When I'm not working in the woods, or working on bonsai, I write an outdoor column for our local newspaper, The Rapid City Journal. With my editor's generous permission I've reprinted several articles and essays below. Also included are several articles from the ABS Journal and the BCI Journal. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them.

From time to time I'll change some of these and add something new. A link at the end of each story will return you to this page.

I've put up four new stories here (1/20/02). But be warned: they don't exhibit the same level of scholarship that I am generally known for.

Max Cork: Sex Mechanic

Max Cork: A Ten Inch Woody

The Killin' of Vince Kark

Bronco Bob

In a Hurry

Geek Mice

Where spiders roam

Self Improvement

Worm mysteries

Money grows on trees

Lint

Oldgrowth

Merry Christmas, here's your rock

Let sleeping dogs lie

Spring, sprang, sprung

Christmas shopping

Winter

Tree marking

Cross-country skiing

October

The not-cussing-before-lunch-club

Great compassion

Essays

The meaning of trees in Lakota thought

Trees and myth

From the ABS Journal: The following articles first appeared in the Journal of the American Bonsai Society and are reprinted with their permission.

Why do they twist?

Estimating tree ages

Collecting ponderosa pine

From the BCI Journal: The following article first appeared in the BCI Journal. It is reprinted with permission.

Calligraphy and bonsai