Ranger Rick Nature Magazine printed a few of my articles that I submitted, including pictures. Sometimes they would accept an entry and then not publish it for a year or two as editing and space permitted, but I was always quite excited about it. It seems to me that payment was just before publication. The Arctostaphylos article was published in 1978 but accepted a year or two earlier.

There were a few years when I lived in Weaverville that I made creatures out of manzanita roots and gave them the name of Arctostaphylos (which is the genus name for this shrub). Ranger Rick used this as a crafts story, encouraging children to be creative with roots and branches found in the woods. And they used the photo of Jeff that I submitted as well as those of the creatures.

I often used them as gifts with a message, sometimes without my name attached, if I remember correctly. But usually I would claim having found one and was passing it on and that this particular creature disliked clear-cuts, for instance. It might be left on a forester’s desk. Or it might be that the creature needed some particular item or plant for food. They were meant to get a message across without anger, just a nudge, teasing a bit. Sometimes they were a message of praise or appreciation. Sometimes they were a gift to a good friend for whatever reason.

I’d find a dried out piece of root, take it home and thoroughly clean the dirt off. The next step was to wax it with paste wax and glue the eyes on. There might be a note to type and then delivery. It was fun.