbs during military service, yet found a way to...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   If You Ever Go Across the Sea to Java   “If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,” the plaintive words of an old but enchanting melody begin. The haunting Irish melody forms your thoughts into dreams as it...

    Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Environmental Disasters For much of the last 30 years, the issue of the environment has become a political football, with political parties lining up on opposite sides of that football.  That...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujubaEssays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek    Rain Shadows and Rainforests   On the one hand, you have those who believe in global warming; and on the other side of the divide are those who are currently labeled as climate change deniers.  In...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek  Are You Bragging Or Complaining?    This chronicle is for you, Red Lee.  You are in the center of that mental photograph that flashes in my mind, since that day in early autumn of 1955 when you responded to a comment...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   A Few Anecdotes About Fruits We don’t give much thought to a comment by someone about having sliced banana in their morning cereal or crushed pineapple on last night’s baked ham.  Or the fresh papaya that we got from the supermarket,...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Mantras That Endure Of the many would-be chronicles that have struggled toward a birth on paper, this one about spiritual attachment to mantras, has kicked and squirmed its way, finally, to a nascent birth. The personal mantras of the Footloose Forester have...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Calling B.S. On …. The time has come to call B.S. on TV advertisements that use hard-sell promotional tactics to convince us that this ____ is the best ____ you will ever buy, or your money back. Or, if you...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Single Tree Selection Becomes High-Grading   With all the talk about deforestation and the evils of cutting down trees, people everywhere should remember that humans have been cutting down trees ever since they invented the tools to do so. ...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The K-Turn and Mountain Roads   Our family has a long tradition of learning how to drive from other family members and we all recall episodes of the lessons.  The Footloose Forester takes pride in teaching things, and...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Professional Forest Management Integrating soil/site aspects in planting strategy   This essay/story evolves from a critique about a real-time, first-rate example of forest management and real-time planning of forest plantations in Ireland.  Thanks to the Irish Forestry Service for...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Holiday at Cam Ranh Bay   It wasn’t often that the Footloose Forester chose to pick up his suitcase and walk from the air terminal to his destination, especially when he was in Viet Nam during the height of a war. ...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Cheetah at the Waterhole   As time passes, so also do some of the details of even favorite adventures.  The great fun trip to the Laikipia Plateau of Kenya in 1991 was one of them, and last night’s chat...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   On Fear An innocent Internet meme about fear was the first disturbance that summoned the specter of fear to return, to creep closer.  The second incident was a horrific movie about World War II, the very same day and within...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Planting by the Numbers   Most adults have planted a tree or two and gained satisfaction from having done so.  Perhaps they also mused about how tall it would become and if the fruit would ripen for them...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     A Closer Look at a Picture Worth a Thousand Words Flamengos Tree Nursery, Cape Verde Some people are proud of their humble beginnings.  Others are impatient to move on and forget about the past. It was many...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Cheat the System, Cheat Society   This essay may look familiar, because it is.  It, however; needs an update for obvious reasons. [original]  There are plenty of self-help books out there. Some are long and fairly comprehensive. Others...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Kompromat One of the reasons why the Footloose Forester uses a masthead with a heading that includes the key words: Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams is because his self-awareness tells him that in his desire to put into print...