Emphasis Preaching Journal

In the summer after I had finished college some buddies and I went west to work for the U.S. Forestry service in the mountains of Idaho. Assigned to search out and destroy plants that carried blister rust, a destroyer of timber, we spent all day tramping through the woods, on the lookout for "ribes" (pronounced "rye-bees") and staying clear of poison ivy and yellow jackets. My crew supervisor that summer was a crusty sort of free spirit for eastern North Dakota.